Reviews

This animated movie is an adventure. The design of the world blends high-tech with mediaeval while mixing in a pop punk soundtrack that propels the on-screen action to a break-neck pace at times.

This leaves us with a fantasy show suitable for kids but with a deeper message regarding tolerance, propaganda and control that adults will find themselves reflecting on after the mayhem has stopped.

The tone can vary from Saturday morning cartoon silliness to the heartbreaking effects of isolation and loneliness, without inducing whiplash due to the carefully built characters on all sides of the story.

Highly recommended. I just hope they release the complete soundtrack soon.

It's not unusual for a sports documentary to allude to the values or politics of a community, but it is rare for one to explore both global political themes as thoroughly as it immerses itself in the local tribalism of sports. This film unfolds a specific corner of the picture of the Cold War through the journeys of five men who left the Soviet Union to play hockey in North America. We find out about the risks they each took and the people who risked political and professional threats to bring them to the other side of the Iron Curtain

The producers of this film have a great deal of access to the players themselves and the American team officials that brought them to the US, so we get the story told in their own words as well as views of contemporary news coverage and the players' North American team mates. We get to see the events and recall the emotions of the era and we have the perspective of history to see their lasting impact on the game of hockey.

This movie has a lot for fans of the Detroit Red Wings, but any fan of the NHL or international hockey will likely find the story riveting

The original Ghostbusters from 1984 wasn't exactly high art, but it captured the imagination of a generation. No wonder there's always been rumblings about that series continuing. The time for a second sequel to that film has passed and this movie pays a great deal of homage to the original film while striking out in its own new directions.

Like 1984's version, this one centers around a team of paranormal researchers who discover a plot to create a supernatural cataclysm. Everything starts from this nucleus of friendship and moves out into a great action comedy movie.

There are lots of winking references to the first movie, including a long list cameo appearances by the original stars. But, this film takes a lot of the ideas and technologies from the first film to a new level that adds an additional, original layer of fun. Fans of the old Ghostbusters films should really like this one as an exploration of the same themes as the originals, without being an attack on those films.

I had a blast watching this film. I only wish it would have been made sooner.

Just when the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies were getting the comic book movie boom started, this little homage/parody was rolled out by Disney. For about the only time I can remember, the Disney marketing machine totally failed, because Sky High has sort of been forgotten in the flood of recent super hero blockbusters.

Like all of the best parodies, this movie doesn't set out to make fun of a genre in a mean-spirited way, it embraces super hero story quirks while tweaking them.

Sky High manages to blend teen coming of age comedy with super hero mythology and turns in a terrific story that can be enjoyed by kids (the obviously targeted Disney Demographic) and their parents.

I really like how Disney expanded their version of the Aladdin story in their TV series and the direct to DVD sequels, but this one kind of let me down. The voice acting is great and I really liked the music, but the quality of the animation is quite poor by Disney standards.

Normally, I wouldn't be so particular about the art but the drop in quality from the first movie, to the TV show to this sequel is precipitous. The color palette is so muted it seems like the animators were told only to use a maximum of 16 throughout the entire running time.

The familiar characters are still quite recognizable, but they all lack detail and depth that you come to expect from Disney. I know that the direct-to-DVD products are given smaller budgets, but that doesn't justify just how cheap this movie looks.

There are still lots of redeeming parts of this movie, but the lack of visual polish is too distracting for me to enjoy them.

This show started interesting, then got really, really good. But as the seasons piled up, the writers never seemed sure how to get to the end of any plot. Don't get me wrong, each week they'd wrap up the present challenge for the protagonists neatly (sometimes too neatly). But for any of the over-arcing stories, they just kept putting off any resolution over and over. So these plot lines just got more and more convoluted and the payoff ended up being unsatisfying.

They kept 'resetting' the series premise instead of moving forward, so we always had Arvin Sloan as the evil, untrustable mastermind, Jack as the manipulative father with his own agenda and Sidney as the moral compass trying to make sure that the end of the world is averted.

The problem is, Sloan never gets defeated finally, Jack never decides whether he wants to be a dad or spy-master and Sidney never takes the necessary steps to prevent the world from needing saving all over again next week.

So each season becomes a more confusing, yet paler imitation of the previous one. The action is always top notch. In fact, the action sequences is the one facet that consistently improves every episode. Too bad the story telling couldn't keep up.

OK, the stunts and fight scenes are incredible... Or the would be if we were allowed to see them uncut. But, since the stunt men looked nothing like the actors they were doubling, we never see the final pay off any of the (often spectacular) moves. Instead we cut to flurry of spinning wig and floppy hat. The costuming conceals the faces, but the camera cuts conceals the actual action.

The real crime is that all this obfuscation is in deference to the plot that is not worthy of this treatment. Chambers is a pathetic lead who proclaims his infatuation for his love interest with same tone he addresses a collapsed horse later in the movie. Suvari does OK, given she's acting across from an actor with the depth of drywall. Her character comes across as a bit feisty and commendable.

Roth's villain is done well and is a hate-able antagonist and the cameo appearances of the Three Musketeers are amusing but way too brief considering the iconic nature of these characters and the fact that this supposed to be a Musketeer movie.

To sum up: The fights are fun, but leave you unfulfilled. The acting is wooden and the story is shallow. Pass on this one.

I took my two-year-old son to see this movie, his first in a theater, and we both had a great time. Curious George is a light-hearted, sweet movie that portrays our little monkey's mayhem without resorting to manic pacing, blaring music or wise-cracking.

In fact, the makers deliberately put very little into the movie that is aimed over the children's head and at the parents. So, unlike a Shrek or a Toy Story movie, there was never an instance of a joke that mommy and daddy laugh at and the kids miss. All the jokes are shared.

So, see this movie with a small one. It probably isn't 'slick' enough for anyone over 8. People without small children can take a pass. The most hard core Curious George fans can rent the DVD.

This movie was bally-hooed as more than the next step in animation. It was to be the next generation of movie making! It was supposed to usher in the era of 'digital actors' so lifelike that they would be licensed out to be in other movies, made to do incredible stunts and maybe even receive Oscar consideration. (This last debate would be shelved until Andy Serkis performed Gollum of the Lord of the Rings trilogy)

But, this was not to be. And not because they had over-stated the advances to the animation! No, this IS the most lifelike and impressive animation ever! The problem was that for the impressive visuals, there isn't much else to this movie. The story is plodding and non- sensical (even for Science Fiction) to the point that nobody in the group I went to see this film with could explain to me what we had just seen.

The characters were OK, but we never get much of chance to meet them because they're rushing around to complete the incomprehensible quest set before them. Having a quest is not a terrible convention in adventure movies, it gives the characters a motivation for doing whatever it is they do in the course of entertaining us. But, if neither the audience nor the characters understand the quest, it becomes a huge distraction. So, you end up spending your time trying to figure out the story instead of enjoying it.

In ice skating, the judges award two scores, one for technical merit and one for artistic impression. For this movie, I believe the technical merit is incredible, unfortunately the artist vision ends at the visuals.

Usually, when you watch a movie that sends up the horror genre, the movie sacrifices the scares in favor of the laughs. But, in Idle Hands, the movie makers remembered to keep all the creepy touches and startling frights that make a horror movie when they mixed in all the humor.

Not nearly as heavy handed as, say, the Scary Movie franchise, Idle Hands has all the normal trappings of a good teen horror flick: The unstoppable killing evil that has come back, the buddies of the main character who don't understand the danger until it's too late, the horny girl who main character must protect and a brave hero who is a bastion of all that is good in the world to defend us...

OK, so I was lying about that last one. And that is one of the best twists of the film, the main character is a screw-up and doesn't act very heroically until very, very late in the film. In addition to really revving up the laughs, this feature is also what kind of makes this movie stand out from the usual horror fare.

Now, here's the key: While Anton struggles with the evil in his bumbling way, egged on by the wise-cracks of Mick and Pnub, the film delivers actual horror. We get shocks, we get creeps, we get gore and we don't get the "ha-ha got ya!" joke right afterward that you get in most parodies. The scares are real, the deaths are real, the danger are real. And, surprisingly, so are the laughs.

I'm a fencer, so I was naturally excited to see this film. Well, it's a 'fencing movie' in the same vein as "Razor's Edge" is an 'ice skating movie'. The sport is dummied down for the non- enthusiast and the drama behind the scenes is ramped up to soap opera levels.

I actually thought there was some good acting here. I mean Abraham is always wonderful and Mia Sara doesn't do too bad. Eric Roberts is stretched to about his best work, probably by working with Abraham, and the "kids" in the supporting roles are at least intentionally amusing.

The story, though, is a bit outlandish and gets predictable after about 45 minutes, but it's not a terrible movie. Thus, my rating of 6.

I was forced to watch this movie on an overseas flight, when I would have much rather have been sleeping. Instead, the other passengers laughing at "jokes" on the screen kept me up, so I resigned myself to watching it.

I won't sugar coat this: I hated this movie. You know when people are telling jokes, but some jerk keeps blurting out the punchlines halfway through each joke? It really ruins the point of the joke. That's exactly how I felt watching this movie. Every punchline to EVERY joke is telegraphed so far in advance as to suck the humor out of every one of them.

The stars are two very talented comedians, but the lack of spontaneity and creativity of the comedy totally wastes them her.

So, if you want feel smarter than not only the title characters, but the writers and director of this film, watch this movie. If you want a genuine laugh, watch something else.

This was THE movie that teenagers watched at parties in the late 80's. This was American Pie and Dude, Where's My Car for my generation. But, it has sadly fallen on tough times. Any 20 year old movie would show its age; the effects, the clothes and the slang are all terribly dated now, but that happens to all movies.

Where this movie got killed was in syndication. Since, it was so popular, it got shown on many of the big cable networks like TNT, USA and TBS. But, those networks also cut the movie up to fit with "broadcast" standards. So, not only does it look like an old movie, some of the dialog is dubbed over (badly) to remove any offensive words and some funny scenes are just cut altogether to make it more family friendly. And in so doing, the film is almost unwatchable. So, any teen watching this movie today will be left wondering what the big deal was.

If you can see the uncut version, this is a fun film. But unless it magically appears on DVD, it will probably remain a joke that kids born after 1985 just don't get.

I'll admit that I can't be the most fair judge of this movie. I'm a fencing instructor and so I'm pre-disposed to enjoy sword fighting movies. But, a movie where the romantic lead becomes a fencing instructor?? OK, you had me at 'hello.'

Beyond that, every person who appears on-screen has the best costumes you'll ever see. In re-viewings of this film, my wife and I spend whole scenes saying, "I'd look good in that," or "That outfit would suit you." And we're talking about Renaissance fashion!

So, you have sword fights, romance and period drama all at once. If any one of those sounds good you, you'll like this film.

This show is the about the best 30 minute reading lesson you can give your kids short of having a reading teacher give them a one-on-one lesson. It presents a sound or word in multiple ways to get children thinking about how our reading works.

It also uses contemporary children's books so if one show really works with your kids, you can take them to the library and see the same book they saw on the show. (Although they won't see talking lions)

The show focuses on teaching reading, not math or manners or anything else, which is where it differs from Sesame Street. It also doesn't try to make jokes for the parents who might be watching the show with their kids. So, if you're not a small child or the parent of one, you probably won't see much point in the show. There is a quite negative review of this show on this site and it's probably from someone for whom this show was not intended. Some kid's shows really are just for kids.

If you are fan of Kung Fu movies, this movie probably offers nothing ground breakingly new. But it does have some nice fight scenes and some decent comic relief to make this movie an enjoyable watch.

If you're not Kung Fu movies, it might make for a good introduction to the genre as it is very much like the more Western theme of Zorro. Both films feature a corrupt, but stupid goverment, a upstanding citizen secretly defying the system and plenty of gratuitous fight scenes as the powers that be seek to capture the rebelous saboteur.

Once you get you head around the genre's convention that studying Kung Fu can grant people ability to perform super human feats, you kind of realize that, except for the subtitles, this movie could be Zorro or Schwatzenegger or the Matrix.

As one last note, this movie actually brings together some characters from Chinese folklore, so there is little introduction to them, much as a Western movie wouldn't spend much time introducing Zorro or Robin Hood.