July 2012 Movie Guide

The Amazing Spiderman – July 3, 2012 Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Sally Field, Denis Leary Why You Should See It: A strong cast to go along with Marc Webb as director ensures that from a character development standpoint, the movie should be very good. Why You Should Avoid It: It’s been five years since Sam Raimi’s disastrous Spiderman 3.  It is a relatively short amount of time to warrant a complete reboot of the...

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Review: Ted

I have never watched an episode of Family Guy or American Dad and I missed the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen so I am unfamiliar with Seth MacFarlane’s work.  In fact, I would have no idea what he even looks like had someone not told me a few years back that I had just seen him in a karaoke bar in Koreatown.  Initially I had little interest in his directorial debut in Ted as the traditional trailers and TV spots did little to pique...

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Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

It’s funny how two live action movies based on the story of Snow White got theatrical releases this year – namely Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman.  That kind of symmetry takes me back to 1990 when two movies about Lambada (Lambada and The Forbidden Dance) were released or the year 1992 when Hollywood went gaga for Christopher Columbus with 1492: Conquest of Paradise and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.  I can’t speak...

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Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

I had to do it.  Sure, the mere mention of the title elicited incredulity and every time the trailer ran, it drew rounds of mockery and snickering.  Despite the fact that talking heads claimed that the book upon which the film is based, is an interesting read with an attention to historic detail, I knew not a single person who had read it.  Critic reviews, cinema scores, and box office figures be damned, I was not to be deterred. ...

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June 2012 Editorial: Music in Movies

I don’t really listen to the radio because most stations have a rotation of the same eight songs playing over and over again ad nauseum.  So I pick up new music mainly from hearing a song randomly in public, through friendly referrals, and through movies.  The best thing about catching tunes through films is that if you pay attention, you’ll find a really obscure song or perhaps a cover of a well-known song with a unique spin.  Music...

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Review: Wanderlust

I can usually find entertainment in just about any movie (excluding anything starring Sarah Jessica Parker), so it’s a rare occasion that a film agitates me so much that I start to feel downright hostile.  I had survived some real clunkers these past few months  - Apollo 18, Drive Angry, The Darkest Hour, and of course the immortal Jack and Jill – so I was feeling relatively safe with a Judd Apatow produced comedy starring Paul Rudd. ...

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2012 Mid-Year Theatrical Review

Standing at the midpoint of the year and looking back, it truly has been an interesting year thus far at the cinema.  Coming into 2012, there was a lot of anticipation for the diverse slate of movies, but outside of a handful of flicks – most have underwhelmed and under performed.  With that in mind, here is my mid-year ranking of the top 20 (out of 22) theatrical releases that I have seen this year: The “I DEMAND A REFUND” Category. 20....

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Review: The Woman in Black

I find that the horror genre is one of the most polarizing amongst fans of movies.  Most either love them or hate them.  I am on the pro-horror side of that argument though I must say I don’t care much for films within the genre that amount to little more than gore fests or torture porn.  I am partial to suspenseful storytelling mixed with the occasional cheap scare.  The problem is that these movies have increasingly become...

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Review: That's My Boy

I have spilled a lot of proverbial ink (most recently in my Jack and Jill review) about how I repeatedly hoodwink myself into watching Adam Sandler movies.  I estimate that I have sworn off Happy Madison productions at least ten times.  So when Sandler’s latest movie That’s My Boy dropped, I told myself to stay strong.  I knew at some point, I would see it (I admit as much in the June Movie Guide), but I didn’t...

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Review: John Carter

It is hard to go into a viewing of John Carter without some sort of predisposition towards the movie, which is noted as not only being a huge financial flop that almost singlehandedly put Disney in the red for the second quarter of 2012 thus putting an end to Rich Ross’ tenure at Disney Studios but also for being one of two theatrical disasters this summer starring Taylor Kitsch formerly of Friday Night Lights.  When you get past all the noise...

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Review: Prometheus

There’s a lot of debate in the blogosphere as to whether Prometheus is an Alien prequel or if it resides in the same universe or if it has some other conceptual meta-connection with the aforementioned film.  Really, that’s all just a matter of semantics, because it is in no way a spoiler to say that there are many connections between the two films.  Television spots and still photos are loaded with iconography that confirms this. ...

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