Beauty and the Beast (2017) movie review: ever just the same, never a surprise
Like a theme-park mounting of the 1991 cartoon, or the blandified pop version of an enchanting signature character tune. A watered-down pastiche of itself.
3D
The Great Wall movie review: not to be torn down
Plain pure fun. At its best, it’s Lord of the Rings meets Aliens, with incredible imaginative grandeur and genuinely breathtaking 3D depth.
The Lego Batman Movie review: give a minifig
A great Batman movie, a great superhero movie, and a gloriously bonkers expression of the sublime silliness of crime fighters in capes, and our love of them.
new research hints at 3D as a possible learning aid
This is preliminary research, and only small-scale, but I find the implications fascinating.
Alice Through the Looking Glass movie review: a mirror cracked
Believes six impossible things — like implausible character motivations, or big emotions — because they’re in the script, without bothering to earn them.
The Jungle Book movie review: welcome to the jungle
Goes right up to the bleeding edge of cinema to tell a story that is strapping yet simple, and hugely appealing. Disney found a good reason to redo an old film.
Huevos: Little Rooster’s Egg-Cellent Adventure (Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos) movie review: a cock and balls story
Bad chicken-and-egg puns and indoctrination into animal cruelty as just good fun for everyone involved (including the animals). You know, for kids.
The Finest Hours movie review: that sinking feeling
See this for Casey Affleck: he exudes a classic cinematic masculinity here. Alas, the rest of the film is old-fashioned in ways that are downright stodgy.
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension movie review: beyond the pale
Cheap, lazy, and limited by its slavish adherence to the found-footage trope. Bonus: features the most cynical use ever of 3D to boost cinema ticket prices.
The Walk movie review: head in the clouds
Puts CGI, IMAX, and 3D (and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to perfect use. Everything here comes with a vertiginous thrill and a delightful enchantment.
