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Blog by Don Kennedy

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J. Edgar

December 28th, 2011
J. Edgar ping pongs between the career dawning and twilight of the legendary J. Edgar Hoover, bookends distinguishable by the rolling hairline and jowls sported by Leonardo Dicaprio (excelling as usual in the lead role).  Interim details are filled in by the dictates of Hoover to his hand picked biographer to flesh out a career that lasted through a litany of 20th century presidents most of w ...

The Descendants

December 27th, 2011
The Descendants marks the end of a line for the 21st century Hawaiian progeny of King Kamehameha I in that their hereditary land trust is coming to the end of its shelf life and the heirs have to decide how a massive tract of untouched wilderness will be disposed of.  At this time it’s also the end of the line for the wife of the descendant who doubles as the estate trust lawyer (with the iro ...

Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt 1

December 27th, 2011
Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt 1 caters well to its core audience of female teens as it lingers long on a fairy tale wedding and the shy honeymoon of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).  Unfortunately it’s kind of a slow set up for part two.  Unlike previous films in the series the prickly sense of a peril is dramatically diminished.  The unnerving Voltari is nonexis ...

The Muppets

December 27th, 2011
The Muppets stars Jason Segel – additionally the co-writer of the screenplay which turns out to be not only amusing but, with characters constantly referencing to the film they are in, also stays true to the spirit and charm of their iconic TV series of the seventies and eighties.  Ironically though the film is a throwback to that time, the motif is more fifties than the “Me” generation.  Seg ...

Hugo

December 26th, 2011
Hugo is Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) a boy who lives within the walls and clock tower mechanics of the Paris train station during the golden age of steam in 1930’s France.  He was the ward of drunken Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone) since his father (Jude Law) died.  Before abandoning Hugo, Uncle Clause taught him his trade as keeper of the station clocks - a job Hugo continued in his uncle’s abs ...

New Year's Eve

December 26th, 2011
New Year’s Eve features lots of pretty faces in pretty unlikely circumstances – I mean come on, with a potential audience of a billion people worldwide there’s no contingency plan for every conceivable mechanical hitch that might plague the storied ball that drops at midnight on New Year’s Eve in Time Square? Yet it happens here and the fix falls on the shoulders of Claire Morgan (Hilary Swan ...

The Adventures of Tin Tin

December 26th, 2011
The Adventures of Tin Tin sees the classic Hergé outrageously cowlicked comic book character animated once again. The long running series ran for nearly 60 years prior to 1986 but here concentrates on the offerings from 1944 to 1945. The look not only displays the principals as artistically authentic but it also beautifully captures that European era (save for NAZI occupation) while staying t ...

Young Adults

December 25th, 2011
Young Adults refers to a genre of fiction whose target audience is its moniker - can you say Twilight?  Ironically Elizabeth Reaser, one of the lesser stars of that blockbuster franchise (where she’s Esme Cullen) is Beth Slade here, a principal character although not as the protagonist but very much so as the antagonist. The person she's antagonizing is Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) because Be ...

War Horse

December 25th, 2011
War Horse, through stunning visuals and a lot of manufactured emotion follows the military exploits of an English stallion into the war to end all wars. Fold in 1914 the colt is such a beauty he enchants Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan), an agrarian tenant, to literally bet the farm he works with wife Rose (Emily Watson) on this horse rather than purchase a sturdier stud.  His son Albert (Jeremy ...

Immortals

December 23rd, 2011
Immortals is filmed in 3D with all the intensity and ripped abdomens of 300. King Hyperion didn’t get much papyrus several centuries BC but here the terrible Titan is played with much relish by Mickey Rourke. He’s bent on revenge against the Olympians which he plans to get by declaring war on humanity. Problem is he needs the mighty Epirus Bow in order to release the rest of the Titans that Z ...
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