Nature films are a tough sell—often they are gorgeous and vast but suffer from staggering pretension that crushes any and all hope for character development and story. With Beasts of the Southern Wild, we are treated to the wonders of nature (sans pretension) while following the story of a truly compelling father/daughter relationship.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World portrays Earth only weeks away from undeniable obliteration and having lost all sense of rationality and decorum. To be fair, though, wouldn’t you break all the rules if you and everyone else had less than a month to live?
Merida, a 10th Century Scottish princess, refuses betrothal, isn’t interested in traditionally ladylike activities, and knows her way with a bow and arrow. If I told you that she was the protagonist of a Disney movie, you might laugh, but rest assured, it’s this princess who leads the way in Disney/Pixar’s Brave.
With the title Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov bringing his highly stylized approach, here is a movie that really wants a cult audience. It’ll be an uphill battle, as it frustrates as much as it satisfies.
While a classified ad might seem like an unlikely source for a film, Safety Not Guaranteed embraces its premise and runs with it in surprising directions. Yes, this is a film about a goofy guy who’s looking for a partner to time travel with, but there’s a lot more going on.
Hopefully, those attending Rock of Ages don’t mind Glee-style bastardizations of their beloved rock anthems because that’s the film’s modus operandi. Its numbers are impressively staged, and some of the performers have decent enough voices, but they aren’t rock performances, which means this stage-to-screen adaptation doesn’t have very much soul.
At this point, can any Adam Sandler fan not be considered an apologist? Bring up Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison all you like, it’s clear that the Sandler of the 21st Century could not care less about what you think of him.
Religion and violence are far more synonymous than most people of faith would care to admit and with Machine Gun Preacher — now out on DVD and Blu-ray — Gerard Butler’s criminal-turned-man-of-god certainly embraces that twisted mantra with a fervor.
When Ridley Scott announced he would be making a prequel to Alien, it had many cautiously optimistic. When that idea soon evolved into something wholly different but with some traces of Alien DNA, who knew what to expect.
Struck with a dire affliction of perpetuating dourness and an affinity for the ominous, Snow White and the Huntsman is a revisionist fairy tale that wallows in grit and grunge and provides a twist on Snow White you’ve never seen before.
