Movie Reviews
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Posts Tagged ‘2002’
Men in Black 3: A Flickcharter’s Movie Review
24, May 2012
By every possible scenario, Men in Black 3 should absolutely not work. The original Men in Black, released in 1997, was a box office blockbuster that caught everybody by surprise. On the other hand, its first sequel, released ten years ago, was a out-and-out disaster. Despite still being a box office success, many moviegoers felt cheated by what was essentially a rehash of the first movie with a weak villain (played by the usually capable Lara Flynn Boyle). Despite the issues with the second film, I was willing to give the new sequel a chance. After all, I already knew that if it was at least a step up from Men in Black II, then it would have already done its job. Well, surprise, surprise, the new sequel is not only a step above the previous movie, but it is also something else: A film almost as good as the original.
- In: Movie Reviews|New Releases
- Tags: 1997, 2002, 2012, 3D, Alice Eve, Andy Warhol, Barry Sonnenfeld, Bill Hader, David Koepp, David Rasche, Emma Thompson, Etan Coen, Ghostbusters, Jeff Nathanson, Jemaine Clement, Josh Brolin, Lara Flynn Boyle, Men in Black, Men in Black 3, Men in Black II, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rip Torn, The Goonies, Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith
From Book to Screen: Bret Easton Ellis
19, Apr 2012
by Emil Ekelund
A common thread that runs through all of Bret Easton Ellis’ books is the exploration of hollow persons. People who are generally well-off financially yet dead on the inside, so numb to the world around them that even acts of horrific violence and depravity can’t faze them more than momentarily. Ellis has populated his stories with these characters, often set in the 1980s to satirize the excessiveness of the time period. While reading all the books back-to-back is probably not recommended, the author manages to find enough variety and different themes to explore to make them all have some value. If he seems one-note, one does not look closely enough. Read the rest of this entry »
- In: From Book to Screen
- Tags: 1980's, 1985, 1987, 2000, 2002, 2008, American Psycho, Andrew McCarthy, Billy Bob Thornton, Bret Easton Ellis, Christian Bale, Clifton Collins Jr., Glamorama, Gregor Jordan, Guinevere Turner, Harley Peyton, James Van Der Beek, Kim Basinger, Kip Pardue, Less Than Zero, Marek Kanievska, Mary Harron, Mickey Rourke, Nicholas Jarecki, Robert Downey Jr., Roger Avary, Shannyn Sossamon, The Informers, The Rules of Attraction, Winona Ryder
The Guilty Pleasures: Dragon Edition
27, Apr 2011
by Nigel Druitt
Dragons. Are there any cooler creatures in all of mythology? Unfortunately, in the world of celluloid, these great creatures of imagination have not really gotten their due. (At least, not in live-action cinema; why I have not yet seen How to Train Your Dragon is still beyond me.)
Is there any live-action film in which dragons have truly come off as cool as they deserve? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire wasn’t too bad, but the dragons aren’t the stars. As I impatiently await the day when Peter Jackson brings his vision of the ultimate dragon, Smaug, to life in The Hobbit, I think about other dragon-themed movies that I have enjoyed in the past. None of them are deserving enough to be called “great”, but I’m very forgiving of movies I want to like. In one of these cases, I was the perfect age to see a dragon with real presence brought to life on the big screen – even if the movie he inhabited was far from perfect. Without further adieu, I present, in ascending order on my Flickchart, my picks for Guilty Pleasures starring dragons.
- In: Guilty Pleasures
- Tags: 1996, 2002, 2008, 300, Beowulf, Christian Bale, David Thewlis, Dennis Quaid, DragonHeart, Elektra, film, films, Flickchart, Gerard Butler, Harry Potter, heath ledger, Hellboy, How to Train Your Dragon, Howard McCain, James Caviezel, John Hurt, kevin spacey, Matthew McConaughey, movies, Outlander, Peter Jackson, predator, Randy Edelman, Reign of Fire, Rob Bowman, Rob Cohen, Ron Perlman, sean connery, Star Trek: First Contact, Sucker Punch, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The X-Files, Vin Diesel
by Ryan Stuckey
Photo by Aaron Lynett/National Post
There is perhaps no one better at writing about the contemporary “average Joe” than the English born Nick Hornby. This could very well be one of the reasons that his novels adapt so well to the screen. We see characters that remind us of both people we know and ourselves, and we become enthralled by their stories. We want them to find happiness, we want them to achieve some measure of their dreams, and we want them to grow emotionally as people. If they can do it, then there’s no reason we can’t as well.
The two Nick Hornby adaptations this article will focus on will be High Fidelity and About a Boy.
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In Search of Best Picture
17, Feb 2011by Nigel Druitt
As the Oscar telecast creeps up on us again, it begs the question: How many times has the Academy really gotten this “Best Picture” thing right, anyway?
Think about it. How many controversial decisions are there in the Academy’s history? How many times is a movie other than Best Picture long remembered as the best of the year?
- In: User Showcase
- Tags: (500) Days of Summer, 127 Hours, 1941, 1977, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 28 Days Later, 3:10 to Yuma, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, A Serious Man, academy awards, adaptation, Alfonso Cuarón, American Beauty, An Education, Ang Lee, annie hall, Atonement, Avatar, Babel, Batman Begins, Best Picture, Big Fish, Black Swan, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Casablanca, Catch Me If You Can, Chicago, Children of Men, Chocolat, Christopher Nolan, Citizen Kane, City of God, Clint Eastwood, Crash, Crouching Tiger, District 9, Donnie Darko, Eastern Promises, Erin Brockovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Fight Club, film, films, Finding Nemo, Flickchart, Forrest Gump, Frost/Nixon, George Lucas, gladiator, Gone Baby Gone, Good Night and Good Luck, Gosford Park, Guillermo Del Toro, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, heath ledger, Hidden Dragon, hot fuzz, How Green Was My Valley, How to Train Your Dragon, Howl's Moving Castle, In Bruges, In the Bedroom, Inception, Inglourious Basterds, Iron Man, Juno, Kick-Ass, Kill Bill, Let The Right One In, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Lost in Translation, Luc Besson, Martin Scorsese, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Memento, Michael Clayton, Mickey Rourke, Milk, Million Dollar Baby, Moon, moulin rouge, movies, Munich, Mystic River, No Country For Old Men, Oldboy, Orson Welles, Oscar, Pan's Labyrinth, Peter Jackson, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Pulp Fiction, Reese Witherspoon, Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, Russell Crowe, Sandra Bullock, Saving Private Ryan, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Seabiscuit, Sean Penn, Serenity, Shakespeare in Love, Shutter Island, Sin City, Slumdog Millionaire, Spider-Man, Star Trek, Star Wars, Steven Soderbergh, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Aviator, The Blind Side, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, The Departed, The Fighter, The Hours, The Hurt Locker, The Kids are All Right, The King's Speech, The Lives of Others, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, The Pianist, The Professional, The Queen, The Reader, The Shawshank Redemption, The Social Network, The Town, The Wrestler, There Will Be Blood, Tim Burton, Toy Story 3, Traffic, True Grit, Up, Up in the Air, Walk the Line, WALL-E, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, William Hurt, Winter's Bone, Woody Allen, Zodiac