When it came to overall content, characters, production design, effects and entertainment factor, “Goblet of Fire” only helped to meet if not raise the bar set down by “Prisoner of Azkaban,” a tough act to follow in any franchise. Mike Newell really established himself in his ability to build dark atmosphere from the opening scene to the closing credits and in a franchise that only gets darker as it goes, that’s a big step in the right direction.
Our “Harry Potter” countdown has reached Year 3 and “The Prisoner of Azkaban.” The Potter franchise goes in a new direction with the interesting choice of Alfonso Cuarón, whose vision remains tops for some fans of the “Potter” film-verse.
It is day two of the Harry Potter countdown and as logic dictates it is time for a review of the second film “The Chamber of Secrets.”
With “The Sorcerer’s Stone” (or “The Philosopher’s Stone” as it’s known out of the U.S.), proven to be a success, the logical idea was to follow the same style and formula of the first film.
This is the best movie I’ve seen in a long time, it’s the best Tony Scott/Denzel Washington collaboration, and it’s the best movie Tony Scott’s ever made. I was literally biting my nails from the intensity of this smartly directed, fantastically shot, well-written, well-acted popcorn flick.
With Year 7 pt. 1 finally upon us this Friday, Player Affinity is counting down with reviews of the first six films. Look for one review each day until Friday! We start of course with year number one, the Chris Columbus-directed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
When a screener said Skyline was a hybrid of Independence Day and War of the Worlds I held out hope that was a good thing. Those are two fun alien invasion and adventure films with great action, strong actors, and intensity. Skyline places its full weight upon the backs of its varied and stunningly creative alien species and places little weight or resources in other necessary ingredients.
Now on DVD and Blu-ray. With only two characters, He and She (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg), Antichrist feels more like an extended (disturbing) one-act play rather than a film. As He and She mourn the loss of their young son (depicted in the opening prologue and arguably the film’s best scene), He suggests they retreat to their cabin, Eden, in the forests of Washington in an attempt to help She better cope with her grief. Upon their arrival, the forest itself grows twisted and deformed, trapping the couple in a dark state of mind, where getting out could come at the cost of their lives.
I’d normally consider it a cop-out to label a film exactly like another and purposefully avoid direct comparison between two films, but Due Date, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis as polar-opposite travel buddies thrown together by unwelcome circumstances, bears more than just a resemblance to John Hughes’ Planes, Trains & Automobiles. In this case, 21st Century update is spot-on.
Megamind is by all intents and purposes a “Will Ferrell” movie boasting bizarre rambling sequences and low-brow slapstick. It contains about as many chuckles as his earlier action comedy The Other Guys and is about as clever in its genre-skewering — timely, but far from radical. Like Robin Williams’ The Genie in Aladdin, it is clear a significant amount of ad-libbing was conducted by its comedic cast and sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, it breaks the movie free from more conventional confines.
This controversial film adaptation sees the comedy director creating a story that mildly dances around such soliloquies. His passionate attempt to turn this seminal work into a motion picture is both admirable and ambitious but not very successful.
