Film

From Harry Potter to Twilight, from The Hunger Games to the new Marvel's The Avengers and every comic-book movie that has preceded it, adaptations of beloved pop-culture properties face a question that is rarely asked, but pretty much always should be: Do the fans love them because they're great, or simply because they exist?
Fan-thusiasms being what they are, you'd almost never get adherents to cop to the latter, obvious though it may be to those peering, in befuddlement, from the outside. Stories and characters that we encounter at particular times in our lives begin to resonate in ways that are indefensible through conventional means. Yeah, yeah, the editing was jittery, and sure, the narrative bends under the strain of its need to please the true believers. But that's Katniss up there on a screen in three dimensions! Bella and Edward! Professor Snape! The X-Men! What part of that do you not understand?

The makers of The Raven would like you to believe that Edgar Allen Poe spent his final days helping police capture a killer who was using Poe's works as inspiration and, in doing so, saved the love of his life Emily, for whom he wrote the poem Annabel Lee.
The plot uses some of the real-life mysteries from Poe’s final days to form the backdrop of a fictional tale. Filmed in Serbia and Hungary, Raven looks cool, but that's about it.
Let's face it; John Cusack is not really an actor. He is just John Cusack. There's no discernable difference between his former roles and Poe with the exception of more hair and a goatee. Cusack's Poe could have cranked up the turmoil and debauchery; he was an alcoholic and opium addict for chrissakes!

For weeks, the story surrounding Lee Hirsch's documentary Bully has been about not the movie itself, but about one little letter – the letter “R.” The MPAA initially gave the film an R rating for language, which inspired cries of outrage from the filmmakers, Harvey Weinstein (the film's distributor and master hubbub-creator) and various allies. It was crucial that this film be accessible to teenagers, they insisted, presumably because it was meant for that audience to see.
Except that it's not.
That much is evident from the opening minutes, when the first voice we hear is that of David Long, father of Tyler Long, who committed suicide at the age of 17 after years as the target of chronic bullying. We see happy, giggling home-movie footage of young Tyler, leading into David's narration about the change in Tyler's personality over the years. It's a heartbreaking moment, yet it also conveys a lot about where Bully is aiming: not so much at the everyday experience of American teens, but at the fears of every parent that there but for the grace of God go they. Hirsch (Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony) wants to grab adults by the throat and heartstrings and scare the crap out of them, and mission accomplished.

I was under the impression that Being Flynn might be some sort of comeback for DeNiro after about two straight decades of duds. That is simply not the case.
Based on the memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by playwright and poet Nick Flynn, the movie depicts Flynn’s reunion with his estranged father, Jonathan, a homeless alcoholic who lives at a shelter where Nick was a social worker in the late 1980s.
The concept is original and the film is touching at times, but lacks energy or any real rhythm.
We follow Nick (Paul Dano) who is semi down and out and looking for a cheap place to live and any work he can find, finally meeting his father (DeNiro), a delusional alcoholic who roams the streets doing odd jobs like driving cab. The full circle Taxi Driver reference is right there, but it seems director Paul Weitz overlooks the significance.

Kids in the woods horror movies are a pretty reliable genre. Evil Dead (1 and 2) being the best example of the formula. Cabin Fever also fits the bill and now, thanks to Lion's Gate and Mutant Energy Productions, we have the supreme example of them all in 2012's Cabin in the Woods. Horror movie fans and aficionados will go berserk with this one, but they'll also wonder why this film, made back in 2009, wasn't released until now.

It might not be fair, but I don’t judge martial arts movies by the same standard as I do other genres. I don’t need character development, brilliant acting or nuance when it comes to a new kung-fu movie. I only need exhilarating action, an under-reliance on wire work and some savage ass-kickery. The Raid: Redemption not only delivers on those three fronts, but executes them perfectly (especially the ass-kickery part). I would even go so far as to say that there hasn’t been such a relentlessly action packed movie since Hard Boiled came out in 1992 and introduced Chow Yun-fat to America.

Some movies clue you in from the first scene that you're in for a different experience. We Need to Talk About Kevin achieves this and falls into the category of really different. The opening looks like a blood orgy, with Tilda Swinton slathered to the hilt in red, but turns out to be some sort of tomato festival with gobs of crushed slime running red all over huddled masses. It's not clear if this is some sort of flashback or a surreal dream sequence, and frankly it doesn't matter. Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, responsible for the underrated Morven Callar and Ratcatcher, likes to give us a lot to work with. Here she uses the ever-present color red, symbolizing the stigma of never being able to wash the blood of tragedy from your hands.

I suppose I should get this out of the way up front: I don’t think I am in this film’s target demographic. And for large stretches of the film’s running time, I’m not sure the writer and director were entirely sure who the movie's audience is.
At first, I thought the film was a drama about the United Kingdom reaching out to Yemen in the hopes of creating some positive PR. Then the script delved into questions of faith and religious certainty. Then it slipped the shackles of being a “message movie” in favor of a fairly straightforward romantic comedy.

Most everyone I know fondly remembers the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans. It had it all: Greek mythology, the Stygian Witches, Calibos, Medusa, the Kraken, giant scorpions and, of course, Bubo the mechanical owl. I watched this original version again, for the first time in 20 years, before watching Wrath of the Titans. I wanted to remind myself of the main story points and remember how much better it was than the remake. That was not the best idea.
While it is still much better than the remake, the original really didn't stand up too well. Aside from Ray Harryhausen's effects work (his last before retiring), it's somewhat dull and lifeless. Harry Hamlin, with his bronzed, hairless legs, just isn't a hero that I care about. It's all too campy to take seriously as an epic adventure. That's to say that Clash of the Titans is not a sacred cow for me, so my feelings for Wrath aren't related to nostalgia for the original.

Mirror Mirror wasn't horrible, and that's the problem. With a safe, even keel, this flick excels at being nothing special. It's not stupid enough for to me to be fully embarrassed for the human race, and not campy enough to be blasé. It's a prequel and also a bland retelling of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves fairy tale that's decent enough for kids. Damn it!
Sent with cruel intentions by my wicked step-editor, I knew my movie-going experience was fated to be nightmarish given it's spring break and kids are out in droves. And so I was turned away from this kid magnet after at my first round of standing in a line of exuberant children because it was sold out. Perhaps that was a good thing.