B- |
**½ |
+1-1|
Teens & Up
For
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, who stars as a young solicitor named Arthur Kipps,
The Woman in Black is an opportunity to make a reasonably graceful break from the role that has dominated his life since childhood. For the new owners of England’s legendary Hammer horror brand, until recently dormant from the 1970s, it’s an opportunity to stake their claim to continuing in the tradition of Terence Fisher, Jimmy Sangster et al. For curious movie watchers, it’s an opportunity to see how Radcliffe does in another role — and how an old-fashioned haunted house story plays today.
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B |
*** |
+1|
Kids & Up*
It’s almost a shock to hear the words “Christ the Savior is born” in a big-budget Hollywood movie today, even a time-honored period piece like
A Christmas Carol. Only five years ago, Zemekis’ own
The Polar Express rang with “Silver Bells” and “Deck the Halls,” but not so much as a “rum pa pum pum” from the stable at Bethlehem (not even at Santa’s North Pole home, where
everyone celebrates Christmas).
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B |
*** |
+1-1|
Teens & Up
In a way,
Monster House is a bracingly icy breath of fresh air, a tween-oriented family film that is unabashedly out to frighten.
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B+ |
*** |
+2-1|
Teens & Up*
Just Like Heaven is the first Hollywood film since
Return to Me that I would put in the same league as that earlier film, and that’s saying something.
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Scrooge’s conversion, like many conversions, is just such a dramatic revelation out of crisis, "as sudden as the conversion of a man at a Salvation Army meeting," says Chesterton, adding slyly, "It is true that the man at the Salvation Army meeting would probably be converted from the punch bowl; whereas Scrooge was converted to it. That only means that Scrooge and Dickens represented a higher and more historic Christianity" ("Christmas Books").
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A- |
**** |
+1-1|
Teens & Up
A ubiquitous tagline and a mind-bending
climactic twist made M. Night Shyamalan’s breakout hit
The
Sixth Sense a monster sensation — yet this deliberately
paced, psychologically sensitive paranormal thriller is much more
than a one-trick puzzle movie, and holds up well to multiple
viewings.
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D+ |
** |
-2|
Adults
But when the plot then descends into a
Lethal Weapon-type action-chase scene, it’s clearly gone off the rails: a proper ghost story has an entirely different atmosphere from a
Lethal Weapon action flick.
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C+ |
**½ |
+0|
Kids & Up
Highlights include an ominous retelling of the story of
Blackbeard’s curse and a slapstick scene pitting the heroes
against the gangsters. Undeniably silly and somewhat dated,
Blackbeard’s Ghost remains harmless, modestly entertaining
family fare.
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C- |
**½ |
-2|
Teens & Up*
Dragonfly is a ghost story of sorts, but it isn’t a horror film (though it occasionally thinks it is). The ghost seems to be the late wife of Dr. Joe Darrow (Kevin Costner); and who would be frightened of his own best beloved, even if she happened to be a ghost?
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B |
***½ |
-2|
Teens & Up*
Then re-anchor the story to reality by asking whether there
are really any ghosts at all — whether apparently spectral
manifestations might not in fact be no more than an unstable
woman’s imaginings, or the cruel pranks of a spiteful child, or
the malicious work of mysterious servants with unguessable
motives. Bear in mind that moviegoers are increasingly wise to
Sixth-Sense style tricks, and will carefully analyze each
of these characters in turn, trying to figure out what might not
be as it seems.
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