Blogcritics Author: Colin Boyd

Movie Review: Wanted

Colin Boyd — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:37:01 EDT

"Wanted" puts "graphic" and "novel" into the term "graphic novel adaptation."
They don’t put directors on movie posters anymore. Now it’s just stars or startling imagery, something that the studio marketing teams feel will put butts in the seats. There was a time when you could see Alfred Hitchcock gracing his posters for Psycho, and the logic was simple: Hitchcockian suspense was the star.Wanted is faced with an...

Movie Review: Wall-E

Colin Boyd — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:34:28 EDT

Pixar's latest creation is among their best... for about an hour.
It’s almost a bit shocking to look at the animation revolution created by Pixar’s Toy Story and the studio’s breathtaking new film Wall-E and realize they’re separated by only 13 years. The detail is so overwhelming now, the computer animation so sophisticated and true to life, that the changing of the guard ushered in back...

Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk

Colin Boyd — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:25:47 EDT

Marvel and Edward Norton reinvent the Hulk and give the franchise life again.
In the race for comic book movie superiority, there's really no debate over who's in first place. Marvel Comics has had the upper hand on DC Comics for a while. Granted, DC was first to strike with Superman and Batman, but since Marvel released Spider-Man in 1999, this has been no contest. Six of the top seven grossing comic book superhero...

Movie Review: The Happening

Colin Boyd — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:06:24 EDT

Instead of his patented trick endings, in 'The Happening,' Night Shyamalan has no real ending at all.
It's not beyond the realm of comprehension, of course, that the plants would fight back, that after centuries of abuse by man, vegetation would simply turn its back on us. For example: Just try to buy a tomato this week.But where Night Shyamalan goes wrong with The Happening is by purporting that it would somehow be a coordinated effort by all...

Movie Review: Sex and the City

Colin Boyd — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:50:59 EDT

The story of four women, one city, and a superfluous two-and-a-half-hour long movie.
Four years after it came to an end, Sex and the City is back, and the clothes and New York are as big a part of it as they've ever been, while the women the world grew to know so well over the course of six seasons seem to be exactly where we left them.This is, of course, the story of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), her slutty friend...

Movie Review: The Strangers

Colin Boyd — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:31:04 EDT

In the woods, no one can hear you scream...
The truth is, I liked more things about The Strangers than I didn't. If I were one of those people who made pro/con lists, the pro side would easily be longer. But that's the problem with a pro/con list, especially here. At a certain point, it's got to be quality over quantity, and the things I didn't like about The Strangers level...

Movie Review: Speed Racer

Colin Boyd — Wed, 7 May 2008 15:21:46 EDT

With all that computer animation, is it really Go, Speed Racer, Go?
The Wachowski Brothers, who shot to fame with their highly imaginative monochrome world in The Matrix trilogy, have introduced new colors to their palette with their adaptation of the Japanese cartoon classic, Speed Racer. In fact, they may have introduced all the other colors this time around.Stylistically owing less to its source material and...

Movie Review: Baby Mama

Colin Boyd — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:42:59 EDT

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler give birth to a mediocre comedy.
Someone ought to outline how many laughs make a successful comedy. Obviously, the more you have the better, but what’s the cutoff for a comedy to be good enough? One gut-busting laugh every ten minutes? Every five? Some restaurant patrons find it practical to keep a tip card in their wallet or purse so they know how generous a gratuity to...

Movie Review: Deception

Colin Boyd — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:07:24 EDT

The lesson is simple: don't be deceived by "Deception".
Perhaps you’ve heard the old expression, “You can’t polish a turd.” Apparently, it dates back to an age when people mistakenly attempted to polish them in hopes of, I dunno, exhibiting them at the county fair.But, as it turns out, you can’t really polish a turd. And you shouldn’t even try to, come to think of it....

Movie Review: 21

Colin Boyd — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:45:38 EDT

21 -- finally, a blueprint for outsmarting Vegas!
There’s nothing more frustrating in a movie than a smart character making a string of stupid decisions. Ultimately, it’s what hamstrings Ben Campbell in 21, a movie about math geniuses devising a method of counting cards to rip off Las Vegas to the tune of a few million dollars.Campbell (Jim Sturgess, who crafted a breakout performance...