Category: Reviews

Movie Review: Cabin in the Woods

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IMDB, Cabin in the Woods“Cabin in the Woods” on IMDB

Horror,  95 Minutes, 2011

Clever movies are more fun.  It’s not that movies have to be clever to be fun or that clever movies are always fun – but take any regular dumb movie and make it clever and you have more fun.  For example take the plot where a bunch of friends drive up to a ridiculously remote cabin that they’ve never been before and then get picked off in ones and twos by zombies, cannibals, demons, ghosts, rednecks, rabid weasels or what-have-you.  That’s not a clever plot.  That’s a clichéd, hackneyed, dime-a-dozen plot.  “Cabin in the Woods” takes that tired plot and makes it clever.

“Cabin in the Woods” is insanely fun.

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Movie Review: Butter

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IMDB, Butter“Butter” on IMDB

Comedy, 90 Minutes, 2011

There’s always humor, often some of the best, to be found when people take something too seriously.  It can be anything, but it’s all the better when the something in question is a little… out there.  This is what makes movies like “Best in Show” [IMDB] so good.  Take an activity that we know of but really nothing about.  Include a cast of people, often small-town people, for whom this thing is everything and just sit back and watch the fireworks.

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Movie Review: Looper

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IMDB, Looper“Looper” on IMDB

Sci-Fi/Action, 119 Minutes, 2012

H.G. Wells ushered in the modern era of time travel stories with “The Time Machine” and we’ve hardly slowed down since.  We’ll probably never stop making time-travel movies.  Some kick ass (“The Terminator” [IMDB]), some are silly (“Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel” [IMDB]) and others profound (“Twelve Monkeys [IMDB] – which, incidentally, also starred Bruce Willis [IMDB]).  Even those with a shoestring budget can get in on the fun as the mind-bending “Primer” [IMDB] ably demonstrated.  Time travel is the gift that keeps on giving.

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Movie Review: Liberal Arts

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IMDB, Liberal Arts“Liberal Arts” on IMDB

Drama, 97 Minutes, 2012

This isn’t really a “comedy” (although it’s billed that way).  You really won’t laugh at it.  It’s a somewhat decent drama however.  A light, non-threatening, ultimately unimportant drama to be sure, but a decent one nonetheless.  It’s flawed and these flaws tend to undercut its message but I’m willing to admit that I may not be the target audience here.

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Movie Review: Total Recall

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IMDB, Total Recall“Total Recall” on IMDB

Sci-fi, 118 Minutes, 2012:

Whenever a new property based on Philip K Dick’s work comes along there’s a few minutes where I’m unabashedly hopeful that this time – just this once – maybe they’ll actually do the story in the book.  I’m always disappointed on that score.  Even when we end up with an excellent movie it’s always, essentially, an original story.  This is always a bad thing – these movies still tend to be pretty good – but it’s still disappointing.

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Hanukkah Movie Marathon: A Christmas Story

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IMDB, A Christmas Story“A Christmas Story” on IMDB

Comedy, 95 Minutes, 1983

[My daughter recently discovered that all her Jewish friends go the movies on Christmas day.  She came up with the idea of watching a movie for  each night of Hanukkah.  This is number seven!  Apparently we’re perfectly fine celebrating Hanukkah by watching a Christmas classic.]

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