In his Oscar nominated performance as Captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp swanned through the first Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) with enough wicked zest to make you forget the film was a bloated crock. The flab extends to the overlong (two hours and thirty minutes) sequel, but mostly in the dawdling setup. A pirate could braid his […]
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Guy Ritchie’s adaptation is lively, colourful and genuinely funny – making only judicious tweaks to the original, it’s thankfully not a whole new world. The scimitars are out for Disney’s live-action Aladdin, what with the enduring fondness for the original (not least Robin Williams’ Genie) and the botched unveiling of Will Smith as his successor […]
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The “Harry Potter” prequel “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is a big-budget, holiday-timed blockbuster about … racism, which may not exactly be the joyful, escapist entertainment families are looking for this time of year. Certainly, J.K. Rowling’s entire literary and cinematic empire is based on a foundation of serious, moralistic themes, explored through an […]
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HBO’s adaptation of George RR Martin’s fantasy series begins with an action-packed episode that introduces the huge cast. Spoiler alert: Don’t read on if you haven’t watched the first episode of Game of Thrones on Sky Atlantic. For the purposes of this blog we are also going to (hopefully) try and avoid book spoilers as well. It’s […]
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The Japanese animation director Isao Takahata has ever forged his own path over the course a half-century of work. A legendary perfectionist, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli (also the home of the great Hayao Miyazaki) has broken molds by, for example, creating an animated feature completely lacking in any “fantastic” element, the tender 1991 “Only Yesterday.” His […]
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At last the full arc is visible, and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy comes into final focus. I admire it more as a whole than in its parts. The second film was inconclusive, and lost its way in the midst of spectacle. But “Return of the King” dispatches its characters to their destinies with […]
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