I imagined Ben Stiller’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” to be a much stronger film than it turned out to be. This is a very loose adaptation of the 1947 original and the acclaimed James Thurber short story. The beauty of the written work was figuring out, through the words, which situations were real […]
Dino Disaster. Tyrannosaurus Wreck. These may be bad puns, but they perfectly describe the family adventure “Walking with Dinosaurs”, which left its mark as one of the worst movies of 2013. The BBC is behind “Walking with Dinosaurs”, which is loosely adapted from the network’s groundbreaking 1999 miniseries that also gave birth to a global sensation stage show. […]
“Black Nativity” is based on the popular, 50-year-old off-Broadway play written by Langston Hughes. The screen version has been modernized and energized with the help of spiritual songs by some of the music world’s brightest stars. Troubled teenager Langston (played by Jacob Latimore) lives with his mother Naima (Grammy and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson) in […]
I can sum-up “Frozen” in just one word: Spectacular! This is Disney’s best animated musical since 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast”, which just happens to be my all-time favorite film. Less than a minute into “Frozen” it becomes clear that we’re about to experience something special, and that this production is destined for the stage. […]
In the animated comedy, “Free Birds”, a pair of turkeys named Reggie and Jake (voiced by Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson) travel back in time to the first Thanksgiving in 1621 so they can get their kind off the menu. When I first heard this concept, I thought it was unique, clever and had a […]
In 2009, Sony Pictures Animation’s adaptation of the classic children’s story, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, was served-up to moviegoers, complete with an updated twist. Actually, it was a major overhaul. In fact, the only thing the popular book and the movie script had in common was the title. But the energetic food-fest about a young inventor with […]
Believe it or not, the Hanna-Barbera animated series, “Top Cat”, ran for only one season on ABC, from 1962-63. But fifty years later, the classic cartoon returns with the release of “Top Cat: The Movie”, which is finally available on DVD. However, this big screen version, which was first released in Mexico in 2011, then […]
First there was Hannah Montana. Next came The Jonas Brothers, followed by the late Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. All of these artists have been the subjects of recent concert documentaries (or “con/docs” as I like to call them). The latest on this evergrowing list is the British boyband One Direction. When I […]
“Planes” is a Disney animated film. However it’s not a Pixar film or from Walt Disney Animation Studios (which recently made “Bolt”, “Tangled” and “Wreck-It Ralph”). Instead, “Planes” was created by DisneyToon Studios, who usually make Direct-to-DVD films. And that’s exactly what this film was supposed to be. That is, until late last year, when […]
2010’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” aimed to become the next “Harry Potter”: an adaptation of a popular book series about a heroic boy-figure and his best friends fighting to save their world and ours. Even though it only grossed $89 million in the US, a $227 million worldwide total was good […]