“Millie Bobby Brown Makes ‘Enola Holmes’ a Case Worth Solving”

Not quite “Fleabag,” but almost like “Fleabag,” but without all the raunchiness. Continue reading →

“How Ocean’s 8 Succeeded Where Ghostbusters Went Wrong”

I’m surprised that this is a hot-ish take (which I guess makes it a lukewarm-ish take, right?), but: Ocean’s 8 is a superior gender-flipped reboot to most other gender-flipped reboots released to date, chief among them being Ghostbusters ’16, a movie I do not have a positive relationship with.  Look, the plain damn truth is that these … Continue reading →

Review: Alice Through the Looking Glass, 2016, dir. James Bobin

I probably don’t need to tell you at this point that Alice Through the Looking Glass is a pretty bad movie. I also don’t really want to tell you about it, because I’ve already dedicated enough ink to the film as it is, and even my 900 word take-down of the sequel to Tim Burton’s 2010 surprise … Continue reading →

Go, See, Talk! Review: Dark Shadows

My review should make it immediately, abundantly clear, but I really didn’t like Tim Burton’s latest gaudy, Gothic opus, a re-interpretation/adaptation of the 1960s/70s TV show Dark Shadows. Diehard fans who worship at the Nightmare Before Christmas director’s altar will probably find themselves quite dazzled by what he’s done here, and in fairness I think … Continue reading →

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt. 2, 2011, dir. David Yates

Unsurprisingly, the second part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is one massive climax from start to finish. What else did anyone expect? Part one heroically bit the bullet and allowed itself to bear the weight of the novel’s filler, martyr-like, so that part two could act like an unrelenting, two-hour-and-change action scene in … Continue reading →

Review: The King’s Speech, 2010, Tom Hooper

Tom Hooper’s critical darling The King’s Speech could have been made strictly as a breezy piece of crowd-pleasing art house entertainment, light, airy, and ultimately forgettable, and it still would have been worth seeing. Alternately it could have been approached explicitly as a period drama intent on examining the speech impediment of the man who … Continue reading →

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (pt.1), 2010, dir. David Yates

The end has come, but not really so much at all, no. Seeing the first half of the two-part finale to the Harry Potter saga, I can fully appreciate the artistic need to break the book apart; even more, I can better admire J.K. Rowling’s gargantuan, overstuffed seventh novel and the scope of both the … Continue reading →

Review: Alice In Wonderland, 2010, dir. Tim Burton

I’d hoped to put some distance between myself and Sweeney Todd before reviewing Alice In Wonderland, and with a couple other reviews in the pipeline I thought this a genuine possibility. But alas, Alice became the greater writing priority after catching it in 3D this weekend, and even more regrettably, that’s not because I actually … Continue reading →

Review: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 2007, dir. Tim Burton

I’m a big fan of the abrupt and melodramatic style of the musical, and an even bigger fan of the dread and grue associated with horror movies. I also (surprise!) happen to really, really like movies. It therefore stands to reason that a movie version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street would … Continue reading →