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In all fairness to screenwriter Max Landis (Fantastic Four) and director Paul McGuigan (Sherlock), finding a fresh spin on Mary Shelley’s classic novel is no easy feat. On the surface of it, re-jiggering the story as a mildly demented buddy movie is one of the few iterations left; unfortunately, the execution is lack and Victor Frankenstein … Continue reading
Even though the Hunger Games series feels a little tired at this point, it manages to end with a bang — which is a pleasant surprise given the lukewarm dramatics of Mockingjay Part 1. Part 2 is by no means flawless, but it is less uneven and more confidently paced than its ill-conceived first half, a … Continue reading
Adapting a TV series to film is usually a recipe for disaster, and dropping a dated spy-fi franchise in late summer between the twin juggernauts of Mission: Impossible and James Bond is something akin to a box office suicide mission; that said, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. beats those odds. It’s a brisk, smart, fun action … Continue reading
A smarter spoof than Austin Powers, and free of the over-seriousness the Bond movies, Kingsman: The Secret Service is a much-needed fresh take on spy fiction, one that pays homage to the genre almost as often as it rips it off, subverts it, and then gives it the finger. The movie finds writer-director Matthew Vaughn once again … Continue reading
Considering how hot high fantasy and YA fiction are these days it comes as no surprise that a studio would attempt a hybrid of the two. What is surprising is that Seventh Son is as watchable as it is. By no means is it the second coming of The Lord of the Rings (but then … Continue reading
It’s difficult to determine who is likely (if at all) to enjoy Predestination: the fans of the classic Robert A Heinlein short story “All You Zombies” that it is based on, or uninitiated genre fans free of preconceived notions about the Spierig Brothers’ time travel flick. The movie is hampered by slavish devotion to the … Continue reading
The good news is that Peter Jackson’s final installment of his unnecessarily long adaptation of The Hobbit shows improvement over its predecessors. The downside is that it’s an a degree of improvement akin to the Star Wars prequels: better, but still a slog to get through with only a few rewarding moments. At best, it makes one appreciate … Continue reading
Inherent Vice is the first movie based on a novel by Thomas Pynchon. Whether or not there will be another any time soon is anyone’s guess. Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation (approved by Pynchon himself) is a rambling and largely incoherent tale. It’s supposed to be; its source was a rambling, convoluted soft-boiled detective tale, and Anderson’s … Continue reading
Splitting the final installment of a book-to-film franchise into two parts has always been a controversial move, and it’s probably never been more questionable than with the Mockingjay — Part 1. By offering the first act of the concluding tale as a stand-alone film, Lionsgate and company have made us wait a year for a plodding, … Continue reading
A strong debut film by The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart, there’s still some room for improvement in the earnest and entirely nonthreatening Rosewater. Some first-time filmmakers opt for going full-bore with their freshman work, laying on the style and emotion in sloppy layers as if the project were the only movie they were ever going to … Continue reading
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