“Toy Story 3” is just a delight. It’s clever, well-thought-out, and supplies just the right combination of story line, humor, and slight twist at the end.
It’s easy to see why Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” series is so rampantly successful. She creates a tension in all her characters that makes them all show internal dynamism, and external movement. They’re all headed somewhere, so the character development is always in a state of flux, which drives the plot forward. It’s all about the triangles.
I watched this film in the company of an eight-year-old boy, probably the ideal target audience, whose one-word commentary was “Awesome!” All of the following remarks should be taken in that context.
“Please Give” is a quirky little story (written and directed by Nicole Holofcener) about a couple of families living in apartments next to each other, somewhere in New York City.
There’s no fool like an old fool. Ben Kalmen (Michael Douglas) is a mature single man who exudes confidence and success; but going to the doctor and hearing the grim diagnosis bursts his invincible bubble. In fact, it made something important snap within him.
“Raunch” comedy has become a genre all its own, with a life of its own. But after you do the scatological language, the juvenile sexual histrionics, the casual nudity, and the even-more-casual drugs, then what? Is it time now to have an actual story?
This movie is “Lawrence of Arabia” meets “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, or, if you prefer, Ishmael takes Abraham’s blessing from Isaac, but it looks more like Aladdin with a magic knife instead of a magic carpet.
At one level, leaving letters from the lovelorn stuck in the wall of a courtyard in Verona, Italy, which is supposed to represent the fictional balcony in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” is beyond pitiful.
Yes, “Death At A Funeral” is a literal re-make of a British film released only three years ago. But as one local promoter put it, “No, it’s not the same movie, because now you have black people on the screen.”
You know all those movies where immediately upon death, there’s a really bright light, and you get to go to a place that’s colorful and fantastic, with phenomenal visuals?
If you’re looking at movie choices that seem so deadly serious (“The Hurt Locker”) or take themselves so seriously (“Avatar”) or are serious downers (“Precious”), and you’re looking for something lighthearted and mindless, maybe some adult humor without descending into a raunchfest (“The Hot Tub Time Machine”), then “The Bounty Hunter” might be for you.
Hiccup (the voice of Jay Baruchel) is a bright, skinny, sensitive little Viking lad who just doesn’t seem to fit in with the big, burly, warrior clan where his father, Stoick (the voice of Gerard Butler) is the chief.
Tim Burton’s treatment of “Alice In Wonderland” is just as whimsical as you’d expect, with his trademark dark humor accompanying it, and with the CGI (computer-generated imagery) of Wonderland thrown with 3-D, it’s a feast for the eyes, as well.
“The White Ribbon” is released in the U.S. already having received a Golden Globe nomination for best Foreign Film. It’s a tormented, tormenting kind of movie that will likely struggle to find an audience here, except among the most adventurous of moviegoers.
