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There is arguably more to like than dislike about Bill Condon’s live-action version of Disney’s 1991 animated musical Beauty and the Beast, but there really isn’t much to love about it. It’s a serviceable (read: slavish) adaptation content to coast on the novelty of CGI rather than ink-and-paint animation. The story is the same: After being rude to … Continue reading
Visually stunning, often chilling, and occasionally clunky, fashion designer-turned-filmmaker Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals is a stronger sophomore effort than most. It’s a Texas Gothic crime thriller sutured to a potboiler melodrama about the existential despair of L.A. socialites in a David Lynchian fashion — though with less surrealism and more coherence. Make of that what you will. … Continue reading
On the surface, it’s easy to dismiss Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as a cynical cash-grab squeezed from a lucrative franchise. It comes as a pleasant surprise that Fantastic Beasts not only proves there’s still new ground to trod in J.K. Rowling’s magical world — for now, at least. Written by Rowling and directed by … Continue reading
At last, a movie that answers the burning question: “What would a large-budget, big screen Lifetime channel potboiler play like?” Sadly, that answer is “deadly dull and obscenely morose.” The Girl on the Train was a no-brainer in terms of adapting it for the screen from Paula Hawkins’ bestselling novel; in execution, it’s flat and lifeless. Lacking in … Continue reading
It’s almost impressive that director Timur Bekmambetov (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) had the gumption to remake a cinematic icon. Unfortunately, that’s the extent of his daring. He opts to play it safe and more than a little toothless with the godfather of Biblical epics, rather than going for broke with a more stylized interpretation. As a result, there’s not of … Continue reading
Less pompous than Greystoke (1984) but more cartoonish than Disney’s 1999 animated version of the material, The Legend of Tarzan is pretty to look at but ultimately hollow and occasionally shoddy. This latest adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough’s pulp character hinges on a clever premise with a built-in conflict, mainly the early days of King Leopold II … Continue reading
You can tell there is a lot of heart and effort that went into the making of Warcraft, which makes its artistic failure as a would-be fantasy epic all the more depressing. Hackneyed and cliched, it tries to rise to level of the Lord of the Rings films but never quite gets off the ground. That … Continue reading
Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s (Birdman) fact-based frontier revenge saga The Revenant has an unnerving way of lodging itself in the back of one’s mind for days. Equal parts beautiful and brutal, it’s easily one of the most unsettling films of the past few years. It’s also one of the best. Its setting is a particularly harsh time … Continue reading
Ron Howard’s latest may strengthen the clichéd argument that “truth is stranger than fiction”, but it also suggests that it is often more boring, too. Howard and screenwriter Charles Leavitt half-heartedly adapt Nathaniel Philbrick’s novel of the same name, itself a fictionalized account of the true story of the ill-fated whaling ship Essex, the inspiration for Herman … Continue reading
Justin Kurzel’s free-handed and visceral adaptation of “the Scottish play” is sure to irritate the hell out of English Lit. majors and Shakespeare purists; it’s also incredibly entertaining, visually stunning, and perfectly drenched in mud, blood, and madness. The story of the ambitious Scottish noble who murders his way to power at the prediction of a … Continue reading
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