The Reel World

“History prefers legends to men. It prefers nobility to brutality, soaring speeches to quiet deeds. History remembers the battle, and forgets the blood. However history remembers me if it remembers anything at all, it shall only remember a fraction of the truth for whatever else I am: a husband, a lawyer, a president; I shall always think of myself first and foremost as a hunter.”

It’s been almost four score and seven years ago, it seems, since there’s been a really good vampire movie.
Read More

Ever since his departure from Saturday Night Live, Adam Sandler has become one of the most successful comedians of all time.  Granted not all of his movies have been great; in fact, some are better left forgotten, but he has a loyal fan base that will keep returning to the theater to see the funny man with hopes of the next big hit.  Sure, he had success with Grown Ups, but when looking over his films from the past decade I can’t help but wonder what happened. 
Read More

Even those of us who enjoy movie musicals concede there’s a certain degree of eye-rolling that comes with the territory. Some of the greatest musicals of all time — from classics like Singin’ in the Rain and West Side Story to more modern hits like Chicago — are not immune to audible groans from jaded audiences whenever dialogue is interrupted by a showtune or a preposterously choreographed dance sequence.
Read More

“First, I will take your life, my lord, then I will take your throne.”

Is it wrong for me to watch Snow White and the Huntsman and root for the evil queen? How about disagreeing with the magic mirror on the wall about Snow White (Kristen Stewart) being the fairest of them all, when Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) is absolutely ravishing? I’m sorry, Twihards, but Stewart isn’t even in the ballpark compared to Theron’s stunning beauty, not to mention acting chops. How do I reconcile these feelings with the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed this gothed-up version of the beloved and culturally ubiquitous Snow White fairy tale?
Read More

“I promise you the secrets of the universe, nothing more…”

It’s been an astonishing 15 years since Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones first teamed up as Agents J and K respectively for the intergalactic police force Men In Black. The film was like a breath of fresh air. It combined top flight science fiction fantasy with whimsical humor. It was a hit at the box office, and like most wonderfully original hits it was quickly followed by a sequel that had almost none of the cleverness and freshness of the original film.
Read More

“Aside from the sketchy van situation, if you promise that the tour is safe, I think it could be kinda cool.”

Chernobyl Diaries… so many bad choices to make and so little time. Imagine we are clueless Americans abroad in the Ukraine, so instead of visiting the major metropolitan areas, why not go on a tour of the Pripyat, the ghost town evacuated due to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in 1987? Nothing says vacation more than exploring the scene of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
Read More

“My dad said they’d come, said it my whole life. He said one day we’ll find them or they’d find us. Know what else he said? He said, ‘Hope I’m not around when that day comes.’”

Director Peter Berg kneels at the altar of Michael Bay and lovingly creates a clone of his most bombastic, military-fetish, slo-mo obsessed, whiplash-cut-driven movies with Battleship, based on the Hasbro (the same company behind the Transformers movies and yes, it definitely shows) board game of the same name.
Read More

There’s obviously nothing funny about the atrocities committed by some of history’s most notorious tyrants. So why have these men proven to be such a surprisingly fertile source of comedy? Whether it’s (Puppet) Kim Jong-il crooning forlornly about being lonely (actually “ronery”) in Team America: World Police or Adolf Hitler being saluted by a chorus line of high-stepping stormtroopers in The Producers, there’s certainly a precedent for mocking these reviled figures. With The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen appears to be taking his patented inappropriateness to a new level.
Read More

“They say blood is thicker than water…my name is Barnabas Collins.”

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s Dark Shadows dominated the mid-day television landscape. I remember wanting to rush home from school each day to catch the horror soap opera. The daytime series had a little bit of something for everyone. There were the typical soap opera conventions for the mellow-dramatic housewives and other serious themes for the adults.
Read More

“People might just need a little old fashioned.”

It goes back to the 1960’s and 1970’s, considered by many to be the Second Golden Age of Comics. That’s when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby joined forces to make Marvel the dominating face in comic books. They did it by making their heroes people we could identify with. These superheroes were often flawed and in conflict with themselves and each other. But they still always got the bad guy and saved the day. I was one of those kids.
Read More

“What cannot be disputed is your imagination is the inspiration of a horrendous crime.”

The Raven may not be a turkey, but it doesn’t really  soar either. Director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) attempts to fashion a historical fiction around the mysterious final five days of Edgar Allen Poe’s life. A notorious drunk and opium addict, Poe (John Cusack) careens through 19^th century Baltimore dead broke, bitter from years of writers block, and harassed by the locals for being a blustering has-been. Due to a distinct lack of social sympathy, he can’t even borrow money for a single drink
Read More

More than any other genre — except maybe “M. Night Shyamalan movies” — romantic comedies really take a beating. We’ve all heard the complaints: “They’re safe.” “They’re predictable.” “The apartments are unrealistically amazing.” “They all star Jennifer Aniston or Katherine Heigl.” Of course, these complaints also double as the reasons why lots of people love them. (Ok, maybe not so much the part about Aniston and Heigl.) Either way, I think we can all agree that rom-coms as a whole could benefit from some sort of fresh twist or wrinkle. Think Like a Man, despite the efforts of a likable cast, is not here to provide that freshness.
Read More

“You’ve got to control your fear.”

It appears that Greek mythology has become the fodder for a ton of movies of late. From young adult films to the hardcore action movies, audiences are getting their fill of the familiar gods and beasts from mythology lore. Some are calling it a trend or hot phase, like vampires and robots. Whatever it is, it isn’t a phase, and it isn’t merely passing through.
Read More

As someone who devoured The Hunger Games during a single marathon sitting a week before the movie’s release, I was particularly curious and excited to see Suzanne Collins’ best seller get the big-screen treatment. Judging by all the Team Peeta devotees and side-braid-sporting, would-be Katnisses — who had certainly been waiting for the movie a lot longer than I had — at my opening night screening, I was far from the only one. (The record-breaking box office was another clue.) Still, in a theater packed with rabid superfans, and with a beloved property making its much-anticipated jump onto the silver screen, the question of whether or not the movie is actually any good can often seem somewhat beside the point.
Read More

Dr. Seuss and his cast of strange and wonderful characters have been around since before I was born. The first book I ever read by myself was Green Eggs And Ham, and I can remember the experience quite vividly still. Each Christmas I run the 1960’s Boris Karloff version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It’s been a tradition at the Sassani household for decades. It started with television broadcast that led to videotaped copy which found its way to a laserdisc, followed by a DVD and now a beautiful Blu-ray from the folks at Warner. If these things don’t qualify me as a bonafide fan of the good Doctor, I’m not sure what else will.
Read More

“In valor there is hope”

It would be easy to dismiss Act Of Valor as either a recruiting tool piece of propaganda or yet another in an endless line of war films attempting to capture some form of authenticity. It would be easy, if you haven’t seen the film. I can promise you that no matter what your views on war or the military in general, the one thing you simply won’t be able to do is dismiss Act Of Valor.
Read More

“Have you seen her? The Woman in Black? She once lost a boy, and now she’s come back. Our parents all worry, they make such a fuss: For if she can’t find him, she’ll take one of us.”

Now this looks like a Hammer film. A subdued cool color palette, stunning Gothic set pieces, a wonderful location ripe with grieving and decaying symbolism, and genuinely scary ghosts make The Woman in Black an impressive throwback to old fashioned horror. Having been a fan of the original 1983 novella by Susan Hill and the 1989 TV teleplay for Britain’s ITV network, I looked forward to Hammer’s adaptation. I was not disappointed.
Read More

At first glance Haywire appears a bit out of character for the likes of director Steven Soderbergh. It’s not that he hasn’t delivered action films in the past. It’s that he’s never quite tied himself to such a tried and sometimes true formula before. When you first look at the press for Haywire you’re going to pretty much dismiss it as a standard action hero film that follows in the mold of a Steven Seagal/Chuck Norris mold with a touch of Bourne Identity thrown in to meet the more recent trends
Read More