THE LION KING 3D

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

 

You can hardly blame Disney for imbuing its most recently minted animated classic with the 3D treatment in order to introduce "The Lion King" to new audiences. If only it weren't for the inflated ticket price that comes with it, "The Lion King 3D" would represent a welcome revival of a kids movie that combines a strong story with memorable songs and lush use of animation and color that is nothing short of stunning.

For audiences unfamiliar with the story, it follows the adventures of a young lion cub named Simba (voiced wonderfully by Matthew Broderick). As the only son of regional African lion King Mufasa (James Earl Jones), Simba is just beginning to learn important life lessons from his imperious father when Mufasa's jealous brother Scar (Jeremy Irons) carries out a coup d’état that leaves Simba without a home and stripped of his birthright to the throne of the African plain known as Pride Rock.

In exile Simba makes friends with an unlikely couple of jungle-dwellers. A meerkat named Timon (Nathan Lane) and a warthog known as Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella) teach Simba the pleasures an insect-based diet while he grows to adulthood. A reunion with his childhood girlfriend Nala inspires Simba to return to his homeland and claim his magisterial title. Although too frightening for younger audiences to support its G-rating, “The Lion King” is a children’s movie that holds up over time.

Rated PG. 87 mins.

INKHEART

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

 

 

Based on Cornelia Funke's 2003 fantasy kid's novel, director Ian Softley ("The Wings of the Dove") makes a half-hearted adaptation that's further diminished by Brendon Fraser's signature boy scout performance as Mo Flochart. Mo is a "silvertongue" — that's somebody able to physically conjure up characters and elements of reality from any book that they read out loud.

While on vacation in Italy with his 12-year-old daughter Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett) bookbinder Mo finds what he's been searching for--an adventure novel entitled "Inkheart" with which he plans to bring back his wife Resa (Sienna Guillory), who was lost to the manuscript some years ago in exchange for a one of its fictional characters.

Fire-juggler Dustfinger (Paul Bettany) pursues Mo to obtain the book so that he can return to his literary life within its pages.

Meggie realizes that she too is a silvertongue right about the time that "Inkheart's" diabolical literary-figure-made-flesh Capricorn (Andy Serkis), makes his move with his minions to take over the world.

Winged monkeys and a minotaur that you don't get a good look at make up some of the mediocre special effects in an unsatisfying kid's movie.

(New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. Pictures) Rated PG. 105 mins.

 

MONSTER HOUSE

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel. Punk heart still beating.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

 

"Monster House" may well be the first mainstream animated exploitation movie. Debut director Gil Kenan upgrades the creepy animation style of "The Polar Express" to a more apt genre of kiddie horror movie, and renders a disturbing stew of gratuitous violence, funky sexual tension, and lurking physical menace.

Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab, and Pamela Pettler wrote the script. The evidence of too many chefs spoiling the narrative broth is apparent throughout the movie.

A demonic mobile mansion sits in a normal suburban neighborhood across the street from DJ (Mitchel Musso) a curious little boy obsessed with documenting the evil actions of its notoriously vicious owner, the depraved Mr. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi).

Emboldened by his best friend (Sam Lerner) and a cunning faux Girl Scout (Spencer Locke), DJ and his friends attempt to put the house to sleep with lots of cough syrup even after the rampaging building murders two local police officials.

By the time the animated child characters are playing with dynamite to blow up the residence, some parents will have already escorted their children from the cinema.

Rated PG. 85 mins.