items tagged with Jack Black

SPELLBOUND

I have always considered it a personal mission to convince people that documentaries can actually be fun – recently, I enjoyed a hard-won victory when my mother (who, as she is wont to say, “gets enough drama in life”) acceded to watch Bowling for Columbine and found herself liking it – and, bless their hearts, the folks at the Brew & View appear to as well.

ICE AGE

Movies with charm have been in such short supply this year that the animated Ice Age feels like a shot of pure oxygen. Visually, the film is lacking the detail of a Shrek or a Monsters, Inc., and it’s a bit on the goody-goody side, but it’s a completely enjoyable, amiable good time at the cineplex, particularly if you’ve been looking for a movie to take the family to that’s less saccharine than Return to Neverland and infinitely smarter than the likes of Big Fat Liar and Snow Dogs.

BLACK HAWK DOWN

It has been widely reported that Ridley Scott’s war drama Black Hawk Down, originally due later this year, had its release bumped up to qualify for year-end awards consideration and, in theory, serve as a balm for a country forever damaged by the tragic events of September 11. There’s no reason to refute this, and there might even be a kind of self-serving nobility in Columbia Studios’ decision, yet the film in question is a technically impressive atrocity, one that’s perhaps even more heinous in light of last fall’s terrorist attacks. Although based on true events and Mark Bowden’s well-regarded book, Black Hawk Down is jingoistic, dramatically inert, and sometimes shockingly racist; expect nominations and awards to follow.

HARRY POTTER & THE SORCERER'S STONE

When I sheepishly tell friends that I haven’t yet read any of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, their reaction is usually shock – “You’re kidding!” – followed by euphoric insistence – “You’ve got to read them! You’ll love them!” When I tell these same friends that I didn’t much like the movie version of Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone, I get a different response, one that’s a combination of mild disgust and serious condescension.

DOWN TO EARTH and SWEET NOVEMBER

Is it a coincidence, or a frightening sign of flicks to come, that the two most high-profile movie releases this past weekend were remakes of movies that no one could have reasonably wanted remakes of at all? Sure, it’s commonly accepted that Hollywood has all but run out of fresh ideas, but to be subjected to both Down to Earth and Sweet November in the same weekend seems a little harsh.