Japan’s Studio Ghibli has had a great deal of success bringing their anime films to America, thanks in large part to Disney, which distributes the films in the U.S. Fans and critics alike have loved Ghibli movies, beginning with their first – 1986’s “Castle in the Sky”. Stand-outs from the studio include “My Neighbor Totoro” […]
2008’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” was a fun family adventure. It was also the first live-action film to be shot entirely in the new digital 3D format. The Third Dimension has come a long way in the three and a half years since “Journey 1”, as we see in “Journey 2: The […]
“Big Miracle” is not inspired by the true story of the U.S. hockey team beating Russia in the 1980 Winter Olympics. That was 2004’s “Miracle”. In this movie the Americans and Russians actually work together, to try to save three whales. And, yes, it’s also based on an actual event. John Krasinski (from TV’s “The […]
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” deals with a very difficult subject: the attacks of 9/11. But this film is much more than that. It’s also a story about journeys and taking risks, dealing with grief and moving forward. 14 year-old Thomas Horn was chosen to play young Oskar Schell, the main character of the story, […]
From the title you might think “The Iron Lady” is the story of the wife of “Iron Man”. And while Meryl Streep could probably pull-off that role too, here she stars as Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female Prime Minister. Right from the first time Streep is on screen it’s hard to recognize her because SHE […]
Normally, if a studio is unhappy or not confident in a movie, they’ll bury it by releasing it in either January or August. Warner Bros. released “Joyful Noise” this past January as one of the first new films of 2012, and now it’s already out on Blu-ray/DVD. And while it does have some problems, “Joyful […]
“Beauty and the Beast 3D” was originally supposed to be released on February 12th, 2010. But after early test screenings and negative backlash, Disney decided to drop it completely. In September, they decided to release “The Lion King 3D”. Once that became a surprise hit, the studio decided to re-release a bunch of their classics […]
The build-up to director Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” was huge when the film was released late last year, because of the popular novel it’s based on and the Tony Award-winning play. And while this version does provide a nice story and engaging characters, “War Horse” goes down a familiar path and therefore fails to be […]
Brad Bird is best known for directing critically acclaimed animated movies, such as “The Iron Giant” and Disney/Pixar’s “The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille” (both which won him Oscars). He ventures into live-action for the first time with “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”, the fourth installment of the series that began 15 years ago. And much like […]
“The Artist”, as you likely know by now, is a black and white, mostly silent film that originally got a lot of attention, some of it because it’s a black and white, mostly silent film. Then it went on to win numerous awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture -deservingly so. “The Artist” proves a […]