Tom Hooper won the Best Director Academy Award two years ago for Best Picture winner “The King’s Speech”. His style of directing is distinct: using shots that don’t always place his subjects in the middle of the frame and shooting characters tight so you can really see their facial expressions. And this style is front […]
“Parental Guidance” is a shockingly bad family comedy starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler. Crystal’s Artie was a longtime minor league baseball announcer who just got fired because he’s not contemporary. Midler’s Diane is a former weather girl who used to sing some of her forecasts. Gee, I’d love to have lived in the cities […]
“The Guilt Trip” is a surprisingly smart comedy starring a memorable duo. Seth Rogen plays Andy, an only child and Barbra Streisand plays his mother Joyce. Andy’s a chemical engineer who’s invented an eco-friendly household cleaning product called Scieoclean that he believes is better than anything on the market. He now has to convince some […]
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is the first in a trilogy of prequels to one of the most successful trilogies of all-time – “The Lord of the Rings”. Director Peter Jackson returns to Middle-earth (and the classic works of J.R.R. Tolkien), and he’s brought along a new friend: HFR. But we’ll get to that in […]
Daniel Day-Lewis gave the true Presidential performance of 2012, as Abraham Lincoln in “Lincoln”. But we can’t forget Bill Murray’s role as FDR in “Hyde Park on Hudson”. Or, maybe we can. The film is set in 1939 in Hyde Park, N.Y., the small upstate town where Roosevelt was born and where his mother still […]
It’s not easy for a smaller studio to break into the world of big-budget animated films. Many have tried – most have failed. The latest attempt comes, not from Hollywood, but Bollywood! “Delhi Safari” is the first feature-length 3D animated film produced in India. The original version starred the voices of major Bollywood stars. The […]
Good Evening. Alfred Hitchcock is “Notorious” for his classic suspense and horror films and, as we’ve found out this year in the HBO film “The Girl”, his obsession with his leading ladies. But it turns-out the real leading lady in Hitchcock’s life was his wife Alma. And that, and much more, is explored in-depth in […]
“Anna Karenina” is based on Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel about love and betrayal. Keira Knightley stars as the title character, and she’s become a pro at these period pieces. In fact, “Karenina” is her third film with director Joe Wright (the two previously collaborated on “Atonement” and “Pride & Prejudice”). However, this is not your […]
Fresh-off it’s 4 wins at this year’s Oscars – including a 2nd Best Director statue for Ang Lee – “Life of Pi” hits store shelves/PPV. In a year of great films, including “Argo”, “Lincoln”, “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Les Miserables”, I’m still stunned that this took home more Oscars than any 2012 release. Based on […]
“Rise of the Guardians” is based on a series of books written by William Joyce (“Rolie Polie Olie”, “Meet the Robinsons”) called “The Guardians of Childhood”. The idea came to Joyce from his late daughter Mary Katherine who once asked him if Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny knew each other. We get that answer and more in […]