Victor Frankenstein movie review: monster mush
A riff on the Hollywood conventions of a story we know very well already, with little new to say. James McAvoy’s mad scientist is fun to watch, though.
James Whale
Mr. Holmes movie review: the case of the missing myth
It looks lovely and Ian McKellen is amazing, of course, but it’s not very Holmesian. I suspect Holmes himself would snort in derision at its sentimentality.
Frankenweenie (review)
The Tim Burton-est movie in a long while, not merely because it embodies all those wonderfully weird and humanist Burton attitudes but also because only Burton would think to make a stop-motion film in glorious, creamy, black-and-white.
question of the day: What movie most says “Halloween” to you?
If you were going to pick out the ideal DVD to watch tonight, once the trick-or-treaters go home and there’s nothing left but the night and the darkness, which flick would you choose?
DVD alternatives to this weekend’s multiplex offerings
President Obama may have us all feeling more confident that the collapse of civilization because of credit swap defaults — instead of the way-cooler zombie apocalypse or ape uprising The Movies had promised us — has been headed off for the moment, but that don’t mean a penny saved ain’t still a penny saved. And … more…
Frankenstein (1931) (review)
Will the male half of the species ever get over its fear and awe of the reproductive power of the female half? If the enduring popularity of the Frankenstein story and its variants is anything to judge by, the answer is no. And endure it does: From Frankenweenie to Frankenhooker to Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound, this is a story that has inspired almost countless retellings. But the original filmed version, directed by James Whale in 1931, is still the best.
