Visual Wizardry Elevates Avatar Above its Collective Clichés
Heralded as the harbinger of cinema’s new age of enlightenment, James Cameron’s 3D extravaganza Avatar is a feast for the eyes and a light snack for the spirit. The script’s primary ingredients of corporate greed, military zealousness, indigenous spirituality, and flawed heroes going native are nothing new, but this thematic skeleton is given flesh and blood through the masterwork of over ten visual effect studios that have made the tall blue aliens and the fantastic …read more
Posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 by Jeff
The Fantastic Truth of Ninja Assassin
With all of its explosive combat, deadly weaponry and grievous injuries, it’s easy to see how moviegoers could mistake Ninja Assassin for a martial arts movie. Yet the superhuman acts of acrobatics and recovery, and a liberal application of shinobi magic throughout, place this raucous action adventure firmly in the world of fantasy.
Ninja Assassin was born of Korean pop star Rain’s martial prowess in the psychotropic …read more
Posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 by Jeff
Zombieland isn’t Your Typical Comedy Horror Action Romance
Some misguided moviegoers have foolishly avoided the recent theatrical release of Zombieland, perhaps for fear of a bizarre slapdash retread of the standard zombie apocalypse. Never have so few been so right and wrong all at once, for this brilliant film is both pleasingly familiar and excitingly innovative.
From the slow motion title sequence to the gopher-themed after-credits quotation of Jean …read more
Posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 by Jeff 3 Comments »
9’s Precocious Puppets Persevere in Post-Apocalyptic Purgatory
It certainly seems reasonable to presume that a film about spunky sackcloth puppets would be perfectly suitable for children, but Shane Acker’s first foray into feature films, while beautiful to behold, is truly the stuff of nightmares. His new epic in miniature, simply titled 9, chronicles a small band of mysteriously animated dolls, and their fight for survival against a decaying world.
Our story begins with the last of these …read more
Posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 by Jeff 2 Comments »
