It feels like we were reviewing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey only yesterday, and yet here we are, staring down the first full trailer for the next installment of Peter Jackson’s intentionally, gloriously obtuse adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Audiences and critics drew some pretty significant dividing lines in their reactions to An Unexpected Journey (opinion was split even on this very site), but I have a feeling that The Desolation of Smaug will be more universally pleasing; with the set-up out of the way, the film should just be nothing but pure adventure, and if nothing else, the trailer seems to confirm that suspicion. Check it out below: Dwarves in barrels, spider attacks, orcs and…
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FourScore Match-Up #17: “Capes?? We Don’t Need No Stinking Capes”
Superman gets its highly anticipated reboot this week in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel and it’s likely to be the biggest movie of 2013. While the Big Blue Boy Scout is perhaps the most famous superhero to don a cape, the truth is there are plenty other heroes out there who are “super” without a yard a half of fabric. Despite popular belief, capes don’t make the man and to prove it is this collection of heroes, and their accompanying film scores, who save the day just fine minus any snag-prone underoos. The great Edna Mode once said that superhero outfits should be “bold, dramatic, heroic” and the one thing she insists so emphatically, “No…
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Off the Shelf…’Oz the Great and Powerful’
In this prequel to the 1939 classic, Sam Raimi shows us how the “Wizard of Oz” became so Great and Powerful. This Blu-Ray release allows us to go much deeper into this so-called prequel than even the well-intentioned 3D transfer would allow. Thankfully a second helping of this saccharine world is a more enjoyable affair and and a slightly more exciting outing. Who wouldn’t want to travel to the wondrous and imaginative worlds we’ve seen grace the silver screen? Chief among the most magical candidates has to be the Land of Oz. Usually it’s with extreme hesitation that one would chose to add to the mythology of property as legendary as The Wizard of Oz. Others smartly…
