As a fan of the Harry Potter series and the wonderful universe created by author J. K. Rowling, I really wanted to like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. But I didn’t find much to love, just a safe, entertaining young adult focused cinematic experience. This new film, the first of a five-part series, is set a century before Harry’s birth and based in 1920’s New York City. Eminently likable Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is…Read More
Review: Jupiter Ascending
Andy and Lana Wachowski haven’t been able to match the brilliance of their cultural touchstone movie The Matrix with anything else they’ve done. Not with the increasingly banal sequels to the film, and certainly not with the visual f/x abomination Speed Racer. The recent Cloud Atlas was their closest effort, a thoughtful, engaging but ultimately overreaching film based on a twisty book by David Mitchell. Into this troubled oeuvre comes their latest movie, Jupiter Ascending, a…Read More