Built as either a shot to attain a loftier reputation or as penance for afflicting four goddamned “Shrek” movies upon the populace (perhaps both), Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 finds the red-headed stepchild studio attempting to go full Pixar and widen the emotional scope of what has been, to date, probably their…
The future is often grim when featured in sci-fi movies, but in the latest X-Men pic, X-Men: Days of Future Past, it’s the past that’s particularly depressing. Well, okay, it’s the future, too. For the seventh X-Men movie (as long as you count two lackluster Wolverine spin-off movies that clearly intended to be counted), Bryan…
“War has begun,” growls Caesar, and from the looks of it from the latest trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes that war is going to be a helluva sight to watch unfold. Points are being stressed that it didn’t have to be this way, however, as Jason Clarke, taking over the sympathizer…
With mutants on the edge of extinction due to their systematic elimination by the Sentinel program, long-time enemies Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) realize the only way forward for their survival is to unite themselves in the past. The man to convince their younger selves (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, respectively) this…
There’s nothing more rewarding than bringing a baby into the world; sure, it’s scary, and it’s a lot of responsibility, but there’s just nothing like it — it’s a life-changing experience. That’s what I hear anyway. I’m not a mother, and I don’t expect to be any time soon, but my friends have kids and…
Like René Clément’s “Forbidden Games,” British director Brian Percival’s The Book Thief focuses on the effect of war on children who are forced by circumstances into coping with events beyond their capacity to understand. Written by Michael Petroni and based on the novel by Australian author Markus Zusak, it is a story told with power…
The full theatrical trailer for DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 has arrived and with it comes more dragon goodness. With the dragons fully integrated into his village, Hiccup now travels the lands in search of new adventures with his feisty dragon Toothless. From appearances it looks like they find two (although time…
