the essential kit

Picoreview: Pacific Rim

Picoreview: Pacific Rim: does what it says on the tin. Okay, no, it doesn’t, because the tin says “Pacific Rim”, not “giant monsters fight giant robots!”, but close enough. I liked it. I didn’t love it, which I wanted to, but I liked it, and it certainly delivered what I wanted it to. The effects were (literally) tremendous, and there were a couple of moments where I squeeed happily at the way something monstered out. There was one scene in particular where I kind of just sat back and thought,…

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the essential kit

Picoreview: Now You See Me

Picoreview: Now You See Me: I loved it, actually. Really enjoyed it. And this is an enormously non-specific review, because it’s got too many great twists to risk spoiling. Jesse Eisenberg meant Mark Ruffalo wasn’t my least favorite performer on the screen, which I think has never happened before in a movie with Ruffalo in it. I thought the romantic storyline was forced, but the only person I’ve ever thought Ruffalo had on-screen chemistry with is RDJ, and it is clear other people don’t think his charm is limited to…

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Picoreview: Man of Steel

Picoreview: Man of Steel: I may have a new favorite superhero movie. Wow. This and X2 and I don’t know, maaaaaaaaaaaybe Avengers, which I loved but didn’t hit all the grace notes the way X2 did for me, but anyway, yeah, wow. It’s clear not everybody agrees with me, which is perfectly reasonable. I’ve seen reviews that think this is a movie without joy or delight or charm. I completely disagree, but possibly should offer up a Heretical Disclaimer along with that disagreement: As with the Star Wars movies, I…

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the essential kit

Picoreview: The Breakfast Club

Picoreview: The Breakfast Club holds up stunningly well. Even most of the hair isn’t too egregious, and there’s actually surprisingly little music in it to be dated by. The most unexpected thing in terms of dating is that it didn’t seem to have been filmed in stereo, and hearing the sound pretty clearly coming from only one side of speakers was startling. Oh, and there are a couple of language things–the use of “fag” and “retard”, particularly–that threw me considerably. So that was a dating thing too, I suppose. I’d…

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the essential kit

Picoreview: The Great Gatsby

Picoreview: The Great Gatsby: It was all right. I didn’t go in with expectations of it being fantastic because reviews suggested it wasn’t. I thought it was better, perhaps, than many of the reviews did; I thought the cast, with the glaring exception of Tobey Maguire, were quite terrific. DiCaprio’s moments of fear and vulnerability where he thinks he might get found out are very nice, and he charms well when he’s supposed to. There’s one scene where he’s messing about and being youthful and joyous and looks like he’s…

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