Hellboy II: The Golden Army would seem to boast the same director & writer as Hellboy, the 2004 adaptation of Mike Mignola’s graphic novels. Yet Guillermo del Toro has since undergone a metamorphosis from respected but relatively unknown genre geek (working on Mimic and Blade II) to widely acclaimed art house auteur on the strength [...]

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When I was a little girl, a relative gave me a beautiful book filled with illustrations of unicorns and blank facing pages to write on. I wrote a story around each illustration, trying to tie all the different unicorns and locations together. When I was older, I read this story to some girls I babysat. [...]

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Everyone panned the Matrix sequels and groaned at Speed Racer, but it’s not that bad. At the very least, there’s value in seeing the eye-popping art direction, even if the flimsy story doesn’t grip you. With V for Vendetta, the Animatrix, and the collective experience of John Goodman, Christina Ricci and Susan Sarandon behind their [...]

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Prince Caspian promises you that everything you know is about to change. (Forever!) Certainly this must refer to Narnia, indeed a changed place since our last visit in 2005’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Disney’s life-action, big-budget adaptations of C.S. Lewis’s classics of children’s literature also reach for an more mature audience this [...]

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The DC animated universe is experiencing growing pains. While its television series, beginning with Batman: The Animated Series in the early ’90s, have always attracted older viewers as well as the kiddies, the producers are now focusing their efforts almost exclusively on teenage and adult fans. The PG-13 rating for Justice League: The New Frontier [...]

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Based on the book “Northern Lights” (marketed as “The Golden Compass” in the US) by Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass features a star-studded supporting cast and newcomer Dakota Blue Richards as the crafty main character, Lyra. Pullman’s books are some of my favorites, and the Golden Compass stands out in the His Dark Materials trilogy [...]

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From director Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers), we’re introduced to a new visual masterpiece, Paprika. It’s set following a researcher named Astuko Chiba, who uses a newly created device that allows the user to enter people’s dreams, and treat them. Chiba uses this device outside of her office to illegally treat patients, under her [...]

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The all-CGI, 3D release Beowulf kicks off the holiday fantasy season with a bang. What other force on earth can draw together English Lit majors and frat boys gawking at Angelina Jolie’s naked boobs? Everyone’s anxious to see the spectacle of an all-CGI movie. We’ve been disappointed in the past, but we’re still hopeful. We [...]

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Daywatch, the sequel to 2004’s fantastical Nightwatch, is a sumptuous visual feast with a decidedly non-Hollywood feel, despite blockbuster-proportioned special effects. That isn’t to say it’s anti-Hollywood, it just puts on display a different aesthetic.
The film picks up where Nightwatch left off, following the series’ hard-working hero, Anton (Konstantin Khabensky). Anton is one of the [...]

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I wanted to see this film in the theater, and I wish I had. It would have been worth the money. I say this because it was something of a surprise. The previews made me expect something, I don’t know, louder. Bigger. Instead what I got was stranger than I had been led to think [...]

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