I’ve been a fan of Guillermo del Toro since I took home the film Chronos one night from my video store. Since then, I haven’t missed anything he’s done, and look forward eagerly to each new project. When I heard that he was taking on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, I was delighted. The classic monsters have…
Tag: oscar isaac
Drive (2011) – Nicolas Winding Refn
It’s taken me a while to get around to watching Ryan Gosling in Drive, I’m not sure what was holding me back, but I finally settled into this one, and I have to admit, I really dug it. First off, let’s mention the cast that surrounds Gosling in this film, there’s not an actor that…
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) – Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson
With Into the Spider-Verse, Sony proved they could do an animated Spider-Man movie right. They shifted the focus to Mile Morales (Shameik Moore) and let this beloved character shine, while also paying homage to the classic web-head and a multiverse of iterations. It also introduced us to another beloved spider, Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) setting both…
Robin Hood (2010) – Ridley Scott
Director Ridley Scott does away with the romp and romantic adventure that has permeated the Robin Hood myth down through the ages, and through a number of onscreen iterations to tell a more historical-based version of the tale. He packs it with stars, but the lack of derring-do may have kept audiences away, who knew…
Dune (2021) – 4K Review
Warner Brothers made sure they started my 2022 right by getting a 4K copy of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune into my hands to blow my mind. One of my favorite films of the year, this disc is a that you’re going to want to put on anytime you want to demo the beauty and the sharpness…
TIFF 2021: Dune dir. Denis Villeneuve
Magnificent. Triumphant. THIS is the movie I saw in my mind’s eye when I first read Dune in 1984 when I was anticipating the Lynch film (which I love for its own reasons). The visual aesthetic, the sound and production design, the score (I swear Hans Zimmer isn’t the only one throwing a few nods…
Ex Machina (2014) – Alex Garland
Alex Garland wrote and directed this stunning film, his first feature, that explores the concepts of Artificial Intelligence and the desire to live and survive. When a young programmer, Caleb (Domhall Gleeson) wins a contest to spend a week at his boss, Nathan’s (Oscar Isaac), remote estate, he loves the idea, when Nathan reveals that…
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
A space age fairy tale. No matter the themes, social commentary or underpinnings we wish to assign the Skywalker Saga, culminating with the release of Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars has always been a space age fairy tale – there are princesses (turned general), knights (both good and bad), evil lords, fortresses,…
Annihilation (2018): Blu-Ray Review
Releasing from Paramount Pictures to blu-ray and DVD today is Annihilation a slow burn of a science fiction film from director Alex Garland. Based, subjectively, on the trilogy of novels by Jeff VanderMeer, it’s a gorgeous looking film A strange, possibly extra-terrestrial incursion in a swamp in Florida has claimed an untold number of teams…
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) – Bryan Singer
There’s probably a good, or at least a passable story somewhere amongst the mutants, Singer as a director has done some nice work with Marvel’s X-Men franchise in the past, but this time, it just feels like too much flash, and no substance. To say the visual effects super-saturate this film is an understatement….
The Mind Reels 