Category: Movie Reviews

Movie Review: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM – uneven, underwritten movie that will mostly be only appreciated by hardcore Potter fans

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Wow, I had so many issues with Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them that it’s hard to pick a starting point, really.  I’ll preface the following with this disclaimer, though:  I am not, and never have been, a fan of Harry Potter.  Sure, I’ve seen all the movies, but despite trying to listen to Stephen Fry reading the first in the series, my exposure to the books has been nil.  The movies were largely a hit and miss affair for me, ranging from pretty good (& The Prisoner of Azkaban) to mediocre (& The Chamber of Secrets).  I’m certainly not a Harry Potter hater – the books came along at a time when childhood reading habits were plummeting, and Rowling was instrumental in the early development of the YA sector.  So while I will never be a fan of the Potter phenomenon, I have a healthy respect for it.  In saying that, my lack of any intricate knowledge of the Potterverse didn’t contribute to what I felt were shortcomings here.

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Movie Review: OPERATION AVALANCHE – 60s-set conspiracy thriller, heavy on period detail, but light on drama

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If I’d never had Operation Avalanche recommended to me by an old friend, chances are I might never have watched it.  I’d seen some promotional materials for it, even read the synopsis early last year before it was released by Lionsgate, but a found-footage conspiracy drama about the faking of the first moon landing just didn’t grab me.  Well, cut to January 16, 2017, and I’ve just watched it.  There are a few things to like, but it does fall short of being a worthwhile 80 minutes.

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Movie Review: EVEREST – an eye opening look at 1996’s tragic descent from the summit

On By ANDREW HOPEIn Movie Reviews2 Comments

everest

Everest, directed by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur (Contraband, 2 Guns), and written by William Nicholson (Unbroken) and Simon Beaufoy (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) tells the true story of the ill-fated 1996 attempt to ascend Mount Everest that saw multiple commercial guided tours fall victim to a blizzard during the descent.  The movie is based on the book Left For Dead: My Journey Home From Everest by Beck Weathers, a Texan climber who survived the ordeal, but in doing so lost half an arm, all the fingers on the other hand, and the tip of his nose to extreme frostbite.  Weathers is played by Josh Brolin here, part of an ensemble cast that also includes Jason Clarke (Terminator: Genisys), who plays Rob Hall and Jake Gyllenhaal (Nocturnal Animals), who plays Scott Fischer.

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Movie Review: NOCTURNAL ANIMALS – an absorbing, frustrating dark drama with a terrific Michael Shannon performance at its core.

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nocturnal-animals

The new year is only two weeks old, but Nocturnal Animals is likely going to make my top 5 movies of 2017.  I saw this a couple of days ago on my birthday, a few weeks after being disappointed that it had already left the major theater chains here in Minnesota around Christmas, and I left the movie impressed.  It’s hard to ignore a movie with a cast boasting Jake Gyllenhaal (Enemy), Amy Adams (Arrival), and Michael Shannon (Midnight Special), and even though I still haven’t seen Tom Ford’s first movie, A Single Man,  I remembered the good buzz around it.  On the strength of this sophomore effort, I’ll move it up the queue.

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Movie Review: HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE FROZEN KINGDOM falls short of appealing to anyone.

On By ANDREW HOPEIn Movie Reviews2 Comments

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I’m a self-proclaimed disciple of H.P. Lovecraft, I have to say.  Ever since my English teacher introduced me to The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward when I was around 12, I’ve been a fan.  His work is a huge influence on my own writing, even though I’ve never written anything that remotely resembles his work.  I also feel somewhat protective of his writing and his concepts, which most notably include the “Cthulhu Mythos”.  I tend to feel aggrieved when I see how his most famous creation has become assimilated into mass-produced pop culture – Cthulhu plushies and the like (but I think Lovecraft would have secretly loved all of this) – and the name Cthulhu tossed around by people who have most never read a word of Lovecraft’s work.  Even those who have read Lovecraft and create works influenced by him, can barely get past the pastiche-homage of tentacled monsters in dark New England towns.  No, to honour Lovecraft is not rip him off, it’s to understand the context of his work and having done that, create new works of your own that don’t slavishly follow a Cthulhu gameplan.  This explains why I watched Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom.

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