Return to Oz: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - In 1939, the film business was revolutionized by The Wizard of Oz, which still stands out today as a magnificent film. I grew up watching it probably once a month as a kid mostly because my parents refused to subscribe to cable and we had it recorded on a VHS, so my familiarity with it is great. I also grew up watching the quasi-sequel to the original film. It borrowed elements from the series of books that originally inspired the Oz adventures, but to call this an actual sequel might be too much of a leap. Continuing with my interest in revisiting some of the films that I grew up with, I managed to apprehend a copy of this film and finally got to re-watch it.

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The Adventures of Tintin: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Back in 1981, Steven Spielberg made a film called Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was a huge success. Someone told him that the movie reminded them of The Adventures of Tintin, a popular French comic series. Spielberg hadn't heard of it, but looked into it and started reading them. They really captured his imagination and one day he hoped to make a Tintin movie himself. Of course, sometimes it takes a long time for a dream to come to fruition, even if you're one of the biggest directors in the world. Though, sometimes it seems that the wait is well worth it. This is one of those cases.

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The Three Musketeers: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Growing up as a child, there was always something special about the lore around the Three Musketeers. I can't even recall what it was that I thought was cool about them, but the idea of 'one-for-all-and-all-for-one' resonated me nonetheless. They were a team of swordsmen, who were looking out for each other rather than simply being a lone hero out on a conquest involving swords, blood, women, and booty. Truthfully speaking, I've never read the original novel by Alexandre Dumas, but I've been more than familiar with the story itself through various other mediums. This latest re-interpretation is one that seeks to create a film franchise out of the story, which is hardly surprising, given that there would potentially be a number of characters for audience members to latch on to, but unfortunately, it looks as though they've failed in getting this franchise off to a running start.

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Shipwrecked: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - I can imagine that few of you reading this will have ever heard of this film, or if you happen to have stumbled upon it via Google, maybe you were searching it out specifically. In any event, if you're a faithful Sour Grapes Winery reader, Shipwrecked stands out as something of a special piece of memorabilia, as it was the first film that I ever saw in a theatre. My parents had managed to get free tickets to an advanced screening to the film and as I came from a large family, going to the cinema was not something that was regular, let alone possible, for my parents to afford. Later when the film came out on VHS, my parents purchased it and I re-watched the film countless times, memorizing every line of the dialogue. It occurred to me recently that it had been probably at least 14-15 years since I had seen the film, so I sought out a DVD copy on Amazon and managed to order it with the intention of reviewing it, which is where I find myself today.

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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Jack Sparrow is back, but this time without a few of his old friends, and that is to his credit. In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, we are re-introduced to pirate lore with Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) taking an even more prominent role as the film's central focus. Few of the old faces are here with the exception of Gibbs (Kevin McNally) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), though we are given the fearless Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and Angelica (Penélope Cruz).

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