Posts tagged Toby Kebbell
MOVIE REVIEW: War for the Planet of the Apes

A significant shift in attention and investment has occurred in this series.  Our hearts and allegiances swayed from rooting for the madness of our own mankind to the superior traits of humanity exhibited by Caesar and his ape brethren.  A transformation of empathy like that is downright miraculous.  War for the Planet of Apes is a full-bodied epic of glory and pain that matches and then exceeds the moving importance and heart this rebooted franchise has established in two previous knockout films.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Kong: Skull Island

“Kong: Skull Island” taps into the same definition of “spectacle” that applies to “Jurassic World” nearly two years ago.  This ain’t your old “King Kong.”  This is “go big or go home.”  If you’re looking for the version steeped in awe and wonder, go watch the 1933 original.  To expand the original’s wonderment with the best of today’s special effects, go watch Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake.  If you want a rip-roaring roller coaster with no strings, rules, or heavy gravitas attached, you’ve come to the right place in 2017.

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MOVIE REVIEW: A Monster Calls

J.A. Bayona’s film, based on the 2011 novel of the same name and adapted for the screen by the author himself, Patrick Hess, operates with a similar dichotomy and balancing act with its genre.  “Fantasy” and “genuine” are two words that do not normally mix together.  “A Monster Calls” creates an engrossing tale of allegory and myth and still roots it in a setting of stark reality filled with family and flaws.  

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MOVIE REVIEW: Warcraft

Here's the worst part of what "Warcraft" tries to execute.  With its riffs on exotic worlds, magic, warring factions, and monstrous creatures, it fashions its to be high fantasy and epic spectacle right there with "The Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars."  Universal Pictures thinks it is sitting on a crossover franchise that will sells merchandise and recruit new gamers by the millions.  You cannot make the bizarre endearing without substance behind it. 

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