(aka, XIX) I should know by now that you just can’t rely on the advertising. Consider the movie 19: if you read the plot summaries of the film that are out there (and yes, the plot descriptions you find on a movie site are almost always written by the studio, particularly when every review uses […]
Read more "Nainteîn [19] (1987)"Recently, I’ve reviewed two movies by one of my favorites of the younger generation of Japanese anime directors, Mamoru Hosada. So it seems inevitable that I would also catch up with a film by yet another talented young Anime director, one of the best of the group often referred to as “the next Miyazaki” — […]
Read more "Ai no utagoe o kikasete [Sing a Bit of Harmony] (2021)"Style over substance? Well, let’s just say that Hackers is a fast and enjoyable thriller which has a sizeable overload of style. There must be some substance under all that glitz. It’s curious because the same question could be asked of its director, Ian Softley’s next film, K-Pax, which was beautifully shot and designed but […]
Read more "Hackers (1995)"There are moments when the movie you are watching seems to eerily predict future events. Consider Abigail: here we have a Russian film released in 2019, set in an alternate, locked-in world, where everyone goes in terror of a mysterious disease which shows no symptoms in the infected. Not in its earliest stage, at least. […]
Read more "Abigail (2019)"I wish I could say that it seems strange to me that H.P. Lovecraft adaptations have so little to do with Lovecraft’s stories. But this is one of those things that afflicts adaptations of the work of most authors. Although I’ll admit it does seem worse for Lovecraft than for most authors. I suppose it […]
Read more "The Resonator: Miskatonic U (2021)"Girl drowns while at a party, bright lights appear and save her, and the next thing you know she’s on the road with her old boyfriend trying to get somewhere…important. And that pretty much sums this one up. Mind you, the girl, Alex, is now telekinetic. And dangerously radioactive. Sean, her ex, is getting sicker […]
Read more "First Light [At First Light] (2018)"This is a wild and extravagant film. I know the reviews have been unkind, but I suspect that it’s one of those films that will eventually gather a culty little reputation, once it escapes from the tiny box the reviewers have put it in and onto the small screen, like a lot of other, equally […]
Read more "Mortal Engines (2018)"I was certain that I wasn’t going to like this one. After all, the trailers looked…silly. So it does come as a bit of a surprise that I enjoyed it. Stranger things have happened, I suppose, but it’s generally a bad sign when the sinister alien monster in the trailer grabs the arc whip of […]
Read more "Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)"(Spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.) For a long time it seemed as if every Science Fiction film had to have a “Stargate” sequence like 2001. Even a normally sensible director like Brian DePalma fell into the trap in Mission To Mars. But it’s been a long time since I saw one. A very […]
Read more "A Wrinkle in Time (2018)"Apparently nothing is safe from teen movies anymore. First it was vampires. Then werewolves. Then alien invasions and Mars. But I really would have thought genetically engineered soldiers were still safe. Apparently not. Here we have the all too familiar angsty teen drama, where those angsty teens all have remarkable powers, like telepathy, super strength, […]
Read more "Maximum Ride (2016)"
rivets on the poster 