I am an unabashed fan of?Gnomeo & Juliet, a more-than-trifling adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play about star-crossed human lovers. So it was with great anticipation that our family made a date to sit down and watch the sequel, starring a Johnny Depp-voiced version of Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately, the sequel is more?X-2?or Ghostbusters 2?than?Aliens?or?Empire Strikes Back….
Ava DuVernay has taken Madeleine L?Engle?s vision and created a dazzling tale of hope and love fit for today?s younger generation.? We adults might find something to take from it as well?if we view the story from the eyes of a child.
Directed by Baltasar Kormakur (Everest), Adrift?tells the amazing true story of Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley) and Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin), who set out on a journey across the ocean in 1983 and sailed directly into a Category 4 hurricane. In the aftermath of the storm, Tami awakens to find Richard badly injured and their boat…
Each year many thousands of people walk the 600 mile Camino de Santiago, a route that has been a religious pilgrimage since the middle ages. Not all those who walk the Camino are religious pilgrims, but even those who do it as tourists may well discover spiritual insights along the way. Strangers on the Earth is the most recent documentary to focus on the Camino.
But the film also plays various tensions that exist in a more universal sense. Community and individual, desire and duty, morality and fulfillment, tradition and modernity.
In Ocean?s Eleven, Danny Ocean gets back the wife who had left him. (For a list of actors playing ?the eleven,? see my previous review, Ocean?s Eleven: Danny?s Perfect Hand.) In Ocean?s Twelve, it?s Rusty Ryan?s turn to get back the girl. At the beginning of the movie, Rusty is seen with Isabel Lahiri, who…
Annihilation?is a strange, head-scratching film for those longing for another?Arrival?or?Sunshine. Alex Garland (who actually wrote?Sunshine) adapted the first of Jeff VanDermeer’s novels into the film starring Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Gina Rodriguez. Investigating a mysterious asteroid’s impact on the Florida Coast, Portman’s cellular bio professor/ex-Army soldier Lena serves as our guide…
The New Legends of Monkey?follows the journey of Tripitaka (Luciane Buchanan), a young monk who lives in a world of gods and demons. Seeking an answer to the evils of the world, Tripitaka releases the Monkey King (Chai Hanson), a powerful yet cocky god who has the potential to reset the balance of spiritual power…
Deadpool 2?is the best sequel film I’ve seen, maybe ever. It’s hilarious (but not as funny as the first) with an extraordinary sense of itself. Here, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool is seeking to find his place in the new world, or in the old world with a new him, diving into a journey that takes him…
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…. Lucasfilm/Disney are now 4 films in on their revitalized Star Wars plans. The plans so far have been clear: Honor the past while looking toward the future and a new generation. Star Wars purists have had mixed reaction to the new canon, but there is…
