Based on the timeless Belgian comics by Hergé, directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) and brought to life using the same motion capture technology popularized by Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express) and perfected by James Cameron (Avatar), The Adventures of Tintin bears, in theory, all the promise of a cinematic event. Not so in execution. Part gumshoe mystery, part animated Indiana Jones, [...]
Now that we’ve collectively agreed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull never happened, let us return to fawning over Steven Spielberg for that kind of “gee whiz, let’s do that again!” giddiness you get from watching movies like The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. The director might be working from a collection of mid-20th century comics by Belgian artist Hergé, but this is undeniably [...]
I haven’t actually read Jane Eyre. People often give me a hard time about that. I suppose that fact is to my detriment in more ways than those merely social now, seeing as I don’t have knowledge of the source material that has inspired so many filmic adaptations. I went into this latest version of Jane Eyre, directed by Cary Fukunaga, knowing only that I could probably expect a feisty [...]
After Mission Impossible’s Tom Cruise appeared earlier this year as a ridiculous one-eyed turncoat Nazi in Valkyrie, it seems only fitting to now see the latest James Bond embody the role of a ridiculously blue-eyed Eastern European Jew in Definace. Daniel Craig has taken the switch from shaken martinis to homebrewed vodka well; based on a true story, Defiance sees Craig pull all the right emotional punches to create a captivating wartime drama, partly making up for all the wrong ones he pulled in Quantum of Solace. It might not be as hard hitting as The Pianist, or as action packed as Saving Private Ryan (it’s certainly as long), but there’s something oddly refreshing about a film sits defiantly in the middle.
