Category Archives: Movies

Movies in Theaters and on our TV

Weird Al Yankovic & UHF at the Paramount

Weird Al Yankovic taking questions from the audience after the movie. Picture courtesy of this nice Austinite. The Alamo Drafthouse is the gold-standard for going to the movies, not this overpriced Yuppie upstart. Last night they continued to prove it with … Continue reading

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2010 in 2010

An interesting little look back/contrast on what we thought the future would be like back in 1984 through this sequel to Kubrick-Clarke’s odd original 2001. It’s certainly an Eighties movie with its greater emphasis on action (relatively more compared to … Continue reading

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Drag Me To Hell

Sam Raimi proves he still can do a humorous Horror-Action movie after spending about a decade on Spider-Man which was like all contemporary superhero franchises, it had diminishing returns with every sequel; in his defense, he did a  better job … Continue reading

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Avatar

James Cameron has rightfully taken the Sci-Fi/Fantasy mantle away from George Lucas with his latest film. Maybe it can be a shared title with Peter Jackson for the Rings trilogy. I was more excited to see him working with Sigourney … Continue reading

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Sixteen Candles 25 years later

Last month I took Somara to this revered film at Alamo Ritz for the theater’s monthly celebration of Girlie Night. (Yeah, I know, this story is not very timely in light of when we went and how recent John Hughes’ … Continue reading

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Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3-D

Disney re-released these two awesome movies in digital 3-D, probably to build up excitement for Toy Story 3 which is coming out next Summer. I didn’t care about the studio’s motivations, I was itching to see these flicks again in … Continue reading

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District 9

This is a demonstration of Science Fiction done well. It’s a story about a fantastic situation with amazing technology as the backdrop and how the characters react to it, not the other way around. If a movie doesn’t plausibly handle … Continue reading

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Julie & Julia

Normally, this is the kind of movie I pass on, especially if it’s directed by the Queen of Estrogen…Nora Ephron. Now before my e-mail and/or comments are filled up with angry messages about me being a misogynist, I always enjoy … Continue reading

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Up

I’m glad I saw one movie this Summer that had substance triumph over style successfully. We live an era when Hollywood obsesses over selling more licensed crap instead of checking to see if the story is any good. There are … Continue reading

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The Star Trek prequel Paramount passed on…

…which wasn’t much worse than J. J. Abrams’ version. 

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Star Trek

Four years ago I said the big two franchises were damaged so the opportunity was ripe for another to step forth and pluck the crown from the gutter. Well Hollywood didn’t rise to the challenge as expected, it did its … Continue reading

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Watchmen

Next to The Lord of the Rings and Dune, Watchmen is probably the hardest story to ever bring to film. Heck, after the rumors involving Terry Gilliam directing in 1989, I lost track and figured no one would seriously try, … Continue reading

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The Hidden Fortress

Film geeks are compelled to mention this famous Japanese movie whenever there are discussions about Star Wars. Somara rented it recently which blew my mind. Blockbuster? A foreign film section? In Pflugerville? International around here usually means it comes in … Continue reading

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Enchanted

It figures that Disney would find a way to get one more hit from their dried-up well of formulaic princess stories. Anyone with a little girl at home already knows the premise: the sweet princess Giselle is sent to the … Continue reading

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Journey to the Center of the Earth 2008

PS3 experiment number two (in using it as a surrogate for satellite/video rentals) was the umpteenth remake of the Jules Verne novel. Instead of following the book and setting it in contemporary times, Verne’s work is used as a travelguide … Continue reading

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