Trance: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Oh Danny Boyle. What a fun filmmaker you are. Say what you like about the content or subject matter of his films, but the skill and storytelling power he demonstrates are first rate. I think Boyle has gotten to the point in his career where he has enough of a following where any movie he puts out is bound to at least make its budget back, like Kevin Smith or Michel Gondry. I have seen remarkably few of his films (with one of my brothers ready to break my kneecaps if I don’t get on 28 Days Later soon), but I will say that I really enjoyed Sunshine and love the palpable atmosphere in that film.

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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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X-Men: First Class: A film review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Big movie studios sure make a lot of mistakes, but they aren't completely stupid. They can spot a dying franchise when it peaks its ugly head. The X-Men movies have been very good to Fox studios since the first film came out in 2000 and started the superhero movie trend that is more popular than ever still today. The first two movies helmed by Bryan Singer were hugely successful, both with critics and fans. Singer left the series to make Superman Returns and Brett Ratner took over to direct X-Men: The Last Stand. The third film was the most successful financially, but got poor reviews and infuriated many fans. Then they started working on a number of prequels to the series... the first one being X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was also not very well received. Fox was not naïve to the bad publicity and knew that the series could only live off of the first two movies for so long unless better quality pictures were made. Thus, Bryan Singer was brought back, this time to produce, and Layer Cake's Matthew Vaughn was to direct.

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Gnomeo and Juliet: A film review

- Vancouver, British Columbia - William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in history.  His influence is seen through our entertainment still today, hundreds of years after his death. And why not? His plays and poems are beautifully executed, and while his stories supposedly weren't original, his style and substance immortalized them forever. Hollywood, of course, knows that there is material to mine and so we've gotten our fair share of on screen adaptations, with varying quality. And since his themes are universal, sometimes they will even be fed to an audience unknowingly, as films like She's The Man and Ten Things I Hate About You, were looser, more modern adaptations of Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew, respectively. But the most curious one to appear in a while is 2011's Gnomeo and Juliet, a story about two star crossed lovers from opposite sides of the fence.

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