Fantasy

Discover for yourself Where the Wild Things Are

  • Title: Where the Wild Things Are
  • IMDB: link

where-the-wild-things-are-posterThere will no doubt be critics and film professors who dismiss Where the Wild Things Are for it’s lack of story and structure. There will also be those who find immediate emotional attachment to this primal story of a child struggling with a world he can’t control.

Although I do have some qualms about the film mainly dealing with its length (and I thought it could use a bit more polish plot-wise), and didn’t have the emotional attachment to the story I expected, I will freely admit the film is worth a long look.

Aside from the bookends of his normal life, the entire movie takes place in a world Max (Max Records) discovers while trying to escape problems at home he can neither deal with nor articulate. In running away Max discovers a refuge on island of monsters (voiced by James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper, and Lauren Ambrose).

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

  • Title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  • IMDB: link

Being a Harry Potter fan and a film snob is not easy. Though Chris Columbus’ films were decent, the only adaptation that really worked was 2004’s The Prisoner of Azkaban. With that single concession, we the faithful have just had to sit around and take it from Warner Bros. as they haphazardly adapted the books into competent but lacking films.

On various occasions, I admit, I day-dreamt of getting that phone call offering me the job of directing the next HP feature – which I’d nail and rock the pants off of, obviously. But having just seen The Half-Blood Prince, I’m shocked but very pleased to say that my services were not at all needed on this sixth movie.

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Inkheart

  • Title: Inkheart
  • IMDB: link

inkheart-posterHow much do you like fantasy films aimed at kids? That’s really the only question to ask yourself when considering seeing Inkheart. If you enjoyed similar films such as The NeverEnding Story, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Eragon, you might want to give it a chance. Maybe.

Brendan Fraser stars as a good-hearted but slightly dimwitted hero (hmm, sound familiar?) Mo Folchart. Years ago, accidently, Mo discovered he had the ability to read characters, objects and events out of books. That’s kinda cool, right? But there is a catch – whenever something, or someone, comes out of a book something, or someone, must take its place.

Years have passed with Mo hiding his gift from his daughter (Eliza Bennett) and searching for a copy of a book which holds something precious to them both locked deep inside. Things come to a head when characters from the book finally catch up to the “Silvertongue” with their own demands on how he should use his gift.

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Prince Caspian

  • Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
  • IMDB: link

“You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember.”

chronicles-narnia-prince-caspian-posterThe film begins with the exile of Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), the rightful heir to the throne of Narnia.  His uncle (Sergio Castellitto), whose wife has finally given him a male heir, takes the opportunity to seize control of the kingdom.

In his flight Caspian blows the magic horn (your joke here) which calls the “great kings and queens of the past” back to Narnia.  And so the Pevensie children, Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes), are magically transported from a London subway to the beaches of Narnia.

Narnia is quite different than they remember as thousands of years have past and the magical animals and creatures now live in fear of the human invaders which have driven them into seclusion in the woods.  Now Peter and the rest of his clan must help put Caspian back on the throne and give back Narnia to the Narnians, that is if they can stop bickering among themselves.

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Speed Racer

  • Title: Speed Racer
  • IMDB: link

speed-racer-poster

I’m always looking for reasons to love the Wachowskis.  I am one of the few and faithful who have stuck with the Matrix through all of its sequels, and still love it.  But then V For Vendetta came along, and if you know how I reacted to it, then you know that my faith in the duo was thrown into doubt.  With all that in mind, I was excited for Speed Racer – a silly cartoon adaptation that couldn’t be bogged down by politics or philosophy, all it had to do was be superficially awesome.  If the Wachowskis could pull this one off, it might finally justify my love for the writer/directors.  Did I find that validation?

Nope.

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