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- Monday, May 20, 2013 Gainesville, Georgia
Archive By Section - Movie reviews
‘Batman’ raises bar for superhero films
The defining movie of summer 2008 has arrived.
This superhero is simply super bad
Hancock (Will Smith) is an anti-social, apathetic drunk with superhero powers. One day, he reluctantly saves the life of public relations expert Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), who in return makes it his mission to give Hancock an image makeover. Ray's wife Mary (Charlize Theron) doesn't like the idea and seems to be hiding something.
‘Traitor’ doesn’t live up to expectations
"Traitor" is a shot across the bow. With films like "Towelhead," Oliver Stone's "W" and Bill Maher's "Religulous" due for release within months, in the midst of a tight presidential election, it's going to be a controversial, divisive fall season.
A little robot with a big heart
WALL-E is a lonely, precocious little robot with a big job. Some 700 years ago, Earth was abandoned by humans when it became uninhabitable. Everyone boarded a spaceship and took off, leaving behind WALL-E (which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth class) to clean up. The movie begins with post-apocalyptic views of Earth cities in ruins: highways crumbling, buildings sagging and pile upon pile of garbage and rubble. This is how the animators ...
Complex plot makes ‘Hellboy’ great
Just when I had given up on comic book movies, along comes "Hellboy II." Superheroes and comic book characters have nearly ruined recent summer seasons, including this one, with their bad dialogue and over-cooked special effects. Which is why "Hellboy II" is such a pleasant surprise. "Hellboy II" is rude, over-the-top, and absurd. Add to that list great action sequences, effects that are actually special, and an intriguing villain, and we've got ourselves one helluva ...
‘Journey’ is fantastic family ride
Brendan Fraser maintains his modern matinee idol status with "Journey to the Center of the Earth," a charming adventure movie that faces the uphill climb of opening against Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy II" and Eddie Murphy's latest yawner, "Meet Dave."
‘Mummy’ 3 can’t revive tired plot
It's August, the final stretch of the summer movie season, and the earth is tired. Tired of teetering on the verge of total destruction, tired of its ancient inhabitants being revived by snooping humans and tired of loud CGI explosions.
Who can’t love this panda?
Zohan gets his butt kicked by a panda. Take that, Adam Sandler! A rotund and clumsy panda named Po (Jack Black) lives a boring life in the Valley of Peace. He obediently helps his father (James Hong) in the family noodle shop, but he dreams of becoming a kung fu master like his idols the Furious Five, a martial arts team lead by Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and Oogway (Randall Duk Kim). Shifu and the Furious ...
Older eye candy can still kick butt
It's just amazing that Harrison Ford can do all those stunts while hooked up to an oxygen tank. And the walker doesn't slow him down at all.
Look, up in the sky! A bad movie!
M. Night Shyamalan's new thriller, "The Happening," is the funniest movie I've seen all year. If only the director were in on the joke.
‘Caspian’ battles mature themes
Excuse me, have you seen a lion pass by here recently? He's about yay tall, looks like a symbolic savior?
Strength of ‘Iron Man’ lies in its star
And we're out of the summer gate at a Marvel-ous pace! "Iron Man," based on Stan Lee's Marvel Comics character, posted around $200 million worldwide in its opening weekend. This is well below the opening haul by "Spiderman 3" last year, but it far surpassed everyone's expectations. Still, "Iron Man" is a fairly typical blockbuster that benefited from being the first big release of the season. There are explosions and effects aplenty, the story is ...
Tense ‘Strangers’ seems too familiar
"The Strangers" is the kind of movie that boosts sales of guns and home security systems. It could incite an explosion in self-defense class enrollments. At the very least, it will encourage you to chain the door and to use the peephole.
Candy coating causes crash
Summer has barely started, and already we have the season's first big flop. "Speed Racer," with its computer-created, kaleidoscopic graphics, looks like no film you've ever seen. But I remember thinking the same thing about one of the all-time worst uses of special effects, "Tron," which came to mind several times while watching "Speed Racer." Both place human actors into impressively crafted artificial worlds, and both become embarrassingly silly. The movie begins with a deluge ...
Pandas and the Hulk roam summer screens
The 2008 summer movie season won't make us wait on the big releases, since most of the highly anticipated movies come out during May. It's impossible to predict how good the summer season will be, but there will at least be plenty of choices. Here's a dash through the prospects.
Articles by Section - Movie reviews
‘Mayan Blue’ a stunning film with Ga. ties
"Mayan Blue" is an atypical Georgia film. Most of the crew either come from or live in North Georgia, yet the film was shot entirely in Guatemala and features an abundance of breathtaking underwater cinematography.
‘Gatsby’ all glitz and little substance
Sandwiched among the usual superheroes and science-fiction epics comes a very odd summer tentpole release, an extravagant, big budget adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary masterpiece, "The Great Gatsby," directed by Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge!", "Romeo + Juliet") and in 3-D.
Jeff Marker’s summer 2013 movie preview, Part II
Last week we looked at the upcoming movies for summer 2013 in the action and drama categories. This week, we finish the season's preview lineup with a peek at family flicks and movies to make us laugh.
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