It’s lost some of its magic. There is too much green screen and visual effects, and almost no practical work when it comes to the dinosaurs, and it’s glaringly obvious. There’s no majesty when we see the dinosaurs now, because they don’t look real anymore. You can tell they are all done by VFX artists….
Tag: set pieces
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) – Chad Stahelski
The Wick-verse expands again with John Wick: Chapter 4 in a story that takes us from New York to Japan to Paris, and Keanu Reeves’ Wick is kicking ass all the way. Determined to reach the High Table will require that he return to the fold and be of service. But his target, the Marquis…
All Systems Red (2017) – Martha Wells
I absolutely loved Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. I will admit to be a little disappointed when I downloaded from the library to my e-reader and discovered it was only a novella, a preface if you will to the adventures to come. When I dug into the story, however, any doubts I had about it’s…
Thunderbolts* (2025) – Jake Schreier
Thunderbolts*, as a film, is a bold choice for Marvel. It’s also smaller and more… intimate doesn’t feel like the right word, for a Marvel film. That being said, it’s a big action movie for anyone else. With Jake Schreier helming this outing, and a script by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, we catch up…
The Visitor (1979) – Giulio Paradisi
The Visitor is a bizarre, so bad it comes around to be good sci-fi/horror film that is just bizarre. Its happenings are so strange, you can’t take your eyes off the screen, and like I said, it’s so bad, it’s actually good, in a really bad way. Aliens are fighting on the planet Earth. At…
Twisters (2024) – Lee Isaac Chung
I love Twister. Unabashedly. Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Cary Elwes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, some fun tunes, some solid (mostly) effects (cow!) and some great pacing and set pieces. So I was both excited and nervous when Twisters was announced. There’s some nice nods to the original film, and there’s some pretty easy character set-up. You…
Now You See Me (2013) – Louis Leterrier
What happens when you take Ocean’s 11 heist vibe and throw some magic at it? Well, you could come back with something like Now You See Me. While it doesn’t have all the star power of the Soderbergh film, Now You See Me is fairly entertaining and has some solid casting. Mark Ruffalo plays FBI…
Code of Silence (1985) – Andrew Davis
Chuck Norris stars in this 1985 actioner which is arguably some of his best work. Honestly, having just gotten through it, and without sounding too harsh, that’s not saying much. He may be a great athlete and martial artist, but his acting skills still aren’t great. Originally tooled as one of the many Dirty Harry…
6 Underground (2019) – Micheal Bay
Micheal Bay films can be very hit-and-miss, and when you factor in his almost seizure-inducing editing style you know the film is going to have a certain look and pacing, To be fair, there are Bay films I do enjoy, but unfortunately even with Ryan Reynolds exuding as much charm and humour as he can,…
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Book 2: Earth (2006) – The Secret of the Fire Nation (The Serpent’s Pass, and The Drill), and City of Walls and Secrets
The Serpent’s Pass, and the series’ following episode, The Drill were initially aired back to back as a Nickelodeon Special called The Secret of the Fire Nation. The first episode, The Serpent’s Pass, was written by Joshua Hamilton and one of the series creators’ Michael Dante DiMartino. This and the following episode first aired on…
The Mind Reels 