It’s a curious situation when so many people get a kick at the same cinematic can and none of them can get it right. Is the material to blame? The filmmakers? The whole bloody idea? Let’s call it a three-way tie. Following in the footsteps of occasionally decent (but you wouldn’t know it from this…
I often feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done (I could always use a few more hours for movie watching!), but such complaining pales in comparison to the plight of the citizens of Andrew Niccol’s sci-fi parable In Time. For them, time is their lifeblood and not having…
American Gladiators has been resurrected. Well not really, but it is in a similar fashion that penance is paid to the rulers of Panem in Lionsgate’s upcoming film The Hunger Games. In the future, the 12 districts that comprise what was once North America, each submit one teenage girl and boy to take part in…
Every fairy tale deserves an updated telling, I suppose (notably Alice in Wonderland and Red Riding Hood). The latest, Snow White and the Huntsman, previewed it’s trailer today. In this rework, the lovely Sleeping Beauty, isn’t quite the pushover we remember as a toddler. The evil queen, who sucks the beauty from all she sees…
Tower Heist enjoys a coincidence of sorts in its choice of opening weekend. The Occupy Wall Street protest is alive and well not too far from where this film is set and hundreds of other Occupy protests are simultaneously happening around the world. Tapping into a particular segment of that angst, Tower Heist is about…
No theme in drama touches the heart more than the separation of lovers. In classic dramas from Romeo and Juliet to Wuthering Heights, we empathize with the feelings of sadness and loss that estrangement brings and can relate them to our own experience. Some stories of separation, however, lack deeply-drawn characters and do not have…
Ding! Ding! Ding! It’s time for a brief lesson on the Bard of Avon — William Shakespeare. Born to a working-class family in early 1560s, and, with a sixth-grade formal education, he began as a successful actor in London. Later, ‘Peare branched out to writing plays, specifically comedies and tragedies. His more famous works, considered…
