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 Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Fair disclosure: I adore the original 1947 version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Danny Kaye in the title role. I think it’s one of his very best performances, and the recent remaster makes the film look bright, vibrant and smart. In the original, based on a short story by James Thurber, Mitty works at a book publishing company that produces pulp magazines like “True Detective” and “Crimes and Criminals” and is prone…Read More
Review: Paul
Most modern comedies end up being so stupid that it’s painful to watch the actors embarrass themselves on the big screen. There are also comic actors who seem to have a string of box office successes even as their films are stupid and only barely entertaining. That’s why it’s a pleasure to see the terrific comic team of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost skewer the alien conspiracy genre in the consistently funny Paul. Graeme (Simon…Read More
Review: Despicable Me
Despicable Me is a surprisingly violent animated movie that suffers from being released within a few weeks of the film Toy Story 3. Where Toy Story 3 has warm characters who seek to do well by each other, Despicable Me is populated by characters who constantly hurt each other as the filmmakers clearly sought a cheap laugh and tried to string together a series of hit-or-miss sight gags. The story has Gru (voice of Steve…Read More
Review: MacGruber
It’s probably not a good sign to start a review by saying that the film wasn’t anywhere near as bad or as stupid as I was afraid it’d be, but that’s exactly how I felt after the end credits of the new Saturday Night Live spin-off MacGruber. Crude and sophomoric, it still had lots of laughs and a surprisingly polished appearance, coupled with amusingly over-the-top performances from some decent actors. The story line is something or…Read More
Review: How to Train your Dragon
How to Train your Dragon, the latest film from Dreamworks Animation, tells the story of Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), a young Viking and the only son of village chief, blacksmith and single dad Stoick The Vast (Gerard Butler). Hiccup is a disappointment to his father because he’s a klutz and not interested in slaying the dragons that constantly attack their village and steal their livestock. Hiccup is also attracted to Astrid (America Ferrera) but, a tough Viking…Read More