Beyond the Rhetoric

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (2011) The first movie in this trilogy, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, went on to become a cult classic. It was irreverent, nonsensical and hilarious. The sequel didn’t capture that same kind of magic, so I was cautiously optimistic at best when I heard that a [...]

Real Steel (2011) With an absurdly silly premise like this, you can’t help but to feel like the people behind this movie are playing a practical joke on the world. Strangely enough, though, Real Steel is mildly thoughtful, offering depth, humor, and plenty of robot-on-robot action. Yes, it’s easy to say that Real Steel is [...]

Thor (2011) Superhero movies can be very entertaining if they are well done and you are willing to suspend your disbelief. That’s why movies like The Dark Knight and Iron Man worked so well. Even when you start including superpowers, rather than just rich men with their fancy toys, you can still achieve some great [...]

What happens when you take a pretty typical movie formula, but throw a cultural wrench into the fray? That’s effectively what you get with Breakaway, a movie that was originally titled Speedy Singhs. A group of Indo-Canadians in suburban Toronto form a hockey team in a small time league, because they can’t gain any acceptance [...]

Arthur (2011) For some reason or another, I’ve become a big fan of the Russell Brand brand of comedy. There’s just something about the way that he carries himself (along with the somewhat peculiar British accent) that lends itself to some great laughs. At the same time, it’s not like I went in expecting an [...]