Zap2it.com - Movie Reviews

'The Men Who Stare at Goats'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

"The Men Who Stare at Goats" sounds like some ethnographic documentary about the bushmen of the Kalahari or the Bakhtiari herders of old Persia. Anyone expecting anything like that, or even a Disney family film like "Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar," is going to be surprised.

'Disney's A Christmas Carol'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

This version of the Dickens' classic is appropriately dark, but a little human warmth would help

The new Disney "A Christmas Carol" is another epic achievement in motion-capture animation, advancing the art form closer to photo-realism than "The Polar Express" or "Beowulf." Dazzling, ornate visuals take us to the snowy London of 1837, swooping over its digital rooftops and down its digital chimneys. Faces take on musculature, expression and detail.

'Precious'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The first 20 minutes of "Precious," the full title of which is "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," are so intense and pitched so high, you may not feel like sticking it out. My advice: Stick it out. This is an exceptional film about nearly unendurable circumstances, endured. You will come out the other side of it a markedly enriched filmgoer.

'The Box'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

In "The Box," which is fairly insane by the standards of most Hollywood packages, writer-director Richard Kelly takes the 10-page story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson (who wrote "I Am Legend" and many other works adapted for the screen) and stuffs it so full of cockamamie speculative fictions, from magical lightning strikes to NASA projects to the metaphorical uses of Sartre's "No Exit," by the end you can only think: This guy needed a bigger box.

'Michael Jackson's This Is It'

editorial@zap2it.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

How much of "Michael Jackson's This Is It" can we believe?

'Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In the bizarre world of "Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," there's a war brewing over "portion" control. It seems the truce between those who sip, leaving humans a little weaker but none the wiser, and those who gorge, gluttons who leave death, destruction and no tip behind, has been on hold for a couple hundred years.

'Astro Boy'

editorial@zap2it.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Astro Boy is the latest Japanese TV cartoon to make it to the big screen.

Lovely dollops of wit and warmth float through the big screen version of "Astro Boy," the latest Japanese TV cartoon to make it to the big screen. But the look, themes and slam-bang "Transformers" violence of that 1960s animated series make this every bit as dated as "Speed Racer," even if it is easier to watch.

'Amelia'

editorial@zap2it.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Hilary Swank stars as the famed aviator Amelia Earhart

"Amelia" has magnificent period settings and airplanes and majestic aerial photography. It boasts the two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank , perfectly cast as Amelia Earhart, with Richard Gere as Earhart's promoter-publisher husband, George Putnam. They even have nice on-screen chemistry.

'The Stepfather'

editorial@zap2it.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In this remake, Dylan Walsh takes over the title role from Terry O'Quinn and makes an equally chilling family man.

"The Stepfather" is that rarity, an effective remake of a screen classic that can stand alone on its own considerable merits. Director Nelson McCormick and writer J.S. Cardone deftly reworked the 1987 original (written by Donald E. Westlake and directed by Joseph Ruben) while wisely adhering to the essence of the chilling original.

'Where the Wild Things Are'

editorial@zap2it.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Truly, I am madly, deeply in love with the film version of "Where the Wild Things Are." Not since Robert Altman took on "Popeye" a generation ago, and lost, has a major director addressed such a well-loved, all-ages title. This time everything works, from tip to tail, from the moment in the prologue at which director Spike Jonze freezes the action (Max, fork in hand, tearing after the family dog) to the final scene's hard-won reconnection between Max and his mother at the kitchen table. Warner Bros. Pictures should be applauded for such a nervy and breathtaking achievement -- the rare adaptation that goes deeper, not dumber, in its page-to-screen translation of a children's classic.