Author: tlkabtmovies
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The Impossible [2012] ★★★
For a film that is alternately emotional, “The Impossible” grabs your attention with a scene worthy of a high-end disaster movie: an incredible depiction of a tsunami. Knowing that it’s coming, as many people will from the previews and advertisements, won’t lessen the impact of this tour de force, which is frighteningly believable in every…
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Life Of Pi [2012] ★★★½
This visually stunning film deserves all the praise it’s been receiving. And we owe it all to director Ang Lee and his wonderful imagination. Everything about it is outstanding, especially when you consider that it is based on a book many considered unfilmable. So what’s it about? Actually, it’s about many things, but first and…
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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 [2012] ★★
“Breaking Dawn part 2” is being presold as the best “Twilight” movie of the series. Faint praise, indeed. And also misleading. The first movie, released in 2008, is still the most bearable because director Catherine Hardwicke dove into the adolescent angst of Stephenie Meyer’s novel without an ounce of condescension. “New Moon” on the other hand directed by Chris…
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Pitch Perfect [2012] ★★½
I’m not a big fan of musical comedies, but “Pitch Perfect” kept me entertained, at least for a while, even as it covered familiar territory. Audiences who liked “Bring it On” for instance will definitely get a kick out of it. Anna Kendrick does a good job as a college freshman who dreams of being…
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey [2012] ★★★
Here’s the buzz: “The Hobbit” is not a masterpiece and lacks the epic scale of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. But one thing’s for sure: “An Unexpected Journey”, Episode One in Peter Jackson’s three-part screen version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book is a solid piece of entertainment. We’ll have to wait another year for “The Desolation of Smaug”, and still…
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Silver Linings Playbook [2012] ★★★
You will hear a lot about this movie. But first you’ll hear it from me. It’s damn rare these days to encounter a film that doesn’t rely on cheap tricks and a predictable script. That’s one reason why “Silver Linings Playbook” is so good. The characters in it are like nothing we’ve seen before, and…
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Anna Karenina [2012] ★★★
Granted that screen and tv adaptations of Leo Tolstoy’s most popular novel are nothing new, the last being a 2000 British version. And granted that the peak is still the 1935 movie starring Greta Garbo and Fredric March. But even the most faithful fans must allow that director Joe Wright, has given Tolstoy’s novel a beguilingly…
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Sinister [2012] ★★
In this watchable but instantly forgettable horror movie, Ethan Hawke plays a true-crime writer who moves his family into a house with a dark past, without telling his wife (Juliet Rylance) and kids (Michael Hall D’Addario, Clare Foley) that bit of information. Why? He wants to write a book about the events that took place in…
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It’s A Wonderful Life
What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You-you want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon…Well, then you could swallow it. And it’ll all dissolve, see. And the moon beams that…
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Trouble With The Curve [2012] ★★½
If you like, you can think of “Trouble with the Curve” as the anti-Twilight. It’s the opposite of an Event Movie for the fall season; instead, it’s an old-fashioned star vehicle, fashioned for the particular screen persona of Clint Eastwood. As such, it’s easy to take and lightly enjoyable. One might even call it a “nice” movie, which…
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ParaNorman [2012] ★★½
“ParaNorman” is far from being a bad movie, but one thing was running through my mind the whole time: how could kids enjoy such a dark, twisted story? And ultimately that’s my problem with it. Norman is a weird little boy who sees dead people (think “The Sixth Sense”). Even his parents think he’s weird.…
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Flight [2012] ★★★
Sometimes a great actor is all you need to turn a routine movie about addiction into something memorable. Denzel Washington, who just keeps getting better, is a sparking, snapping live wire in the role of Capt. Whip Whitaker, a commercial pilot who performs heroically in the air, but can’t control his own life on the ground. Director…
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Killer Joe [2012] ★★
Matthew McConaughey is perfectly cast as a sadistic dallas cop who works as a hit man in “Killer Joe”, but at some point I found myself curiously disengaged from this story and didn’t care what happened to everyone involved in it. That’s a damn shame, because McConaughey, who delivered such a daring performance in “Magic…
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Paranormal Activity 4 [2012] and The Apparition [2012] ★½
Paranormal Activity 4:In the 4th and hopefully final installment in this never-ending series (we can always hope), a new family witnesses the same bullshit when a woman and a child move in with them. You know the drill: Have something pop out in the dark. Wait for a scream. Then drag out the next surprise…
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Hope Springs [2012] ★★★
People over 60 talking about sex and — yikes! — having it! Welcome to “Hope Springs”, a comedy drama that qualifies as a waking nightmare for teens and infantile men whose definition of “hot” hovers around women in their 20’s. Screw them. In this delightful movie from director David Frankel (who previously worked with Meryl Streep in…
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Take This Waltz [2012] ★★★
In an interview, Director Sarah Polley said that Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams brought their characters to life in unexpected ways. Trust her, she means it. They play a married couple, Lou and Margot, whose relationship is tested when Margot finds herself attracted to their new neighbor, Daniel (played by newcomer Luke Kirby). There seems to be…
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Argo [2012] ★★★½
“Argo” is quite simply one of the best movies I’ve seen all year. It has everything one could ask for: a solid story, a superb cast playing interesting and well drawn characters, a pulse pounding climax, and the element of surprise. It’s different than anything I’ve seen all year long and that’s always a good…
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Bait [2012] and Freelancers [2012] ★½
Bait: Another “horror” movie featuring lousy actors and sharks, except it’s an Australian production and the story is set in a supermarket following a freak tsunami (how original!). You know you’re in for trouble when you find yourself rooting for the shark. Don’t even think about it. Rating: 1.5/4 Freelancers: You leave “Freelancers” wondering what…
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Wreck-It-Ralph [2012] ★★★
I approach each new Disney movie with a combination of eagerness and fear. Will it be as good as I want it to be? Where “Wreck-It-Ralph” is concerned, I knew within minutes that the answer was yes. I could tell from the look and sound of the film that it had the qualities I always sought…
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Hotel Transylvania [2012] ★★½
What this raucous 3D animated fun house lacks in originality, it makes up for in visual and vocal wit. Adam Sandler uses a hilarious Hungarian accent to voice the role of Dracula, and he is surrounded by the likes of Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi and even David Spade. What won me over from…
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