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Doug Robson brings you reviews of the hottest movies.
by Doug Robson
This year just gained another animated film for its record. With the success of How to Train Your Dragon and Despicable Me, can it stand up to its competition and hold its own? It's arguable, yet entirely probable.
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by Doug Robson
Do you use Facebook? Then you might be interested to see how it came to be. The Social Network follows Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg), a student at Harvard, as he attains the idea for a social networking site, launches it, and makes it a commercial success.
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by Doug Robson
Back in 2004, a man named Bryan Lee O'Malley released a graphic novel called Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life. I never saw it, heard about it, or even knew it existed. Turns out, he ended up writing 6 of them total.
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by Doug Robson
Inception is the latest hurdle in acclaimed director Christopher Nolan's track. He's directed such movies as Memento, The Prestige, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight, all of which I loved to pieces.
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by Doug Robson
There is a comic currently being published by DC. It has been in the comics ring since 1972, and is still arguably the most successful comic series of the Western genre. I'll admit right off the bat that I have not read a single one of the comics in said series. Never touched a graphic novel of his, a comic, I hadn't even read up on the backstory until I started doing research for this movie. If you haven't figured out who this disfigured anti-hero of the western comics is by now, I'm of course referring to the supernatural bounty hunter Jonah Hex. Recently, Jimmy Hayward (director of Horton Hears a Who) decided to pick this up. An odd choice and quite a change from his only other directing piece, but I figured I'd give him a chance.
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by Doug Robson
Robin Hood: A classic tale told through the generations of a rebel who stole from the rich to give to the needy; a man who, with his pack of merry men, took resources from the people who didn't need it, and helped out the poor. Truly a hero of legend, Sir Robin of Loxley. His story has been told throughout the ages, and has been told many different ways. In this, the year of 2010, director Ridley Scott took it upon himself to remind people of this legend in the form of a film. It's a revitalization of the epic tale told through the eyes of one of the greatest directors in all of Nerd-dom. Here's a plot summary.
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by Doug Robson
DreamWorks is an interesting company. Their animation company has tried and tried to release great movies, some of which did end up being great, but more have flopped. Some of the ones I enjoyed were Shrek, Shrek 2, Kung Fu Panda, and Monsters Vs. Aliens. Others were terrible, such as Shrek 3, Shark Tale, Antz, Madagascar 2, and Bee Movie. They recently released another animated movie that has been the talk of the animation crowd these last few weeks. It's, for once, not a direct rip-off of Pixar's latest movie (read: Antz/Shark Tale/Flushed Away). This movie is called How to Train Your Dragon.
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by Doug Robson
Shutter Island is a great piece of film. It's based on the critically acclaimed book of the same name by Dennis Lehane, and directed by film-genius Martin Scorsese. I've never read the book, so I went into this movie not knowing at all what I was going to get beyond the trailer: A detective man, sorry, a "Duly Appointed Federal Mahshall," goes to a scary island full of crazy people, then suddenly, he can't leave! Well, that's what it is on the surface, but it gets much, much deeper.
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by Doug Robson
Since this is a two-month double issue of the Local Rag, you get a double movie review as well: One is Book of Eli, the other, Daybreakers.
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by Doug Robson
Let's take a step back and look at the year recently passed: 2009. Sure, there was a worldwide recession, and countless horrible, upsetting deaths, but it was a fairly good year in the movie department, especially in the geek-movie department. The brilliant thing is that even the geek-movies were enjoyed by the general public! I'm here to remind you of all the great films that came out in 2009.
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by Doug Robson
Ah, the classic Dickens tale. It's been done countless times in forms of play, movie, TV show, even reincarnate short stories/books. Home of one of the most recognizable quotes in the entire world: "Bah, Humbug." How many times has this been uttered not only by nay-sayers, but for comedic/sarcastic effect? I've done my fair share over the years of Humbugging, usually for sarcasm's sake. Not only did it spawn that phrase, but it coined a term now used commonly for grumps: "A Scrooge."
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by Doug Robson
This time around, I'm reviewing the zombie hit of 2009. This movie has only five recognizable characters, and you don't actually know any of their names (except one that's whispered at the end, but I can't remember it/didn't really hear it).
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by Doug Robson
Inglorious Basterds was done by writer/actor/director extraordinaire Quentin Tarantino, known for writing/directing such films as Grindhouse, Kill Bill: Volume 1 & 2, Reservoir Dogs, and one of my favorite movies of all time, Pulp Fiction. I will get one thing out of the way right away--Tarantino does not stray away from profanity, blood, and (in many cases) nudity. This movie drops a few F-Bombs, and it definitely has blood. Not a lot of gore, but a good bit of blood. Oh, and it has no nudity, it's safe in that regard.
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by Doug Robson
District 9 is a science fiction movie, all the way. But it's not your a stereotypical sci-fi movie, not at all. It has no phasers, no epic space battles, no Death Stars, none of that. It does, however, use the central theme used throughout the high majority of sci-fi films; Aliens. And these aren't the little green men with abnormally large heads and big black anime eyes; these are well thought out, science-fictiony aliens you'd expect from a knowledgeable sci-fi author.
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by Doug Robson
Public Enemies is a movie focusing on the great John Dillinger, and Melvin Purvis, the man dedicated to bringing him down, along with most other famous mobsters of the 1930s. As many know, I'm a big fan of Johnny Depp (Dillinger), and that's because he changes with every movie; and not just in character, but in acting style, in appearance, and as an overall actor. The Johnny Depp of Pirates of the Caribbean, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Sweeney Todd are all totally different actors; that's the brilliance behind Depp's performance. This movie doesn't change that perspective on him whatsoever. Some argue he closely related to Sweeney Todd in this role, but he's still miles from that character. He's a new man entirely: John Dillinger. This is Public Enemies.
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by Doug Robson
Terminator Salvation is the fourth movie in the Terminator franchise. I didn't have much hope for this after the third, but it had Christian Bale as John Connor, so how bad could it be?
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by Doug Robson
A movie came out recently that was, in my opinion, a boundary-breaker when it comes to science fiction. When people think classic sci-fi they think of this (if they're not busy thinking of Asimov first). Of course, I'm talking about the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the U.S.S. Enterprise. Star Trek has been redone more times than I can count, but never the original series with the original characters. Voyager, Deep Space 9, The Next Generation: all Star Trek series, but not a one features Kirk or the original Enterprise. J. J. Abrams changed this. He rewound the whole thing, got new actors, and changed the storyline a good bit. This is Star Trek.
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