tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315Fri, 13 Sep 2024 02:25:59 +0000reviewsfilmtelevisioncomic bookscartoonsspoiler-freesci-fiscience fictionanimationhorrorimpressionsvideo gamecomedyDisneyanimeindependentpost-apocalypticMarvelMarvel Studiosdirect-to-DVDfamilymachinimamangameta-reviewsspoilersFilms, television, videos, or other visual media that's currently caught my eye ...http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)Blogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-6918429405745600068Sat, 15 Aug 2015 03:25:00 +00002015-08-14T22:25:57.246-05:00familyfilmimpressionsspoiler-free Paddington is a shockingly sharp / smart little film. I don't say "shockingly" to be dismissive of the genre, IP, or concept at all. This is a very underrated,  accessible family film, and I'm surprised more people aren't saying, "You should see Paddington." Some of the cinematography is arrestingly subtle, I think Paul King directs brilliantly, it has more fantasy elements than I http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2015/08/paddington.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-5527719935707648843Sun, 31 Aug 2014 02:37:00 +00002014-08-30T21:37:47.757-05:00comic booksMarvelMarvel Studiossci-fiscience fictionspoiler-free So ... I've seen Guardians of the Galaxy four times. In the theater. I don't think I've ever done that with any first-run movie. By way of comparison, I'm a huge Captain America fan -- and not casually. Not casually at all. I've been a fan and reader of all things Cap for thirty-plus years, and my love for the character and ideals and challenges wrapped in that mythos is deep and informed,http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2014/08/guardians-of-galaxy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-5762383000797369276Sat, 17 Aug 2013 18:00:00 +00002013-08-17T13:00:18.967-05:00filmsci-fiscience fictionspoiler-free I've been raving about Pacific Rim since I saw it opening weekend, and didn't realize I hadn't yet written about it. It's a fantastic, big-robots versus giant monster film, has the requisite Guillermo Del Toro visual panache, and is a needed film. (What?) I avoid reviews before movies, but I remember after seeing them movie hearing a phrase from one reviewer who said, "This is exactly http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2013/08/pacific-rim.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-1648041629922484698Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:38:00 +00002013-07-25T19:38:57.987-05:00impressionsspoiler-free I finally got to watch Mark Webber's The End of Love, which is one of the more beautiful, brutally painful things I've seen in a while. It's such a delicate, raw film, and I don't want to give anything away. Think of it as a documentary-style, slice-of-life fictional vignette. Here's the modified logline (since the full version I think gives too much away): A struggling actor is forced to http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-end-of-love.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-3868422505918928710Mon, 24 Jun 2013 20:14:00 +00002013-06-24T15:14:00.787-05:00horrorpost-apocalypticreviewsspoiler-freeI took my game studio to see World War Z this week, and we found it it be a solid flick. The pacing is pretty spot on, the tension doesn't let up, there are multiple instances of clever early set-up of mechanics that will matter later in the film, and for the most part, they avoid overly telegraphing events in the film. I really enjoyed the fleshed-out family relationship Brad Pitt hashttp://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2013/06/world-war-z.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-4587454006621910174Sun, 23 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +00002013-06-23T11:00:06.947-05:00comic booksfilmreviewsspoiler-free I find Man of Steel to be a great, true-to-the-franchise revamp of the caped blue boy scout's movie persona. Superman is a tough character to pull off. How do you make a god-like super being "believably unbelievably powerful" and not boring? One piece of it is getting an actor that can pull it off. Henry Cavill? Check. And for so many reasons. Whether he does "as good as" or "a http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2013/06/man-of-steel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-3965382782333997198Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:53:00 +00002013-06-22T15:53:44.581-05:00comedyhorrorimpressionsspoiler-free Yes, I saw This is The End. Yes, I really liked it. It's hilarious, so wrong, has nuggets of awesome, and is overall entertaining. I judge movies like this by how long friends and stand in a parking lot laughing and recounting stuff in the movie. We were there for a while. This is another of those tough movies to talk about without giving something away, but suffice it to say, it's a bunch http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2013/06/this-is-end.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-2445092813545273575Sat, 18 May 2013 21:31:00 +00002013-05-18T16:31:53.155-05:00sci-fiscience fictionspoiler-free We took the entire studio to see Star Trek Into Darkness Friday. The consensus from the team it's "great fun". It's hard to talk about the film without spoilers (and I think it's important to avoid those spoilers), but it's enough to say the film stands on its own, is a strong successor to the previous film, and has a lot of great (and clever) nods to original series and films. The movie ishttp://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2013/05/star-trek-into-darkness.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-5580501387103423978Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:30:00 +00002013-04-21T15:30:59.870-05:00impressionspost-apocalypticsci-fiscience fiction Saw Oblivion this weekend. I'm not going to say a lot concretely about the film, because it has some fun twists and nuances for folks who have done their best to avoid spoilers. I definitely put it in the "very good movie" category. I was looking forward to great visuals -- especially after meeting one of the members of the visual team last week -- and the film more than delivered. The http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2013/04/oblivion.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-946761964139000177Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:55:00 +00002012-12-23T14:55:03.660-06:00animationcomic bookstelevisionToday, the kids and I watched a few of Christmas-themed episodes from past Marvel television series -- all of them currently stream-able on Netflix. First up, we watched the 1990s X-Men animated series, and my all-time favorite episode, season three's "Nightcrawler". It's not Christmas-themed, per se, but it does happen in winter during a failed ski trip vacation, and introduces team mainstay http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-marvel-tv-episodes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-5310300650541118048Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:00:00 +00002012-11-12T08:00:16.100-06:00comedyDisneyfilmreviewsvideo gameWreck-It Ralph is Disney's highest-grossing (non-Pixar) animated opening in history -- and it deserves it. Besides being a solid all-ages animated film, it is a great, great nod to all things video game history (and other than not laughing when other folks in the audience might be laughing, that's not a barrier to entry for the film). I'm a big, big John C. Reilly fan (since meeting him during http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2012/11/wreck-it-ralph.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-7122307060879034488Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:11:00 +00002012-11-11T15:11:26.076-06:00animationdirect-to-DVDDisneyreviewsMy girls and I are fans of the Tinker Bell franchise. For me, beyond just the IP level, I have a more than passing curiosity for how Disney is using franchises like this to answer a few specific questions: What is Disney doing to articulate "important" messages to young audiences? How does Disney change the expression of the franchise in different ways with each film, but stay true to the http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2012/11/secret-of-wings.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-6125352245304764539Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:29:00 +00002012-10-13T19:29:23.410-05:00comic booksfilmscience fictionI'm a fan of Judge Dredd as a character and a franchise, so I'm pretty happy the new Pete Travis Dredd movie does a spot-on job of translating the UK long-run, homegrown comic book success to the big screen (something the 1995 Stallone vehicle wasn't able to to do). For me, the comic (running in some form or another since 1977) is a fascinating take on police states, one man as http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2012/10/dredd.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-8408117549832645679Thu, 10 May 2012 04:09:00 +00002012-05-09T23:09:43.120-05:00I'm not going to say a ton about Marvel's The Avengers movie -- because I hate spoilers and don't want to be That Guy. I will say, as a lifetime comic book fan and film guy, I'm very happy with the film. Joss Whedon and Zak Penn do a great with story and dialog (and the cast with delivery and physicality), and there were some unexpected, laugh-out-loud moments (in a good way). I also like the http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2012/05/avengers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-774664556967846922Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:22:00 +00002012-02-19T18:25:56.637-06:00animationcartoonscomic booksI finally got around to watching the Blu-ray of Batman: Year One - and it's pretty solid. Critical and user reviews are all over the map, probably due to fanboy attachment, previous voice actor fixations, and nostalgic reminiscences of the original comic book arc. If you're not familiar with Frank Miller's seminal retelling of Batman's and James Gordon's origin, it's a gritty, character-driven http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2012/02/batman-year-one.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-3153618372797393087Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:25:00 +00002011-08-07T00:25:56.628-05:00filmsci-fiscience fictionI saw the Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and I am deeply impressed. I honestly was expecting a great movie. I was not expecting a powerful, moving, and in some ways, important film. It was all of that. Yes, I'm tired and impressionable and a ganglion away from my raw emotions right now, but the initial trailers really mislead about what the movie has to say. There's deeper stuff here. James http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2011/08/rise-of-planet-of-apes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-4896413027083995560Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:26:00 +00002011-06-03T00:26:17.556-05:00I finally got around to watching Superman & Batman: Apocalypse.Despite some occasional shortcuts on the animation side, this is one of the more solid comic book animation offerings.Definitely not kiddie fare, it's a great reprise for Tim Daly as Superman and Kevin Conroy as _the_ Batman.There is some interesting concantenation of a few start arcs, but there's some meaty content here, http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2011/06/superman-batman-apocalypse.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-4314222800918792311Sat, 14 May 2011 04:42:00 +00002011-05-13T23:42:03.464-05:00I'm a fanboy, and I dug the new Thor film.Good balance of giving Thor something worthy to fight, and following comic canon.Maybe more later.http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2011/05/thor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-3466318483083146557Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:41:00 +00002011-04-16T15:41:58.053-05:00meta-reviewsspoilerstelevisionOne of the pleasant surprises for me in the recent television season has been the Hawaii Five-0 reboot from CBS. To be honest, I really didn't have much by way of expectations for the series. Now, I say that, but since Alias, I do give pretty much anything from writer/producer Alex Kurtzman a chance (mostly for his mad production skilz). Same for his partner, writer/producer http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2011/04/hawaii-five-0.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-5372845419220533334Sat, 05 Feb 2011 21:05:00 +00002011-02-05T15:05:00.860-06:00cartoonscomic booksI'm a big fan of Marvel's Super Hero Squad franchise. It started with the wicked awesome, mini, mildly deformed-style toys, branched into online comic strips (followed by an ongoing comic book series), a video game (lately followed by another), and then the TV series. Every expression of the franchise has got its merits, but it's the TV series that's currently scratching my fanboy andhttp://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2011/02/super-hero-squad-show.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-92067165184026708Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:25:00 +00002010-12-24T16:25:40.546-06:00filmreviewsscience fictionvideo gameI caught an IMAX 3D showing of TRON: Legacy at the Bob Bullock theater in Austin, TX, and really enjoyed it. Some reviewers have griped about the "lack of story" (which is pretty subjective) but the film definitely has something that's been missed from a bunch of the bandwagon pseudo-journalist hater reviews. Mythos. In some surprisingly subtle strokes, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2010/12/tron-legacy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-3739767421005151926Mon, 24 May 2010 20:43:00 +00002010-12-24T10:44:56.729-06:00filmI just watched Jackie Chan's "Thunderbolt" - an under-the-radar illegal street racing film of his from 1995. Despite its horrible dub, and it being one of the bigger commercials I've seen since "Mac and Me", it had some surprisingly good stuff. The stakes are higher in this film than what Western audiences are probably used to seeing in a Chan film. Sure, there are some trademark funny momentshttp://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2010/05/thunderbolt.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-7902746359362031512Wed, 07 Apr 2010 04:08:00 +00002010-04-06T23:08:40.655-05:00animationanimeEvery Tuesday, the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek theater -- a wonderful full-service bar / restaurant / theater -- shows anime at 7:30 pm, with no admission.Beer buckets and Japanese cartoons - how great is that?This week was "Strike Witches", from Funimation / Studio Gonzo.The entire country of Japan should be angry at the Alamo Drafthouse.Don't get me wrong - I totally dig Studio Gonzo. The http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2010/04/strike-witches.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-3662840683967369414Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:48:00 +00002010-03-21T19:13:26.330-05:00animemangaI recently watched all 13 episodes of Mezzo, the anime series from Madman Entertainment and ADV Films (RIP).It's a great, slick, diverse little series, running the gamut from Gunsmith Cats-esque humor and action to dabbling in deeper issues (say, child abuse) and some really clever dialog (with episode 12 taking the cake there).Streaming on Netflix, I only had access to the English dubbed versionhttp://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2010/03/mezzo.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17088315.post-6140095231399987048Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:23:00 +00002010-03-05T16:09:46.880-06:00filmI saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin today. If you haven't seen the film, and want to avoid spoilers, you may want to wait to read this until after you've seen the film the first time, and before you see it the second.I was impressed with the film's visual style, acting, and -- most of all -- characterization. There are "people" in this film in the most unexpected http://seeing4realz.blogspot.com/2010/03/alice-in-wonderland-3d.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Adam Creighton)0