It movie review: a series of unfortunate events
The Goonies, Stand by Me, and Poltergeist went into a blender with a pinch of E.T. and John Hughes to smush into a mess of retro 80s mush.
Chris Columbus
Pixels movie review: blue screen of death (please)
Adam Sandler imagines himself as the savior of the planet. And then it gets even more puffed up with arrogance and all manner of masturbatory fantasy.
The Artist will have a good night (and other Oscar predictions)
Here’s an at-a-glance look at my picks for tomorrow night’s Academy Awards…
Young Sherlock Holmes (review)
First thing the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes made me think? (Okay, second thing, after ‘Sexiest Holmes evah!’) ‘I have got to see Young Sherlock Holmes again.’
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (review)
So it can be told: The road to hell isn’t paved with good intentions, it’s paved with Harry Potter wannabes. Now, now — I know that’s not quite fair to anyone involved with this perfectly inoffensive, occasionally clever kids’ movie…
January 15: DVD alternatives to this weekend’s multiplex offerings
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, except the apocalypse has arrived, and you’ll be busy protecting your books from rampaging hoards of desperate readers. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you on Monday, … more…
question of the day: What is the secret of James Cameron’s success?
James Cameron is the 12th highest-grossing director in film history, having earned $1.117 billion (and that’s just domestically) from just seven films. With Avatar, he is likely to surpass Chris Columbus, currently at No. 5… and if Avatar does Titanic business, he could catapult to the No. 3 spot, behind Robert Zemeckis and the king, … more…
I Love You, Beth Cooper (review)
Though he’s never so much as spoken to the poor girl before, nerd announces during his high-school valedictorian speech that he ‘loves’ the ‘hottest’ girl in school. In the real world, this would be called an act of passive-aggressive behavior by an antisocial creep…
my week at the movies: ‘Ink,’ ‘I Love You, Beth Cooper,’ ‘500 Days of Summer’
Still sorta a slow week. I should cherish this, especially with all the non-movie-related crap that is filling my head, unwanted, at the moment. But I don’t. I’d rather I had nothing at all to do but think about movies (and TV: Torchwood: Children of Earth is calling…) I’m most intrigued this week by Ink, … more…
Home Alone movie review: man of the house
The king of 80s teen angst, John Hughes will be forever be venerated by Gen-Xers as the writer/director of our Holy Flick: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But his favorite movie with the rest of the world is probably Home Alone, which Hughes wrote. One indication, admittedly drawn from an extremely tiny sampling of moviewatchers: To this day, ten years after the release of the biggest-grossing film of 1990, my mother — who tends to refer to actors as ‘the guy from that TV show’ or ‘the one who was married to that other one in that movie’ — calls Macaulay Culkin, adoringly, ‘Home Alone.’
