Originally published March 19, 2012 I didn’t have high expectations for this movie, even with an all-star cast of Christoph Waltz, Matthew Mcfadyen, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Milla Jovovich, Mads Mikkelsen, Logan Lerman, Orlando Bloom (in supreme supervillain mode, amped up to 11), or a cameo by Til Schweiger. It was a fun romp nonetheless.…
I wrote my final paper in my Senior Seminar on the effect of photographs on the war effort in Vietnam. I wanted to somehow include films – which gave me the excuse to watch movies for the next few months. When I did my initial research, Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter would show up…
What compelled me to watch the movie at CineVegas was Imagining Dante in Vegas: “Saint John of Las Vegas” Director Hue Rhodes. Having read Dante’s Inferno in-depth for Medieval English Lit, I was excited to see a modern-day interpretation of it on film. For an indie film, a lot of familiar stars were in it:…
The movie won for Best Original Score and Best Art Direction and was nominated for Best Picture (Hamlet won), Best Original Screenplay (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre won), and Best Film Editing (The Naked City won). I like knowing how a movie fits in the time period it was released. The plot is reminiscent…
I was interested in this film because Girls Aloud did a couple of songs on their soundtrack: “Theme to St Trinians” and “On My Way to Satisfaction.” Both were such great songs, I wanted to know how they worked within the context of the movie. I loved it, from beginning to end. I wasn’t sure…
Originally published September 29, 2009 Being an American of Asian descent and an avid student of classic Hollywood, Flower Drum Song was on my must-watch list for many years. It’s known as being the only musical meant for an all Asian American cast. Notice I didn’t hyphenate. Several of the characters were presented as Americans…
In 2004, I was contacted to assist in the promotion of – as well as providing content for HPWizardry.com (now defunct). This was one of the articles I submitted for it. Jo Rowling answered a question about a valid obsession sweeping this world she created with some very sound advice at the most recent Edinburgh…
I have come to accept that with book to movie adaptations, things will be tweaked, left out, or over-dramatized when they meant little to the plot of the book. The film version of Memoirs of a Geisha barely captured the spirit of the book, and there was plenty left out that could’ve been added to…
Originally published February 7, 2009 At 26, Drew Seeley is too old to be playing high school characters. Guess that comes with the territory of being signed to Disney, being Zac Efron’s singing voice in the first High School Musical and releasing your songs on every Disney soundtrack imaginable. Their disparity in ages kinda freaked…
Originally published May 8, 2009 I’m not going to lie. The only reason I watched this movie was that Daniel Henney was the male lead in the movie. The film was spoken primarily in Korean, with Henney speaking in English. The copy I got was subtitled in English. His chemistry with Uhm Jung-hwa (Min-Joon) was…
