A self-taught critic and genuine movie geek
There seemed to be fewer options for Bad this year, but also fewer options for Good, so I’m not entirely sure that this is a good trend. I hated to pick on movies like, say, Carrie, which were disappointing but at least seemed to be making every effort to be good films. I wouldn’t exactly go as far as an A for effort, but it seemed mean to actively pan them. Read on to see who the winners (and losers) were:
Continue reading “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, 2013 Edition”
While ‘realistic’ isn’t going to be one of the adjectives featured on the Blu-ray cover, the story of the 47 Ronin actually is real. It does not, however, involve demons, haunted woods, or people turning into dragons, as this movie would have you believe. It also didn’t take place in ancient Japan, despite what the opening voice-over says. The eighteenth century was a while back, admittedly, but it won’t count as ancient for quite some time yet.
Now it’s easier to see how they managed to pad the book out to three movies — they not only added in Legolas, they wedged in a romantic subplot… and a very unlikely one, too, let me add. Of course, any overt romance in a Tolkien novel is unlikely, so whenever you see it in a movie adaptation you can be pretty sure it was added in later by command of some studio executive.
Continue reading “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”