Cinema Mishmash

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Here is a sure indicator that a movie franchise has gone too far: when the latest installment, despite the spectacle of its explosions and special effects, is more or less a bore. That is, sadly, the state of things in the X-Men department. By the look of things, the film has left the caretakers of [...]

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While I expected I Love You, Man to be yet another mediocre entry in the increasingly popular bromance comedy movie genre, two things in particular lift this entry ahead of the pack: Paul Rudd and Jason Segal. (There’s a pretty stellar supporting cast, as well.) Rudd plays the part of the damaged male lead, Peter [...]

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All I can say is, watching Step Brothers wasn’t my idea. However, I couldn’t have been prepared for just how sophomoric, crude, and stupid this film is. Which might be fine, for some, but there’s more: it isn’t funny. The idea of a pair 40-year-olds, each with a severe case of arrested development, being thrown [...]

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If you thought that slapstick kung-fu comedy began with Kung Fu Hustle or Shaolin Soccer, or that gravity-defying, supernatural swordsmanship got is contemporary cinematic debut with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you would be off by (at least) the better part of a decade. Among the many Chinese and Hong Kong films of which western audiences [...]

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If a film manages to provoke dialogue or debate, then it cannot be considered to be without value. In the case of Babylon A.D., that debate was: Which is worse, a bad story or a bad ending? The argument could made that both descriptions apply to this Vin Diesel vehicle, but I submit that the [...]

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Begin with something nice, I always say. With that in mind, and the Blu-ray disc of 10,000 B.C. has the nicest of beginnings. Which is to say, when one loads the disc in the player, the movie actually begins playing right away. No really, it’s true. No trailers, no cable TV series promotions, no guy [...]

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In Brendan Fraser, the producers of Journey to the Center of the Earth must have been looking for someone who wouldn’t distract from the real star of the film: the multitude of special effects shots. In fact, Fraser’s acting style could very well be computer generated, making him seem right at home among the subterranean [...]

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Every once in a while a light-hearted romantic comedy comes along which fulfills all of the expectations of the genre yet manages to do just a little bit more. Here Michael Cera plays Nick, a variation of his signature lovable geek, but this time he is coming to terms with the fact that the shallow, [...]

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Prior to today, Singin’ In the Rain was a film I had only seen on television. I’m sure that’s true with most people, unfortunately, even those who are fond of the film. Until seeing it today on the big screen, I would have never guessed what a shame that is. First of all, Singin’ In the Rain [...]

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This evening with friends I revisited the latest Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, having dutifully lived up to my lifelong affinity for the coolest of cinematic spies by viewing the film during its cinematic release. Since I knew this time around to expect more of an episodic installment than a compelling stand-alone story, I enjoyed [...]

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I guess I just wanted to see what all of the fuss was about, but now I feel a little silly wanting to watch Twilight on the week of its home video release. Like the teenage protagonists here (one human female, one undead male), I found myself quietly laughing throughout the film, yet for me the [...]

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Until I saw the first trailer and read the initial reports about Watchmen, I knew nothing of what I now understand to be the most popular of all graphic novels. So I am not one of these “fanboys” we keep hearing about. However, I am a fan of the cinematic adaptation of comic books, and what [...]

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No one can say that Baz Luhrmann isn’t ambitious. After a 7 year hiatus, the energetic director has returned to the cinema with a work intended to be epic in just about every way, clocking in at 2-3/4 hours of nearly non-stop largess. After being notably snubbed by the Academy, which denied him a best director [...]

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When producer J.J. Abrams and his team put together the trailer for Cloverfield, I don’t think the intent was to set my expectations so low that when I finally got around to watching the film at home, I was pleasantly surprised. Clearly the secrecy about the subject of the film and the vague trailers revealing [...]

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