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: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt 1
It all started with a juvenile fiction novel about a teen boy with hidden magical powers and a grand wizarding destiny that he finds by leaving his non-magical “muggle” family and attending an English boarding school with a magical twist, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. That book was published in 1997 with the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and a film version followed in November, 2001. Since then the seven Harry Potter…Read More
Review: The Brothers Bloom
I’m not sure if I am going to have my film reviewers membership card yanked for saying this, but The Brothers Bloom was one of the most delightful, entertaining films I have seen so far this year. That’s right, no complaints, no “but…”, just a straight out positive review of a film that works beautifully on so many levels. The first of these levels is that in a bold move the distribution company released a…Read More