I feel like most people’s ability to enjoy The Great Gatsby will depend on how they respond to Baz Luhrmann’s style as a director. In the interest of full disclosure I should say that I’m a huge Luhrmann fan (I even loved Australia), and I think he was the perfect choice to direct the first truly great adaptation of The Great Gatsby. He manages to capture the feeling of the book and to make the story compelling in a way that the last attempt at adapting the book, in 1974, failed to do, despite its stellar cast.
Most people are probably familiar with the story, from either high-school or middle-school English classes. Continue reading
I wish Hollywood would make more movies like Oblivion. That’s not to say that Oblivion is great, but just that it’s the sort of film that feels like it has been abandoned lately. The current state of the science fiction film genre consists of either indie dramas like Moon or Another Earth, or big budget spectacles that turn out to be pretentious messes like Prometheus or Inception, with a special category set aside for superhero movies. (One of the few exceptions is Super 8.) However, Oblivion is the sort of sci-fi movie I love. It’s got an interesting plot and setting, great effects, a good cast and stellar visuals. It may fail somewhat on the execution, but I have to give them full credit for the attempt.
Iron Man 3 opens with a flashback to 1999, narrated by Tony Stark. It’s the eve of the new millennium, and Tony is partying with an attractive scientist who is interested in DNA modification as it relates to regeneration. They have an elevator encounter with an enthusiastic scientist interested in recruiting Tony (and the woman) to his new company. We’re told via Tony’s voice over that this is where it all started.
The Croods live in a cave. That should be too surprising, considering that they are cave people. But beyond just living in the cave, they define their entire lives by it. The last surviving family of Neanderthals in the valley, the Croods spend almost all of their time in the cave, emerging only to hunt for food. The cave has kept them safe, as have the rules implemented by Grug (Nicolas Cage), the father of the family. Inside the cave live Grug and his wife, Grug’s mother-in-law and the three kids. Eep (Emma Stone), the oldest child, hates the rules, the cave, and her family, and longs to explore new things, in contradiction to her father’s mantra, “New is always bad. Never not be afraid.” 
Jurassic Park is, to me, a perfect film, one of a very small handful of films which can not be improved in any way. 
The Love Pirate 