I enjoyed this a lot more than Part I which I found to be tedious and unengaging. This time the pace and excitement are unrelenting and occasionally spectacular.
All in Fantasy
Yôjirô Takita's “ASHURA”
This movie has some seriously arresting imagery: the upside-down floating castle, the castle’s gravity-defying maze-like passageways, the appearing/disappearing bridge to the spirit world, and a cataclysmic fire attack on Edo.
Scott Charles Stewart's PRIEST
How can you possibly resist a gritty and bloody post-apocalyptic alternate-history vampire movie starring Paul Bettany, Christopher Plummer, Karl Urban, and Brad (“Wormtongue”) Dourif?
Peter Greenaway's NIGHTWATCHING
At first I was afraid this was going be a film of a stage production but it evolves into a series of dramatic tableaux featuring extraordinary lighting, costumes, and emotional histrionics straight out of Rembrandt’s paintings.
Disney's TANGLED
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The characters are engaging, the story is clever, and the animation is absolutely positively gorgeous, at times almost breathtaking in its use of glowing color.
Zack Snyder’s SUCKER PUNCH
Bullet point review:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
I’ve enjoyed previous Harry Potter movies but I found this one to be tedious, boring, and pretentious. For the first time I found Harry, Hermione, and Ron to be uninteresting and unengaging.
Terrence Malik's “TREE OF LIFE”
This is one of the most emotionally engaging films I’ve ever seen. I’m not completely sure why.
J.J. Abrams' SUPER 8
Back in my early days of reviewing films when my kids were growing up and still at home I created a special category called “Young People” where I placed movies that didn’t treat cinema kids like idiots or totally obsessed with sex and fart jokes.
Louis Leterrier's CLASH OF THE TITANS
I enjoyed this movie a lot but it could have been much better had more attention been devoted to character and story.
Henry Levin's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
This thoroughly enjoyable 1959 classic is a childhood favorite. Viewed again recently I was pleasantly surprised to see how enjoyable it remains.
Kenneth Branagh's THOR
I never paid much attention to Marvel comics when I was a kid; “Thor” always struck me as a third-string also-ran property forever in the shadows of the more popular Superman, Batman, or Fantastic Four. But no matter; this film is tricked out with production values and imagery that are first rate.
Paul W.S. Anderson's “RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE”
Basically, if you’re into really well-made sci-fi-action-zombie-post-acopalyptic-action-gorefests, this one’s for you.
Guillaume Iverne & Arthur Qwak's DRAGON HUNTERS
I was transfixed by this animated film, not because of the story — a traditional mix of family-oriented fantasy quest elements — but because of the astonishing artistic imagination on display throughout the film.
Ernie Barbarash's “CUBE ZERO”
I rather enjoyed this direct-to-video Canadian horror film.
Takashi Shimizu's REINCARNATION
This is one creepy movie!
Sylvester Stallone's THE EXPENDABLES
Team of over the hill mercenaries rescue damsel in distress in a tiny corrupt island based military dictatorship. In the process the island is reduced to smoking rubble and piles of corpses.
Val Guest's DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE
Val Guest’s businesslike direction and matter-of-fact approach to depicting extraordinary circumstances in a near-documentary style here yield a still-watchable and very entertaining thriller that takes place in London in the early 1960’s.
Park Chan Wook's THIRST
Plot summary:
* Devout priest volunteers for medical experiment
* Becomes lustful vampire as a result
* Sex/violence/building-hopping/tragedy/ensue
“Imaginarium” is an inventive and fun film that becomes more engrossing as it unfolds.