Oh, Mamma!
It’s so tempting to call “Mamma Mia! The Movie” a chick flick, especially after the opening 20 minutes or so of women hugging and giggling.
But the catchy ABBA songs have universal appeal (“Dancing Queen” and “Take a Chance on Me” play in your brain on a continuous loop until you’re ready for the [...]
Up, up and away
Had high hopes for “Hancock,” the Will Smith popcorn movie about a curmudgeonly superhero with a drinking problem.
So much for expectations.
“Hancock: The Two-Disc Unrated Special Edition” gives you a choice of watching the theatrical version or the unrated rendition, which contains 10 additional minutes. Figuring the story would seem more coherent with [...]
“Hellboy” smokes
Packed with action, personality and fantastical images, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” pops off the small screen like a carnival at twilight.
Ron Perlman exudes character as the ornery title character, red-skinned demon spawn smoking stogies, getting drunk with his aquatic, empathetic pal Abe (Doug Jones), and frustrated figuring out his flammable girlfriend’s (a minimally [...]
Clever extra helps viewer `Get Smart’
Steve Carell slips on Maxwell Smart’s spy-spoofish paraphernalia in “Get Smart,” a silly comedy based on a decades-old TV series starring Don Adams and Barbara Feldon.
Turns out the movie’s not as awful as you may have imagined — especially with the “Comedy Optimization Mode” engaged at the start: A phone-booth [...]
Looking at the world through two-colored glasses
You want escapism, adventure, a chance to go slip-sliding away from worldly woes? Then consider immersing yourself in “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D.”
The disc has a 2-D version on one side, 3-D on the other. Go with the 3-D; once it gets rolling it’s like a [...]
Give ‘em hell, Harrison
Harrison Ford may outlive us all.
Though he qualifies for Social Security, he still looks spry doing most of his own stunts in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
Granted, he lumbers more than flows as he runs, climbs, jumps and ducks, but his enthusiasm’s evident and he’s still fun to [...]
“One day, I may ask you for a service…”
Actor Joe Mantegna says that, for him, “The Godfather” trilogy is the Italian “Star Wars.” The American Film Institute calls “The Godfather” the second greatest American film (“Citizen Kane” ranks No. 1).
This week, remastered versions of the three films are available as “The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration” [...]
McDreamy and McLuscious are made `of Honor’
In Europe some years ago, I took a side trip to Ireland, expecting the Emerald Isle to look like Shangri-La. It didn’t, but Scotland did.
And that country’s beauty permeates the second half of “Made of Honor,” an otherwise formulaic romantic comedy pairing Patrick “Dr. McDreamy” Dempsey as Tom with [...]
Lost and `Found’
Other than first-time-director/star Helen Hunt’s making herself look severe, almost malnourished — so vivid on Blu-ray, it’s distracting — “Then She Found Me” is an engaging meditation on love, marriage, friendship and responsibility.
Hunt, who also co-wrote the screenplay, plays a schoolteacher knocked down but not out by the one-two punch of her short-time [...]
Me and my pelican
Nim (Abigail Breslin), a Robinson Crusoe-ish 11-year-old, cozies up to her island pals — a sea lion, a dragon lizard and a pelican (that can carry tools) — when her scientist father (Gerard Butler) disappears at sea in “Nim’s Island.”
Imaginatively shot, this kids-oriented tale is fun and exciting, but also tackles [...]
