Who is Michael Clayton? Several characters in the movie are wondering about that, not least of all Michael Clayton himself. What he is, job description-wise in any case, is a ‘fixer’. As a cross between an investigator and a lawyer, he tries to find information and make arrangements to help the cliënts of the law firm he works for.… Read the rest
Gosh, does Beowulf ever love the sound of his own name. If a drinking game was based on this movie – a sip for every time the name is mentioned – it would end in first aid with a case of alcohol poisoning.… Read the rest
A boy promises his undeserving sweetheart a piece from a fallen star and crosses a wall to find it, landing himself in a fantasy land with flying pirates, evil witches and a dying monarch. When the fallen star turns out to be a girl, hormonal imbalances ensue.… Read the rest
I am not sure what it is about animated films that gets me involved in the story so easily. Even corny sentiment easily chokes me up in this form. Maybe the suspension of disbelief makes it easier to get lost in the narrative or maybe it’s just the simple stories and often childlike cast with their usually big, teary eyes (as parodied by the cat in Shrek 2).… Read the rest
Yet another third entry into a franchise this year. Shrek learns about responsibility and fatherhood and we learn through him. Bless. I must admit I love the world of Shrek; the random assortment of characters from all sorts of fairytales and legends being ripped off, thrown together and used for cheap laughs.… Read the rest
You don’t really hold out much hope for a flopped prequel you picked up from a bargain bin. And it was one that has a troubled history at that. Two very different versions of the movie were made after the studio decided that there was not nearly enough action in the first.… Read the rest
Unlike Spiderman 3 – which I had seen the day before – Pirates 3 lives up to its predecessors. But before I start singing its praises, I should get the negatives out of the way. First of all, it suffers from the same delusion most blockbusters do: it thinks that you can never get enough of frantic action and things blowing up real good.… Read the rest
Set ’em up, knock ’em down. In Severance, a group of colleagues from an English weapons manufacturing company head to a far off, woody region for a teambuilding exercise and naturally get stranded there. Then one-by-one they start to get offed in horrible ways, for reasons I won’t spoil here.… Read the rest
Spiderman – with Extra Cheese. The story: Parker, Osborn and Watson work through their issues with each other while Sandman and Venom get on their case.
I had heard a lot of bad things about Spiderman 3, but still I could not conceive that the same people who made the good first Spiderman movie and the great second one, could make a really mediocre film.… Read the rest
It is one of the basic kids’ fantasies: things coming to life when no one is watching, except – in this case – one bewildered bystander. And the idea of a museum where the exhibits suddenly become animated, is an interesting one – if not a new one.… Read the rest
