Tag: movies

  • Movie Review – The Avengers

    Movie Review – The Avengers

    Be warned:  Spoilers, I have them. I’ve been struggling with how to approach reviewing The Avengers.  I mean, I’m a comic guy from way back, but not an obsessive one.  Iron Man is one of my favorites, and I’m not sure I can be entirely impartial.  Had I stayed up last night (got home at 1:30am)…

  • Oscars Thoughts

    A random collection of thoughts as I watched much of the Oscars broadcast last night.  In no particular order: Unless you are a professional comedian, don’t ‘open with a joke’ when giving your acceptance speech.  Chances are you will either botch it, or it won’t be as funny as you thought.  Just stop. Actually, there…

  • Lightning Movie Review – Beauty and the Beast in 3D

    We all know the movie, especially if you have daughters (or were a kid when it first came out, admit it boys).  So I won’t bore you with a description of it, but I’m going to talk about the 3D conversion.  Honestly, it’s pretty useless, to me.  There were a few scenes where it looked…

  • Movie Review – The Adventures of Tintin

    Movie Review – The Adventures of Tintin

    I FINALLY got back to the theater yesterday, as we took the kids to see The Adventures of Tintin.  It’s a wonderful 3D animated adventure movie based on the comics by Belgian artist Hergé.  It uses the ever more prevalent performance capture, and since it has Peter Jackson co-producing along with Steven Spielberg and Kathleen…

  • The Three Christmas Movies

    So how many Christmas movie plots are there really?  As my wife watches all the Hallmark/ABC Family/etc. I realize there may only be three (this doesn’t include animated specials).  Let’s see: 1.  A Christmas Carol – Remade dozens of times, starring Captain Picard, starring Alistair Sim, starring Muppets, starring Mickey, starring Bill Murray, sort of…

  • Ender’s Game News – Ben Kingsley and Hollywood Whitewashing

    Ender’s Game News – Ben Kingsley and Hollywood Whitewashing

    Some notes:  This post has some plot details of Ender’s Game: The Book, so if you haven’t read it (and WHY NOT) read the rest of this at your own risk. I hesitate to even write this, as Orson Scott Card’s books were a pretty fundamental part of my childhood, after I read my brother’s…

  • Best Animated Film 2011 – Which Should Be Nominated?

    Best Animated Film 2011 – Which Should Be Nominated?

    As seen at Slashfilm, there will be at least 18 eligible animated movies to get Oscar nominations this year, which means there could be 5 nominees in the category.  I’ve actually seen most of them, aside from the four foreign ones and the ones releasing in the next few weeks.  With Pixar’s only entry the…

  • Ender’s Game – Might it FINALLY Happen?

    Ender’s Game – Might it FINALLY Happen?

    If you know me at all, you know I’m a huge Orson Scott Card fan, with my favorite book of his always alternating between Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead.  The idea for an Ender’s Game movie has been in Hollywood for years, at one point looking like Wolfgang Petersen would get it done. …

  • Kid Movie Reviews – Coraline

    Kid Movie Reviews – Coraline

    I finally got to see Coraline last night, on TV even though I have a DVD copy, and enjoyed it immensely.  If you are not familiar with it (or the Neil Gaiman book it is based on), Coraline Jones is an 11 year old girl who craves her parents’ attention.  Especially since they just moved…

  • Movie Review – Real Steel

    I took my son with me to see Real Steel last night.  Much like Rise of the Planet of the Apes, this was a movie that hit my radar late.  I mean, I knew about it, and probably made the jokes everyone else made about Rock’em Sock’em Robots.  It wasn’t until reviews started to come…

  • Movie Review:  Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D

    Movie Review: Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D

    You can file this under “Movies Mike saw so you don’t have to”.  I had a pair of Fandango passes that had to be used by Friday, and this was pretty much the only movie left in theaters that was age appropriate.  ‘Appropriate’ might actually be a stretch, as vomit/fart/poop laden ‘comedy’ isn’t really appropriate…

  • Friday Finds – Robot Octopi and Arctic Airships

    A light week this week, due to the holidays and not being home much. Raising a Reader – Getting boys to read. But that does leave plenty of room for links! Star Wars:  Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition, a fine gift for the SW geek in your family. A horribly incomplete list of…