Big Hero 6 (2014) is an adaptation of a Marvel Comics title but the filmmakers thoroughly transform it into a Disney feature, complete with issues of loss and family at the center of the creation of a student superhero team, with the spark of Pixar in its visual invention and knowing wit. The comic book […]
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010) turns a classic horror movie trope– the good looking group of city kids tormented by grimy rednecks and hermits in the backwoods – and turns it inside out, creating not so much a horror comedy as a comedy where the clueless characters think they’re in a horror film and […]
3:10 to Yuma (2007) – Delmer Dave’s original 1957 3:10 to Yuma, based on the short story by Elmore Leonard, is a superior western: understated, smart, visually modest and dramatically surprising. James Mangold’s remake is a fine film its own right. It is respectful of the story and the situation and then it goes its […]
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) is exactly as the title promises. Set in the margins of the original Star Wars, it stars starring Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, an orphaned survivor living on the fringes of Empire-controlled territory. Part scavenger opportunist and part scheming survivor, she’s been raised in hiding by a revolutionary […]
Firefly: Complete Series, Joss Whedon’s short-lived foray into sci-fi television, was (purposely or not) sabotaged by Fox when it finally premiered on network TV. The 14 episodes (that’s counting the movie-length pilot as a single episode) were rearranged by the network brain trust, completely disrupting the carefully constructed narrative that he wove through the episodes […]
Serenity (2005) – Joss Whedon’s short-lived TV series Firefly (available on Netflix and Hulu, and reviewed at Stream On Demand here) lasted a mere 14 episodes. Not nearly enough for the fans. So Whedon took it to the big screen and made a lively, humor-laden science fiction western. Nathan Fillion (Castle) is the former rebel soldier […]
Alan Tudyk is the funniest performer that most people have never heard of. To many fans, he’s simply Wash from Joss Whedon’s beloved but short-lived TV series Firefly and the big screen continuation Serenity, but he’s also a busy voice actor and the funniest elements of many of movie and TV show: Death at a […]
