Unlike some of the more recently wonderous and often dark films by Hayao Miyazaki (like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke), Ponyo is squarely for the My Neighbor Totoro set… which simply means any age should love it. It is a story of friendship between a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke (voiced in the English version by …
A Lobster Tale is an odd little misfit of a movie about an odd little misfit family who discovers some odd little misfit moss. It’s not light-hearted enough to be intriguing to children, and it’s not thoughtful or compelling enough to hold the attention of adults. I really have no idea who would want to …
There’s nothing like an overly-complicated kid’s movie to make you feel like an absolute moron. There are so many things to like about Arthur and the Invisibles, but at a certain point, I felt like I lost the plot. Either I was too busy trying to identify the famous voices to catch the finer details, …
Arthur and the Invisibles (Arthur et les Minimoys) Read More »
The last few years have produced some stellar nature documentaries that have, incredibly (and impressively), made a big splash in the mainstream. Anything from penguins (March of the Penguins) to birds (Winged Migration) to the planet itself (Planet Earth) have been the subject of acclaimed and popular productions. Now we have what should be a …
In what is an even finer example of lowest-common-denominator filmmaking than its insipid predecessor, Are We There Yet? (which, coincidentally, I also hated), this alleged “family film” dumbs itself down to new lows. Within the first five minutes alone, star Ice Cube winds up with his face smashed and his body covered in assorted goo, …
The day I write this, Akeelah and the Bee has an 84% postive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which basically makes me look like the biggest ass on the planet. “Winning!”, “Heartwarming”, “The feel-good movie of the year!”, “Can you say T-H-E-B-E-S-T-M-O-V-I-E-E-V-E-R-O-H-M-Y-G-O-D?!?!?” And I’m not really exaggerating that much. But the thing is, you can take …
Bambi II (yikes, what a wretched title) is a harmless, straight-to-video story that feeds off nostalgia for the classic original, while offering some new characters. Luckily, it is so careful and reverent that it really doesn’t offend the spirit of the original (believe me, I was taking careful note). Like all Disney movies of late, …
Maybe it’s a side effect of the collective dumbing-down of moviegoing audiences. Maybe it’s because this new comedy starring former bad-boy rapper Ice Cube is a prime example of Lowest Common Denominator filmmaking. Maybe it’s because movies like Christmas With the Kranks are just too subtle and understated. I have no idea. What I do …