Category: Movies

  • Movie Review – Sing

    Movie Review – Sing

    Illumination’s latest movie, Sing, is a song and dance you’ve seen before.  Heck, the Muppets have done it twice at least.  Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey as a Koala) grew up loving the theater, and eventually (with financial help from his blue-collar dad) he buys a theater.  Buster’s not very good at running it, though, so…

  • Movie Review – Doctor Strange

    Movie Review – Doctor Strange

    I saw the Scott Derrickson-directed Doctor Strange over the weekend, and enjoyed it a lot.  It’s not going to unseat any of my favorite MCU movies (currently Iron Man, Winter Soldier, Guardians and Civil War) but it was a fun if familiar tale.  I’ll get all the non-spoiler notes out of the way first:  the…

  • Movie Review – Kubo and the Two Strings

    Movie Review – Kubo and the Two Strings

    We saw Kubo and the Two Strings a while ago, but I’m just gathering my thoughts on it now.  It’s quite possibly my favorite Laika movie, and that’s saying something as Coraline gets a ton of play, especially this time of year.  Kubo deals with complex feelings with mind-numbingly gorgeous visuals.  It’s the sort of…

  • Happy Birthday Star Trek

    Happy Birthday Star Trek

    50 years ago today yesterday, the first episode of Star Trek (now known as ‘The Original Series’) aired.  Sci-fi fandom hasn’t been the same since.  Hundreds of episodes of TV across five decades, scores of books and comics, big budget movies, video games, copycats and parodies, Trek holds a special place in our pop culture.  Star…

  • Movie Review – Storks

    Movie Review – Storks

    We saw Storks at a preview screening, and it had some really cute parts and fun actiony bits.  However, I think they just had no idea how to start the movie to get to those bits and just decided to use the “I’m giving you the company as long as you don’t screw up this…

  • Movie Review – Pete’s Dragon (2016)

    Full disclosure:  if I saw the original movie as a kid, I don’t remember it.  This version of Pete’s Dragon starts out in the most Disney manner ever, with Pete (Oakes Fegley) losing his parents but being rescued by Elliott.  Pete lives in the forest for several years with Elliott, until he’s found by Grace…

  • Movie Review – Star Trek Beyond

    Movie Review – Star Trek Beyond

    I’ve got a bit of a love/hate relationship with the “Kelvin-verse” Star Trek movies.  I really like the cast, and have come to grips with the fact that, since it’s not a TV show, the movies need to shade a bit more to the action side of things than the more cerebral Trek episodes.  Still,…

  • Movie Review – Ghostbusters (2016)

    Movie Review – Ghostbusters (2016)

    I’m happy to report that I have seen the new Ghostbusters movie and did not, in fact, experience the death of my childhood.  We all enjoyed it quite a bit.  Sure, there’s a few bits that don’t land but that’s true of the original Ghostbusters if you can manage to view it without the rose-tinted glasses…

  • Why Wolverine: Weapon X Makes More Sense Than Old Man Logan

    Why Wolverine: Weapon X Makes More Sense Than Old Man Logan

    For a long time, the rumors were persistent that Hugh Jackman’s final turn as Wolverine would be inspired by the Old Man Logan comics by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven.  It never made a ton of sense to me, unless the only bit of inspiration taken from it was the name (similar to Age of…

  • Movie Review – Captain America: Civil War

    Movie Review – Captain America: Civil War

    note:  some spoilers There’s a huge reason Captain America: Civil War works and Batman v Superman doesn’t, and that’s emotional investment.  I know Zack Snyder and DC/WB wanted to do thing their own way and not ape Marvel’s so far successful approach, but when you are rebooting two legendary characters and making significant changes, you…

  • Movie Review – The Jungle Book

    Movie Review – The Jungle Book

    Live-action versions of their classic animated features is a thing for Disney right now, and the next one is The Jungle Book.  Yeah, I know it’s technically adapted from the Kipling book but make no mistake the classic animated version is the inspiration here.  Thankfully, it’s a really good adaptation. The first thing that stands…

  • Movie Review – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

    Movie Review – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

    The elephant in the room, right?  Yes, I saw BvS: DoJ.  I don’t hate it, but there hasn’t been a comic book movie that’s ever elicited a wider range of reactions from me.  For every cool moment or visual, there are long stretches where my only reaction is a sigh or eyeroll or double facepalm.…

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