The Buzz: movie reviews

Clocking in at just over three hours, the new King Kong epic by Peter Jackson may drudge up flashbacks of the Lord of the Rings theater experience. It is definitely sprawling, imaginative, and relentless in its pursuit to entertain and pay tribute to the original King Kong . Successfully, the crew tried to do everything in this one film. Action, romance, laughter, tears. All the cliche Hollywood movie emotions are jam-packed into three hours. They certainly pulled no punches. When I saw it, I was sitting in a beautiful new theater, about three or four rows from the front. The screen was not IMAX, but it took up almost my entire scope of vision. That's what makes a movie like this fun. It is designed to be enjoyed in a movie theater, with your friends, with a mouth stuffed with popcorn. And, it delivers that and more. The thing that surprised me most about this film, besides the incredible length, was the depth of creativity. The variety of dangerous creatures, and varying elemen...

Okay, I only have a vague recollection of reading the classic C.S. Lewis series way back in 8th grade. I was, however, a fan of the series back then. I thought the characters were interesting, the fantasy was enjoyable, and the Christian symbolism was great. I will also admit that I, on a regular occassion, read various writings of C.S. Lewis just for enjoyment. I think he was a fantastic Christian thinker. His thoughts are still relevent and on the edge of Christian thinking in some regards. When this film came out, I was not at all surprised that they had decided to do a version of this classic. With Lord of the Rings being a hit, and the film technology pushing special effects further, it just seemed like the right time. I thought the girl playing Lucy was right on the money as the adorable youngest sibling. The ice queen is compelling, and obviously the devil character. Aslan was portrayed in accurate reflection of the books. Although I enjoyed Liam Neeson's performance, I cou...

Recently I watched the mid-90's comedy schlock, Jingle All The Way . Oddly, this one has become a quasi-Schwarzenegger classic since 1996. It seemed so out-0f-place for Arnold to play the hapless suburbanite father. Bizarrely, this fim choice was a good one for the future Governator. The cast is great. Future Anakin Skywalker, Jake Loyd, plays the rejected young child. A moderately washed-up Sinbad is the "humorous" and villainous sidekick. And, Phil Hartman plays a next door neighbor on the prowl for a new woman. And, if you care, SNL veteran Chris Parnell shows up in one scene as a young toy store employee. Casting gets an A+. As I sat and absorbed this Christmas schlock, I couldn't help but notice the overall tone of this film. It was obviously created as a Christmas cineplex cash cow. I could just imagine scores of family moviegoers at the local mall lining up to take their snot-nosed kids into the theatre to see this one. The writing is cheesey, and sort of abov...

Bill Murray is right on the mark as computer company owner Don Johnston in the film Broken Flowers . I went to see this film when it came out with some friends. Admittedly, I wanted to see it for many days before we saw it. So, I was looking forward to it. I hadn't heard much about the plot. I only knew Bill Murray was in it. As I stated in an earlier blog, it's easy to take Bill Murray for granted because he's so good. Broken Flowers may very well be my favorite performance of his to date. Of course, it's tough to rate it higher than Lost In Translation , which is close. It's hard to rate these performances on any kind of fair scale. They're both different, and beautiful performances. The magic is in the subtlety. Now, down to business. This film isn't for everyone. I don't even know if it's a comedy or a drama. I certainly laughed out loud in several spots. I was never deeply moved, but this movie does have a weird cerebral depth that has you w...

I had the privilege of watching Steven Speilberg's brand new version of War of the Worlds just the other day. We all remember the weirdness that happened when this film came out. Tom Cruise began going insane, going crazy on Oprah and embarassing Speilberg. He got into a verbal fight with Matt Lauer on Good Morning America, or one of those morning shows. I actually got up early to watch that one! People were worried about Cruise's mental well-being, and everyone was asking questions about his feirce loyalty to the Scientology cult. And, Cruise was squirted in the face with a water gun at the London premiere of War of the Worlds, and handled it with surprising grace and poise. Then, who could forget the whole Katie Holmes publicity mess? I got sick of hearing about it. With Tom Cruise providing a one-man walking circus, it seemed like War of the Worlds was sabatoged and upstaged from the beginning. Speilberg was hesitant to continue supporting Tom, even though WOTW was about ...

Hello everyone! My name is Evan. This is my new movie review blog! I have a personal blog, which you can find at this address: http://iamevan.blogspot.com I have decided to make this blog because many music/movie reviews end up on my personal blog, and it's time to expand to another address. I want to separate my personal experiences from my shallow entertainment life. These reviews are just my opinion, and low budget. I hope you enjoy it!