Let’s start with the good news: The new Ghostbusters is funny and entertaining, the story moves along at a solid clip and has lots of cameos from the stars of the original 1986 Ghostbusters too. The story works just fine with four women in the lead roles instead of the four men in the original film. That’s not the problem with this remake. The problems arise when you ask whether it’s more than just amusing. Turns out that…Read More
Review: The Huntsman: Winter’s War
Imagine you’re in a script development meeting at Perfect World Pictures and decide that you really like certain elements of Frozen, The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Maleficent, Time Bandits, Game of Thrones and other big fantasy productions and just toss all your ideas in the blender. You then send the entire script to the special effects house, along with a big check, and figure that with so many cultural touchpoints and a stellar…Read More
Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Do superheroes get bored? Is it possible that being constantly on call to save the world every time something bad happens might get just a bit in the way of having a pleasant life, a family and a social life? That’s the central question of the terrific new Marvel movie Avengers: Age of Ultron. And I’ll make this easy: Just go see it. The story is propelled by a question that’s on a lot of…Read More
Review: Thor: The Dark World
Thor is one of the old Gods, the son of Odin, brother of trickster Loki and part of the pantheon of Norse Gods. So Thor being in a world of swords and armor makes complete sense, and indeed, Thor’s weapon of choice is Mjölnir, his hammer. Yes, his hammer has a name. Drop Thor onto modern-day Earth and we have a humorous situation where he’s incredibly powerful but also completely clueless about common technology like…Read More
Review: Snow White and the Huntsman
Disney aside, fairy tales are supposed to be dark, scary stories that impart a moral to children and adults, generally by scaring the heck out of them. Kids get tortured, imprisoned and eaten, benign animals turn violent, grandparents turn into monsters, blood, madness and mayhem rules! Sheesh. But sweet fairy tales where the evil is mild and there’s a unrelieved overtone of sweetness and light? What’s the point? That’s always why the recent “nice” version…Read More
Review: Captain America: The First Avenger
“Uncle Sam Wants You!” the posters insisted on wall after wall during the 1940s, but what if you were just too scrawny, too weak to pass the physical and join the military to fight for your country? That’s the dilemma faced by Brooklyn weakling Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), who has gotten used to being bullied, but is remarkable for his willingness to endure any pummeling so as not to seem a coward. “I can take…Read More