Category: Movies

Picoreview: The Wolverine

July 26, 2013

Picoreview: The Wolverine: That was a gratifying amount of half-naked Hugh Jackman. My hat (or, thematically, possibly my shirt) is off to you, sir! Stay through the first set of credits. That was the best teaser trailer I’ve seen since, like, the one at the end of the 2nd Back to the Future movie. Seriously, I’m dancing around saying anything because I don’t want to spoil it, but I was really happy with the interpretation of the storyline they did, the last dream scene nearly made me shriek aloud (three…

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the essential kit

Picoreview: Pacific Rim

July 16, 2013

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

July 8, 2013

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

June 18, 2013

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

June 2, 2013

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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