Up is still in my top three films of the year. Even now with it’s release on Blu-ray, the gut-punch still gets me and it’s still a marvelous film to watch. The Blu-ray is also no slouch in it’s pristine presentation of the film, it also features a nice batch of extras that go into [...]
Seven out of ten times, I’m going to come out enjoying a film that operates on its own terms. It’s the first and best thing I can say about Michael Mann, which just adds to my fanboy nature when it comes to his work. As a more recent example, the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man [...]
Saw is starting to become more of an event than a film, which is actually ok. Why shouldn’t there be a horror series that gets released every Halloween just to stay in the spirit of things? And hey, at least Lionsgate seems to put effort into these movies instead of make them cash-ins. With Saw [...]
More Than A Game hit me a on a personal level. No, I didn’t spew hate all over it because it involves a Cleveland team nor did I walk out of the theater cursing Kristopher Belman for being a Clowns fan or supporting LeBron James. No, his film impacted me in the sense that I [...]
PHILIP BARRETT: What’s ironic about Where the Wild Things Are happens to involve a conversation I had with fellow critic Anders Wright of San Diego’s City Beat before the film. I kindly asked him what his expectations for the film where. “You know, Philip,” he said, “I’ve learned not to set the bar too high [...]
Pretty much, this is my reaction to the Toy Story 3 trailer, at least the beginning of it. Point is, my generation (and I say that with confidence) has grown up with these characters and love them just as much as Andy loved teaming up Buzz and Woody to take down Mr. Potato-head. Pixar knows [...]
Uncharted 2 hits stores tomorrow. That means anyone with a PlayStation 3 will either be waiting in front of their local GameStop’s at midnight tonight or hitting Best Buy tomorrow. Now yes, we are a film-oriented site but for those who have an Xbox 360 or are uninterested in video gaming (shame on you,) the [...]
A Serious Man is going to put a lot of people off. That’s just it’s unrelenting nature, as the film doesn’t care if anyone likes it or not. Essentially what the Coen brothers are doing is asking the audience to laugh at one man’s misfortunes. They’re also taking a serious look at the Jewish culture [...]
How do you review a landmark film? I don’t mean ‘classic’ like, say, Army of Darkness or Bullitt. No, I’m referring to films that pioneered cinema and have had dozens upon dozens of great things already chronicled about them. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs carried impact when it first debuted in 1937, namely because [...]
There’s a real message inherit in Whip It that’s exclusive to any woman who’s had her mother try to mold her in her maternal image. While this might seem to make the film “girls only”, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut does feature enough charm to appeal to the other gender as well. But alas, this is [...]
There are certain things, rules if you will, that should adhere to all Bruce Willis action vehicles. The first being him mouthing off to any and every one who opposes his authority. The second is Willis being shot at eighty billion times, followed by him serving up the best kinds of ass-kicking (a.k.a. rule number [...]
Robert Siegel could have made a documentary using me for Big Fan. I suspect it would have been cheaper to follow me around for an entire football season and watch me dedicate my entire life to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Much like Patton Oswalt’s Paul, I spend my entire week thinking about the next game with [...]
