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Tag: fantasy

Entertainment

Dracula Untold Review

William McPherson

There may have been a very good reason this Dracula’s story was untold. It’s just a shame it didn’t remain that way. This movie should really have been titled Edward Untold as it is just an obvious attempt to take an established character and turn him into a swooning icon for the twenty-something audience who grew up with the Twilight series, with a slight attempt to also turn into a Dark Knight franchise ripoff as well. Dracula here is a handsome, noble king, with a beautiful blond haired wife…

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Beetlejuice Banner
Entertainment

Beetlejuice Review

William McPherson

My wife is among the world’s biggest Tim Burton fans, and this of course, is one of her favorite movies. Growing up I recall loving it too. It’s strange looking back now how little actual screen time Michael Keaton gets in the title role here, but it’s telling how much that he manages to do with said screen time. Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin carry the bulk of the movie, playing a newlywed couple that is killed in a freak car caused by them swerving to avoid hitting a cute little puppy. That’s…

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Ex Machina
Entertainment

Ex Machina Review

William McPherson

The Arrow on JoBlo.com had perhaps the best quote on Ex Machina I could find anywhere when he wrote about this movie “Ex Machina was Frankenstein meets The Island of Dr. Moreau by way of Basic Instinct.” which just about sums this flick up for me. Quirky introspective Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) is a twenty something intellectual who works as a coder for a big corporation that runs this universe’s version of Google, ran by a guy (Oscar Isaac) who is basically the serious dramatic version of Lou…

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Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Entertainment

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Review

William McPherson

There’s a fine line between inspirational and cloying, and this movie teeters dangerously on the brink the entire film. I found that half the time I went along for the ride, while the other half I had to distance myself from the main character. Walter Mitty is a really old character updated here as a writer for Life Magazine during the period when they were getting out of the print business. Mitty (Ben Stiller) is assigned to photograph for the final cover, but discovers the picture he needs has…

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Into The Woods
Entertainment

Into The Woods Review

Gary Smith

* BE WARNED: THERE ARE SPOILERS CONTAINED IN THIS REVIEW * I watched this movie the other night completely unaware that it was a musical. I'm not typically a fan of musicals, and Broadway really isn't something that interest me all that much (there are some that I enjoy). All I knew was that this was a mixing of Brother Grimm's fairy tale characters into an original story. I watched it for three reasons: 1.) I like Once Upon A Time and what it has done for mixing fairy tales, 2.) I was bored and…

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Entertainment

Demolition Man Review

William McPherson

John Spartan (Stallone) is the “Demolition Man” a Dirty Harry styled bad ass cop in the late 20th century. When a mission goes awry and he is wrongly blamed for the deaths of several innocent civilians, he is sentenced to be cryogenically frozen (as this is the chief form of punishment in this movie’s timeline) along with the man who is actually responsible for those deaths (Snipes), Simon Phoenix. A few decades later, Phoenix manages to escape into a world that is way different from the one…

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Stranger Than Fiction
Entertainment

Stranger Than Fiction

William McPherson2 Comments

Harold Crick breaks for the fourth wall of his own life when he discovers that he is in fact a character in a book being written in a parallel universe. He begins hearing strange voices that turn out to be the narrator of the movie and eventually discovers the half written manuscript and being mystified, shows it to a critic friend of his who informs him that, given the trajectory of the story he is probably going to die at the end of it, and not only that, he must allow his death to happen in…

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Entertainment

Bridge to Terabithia Review

Gary Smith1 Comment

I first saw Bridge to Terabithia in 2008, a little over a year after it had released in theaters. It was on a movie channel, Starz I believe. I had never read the book, but I remembered the trailer for it and was excited to see it. I was expecting a fantasy Narnia style film, so I definitely got more than I bargained for. If you've seen this film, and I really hope you have (if not, please do), then you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, spoilers later on. Josh Hutcherson stars as…

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Sleepy Hollow
Entertainment

Sleepy Hollow Review

Gary Smith

Based on Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” with a few poetic liberties, Sleepy Hollow puts a modern spin on the legendary tale of horror. Rather than his original role as a school teacher, Ichabod Crane (Depp) is now an investigator from New York sent to investigate murder in the farming community of Sleepy Hollow. There, he encounters several interesting characters, chief among them Katrina Van Tassel (Ricci), daughter of the wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. Along the way…

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Van Helsing
Entertainment

Van Helsing Review

Gary Smith

For a movie I had no intention of watching in the theater, this was a pretty good movie. The legendary monster hunter Van Helsing (Jackman) must go to Transylvania to fight Dracula and help Anna (Beckinsale), who’s family can not enter heaven until Dracula is dead (I suppose that would be the best word to use). Along with appearances by Mr. Hyde (of Dr. Jackyl and Mr. Hyde fame), the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s monster, it’s a virtual who’s who of the monster world, complete with an ugly little…

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Tin Man
Entertainment

Tin Man Review

Gary Smith

Tin Man is the epic miniseries from the SyFy Channel that took Oz to a new level; it’s a modernized retelling of the story and science fiction intended for teens and adults. When this originally aired on SyFy it was a three night event that was six hours long (and that’s including commercial breaks). There are no commercials on this Blu-ray release though, so the actual length is somewhere between four and five hours, and I always like to watch it all in one sitting. That may seem tedious, but…

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The Lost World
Entertainment

The Lost World Review

Gary Smith

This doesn’t quite meet the criteria for the “Golden Age” of Hollywood, but I’m making an exception. This movie came out in 1925, which means two things: it’s a silent film, and it’s officially the oldest movie that I have ever seen. It also marks the first time I’ve ever reviewed a silent film. I first became aware of this movie a couple of months ago when I watched the 1933 version of King Kong, and I knew I’d have to watch this eventually since it really is the “father” of all such films…

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Entertainment

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Review

Gary Smith

For the sake of being fair to this movie in this review, there’ll be no comparisons made between “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” or “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, because no one can play the role of Willy Wonka the way Gene Wilder did. With that said, Johnny Depp performed the role brilliantly, as he does pretty much every character. Poor kid Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) finds the last of Willy Wonka’s (Johnny Depp) “Golden Tickets”. The tickets, of which there were five…

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Entertainment

Underworld Rise of the Lycans Review

Gary Smith

I enjoyed the original Underworld movie, and thought it was quite a good film. The second one was good, but I found it to be just a tad worse than the first one, which is usually what happens with sequels. Then came word of a prequel without the two main characters from the first two films, and I thought it would be wonderful based off of the flashbacks and dialogue in the first film. And it is; I believe this prequel to be the best of the Underworld films. In this prequel, we see the birth of…

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Lair Review
Game Reviews

Lair Review

PatriotPaine

Lair has an interesting story and some fun moments, but frustrating motion controls and uneven mission design keep it from taking flight. Two out of five stars.

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