Saturday, April 16, 2011

This Has Been A Good Spring For Science Fiction And Fantasy Films

For the most part...
 

Just when you think there's no new way to spin a cloak and dagger action pic along comes Hanna.  Think Grimms' Fairy Tales meets The Three Days of the Condor.  The interplay between image, motion, sound, and music is unlike anything I've experienced recently, thanks no doubt to The Chemical BrothersRoger Ebert explains it better, as usual...  Fable.


The Adjustment Bureau reminds us that Matt Damon really is pretty talented.  Emily Blunt does a very fine turn.  Almost any movie adapted from a Phillip K. Dick story is worth a try; this one delivers.  Fate.


Source Code features Jake Gyllenhaal, a much more human Vera Farmiga than we saw in the unsatisfactory Up In The Air, and a totally dreamy Michelle Monaghan.  It started out far fetched, got a little weirder, then became engaging and emotionally true.  Second chances.


Okay, so Sucker Punch was as emotionally bereft as it was visually striking, but it's visual strikingness was pretty damn striking.  Image over substance.


Just kidding!  Battle: Los Angeles was not so good, but it made Roger Ebert's hilarious review possible.  Action-packed action, with an extra helping of action.



Spring Suffers A Setback

Our patio the morning of 16 April 2011...


Spring was here, summer was just around the corner, I swear it.  It's like some Twilight Zone version of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, except I'm not Peter and I don't want it to snow.