recent product reviews
Zootopia (2016)
Not as smart as some of the other Pixar movies, but cute nonetheless. Yes, these comparisons of Disney/Pixar collaborations to the original Pixar classics will continue. I fear that some of Pixar’s wit and heart is slowly being replaced by Disney’s safer, more generic characters and stories. The sloths are…
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Vacation (2015)
About as good as you could do, I guess. Helms channels Chevy for his performance, which is fun but a bit weird since he wasn’t a goofball in the original movies.
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Into the Blue 2: The Reef (2009)
A throwaway thriller with beautiful people, actually not as bad as it could have been. Vandervoort is delicious.
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Papillon (1973)
Experimental and a little bit awkward, which is owed to the era in which it was filmed. But the greatest flaw is that the story is a bit aimless. I know that anti-heroes were popular around this time, but there’s almost no character development and no reason that we should…
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Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
A fine adventure with pretty good pacing and character development for the 1930’s. Was this one of the first real adventure movies? Gable’s good, isn’t he? Laughton is wonderfully horrible and a big reason for the film’s dramatic success. What an amazing story, especially with descendants of the original mutineers…
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Ip Man 3 (2015)
A worthy sequel. Nice and long and beautifully shot, like the others from the series. An example of how some decent writing and characters can take a kung fu movie to the next level. The relationships are complex, but they work and have real emotion. Dramatically, Wing-sing’s death sometime before…
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In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
A wonderful collection of raw footage, b-roll, interviews, and voiceover, all marvelously edited. Perhaps the best documentary or the Apollo program. It’s all really amazing isn’t it? The astronaut interviews are great, humanizing each mission with lots of great details and memories and insights. Collins and Duke are especially likable…
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Blackfish (2013)
Polished, scary, and tragic. Would have liked to see more interviews with people who were attacked, or maybe their families.
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The Night of the Grizzly (1966)
Has the charm of the old westerns, but it’s not much more than a monster movie. While this may have played back in the day, the monster here is innocent and hungry. Killing the bear is the happy climax of the movie? The bear action is decent. Walker was quite…
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Room (2015)
Disturbing and amazing, painful and wonderful to watch. Not sure if it’s the performances of Larson and Tremblay, Abrahamson’s direction, or the subject matter, but it hits home. How is it that no one’s ever made a movie about this? Larson deserved the Oscar, and an argument could be made…
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I'm a photographer, web developer, travel enthusiast, and movie buff living in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.In the summer of 1993, I started writing reviews for every movie I saw and haven't looked back. I'm up to 2,371 reviews now. This makes me cool or a complete dork, depending on your perspective.
Some of these reviews contain spoilers, so if that bothers you, don't read!
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