Review – Epic

Based on a children’s book by author and frequent film maker, William Joyce, Epic is a big story about little people.  When Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried) comes to live with her estranged father (Jason Sudeikis), she’s dismayed to find he’s even more obsessed than ever with a secret magical forest society he’s convinced exists.  A

Weekend Preview – May 17, 2013

One big blockbuster this weekend as the Summer movie season gets ready to fully launch, and one smaller film I’m hearing great things about. Star Trek: Into Darkness In 2009, JJ Abrams reinvented the Star Trek franchise to great success.  Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, Karl Urban, John Cho, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, and Bruce Greenwood all

Review – Star Trek: Into Darkness

In 2009, JJ Abrams reinvented the Star Trek franchise to great success.  Rebooting the original characters in an alternate timeline “…allows us to use any of the ingredients from the past – or come up with brand-new ones – to make potential stories.”  Star Trek: Into Darkness certainly does that, while building on what made the

Weekend Preview – May 10, 2013

Iron Man 3 is still going strong in theaters and is sure to remain at the top of the box office, but that’s not going to stop some counter-programming from trying to take a piece of the pie as well.  This week brings us a flashy version of a beloved classic literary tale, and a

Review – The Great Gatsby

Somehow I have managed to avoid both reading the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel and seeing any of the numerous film and television portrayals. So, for better or for worse, I went into this one more or less without any preconceived notions. What did I think of this raucous telling of the mysterious man known

Review – Peeples

Another week, another romantic comedy. Presented by Tyler Perry, whose only apparent influence here is his checkbook, Peeples stars Craig Robinson as everyman Wade Walker.  He’s just trying to find the right moment to propose to his live-in girlfriend Grace Peeples (Kerry Washington).  Unfortunately that right moment never seems to come, especially as he deals

Weekend Preview – May 3, 2013

There’s only one wide release this weekend, for good reason.  Already breaking records over seas, a studio would have to be pretty brave to try for counter programming against what may be the biggest film of the summer blockbuster season. Iron Man 3 Predestined to be one of the biggest films of the summer, Iron

Review – Iron Man 3

Predestined to be one of the biggest films of the summer, Iron Man 3 is not only third film featuring the current favorite Marvel character (and trying to redeem the series after a mediocre second entry), but the first followup to the incredibly successful Avengers film and the official launch of Marvel’s “Phase 2” in

Weekend Preview – April 26, 2013

It’s a weekend of comedies, though the two films could not be any more different. Pain & Gain Michael Bay takes a break from giant robots and even bigger explosions with a much lower budget and smaller scale film than he’s directed lately. Based on the real life exploits of the “Sun Gym Gang,” Pain

Review – The Big Wedding

Every year gets at least one ensemble comedy and 2013 gives us The Big Wedding – a romanticish comedy with a big cast and a big wedding they’re all involved in.  The ensemble rundown looks like this:  Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace and Susan Sarandon with Robin Williams, Ben Barnes, Christine Ebersole, David