Category: Movie Reviews

Finding a Place to Belong at Monsters University

As a prequel, this film makes for the perfect lead-in to Monsters Inc., but as a standalone product, there’s not much to this film that simply explains how one big eye surrounded by a mound of green flesh and a fluffy blue bear has become bosom buddies.

Monsters_University_poster_3Expectations were low for some long-time PIXAR fans going in to see Monsters University. In fact, they were smaller than the green imp, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal). He has these grand ambitions to be a Scare-a-lot even though he is better suited to be Care Bears material. The joke is on him when he finally arrives at the prestigious Monsters University. He is there to learn how to be scary and that is one tall order for the most tamest beast to grace this monster-verse.

Even James Sullivan (John Goodman) is more about fluff than flights of fancy as he tries to buffoon his way through college life.

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The Croods Go Crazy!

The Croods is more than a Flintstone Family conundrum, and it explores the problems siblings face with their parents.

The CroodsWriter/Creator Chris Sanders shows that he rarely strays far from what he knows is a good tale. In what he crafted for The Croods is more than a Flintstone Family conundrum, and it explores the problems siblings face with their parents.

But this movie is one tough rock to crack. It doesn’t have the same appeal as Sander’s breakout directorial hit, Lilo & Stitch, or his phenomenal adaptation of Cassandra Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon. When the story has to deal with five characters attempting to share equal screen time, the problems of managing a cohesive family drama versus sit-com ala The Munsters is evident.

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Man of Steel Delivers Plenty of Nolen-esque Appeal

Man of Steel has plenty of moments that will get fans past and present wondering about who this man embodying hope is.

Superman PosterFans of Christopher Nolan’s revisionist theory in redefining DC’s superheroes for the big screen—to explore the pathos behind the hero—will no doubt love Man of Steel. This movie is a bleaker product. Its post-modernist outlook on life and in who can forge their own destinies is at the heart of this film. This edgier type of storytelling is great, and to add-on top Zack Snyder’s testosterone based action-reaction mode of visual storytelling only reinforces the idea that this tale is a comic book product. This movie is more like something Grant Morrison or Alan Moore would write. But for the two filmmakers, Nolan and Snyder might have squared off a few times in deciding which parts of the film needed the whiz-bang action versus analysis of the life of what Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) aka Superman is meant to become.

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Escape from Planet Earth and; Hidden Messages, a Blu-Ray Review

Had Escape from Planet Earth have been more diligent with its message of mending fences then this movie might have fared better

Escape from Planet EarthFans of Brendan Fraser’s work will most likely find enjoyment with Escape from Planet Earth. He is the perfect fit to voice Scorch Supernova, a not-so bright hero from the planet Baab. This astronaut thinks might makes right when defending his world from mysterious forces from beyond his solar system. Most of the vocal talent like Jessica Alba,  George Lopez and Ricky Gervais fit in rather well to the character archetypes they are portraying in this film but this talent does not help save it from certain production problems. There is no clear target audience for Rainmaker Entertainment’s first foray into feature film development.

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Where is the “Epic” Appeal? A Movie Review

Epic inserts is a movie made on steroids. It tries to be too much of everything we love from Disney and it’s not needed.

Epic Film PosterThe main problem with Blue Sky Studio’s Epic is that it tries too hard to be just that. This film forgets where its inspirations should be coming from. It could have borrowed from Peer Gynt—which would have been fine—but it didn’t. While the CGI is very impressive with its photo-realism, that isn’t enough to carry this film.

This movie deserves a Oscar nomination for artistic direction. As for any other category, it may need a Razzie for its story development.

Its fairy tale aspirations gets forgotten in favor for an action story in the same vein as Avatar. Instead of an invasion of an evasive human species, the antagonist here is with the forces lurking under the earth. All the nastiness of mosquitoes, mole-men and rodents (including bats) gets personified as agents of pestilence.

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