With the resurgence of movies based on toys in recent years, it was high time to reach into the past and dust off the hidden gem that started it all. Many people who grew up watching the “Transformers” television show will remember that in 1986 Hasbro released a full length animated feature film called “The [...]
With age, Angelina Jolie has acquired a certain attributable nuance and sophistication that until recently would have been thought impossible from such an archetypal anti-feminist signature of adolescent male fantasy. Excepting her performance in 1999′s “Girl, Interrupted” this mysterious icon of sexuality has made a career of adding the superficial sexual sparks to action films targeted [...]
Rumor has it that three follow up films, a sequel and two crossovers with the “Alien” franchise, to John McTiernan’s 1987 sci-fi thriller, “Predator,” exist somewhere out there in the ether. I’m convinced this is nothing more than a legend, an old wives’ tale. I don’t believe it. There is only one sequel to that [...]
Two parts “Captain Planet,” one part “Star Wars.” Mix together in a large bowl of rock-paper-scissors. Replace ethnic characters with white Americans. Cast “The Daily Show” comedian as evil fire lord. Bake for 103 minutes. If you’re interested in seeing M. Night Shyamalan’s cartoonish adaptation of Nickelodeon’s hugely popular animated television series, save yourself ten bucks and [...]
Pixar isn’t blazing any new trails in the realm of critically acclaimed animated cinema. Its parent company, Disney, has been winning Oscars with its hand-drawn masterpieces since 1937. But, the relatively young computer animation studio, through a flawless record of mature, innovative, deftly crafted pictures, has positioned itself atop the heap as a perennial Oscar [...]
The merits of an intellectual elucidation of Joe Carnahan’s 21st century revamp of the mid-1980s absurdist TV show about a team of disgraced Army Rangers-turned outlaw mercenaries are negligible at best. To engage in such an endeavor would neutralize the only conceivable reason to watch the film at all. Which is why I love it. [...]
Is “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” the best video game adaptation ever? Personally, I prefer Uwe Boll’s “House of the Dead.” At least the latter had the decency not to spend $200 million as if it were a legitimate movie. This Jerry Bruckheimer-produced monstrosity is exactly like every other Jerry Bruckheimer-produced monstrosity. The [...]
Saddled with plot holes, tonal and practical inconsistencies, shallow characters and an uneven, intermittently funny script, “MacGruber” is not a good film. But it does feature a surprisingly nuanced love interest (Kristen Wiig) and an aging, slightly plump Val Kilmer as super-villain, Dieter Von Cunth — yes, Cunth — which almost make up for the [...]
John Favreau doing Michael Bay doing Robert Altman doing Dostoyevsky doing Shakespeare. “Iron Man 2″ is as elegant as it sounds. After battling a pre-Oscar, double-crossing Jeff Bridges in the first film, Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark finds himself pitted against Ivan Vanko, the metal-mouthed Muscovite brainiac version of Mickey Rourke, who is intent on [...]
“True Legend” or “Su Qi-Er” literally translated as “Beggar Su,” marks the return of famed Hong Kong director Woo-ping Yuen to fast-paced fantastical martial arts pulp. Set against the backdrop of Qing Dynasty China, “True Legend” puts a new twist on the ancient Chinese legend of Su Can (Vincent Zhao), better known as Beggar Su, [...]
