The third Thor movie is so refreshing compared to what came before it. It’s still yet another flawed Marvel movie, but at least it doesn’t take itself seriously. Thank science for that.
Tag: Adventure
Cry Wilderness (1987, Jay Schlossberg-Cohen)
This is one of those low-budget movies that thinks that location can substitute for a lack of a good story, coherent character motivations, good acting and competent filmmaking techniques. Specifically, these people got permission to film in a couple beautiful parks in California and apparently decided that this was enough to make a good family …
The Monuments Men (2014, George Clooney)
This is a reasonably entertaining, but oddly paced and very traditional film that dramatizes the efforts the US went to in order to rescue the art that the Nazis stole in World War II. As far as I can tell, it is very, very, very loosely based on the true story.
Life of Pi (2001) by Yann Martel
This review contains major SPOILERS.
The Jewel of the Nile (1985, Lewis Teague)
Whatever charms Romancing the Stone possessed, are generally lacking in this bizarre, dated and probably offensive sequel.
Inkheart (2008, Iain Softley)
I can imagine the pitch meeting where someone thought this was a good idea. And though I later learned it came from a book (I have not read it, obviously), it doesn’t make me think that pitch meeting was any more reasonable. Ideas like this always sound good, but it takes a lot imagination to …
Lord Jim (1900) by Joseph Conrad
Conrad is perhaps my favourite (English language) writer from the turn of the last century. I find “The Secret Sharer” to be one of the greatest English language short stories ever written. And Nostromo is a favourite of mine. And yet it took me forever to get into this, considered by some to be among …
TIFF 2015: Comoara aka The Treasure (2015, Conerliu Porumboiu) (8/15)
This is a gentle but amusing examination of life in contemporary Romania: the absurdities, the bureaucracy and the dreams that make those bearable. MILD SPOILERS The film suggests it is going one direction – a dark direction – but then does not ever go that direction and then, instead, the miraculous happens. It’s rather incredible …
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007, Gore Verbinski)
I’ve generally enjoyed these movies way more than I ever thought I would, but this one is so ridiculous, so convoluted, so unbelievable that whatever goofiness really doesn’t make up for the mess. (Though, I can’t help but think that the second one was maybe more of a mess than I remember.) It shouldn’t be …
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010, Michael Apted)
Apted’s surer hand makes this possibly the best entry in the series – it’s obvious from the opening shot that a better director is involved.
The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) by Anthony Hope
I thought I was completely unfamiliar with this story as I had not seen the movie nor did I know anything about the book. However, it turns out that I have indeed seen a similar movie, Dave! It turns out that story has been used over and over again by various people. I don’t know …
King Solomon’s Mines (1888) by H. Rider Haggard
I was only familiar with this story from the ’80s Hollywood version, which I had been told was drastically different from the book. Sure enough, it absolutely was. So much of it is utterly different as to be (nearly) a different story. But anyway…
The Eagle (2011, Kevin Macdonald)
This movie tries really hard. It’s clear a lot of effort went into the film, including the costumes and, particularly, the use of Gaelic – even though, with a few minutes research, it turns out it likely wasn’t Gaelic they would have been speaking.
King Solomon’s Mines (1985, J. Lee Thompson)
This is one of those wannabe Raiders of the Lost Ark films, even though it is based on a novel published about 100 years before that seminal film. But unlike some of the other ’80s adventure revivals, this is practically a copy of the Indiana Jones series, albeit with more (attempts at) humour. One could interpret it as a …
Congo (1995, Frank Marshall)
First of all, I thought I had seen this years ago but I remember about 15 minutes of it, so I guess not. Somewhere in here there might be a reasonably entertaining “jungle adventure” movie. Maybe.