Drama, 94 Minutes, 2010
This is a quiet, little, personal drama. Like most quiet, little, personal dramas this lives or dies on the success of the actors. The script is crucial as well, of course, but good actors can carry a weak script – and weak direction, lighting, staging and pacing. If the actors can grab you up front and convince you that their characters are authentic, you’ll accept just about anything else.
Drama, 83 Minutes, 2009
This is an odd little animated movie that I immensely enjoyed. The story is, basically, a biography of Tulip, an Alsatian dog owned by Londoner J.R. Ackerley. Tulip is, most people would have to concede, a “problem dog”. She’s rambunctious, hyperactive, possessive and unruly. Her owner lives in constant wonder of her.
Comedy, 122 Minutes, 2001
I recently decided to introduce this film, one of my absolute, all-time favorite movies for ever-and-ever, to my kids. Both of them, ages 11 and 14, groaned out loud at the idea of “reading a movie”. Both were completely entranced, as I knew they would be, in the first 10 minutes.
Comedy, 103 Minutes, 2010:
[This is the sixteenth selection in my irregular, “My Wife and Kids are Visiting Relatives and I’m Home Watching Movies” film festival.]
Drama, 91 Minutes, 2011
The basic idea here was very good. Alexa (Cat Smit [IMDB]) is a pretty Dutch girl whose gay friend has killed himself. To discover why, she travels to his small hometown in Iowa and interviews people about their experiences being gay in middle-America.
Comedy/Horror, 94 Minutes, 2012
We had it in our heads, for some reason, that this was going to be another terrible SyFy Channel-style CGI-monster crapfest. We crowded around the TV, claws unsheathed, ready to have a blast tearing this terrible piece of shit to tiny shreds. Sadly we ended up disappointed.
You see, it ended up being good. Even very good.
Zombie alert!
See the review of Osombie on our sister site, MoreBrains.com dedicated to all things zombie!
Thriller, 80 Minutes, 2007
Revenge films tend to form a mixed bag. They can be very easy to pull off (all you really need is to show somebody doing something horrible to somebody else) which means that a lot of them suffer from laziness. Others spend so much time on the mechanics of the situation – long, intricate, graphically violent scenes – that they lose focus on the human impact. It’s difficult to find the sweet spot. This one starts out strong but unfortunately wanders aimlessly through its last two acts.
“Starship Troopers: Invasion” on IMDB
Sci-fi, 90 Minutes, 2012
Hells yes, people! This is, finally, the sequel that the original “Starship Troopers” [IMDB] deserves. It’s an animated film – a beautiful, intricately-detailed computer animated film to be exact. (If you still need to be told that animated films aren’t just for kids then call over whoever let you on the Internet and tell them you aren’t ready for it.)
“The Raid: Redemption” on IMDB
Action, 101 Minutes, 2011
My daughter’s one-line review: “THAT WAS AWESOME!”
Who knew that Indonesians could make one of the absolute best action movies that I’ve ever seen? Hong Kong maybe. Japan, possibly. But Indonesia? Really? How in the hell did this happen?
