But with a movie like X-Men you get the sense that there is just too much of everything — too many characters, too many action scenes, too many speeches, too many forgettable details.
All in Fantasy
Disney's FROZEN
I put Frozen right up there, almost with Tangled, but with better music
Alexa Gajic's “TECHNOTISE: EDIT & I”
Edit herself is an interesting mix of naïveté, intelligence, raw energy, and stubbornness. Why she hangs out with the losers she does is never fully explained but, taken together, they make up a very entertaining ride that has some of the most interesting technology animation this side of WALL•E.
Tommy Wirkola's HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS
Hansel and Gretel The Witch Hunters is a train wreck of a movie. You know something awful is happening but it’s hard to look away.
Jake Schreier's ROBOT AND FRANK
This is a character driven movie about the near future that tightly focuses on an elderly retired jewel thief who lives by himself in a semi-rural but well-to-do community. His son, concerned about the old man’s mental deterioration, purchases a humanoid style robot to serve as a companion and caregiver.
James Mangold's THE WOLVERINE
While I’ve enjoyed the X-Men movies they haven’t significantly resonated with me as I was never really invested in the Marvel universe. The Wolverine is an exception.
Rupert Sanders' “SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN”
The only reason I rented this Blu-ray was to see Charlize Theron. I was smitten by her in Prometheus and was really looking forward to seeing her in a turn as the Evil Stepmother.
Alas, it was not to be.
Benh Zeitlin's BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
I’m glad I saw this film, it’s a pleasure to see something that’s grounded in reality but sufficiently fantastic to the point where the dividing line between the two becomes blurred.
Paul W.S. Anderson's RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION
I really enjoyed the previous Resident Evil movie so I looked forward to this one. I decided to see it in the theater and spent the extra $4 for a 3D ticket. Was it worth it?
Álex de la Iglesia's THE LAST CIRCUS
Some of the words come to my mind while watching this film include:
Joss Whedon's THE AVENGERS
THE AVENGERS is an OK piece of entertainment, I guess. Several times during the first hour I started to doze off.
Akiyuki Shinbo's LE PORTRAIT DE PETITE COSSETTE
A young man becomes obsessed with the spirit of a murdered girl he finds entrapped in a glass in the antique shop where he works.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
I enjoyed this a lot more than Part I which I found to be tedious and unengaging. This time the pace and excitement are unrelenting and occasionally spectacular.
Yôjirô Takita's “ASHURA”
This movie has some seriously arresting imagery: the upside-down floating castle, the castle’s gravity-defying maze-like passageways, the appearing/disappearing bridge to the spirit world, and a cataclysmic fire attack on Edo.
Scott Charles Stewart's PRIEST
How can you possibly resist a gritty and bloody post-apocalyptic alternate-history vampire movie starring Paul Bettany, Christopher Plummer, Karl Urban, and Brad (“Wormtongue”) Dourif?
Peter Greenaway's NIGHTWATCHING
At first I was afraid this was going be a film of a stage production but it evolves into a series of dramatic tableaux featuring extraordinary lighting, costumes, and emotional histrionics straight out of Rembrandt’s paintings.
Disney's TANGLED
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The characters are engaging, the story is clever, and the animation is absolutely positively gorgeous, at times almost breathtaking in its use of glowing color.
Zack Snyder’s SUCKER PUNCH
Bullet point review:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
I’ve enjoyed previous Harry Potter movies but I found this one to be tedious, boring, and pretentious. For the first time I found Harry, Hermione, and Ron to be uninteresting and unengaging.
Terrence Malik's “TREE OF LIFE”
This is one of the most emotionally engaging films I’ve ever seen. I’m not completely sure why.