The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - If you watch movies enough, you might begin to think that the only people with stories worth telling are younger people around the ages of 21-35. Very few leading characters are intended to be outside of this range, but occasionally, one will see an older fellow like Liam Neeson still being cast. As for women, forget it. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a bit of an anomaly, in that, it is a film that focuses almost entirely on people that much of the film business has done its best to forget about. Sure, there is Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame, but his story isn't the focus of this film. To be quite honest, it was entirely refreshing to learn about characters who are facing different challenges than most people my age, but what was revealing was how universal many of the challenges they faced really were. I found myself relating to them in many ways, even if most of them were 40 years my senior.

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Wrath of the Titans: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - You may have heard of a film that came out about two years ago, Clash of the Titans. The film is probably most famous for being the poster child example of why it can be a terrible mistake to convert a standard release film into 3D release so close to its original release date. The visuals were absolutely brutal and really detracted from the story, which admittedly wasn't that great to begin with, but it was made worse by distractingly sloppy 3D effects. And despite being a film that was disparaged mercilessly by the critics, the film accumulated a significant amount of box office success, leading it to share a dubious place in film history with the Transformers franchise, as being terrible films that still somehow managed to deceive the masses that they were somehow worth seeing. As a result of that financial success, a sequel was advanced, Wrath of the Titans and apparently we can also expect the Revenge of the Titans in the coming years as well. The ironic element to this franchise is that it is actually quite light on the presence of Titans. They show up a little more in the Wrath of the Titans, but even then, it is somewhat minimal. However, I digress.

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Arthur Christmas: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - You know what I never thought I needed? Another Santa movie. Everyone thinks that it's a great idea, but there are only so many ways you can adjust the Santa legend to be “cool.” Remember when Tim Allen found out that being Santa Claus was contagious? That worked, but only once. Or what about Santa having a brother named Fred? That didn't pan out so great. I think it's hard to try and make such an old tale fresh again, and Arthur Christmas gives it another try.

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Rango: A film review

- Vancouver, British Columbia - I don't know if you've been paying much attention to movies lately, but animated features are in. Pixar and Dreamworks Animation are combating for top spot, while other studios are still finding their footing. 5 of the 10 top grossing films of 2010 were animated, and every animated film was released in 3D. One could argue a connection. Though, as much as studios think 3D has “caught on” and plan to continue the release of 3D features, animated or otherwise, I actually have noticed a trend that audiences are bemoaning it rather than reveling in it. Can they say that it has become popular if they're hardly giving audiences a choice? If everything is in 3D, doesn't that spoil the novelty of the big event movies where it's justified? What about all of those movies where it just looks awful? I think we've seen more of those than films where it works.

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