“Original” would seem the last word one should use to describe a current kids’ movie about the friendship between a boy and his dragon that is both a remake and a sort of “E.T.” clone, but it is what it is. As Disney is knee-deep in pillaging their catalog of classics for profits, they’ve managed…
I normally do not hold much hope for sequels that appear more than five years after the first installment (“The Two Jakes” comes immediately to mind). And although they fared alright with “Monsters, Inc.” and “Monsters University” (a prequel technicality), the same feeling came over me when I heard Pixar/Disney was releasing Finding Dory, a…
I could not decide what was the worst thing to happen to Johnny Depp in 2016: Not getting a deserved Academy Award nomination for “Black Mass,” the ugly and public divorce proceedings he is going through with his wife, Amber Heard, or starring in Alice Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to 2010’s “Alice in…
“Sometimes, rules are meant to be, well not necessarily broken, but certainly bent — and definitely reinterpreted; don’t you think?,” says Baloo to a bee-stung Mowgli as the man-cub angrily makes his way to the man-village where, as his sage mentor Bagheera has indicated, he must go back to if he wants to avoid a…
Just as conflict breaks out in Captain America: Civil War, so is the film itself somewhat conflicted. On a narrative level, it must balance its own story with that of the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), continuing established plot lines and characters while also setting up future elements. Stylistically, it has the challenge of presenting…
There is something satisfying about five thirty-something men going into an afternoon screening of an animated “children’s” film that features talking animals, and noting other audience members of a similar age. That was my experience of Zootopia (re-named “Zootropolis” in the UK), as myself and four friends of a similar age found ourselves in a…
The Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps marching forward, even with, as some would say, their lesser echelon characters leading the way. In this case it’s Stephen Strange, coming at us in the upcoming fantasy tale, Doctor Strange. How exactly he’s going to fit into the MCU puzzle is still a closely guarded secret, but one thing…
