Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from March, 2012

Movie Review: The Secret Life of Arrietty

*Spoilers* As someone who grew up watching "The Borrowers", that lovely British gem from the early 90s starring Ian Holm and Penelope Wilton, I had to see this anime take on the children's novels by Mary Norton. And boy was I disappointed! I'm surprised that I'm even admitting this. This is a movie I genuinely believed would be above average for me. Perhaps is has to do with the ratings it has received, and I think anime generally gets praise. It's a thing. But more importantly, (and do take note of this before criticizing me for criticizing this) since I did grow up with that other lovely series, I've been spoiled, and nothing can outdo it. My standards were raised a long time ago. So allow me to rundown the reasons why I am so disappointed with this adaptation: (1) The Japanese stamp is certainly visible. While I wouldn't normally view that as a flaw, "The Borrowers" is a purely British tale. The characters, the setting, everyth

Underrated: Sucker Punch

*Spoilers* Alright, I have been wanting to see this since before it hit movie theaters last year, despite the bad reviews. It's good to watch movies with lowered expectations, though, don't you think? I can see where this would be confusing. We begin with Babydoll's (Emily Browning) mother having recently died, leaving everything to her two daughters. Unfortunately, they're also left with their evil step-father, who's ticked that his wife didn't leave him any money. He gets drunk and decides to take his revenge out on his step-daughters, locking Babydoll in her room and going after her little sister. But Babydoll escapes and manages to get to them before he does anything. She aims a gun at the bastard and shoots, but rather than killing her step-father, she accidentally kills her sister. And thus the step-father has an excuse to throw her into a loony bin. With one daughter dead and another deemed crazy (via bribery, of course), he now has control of their

Short Movie Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

This isn't one that I really wanted to see. It probably has a lot to do with my hatred of animal abuse and experimentation, and the concept bores me, to be honest. Do we need a "Planet of the Apes" prequel, or whatever this was intended to be? Andy Serkis is great as Caesar, but he's great in everything I've seen him in so far. He's a good reason to watch this. Oh, and I was happy that I didn't hate James Franco. To me, he's overrated as an actor, and he shines in certain roles (such as Pineapple Express ) over other ones ( Spiderman ), but he was good in this. Nothing special, but nothing to complain about. Freida Pinto is as lovely as ever, but completely wasted. Her character is fairly useless, probably meant for eye-candy duty more than anything. And Tom Felton shows up as a villain, surprise, surprise. Don't get me wrong, he's good at it, but I hope he doesn't get typecast as different versions of Draco Malfoy from now on.  I wish t