Category: Fantasy
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Frozen: I love warm hugs!
Frozen – 2013 Directors Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee Starring Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana, Ciarán Hinds, Chris Williams, Edie McClurg Screenplay Jennifer Lee based on The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen I hope I never get too old to appreciate the effect of a magical story on a child-like heart. Watching this movie with my daughters was a transformative event for…
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Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is what happens when Twilight succeeds
Mortal Instruments: City of Bones – 2013 Director Harald Zwart Starring Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Zegers, Lena Headey, Kevin Durand, Aidan Turner, Jemima West, Godfrey Gao, C. C. H. Pounder, Jared Harris, Jonathan Rhys Meyers Screenplay Jessica Postigo Paquette based on the book by Cassandra Clare When Griffin Mill mocked his fellow producers who wanted “eliminate the writer from the artistic process,” this can’t have been what…
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R.I.P.D.: Because there has to be one actor that can’t succeed.
R.I.P.D. – 2013 Director Robert Schwentke Starring Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephanie Szostak Screenplay Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi based on R.I.P.D. comic by Peter M. Lenkov Could it be that Ryan Reynolds has no friends in Hollywood? Well, I don’t know about that. I have n0 friends in Hollywood, either. Except for maybe Tom Bergeron, who sat next to my…
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Jack the Giant Slayer another fairy tale with automatic weapons
Jack The Giant Slayer – 2013 Directed by Bryan Singer Starring Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Eleanor Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy, John Kassir, Ewan Bremner, Ralph Brown Written by Darren Lemke, Christopher McQuarrie, Dan Studney Why is Bryan Singer directing a movie about a fairy tale? Really. The Usual Suspects. X-Men. Valkyrie. Now, a fairy tale.…
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Upside Down: Two worlds, many aching necks
Upside Down – 2012 Written and Directed by Juan Diego Solanas Starring Jim Sturgess, Kirsten Dunst, Timothy Spall, Jane Heitmayer, Blu Mankuma If you can get past the concept that two planets can be connected by one building without ripping apart that building as the planets rotate in the revolution around their own sun, you might like…
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Beautiful Creatures is a sterile experience
Beautiful Creatures – 2013 Written and Directed by Richard LaGravenese Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Emma Thompson Based on the book by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl First things first. I hate the accent applied by Ehrenreich. Normally bad accents don’t serve as much of a distraction, but this one…
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CPE & Em: Oz the Great and Powerful (****) fits like a glove
Oz the Great and Powerful – 2012 Directed by Sam Raimi Starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, Bill Cobbs, Joey King Screenplay by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire based on the books by L. Frank Baum It was a movie that I had no idea needed to be made. There are 14 books written…
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CPE and Em: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Slightly better than expected
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – 2012 Directed by Peter Jackson Starring Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Sylvester McCoy, Manu Bennett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Barry Humpheries, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott Screenplay Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens, Guillermo Del Toro, Jackson Upon discovering that…
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 