Happy Hobbit Day!
Today is the birthday of both Frodo and Bilbo Baggins.
Lord of the Rings
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword movie review: well I didn’t vote for him
Derivative, rote, devoid of heart and hope. Guy Ritchie has found no reason to retell Arthur’s story, or to render a mythic hero as a self-serving thug.
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.
A Monster Calls movie review: the monster is within us all
A fairy tale of the Grimm sort: no happy ending, no heroes or villains, just hard truths about life and human nature. Important, beautiful, heartbreaking.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie review: the high price of hope
There’s genuine fun here, but the humor is cynical, the heroics are tinged with regret, and it’s all delivered with a cold smack of — yes — political relevance.
Before the Flood documentary review: DiCaprio takes celebrity climate-change advocacy to a new level (LFF 2016)
Leonardo DiCaprio’s abashed personal journey to learn about global warming, overcome his pessimism, and find hope that there’s still time to make a difference.
Warcraft: The Beginning (aka Warcraft) movie review: guest review by a white male teenage nerd from 1987
Like all Frazetta fantasy posters came to life all at once. A masterpiece of cinema that truly speaks to the interests of white male teenage nerds from 1987.
The Huntsman: Winter’s War movie review: snow what?
It’s a prequel and a sequel! It’s got girl powerrr and lady-hating! It’s a mashup of Lord of the Rings and Frozen! It’s all these things, and less.
more men I am officially tired of being asked to sympathize with in movies
Update! Another year, another slate of films proving there is almost nothing that men can do, think, or be that The Movies will not deem worthy of a story.
The Martian movie review: life on Mars
An excellent complement to the novel, simplifying the science without dumbing it down yet retaining the suspense and urgency of its interplanetary stranding.
