Category Archives: Movies

Closing the Loop with Looper (no real spoilers, I think)

LIKE SO MANY OTHERS, I kept waiting for Looper to crash under its own weight, to short-circuit because of its story-telling overload. That crash, that short-circuiting, never happened.  Looper is as taut and quality a movie as you can hope … Continue reading

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Trailers that Give Me Chills: Cloud Atlas

I’M PRETTY EXCITED ABOUT MOVIES these days, and it’s not just the promise of The Hobbit at Christmas-time.  I saw the trailer for Life of Pi at the theater again this Tuesday, and it still gives me chills (and I … Continue reading

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Finding (More Than) Nemo

“JUST KEEP SWIMMING” is the line most remembered and quoted from Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo.  When I saw the movie again in 3-D this past weekend, I knew that would be the moment that all of the kids and many of … Continue reading

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Gandalf, Donald Miller, and Fear

THERE’S A MOMENT in the newest trailer for The Hobbit where Galadriel asks Gandalf, “Why the halfling?”  Of the many he could call to action, why a hobbit who has never left home should go on such a dangerous adventure? … Continue reading

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The New Trailer for The Hobbit

DON’T HEAD OUT YOUR FRONT DOOR without catching the new trailer for The Hobbit.  The folks over at The Beat posted it this morning.  Here it is below. I think the tone is spot on: tense but not as dark … Continue reading

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Revisiting the Temple of Doom

SEQUELS LIKE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK set us up for a fall, I’m afraid.  Empire is a classic example of second-movie-is-brilliant syndrome.  Taken part-to-whole, one might think that most sequels (especially #2 in a series) are as good or better than … Continue reading

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There are Perks to Being a Wallflower?

THE TRUTH IS, I SHOULD HAVE READ THE BOOK YEARS AGO.  Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been a critical (and criticized) favorite for over a decade.  I’d seen it and heard of it for most of … Continue reading

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Raiding the Lost Ark . . . Again

I SUPPOSE MOVIE RE-RELEASES have been around for a long time, which is easy to forget.  Disney used to re-release some of their classics every few years.  Cult-classic movies often get art house showings.  And now that Blu-Ray is a … Continue reading

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Trailing the Life of Pi

YEARS AGO I READ AN ARTICLE about movies that hate their audiences.  It was around the year 2000, and there had been a string of quality, thoughtful movies: The Matrix, Fight Club, Memento, and especially The Six Sense.  All of … Continue reading

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Joss Whedon Says the Darndest Things

I’VE BEEN A JOSS WHEDON FAN for a while now.  Firefly then Buffy then Dollhouse.  The Avengers?  I was one of those that saw it not so much as “hopefully the best Marvel movie ever” but as “Joss Whedon’s best … Continue reading

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