Nimona (2023)
A new hero takes shape.
Filmmaker(s): Troy Quane, Nick Bruno
A knight framed for a tragic crime teams with a scrappy, shape-shifting teen to prove his innocence.
X2: X-Men United (2003)
The time has come for those who are different to stand united.
Filmmaker(s): Bryan Singer
Professor Charles Xavier and his team of genetically gifted superheroes face a rising tide of anti-mutant sentiment led by Col. William Stryker. Storm, Wolverine and Jean Grey must join their usual nemeses—Magneto and Mystique—to unhinge Stryker's scheme to exterminate all mutants.
08 Oct X2: X-Men United (2003)
Utterly Pedestrian I have enthusiastic hopes for big budget action pictures. That’s because the market is so crowded, and the viewing public so visually sophisticated that we know that some thought must go into these things. This is especially so when you are building a...
X-Men (2000)
Trust a few. Fear the rest.
Filmmaker(s): Bryan Singer
Two mutants, Rogue and Wolverine, come to a private academy for their kind whose resident superhero team, the X-Men, must oppose a terrorist organization with similar powers.
30 Sep X-Men (2000)
Missed a Chance One nice thing about this is the casting of McKellan and Stewart. Despite the latter’s adventures with the stupid StarTrek, he is an intelligent actor, as is McKellan. They tower over the amateurs in this film as their characters should. About bad...
29 Sep Wolfs (2024)
Sundance Sundown One of the advantages of age is that I’ve seen older films when they were new. If you consider film viewing as at least a craft — as I do — then it matters that you are able to bring the personal anchoring...
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Where will you be?
Filmmaker(s): Roland Emmerich
After years of increases in the greenhouse effect, havoc is wreaked globally in the form of catastrophic hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal waves, floods and the beginning of a new Ice Age. Paleoclimatologist Jack Hall tries to warn the world while also shepherding to safety his son, trapped in New York after the city is overwhelmed by the start of the new big freeze.
22 Sep The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Burned Books Why oh why do makers of bad films sometimes put a really good actor in a minor part? It just makes everything else seem cheap. In this case, Ian Holm has a few small scenes that anchor the film. He plays the part...
2012 (2009)
We Were Warned.
Filmmaker(s): Roland Emmerich
Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.
21 Sep 2012 (2009)
Foreground – Background When you make a film that is nothing but flavoured special effects, when you make the matter of those effects into a character, you have two decisions to make. The first is whether you are dealing with object or environment. This is...
Twisters (2024)
Chase. Ride. Survive.
Filmmaker(s): Lee Isaac Chung
As storm season intensifies, the paths of former storm chaser Kate Carter and reckless social-media superstar Tyler Owens collide when terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed. The pair and their competing teams find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.
25 Aug Twisters (2024)
Surrey with the Fringe on Top It might be enough to build a movie around special effects that don’t involve a fight or monsters. These usually fall into the catastrophe category. The key to that category it seems, is the noir necessity that the catastrophe...
The Instigators (2024)
Worst. Heist. Ever.
Filmmaker(s): Doug Liman
Rory and Cobby are unlikely partners thrown together for a heist. But when it goes awry, they team up to outrun police, backward bureaucrats, and a vengeful crime boss.
15 Aug The Instigators (2024)
Boston Underachievers Here’s what I think happened. These sorts of films are all about the characters, and some substantial part of that is either the skill of the actor, or whether the actor is more or less like the character. Willis, McQueen, Newman, Bogart, Wayne...
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
All the power in the universe can't change destiny
Filmmaker(s): David Twohy
After years of outrunning ruthless bounty hunters, escaped convict Riddick suddenly finds himself caught between opposing forces in a fight for the future of the human race. Now, waging incredible battles on fantastic and deadly worlds, this lone, reluctant hero will emerge as humanity's champion - and the last hope for a universe on the edge of annihilation.
03 Aug The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Three Women I go to opera now and then. Some people — I suppose — think that because much classical music is complex, so is opera. But there is a world of difference between a complex experience and a rich one. Opera is rich, and...
Total Recall (2012)
What Is Real?
Factory worker Doug Quaid takes a virtual mind-trip vacation with the Rekall company, opting for implanted memories of being a spy. When the procedure goes wrong, Quaid becomes a wanted man by the police and joins forces with a rebel fighter to stop the evil Chancellor Cohaagen.
