Great movie, with some great acting; nicely lampshaded found footage style. The storyline was a tad predictable, but well done for all that. It's sort of the 'anti-Avengers' in that it looks at the realistic results of young men getting superhuman powers. Or you could look at it as a fairly typical take on the supervillain's journey. How many of us ( Read more... )

Big budget booms and smart dialogue. Loki is a good fit for Whedon - he loves screwing with characters' minds. And for the first time, there were scenes that actually made the Hulk scary, and believably furious. I really want to see a Mark Ruffalo Hulk movie. (I think they based this Hulk's movements on gorilla stances and movements. It works to ( Read more... )

...on a completely unrelated note: It appears Howard Stern puts his review copies of movies on the Internet. Bad boy!

Is exactly what it sets out to be - a powerful homage to Steven Spielberg's early kid films. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Boy comes out of the woods in Germany

This is exactly the plot of Hannah...

( Read more... )

Saw the second half last night. Not quite as engaging as the first half, but certainly exciting enough. Some great moments too, like the trio looking over the ruins in the aftermath in the bright daylight. Perhaps inevitably, some of the lesser character's beats were minimised. OTOH, I got a better idea of Snape's role in procedings.

Over all, well ( Read more... )

I've just caught up with Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 1. And I'm glad I did. Geez, I thought the book was dark! But as well as being dark, the movie is well-written, and does better things with most scenes than the book does. I think Dobby's death is better handled in the movie, as is the ongoing tension between the three main characters ( Read more... )

Captain America is an excellent romp, which shows that Chris Evans can act (as in, play more than one personality. Not a huge evidence of range... but a workmanlike job.) Tommy Lee Jones doesn't have to breathe hard to out-charisma everyone he shares a frame with; sadly he never shares a frame with Hugo Weaving. The resultant scenery chewing ( Read more... )

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a completely different beast to its ancestors. It takes the high concept and goes its own way. The story and characters are engaging, both human and otherwise. Andy Serkis risks being typecast; if not as a simian, at least as a CGI creation. He and John Lithgow are the stand-outs as far as acting is concerned.

The ( Read more... )