“Live and die on this day” Struggling to find meaning in a life of solitude by punishing himself to self-exile in a desolate world caught between the pristine white backdrop of untouched snow and the turbulent mass of flesh populating it as a refuge from decent society, Ottway (Liam Neeson) wonders if the time has [...]

“He could dance a dance with that car” Let me preface this review by acknowledging the fact I have no love for the sport of racing. I realize the amount of physical duress and athleticism it takes to do what these men and women do at insane speeds, but I can never bring myself to [...]

“It’s just chasing shadows” Is it bad that the first thing to pop in my head after loving the gothic atmosphere of James Watkins‘ The Woman in Black was how boring Susan Hill‘s source novel must be? I can’t stop thinking Anne Rice-type bloat with flowery, dark vocabulary lulling you to sleep before the next [...]

“They will not stop until you feed them” After making a boatload of money—that’s the equivalent to one hundred millions dollars if you didn’t know—Journey to the Center of the Earth was almost guaranteed a sequel. Proving they could bring the fictional worlds of Jules Verne to life and somehow make it relevant to a [...]

“Bullets whipping past my tail” Much like 2010′s Coyote Falls brought Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner back to the big screen in 3D computer form, 2012 reintroduces us to venerable favorites Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd in Daffy’s Rhapsody. Using the 1953 ode from Warren Foster and Michael Maltese with music by Billy May—in [...]

“Why do you always seem so surprised that I talk to the guests?” It’s rare to see an asthmatic this side of The Goonies, but something about a young, petite blonde puffing her inhaler in a horror flick reliant on making her scared enough to gulp air adds a little flavor. Fearless in her desire [...]

“No one gets dibs on the mountain guide” I feel really bad for Canada now that the adventure it holds for young Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) and his mother (Jane Wheeler) will never quite live up to the boy’s quick little Journey to the Center of the Earth. Perhaps it can offer something in the [...]

“Don’t tell me the jive session has beat off without baby!” With the likes of His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, and Bringing Up Baby, it may seem odd that my first foray into Howard Hawks‘ oeuvre would be the screwball comedy Ball of Fire. Considering I’m criminally behind on catching up with [...]

“Oh, God. There’s a deer in the car.” If not for the cast list, I would treat Steven Soderbergh‘s Haywire as the newest entry to the experimental, off-the-beaten path section of his oeuvre. Without mentioning the larger scale Che—which is quite possibly his least mainstream film of the aughts—this quiet actioner fits right in as [...]