Movie Reviews
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By Sandra Olmsted
In director Fede Alvarez’s remake of Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult classic, Mia (Jane Levy), a heroin addict, David (Shiloh Fernandez), her brother, and Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), his new girlfriend, get the big idea to seclude themselves and a couple friends in a cabin in the woods so that Mia can kick her habit cold turkey. Since Olivia (Jessica Lucas) is a nurse and Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) an academic, it seems they’ve made an intelligent plan.
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The Sapphires: A Reel Gem!
The Sapphires are an Australian singing group in the 1960s.
By Sandra Olmsted
The Sapphires, director Wayne Blair’s debut feature, isn’t flawless, but, unlike the cursed Hope Diamond, The Sapphires brings only joy. Based on the true story of four Aboriginal girls with incredible singing voices, this ebullient film navigates Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), Julie (Jessica Mauboy) and Kay (Shari Sebbens)’s rise above the race and gender discrimination of Australia and the 1960s.
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The Croods: Good, But A Bit Conflicted
By Sandra Olmsted
Although the interdependence of Neanderthals and early modern man is disputed, the director Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders’ beautifully animated film, The Croods, makes a good case for this alliance. As the last remaining family group from a band Neanderthals picked off by natural selection and bad luck, The Croods rely on timid mottos like “Fear keeps us alive” and “Never not be afraid” spouted regularly by the patriarch Grug (voice of Nicolas Cage) but also very intrepidly procures food in the opening sequences. Aside from suggesting that Neanderthals invented football, their Hail-Mary-Pass hunting trip is so well rehearsed and practiced that the Croods’ survival should be assured.
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Incredible Burt Wonderstone: Little More Just Slight of Hand
by Sandra Olmsted
In director Don Scardino’s The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, two bullied and geeky boys are saved by the wonder of magic and begin a partnership that carries them far. They also get the best revenge because when they grown up, Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) become a rich and famous Las Vegas magic attraction.
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Jack the Giant Slayer: Giant Fun
By Sandra Olmsted
The opening of director Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Slayer is a homage to the Hollywood Golden Age adaptations with sequences that directly connect the film with the textual version of the familiar fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk. The same sequence connects the young Jack, the son of a serf, with young Princess Isabelle because each has a parent reading their child the myth of the giants who live in the clouds but had once come to destroy the earth. Ten years later, Jack (Nicholas Hoult), a noble young man, orphaned by the plague, has been sent to town to sell a horse and cart by his uncle.
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Warm Bodies Offers Hearts and Monsters
by Sandra Olmsted
Why are so many monster movies and horror films released around Valentine’s Day? Is it because so many of them are bad, and bad films are usually release in late winter and early spring when fewer people get out to the movies? Or do monster movies and horror films allow for romance?
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