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A |
**** |
+2|
Kids & Up
(Reviewed by Sarah E. Greydanus) Even at their most stunningly far-fetched, Ghibli films also have a history of celebrating the details of everyday life: cooking, cleaning, planting, studying, mending, become important and precious functions, worthy of devoted attention …
Whisper of the Heart may represent the studio’s simplest gesture of this honoring of everyday life.
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As I write these words Suz and I are listening to the whooshing sounds of our unborn baby’s heartbeat on a fetal monitor. Within a few hours, God willing, we’ll be holding our new baby. This is one reason I’ve had less time for writing reviews than usual, though there are others. If you want to know what I thought of
The Bourne Legacy or
Total Recall, tune in Friday to the penultimate episode of this summer’s “Reel Faith” season.
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Ruby Sparks in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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B+ |
***½ |
+2-2|
Teens & Up*
The Dark Knight Rises is very nearly the thunderous finale that Christopher Nolan’s unprecedented super-hero trilogy needed after the pitch-black nihilism that Heath Ledger’s Joker brought to
The Dark Knight … Yet something crucial is missing — a major omission that lingers over the whole trilogy, a question raised ever more insistently in all three films, and at best left unanswered, if not answered negatively.
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This week I’ll be all over Catholic media talking about
The Dark Knight Rises:
EWTN’s “
The World Over Live” with Raymond Arroyo, “
Catholic Answers Live” with Patrick Coffin, and our own “
Reel Faith” with my co-host David DiCerto.
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C |
** |
+1|
Kids & Up
Ice Age: Continental Drift is more like a Happy Meal than a movie. It’s another serving of exactly the same product that millions of families have been served before and will come back to again and again. Its brand-name familiarity and reassuring sameness are its stock in trade. Nothing is different except for the toys; last time it was dinosaurs, this time it’s pirates. It’s more resolutely like the three previous
Ice Age movies than they are like themselves.
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After last week’s July 4 hiatus, the second half of “Reel Faith”’s summer season continues this week as David and I review
The Amazing Spider-Man,
Ice Age: Continental Drift and
Ted.
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Regular readers have noticed that my film blogging has been lighter of late — and if anything, that trend is going to continue, for reasons that will become clear soon. For now, though, I want to highlight a welcome development in film blogging that I’m very much looking forward to following in the months and years ahead.
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I do take issue, though, with Hollywood’s current obsession with “dark,” “gritty,” “edgy” fare threatening to crush any sense of wonder and fantasy. What a joy, then, that Tarsem Singh’s
Mirror Mirror offers a gorgeous, fantastic fairy-tale world bursting with extravagant imagination and splendor.
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C+ |
**½ |
+0|
Teens & Up
For all that, the new film bungles
who Spider-Man is, where he’s coming from. This isn’t the only problem (there are notable issues around the plot and the interpretation of Spider-Man’s reptilian foe, the Lizard), but for me it’s the most intractable, because it undermines the hero’s
moral center.
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Beasts of the Southern Wild in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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To Rome, with Love in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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Brave in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review — plus clips from the film!
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A- |
***½ |
+2|
Kids & Up*
Among Hollywood animated films, it may be the most positive affirmation of family since
The Incredibles and the best fairy tale since
Beauty and the Beast.
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In support of the Fortnight for Freedom, the
National Catholic Register and Decent Films are pleased to present a selection of 14 films, chosen by me, all in some way engaging themes of religious liberty, moral conscience and commitment faith in the face of pressure and persecution have been reflected in cinema.
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Snow White and the Huntsman in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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Prometheus in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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Moonrise Kingdom in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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This Friday, June 22, I'll be appearing on the first hour of “
Catholic Answers Live” (6pm–7pm EDT).
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It’s been too long since I’ve blogged any great critical lines that made me wish I had written them, but I couldn’t resist the opening line of
J. R. Jones’s review of Prometheus — arguably the best possible opening sentence in a
Prometheus review…
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C- |
** |
-1|
Kids & Up
I blame the penguins for
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.
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Reviews from the Hollywood trade journals (
Variety, the
Hollywood Reporter, etc.) and perhaps other sources are starting to appear … and they all freely reveal a key second-act plot twist that I went into
Brave not knowing. And I’m sure that more reviews, as they come out, will do the same.
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D |
** |
-3|
Adults*
I don’t mind that
Prometheus raises big questions without ultimately answering them. Unanswered questions are part of life, and there’s no reason you can’t have them in art. I do mind that
Prometheus raises big questions and has virtually nothing interesting, insightful or thoughtful to say about them. If the questions aren’t interesting in this film, why should anyone care whether they’re answered in another one?
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C+ |
**½ |
+1-1|
Teens & Up
The film transposes its story from the register of fairy tale to that of epic myth — but it’s trying for unironic epic myth, iconic good vs. iconic evil. Iconic evil: check. Iconic goodness: There’s the rub.
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B+ |
*** |
+3-1|
Teens & Up*
For Greater Glory tells a story of religious freedom and oppression that is far too little known, and that would be important and worthwhile at any time, but is strikingly apropos in our cultural moment.
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For Greater Glory in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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Dark Shadows in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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The Avengers in 60 seconds: my “Reel Faith” review.
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Tune into
EWTN this Thursday, May 31, when I'll be on
“The World Over Live” with Raymond Arroyo (8:00pm EDT). Raymond and I will be discussing the new Cristero war drama
For Greater Glory, how the film's theme of religious freedom relates to current events, the state of faith-based film productions and much more.
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