I’m sure Disney is thrilled to add “No. 1 movie in America” to its ads for The Princess and the Frog. But $25 million? Are we talking royal princess or wealthy daddy’s little princess? The unfortunate truth is that ticket sales of that number for a film costing $100 million or so to make won’t […]
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Welcome to the new Movie Muse!
Goodbye, Blogger! In the quest to make Movie Muse more awesome in a multitude of ways, I purchased the official domain and now present you MOVIEMUSEREVIEWS.COM. Same thing as before, only more professional. It’ll be easier for you and easier for me in the long run. After working out a few kinks with the help […]
Review: The Princess and the Frog
In a decade where CGI has dominated all animated forms of entertainment and a year where 3D has exploded into prime time, Walt Disney Studios steps back, reaches into its old bag of tricks and pulls out its first hand-drawn feature in five years. The decision might feel like a ploy to boost Disney merchandising […]
10 Greatest Disney (2D) Animated Features Pt. 2
You’ve waited maybe 24 hours … wait no more. This is for those of you that didn’t see Part 1 (10-6) 5. Cinderella (1950) Ahh, another classic tale just brimming with positive social concepts about women. Cinderella, however, is just a better film than Snow White. It’s a lot more magical and captivating in that dreamy fantasy […]
Weekend Preview (12.11.09)
Welcome back, Disney. After five or ten years (depending on if you count anything after Tarzan), Disney delivers a new feature-length 2D animated film. What a statement to be making in 2009, the year of the 3D explosion in movie theaters. Singing and dancing, talking animals, princesses and more, The Princess and the Frog offers at least […]
10 Greatest Disney (2D) Animated Features Pt. 1
Almost everyone who grew up in the ‘80s and/or ‘90s has some kind of nostalgic attachment to a Walt Disney 2D animated feature. (It’s a sad world we live in now that “2D” is a required adjective in that sentence.) Hours of our childhoods were devoted to watching a singular Disney title over and over […]
On DVD: Public Enemies
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a good cat-and-mouse thriller done old school, and that’s exactly what “Public Enemies” is. Merely trade in your usual summer crime movie full of thieves in ski masks wielding uzis for ones wearing suits and fedoras armed with tommy guns and suddenly you’re getting entertained Great Depression-style. “Public Enemies” […]
Weekend Recap: Box office down, “Blind Side” up
Predicting who will win the box office hasn’t been as hard as I thought, but this was one of those weeks where I’m pretty pleased with my prediction. The Blind Side, its third week, surpassed New Moon to take No. 1. Box office winners have been clear-cut with a few surprises since I started this […]
“Deathly Hallows Pt. 1” Teaser!
The trailer for the first part of the final installment in the Harry Potter films/books Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows appeared to be leaked online, but then apparently it was put out officially. Film School Rejects has the teaser plus an introduction from producer David Heyman and director David Yates. The teaser is pretty […]
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard Review
In the tradition of the many other Will Ferrell-Adam McKay produced comedies with a colon in the title that’s focused on a quirky character, “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” makes a pitch for awkward humor from a wide range of messed up characters. If you’re an easy sell on that kind of humor “The […]
Weekend Preview (12.4.09)
There’s always a one-week burnout period in this second weekend after Thanksgiving. We all sort of hit this wall when we realize Christmas isn’t actually for another three weeks and that we have to work and shop. The novelty wears off briefly but then maybe there’s a little snowfall and you hear some Christmas music […]
Hit or Miss: Robert De Niro the last 10 years
Everybody’s Fine hits theaters this weekend, a remake of a 1990 Italian film about a widower reconnecting with his kids (at Christmas time, of course), and it has most of us thinking: Yea … so what good movies has Robert De Niro done lately? That’s a head-scratcher. Past his prime, De Niro has yet to […]
“Mulholland Dr.” (2001) – 3.5/5 Stars
David Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.” is like one of those video games that the programmers make so amazing yet so impossibly difficult that in order to be fully satisfied you’re forced to buy one of those walkthrough game guides. The film might be a masterpiece, but it’s a Rubix cube of surrealism that prefers to leave […]
“Shine” (1996) – 4/5 Stars
A great piece of music — and this is especially true of works for piano — conveys a mood or sometimes many moods; it is incredibly affective. While listening you might feel comfortable and at ease at one point and then suddenly chaotic and unsettled at another. This is certainly true of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. […]
Weekend Recap: “Blind Side” pushes “New Moon”
I would say about 10 percent of my box office projections are based on what I overhear/word-of-mouth, but when people I never expected started talking about how they saw or were going to see The Blind Side and that it was really good, I up that number. That being the case this Thanksgiving, New Moon was almost […]
