A young girl’s inner emotions struggle to cope with major change in Pixar‘s intriguing animated film Inside Out. 11-year-old Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) has lived a bit of a charmed existence up to this point in her young life. She’s popular with all of her friends, she’s a natural hockey player and she has two […]
I’m happy to admit that I’m a big fan of Disney animated films and theme parks. That doesn’t mean that I inhale everything Disney without restraint. I have my limits. There was a dull time when Disney churned out such dreck as Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure and Cinderella III: A Twist in […]
A rebellious science student joins forces with a reluctant inventor to decipher the mysteries of the futuristic Tomorrowland. Somewhere in the fabric of space and time, there exists a fantastical place called Tomorrowland. It exists in a dimension unknown by nearly everyone on Earth except for the very few invited to visit. Recruiters from this […]
The translation of animated properties to live-action movies has a mixed past. I still cringe when I think of Speed Racer and The Flintstones and its sequel. I was not impressed when I heard that there was going to be a live-action version of Cinderella. After all, the original Disney classic is one of the […]
Potential tragedy looms for the magical occupants of a famed New York museum in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. In the third installment of the series, museum security guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) returns with a new responsibility. His boss, Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais), has entrusted him to provide the “special effects” […]
A brainy young teen, his robot companion and a group of misfit friends form an unlikely clan of crime fighters in the animated adventure Big Hero 6. Hiro Hamada (voiced by Ryan Potter) is a natural whiz at robotics engineering. That’s quite an accomplishment for an otherwise typical 14-year-old boy. He uses his skills to craft […]
A nefarious villain plans to gain entry into elite society by exterminating the creatures dwelling underground in the town in The Boxtrolls. The town of Cheesebridge lives in fear of flesh-eating monsters called Boxtrolls who, as their name suggests, wear discarded boxes over their ghastly figures to more easily hide among the town’s refuse. Each night, […]
A beloved celebrity dolphin faces new challenges when circumstances put her future at risk in Dolphin Tale 2. Winter, a bottlenose dolphin, was severely injured by a crab trap in 2005, resulting in the loss of her tail. She was rescued by locals and brought to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium where she was outfitted with a […]
Two children and their divorced parents weather the changes of life over a 12-year period in Boyhood. Six-year-old Mason Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) and his eight-year-old sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) live in a simple Texas home with their single, blue-collar mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette). She decides to move the family to Houston for a better paying job and […]
A group of friends follow a strange series of messages, leading them to a cute, otherworldly being in search of a way back home in Earth to Echo. Three close-knit friends, struggling with the imminent end of their friendship thanks to a highway project that will level their neighborhood, find themselves captivated by one final […]
Great fairy tales, even the darker ones, completely take you out of the theater to a place where you’ve never been before and reward you with a fable and unique, fantastic characters. I think back to the experiences that I had when I first saw Shrek, Labyrinth, Beauty and the Beast and any number of […]
Two divorced parents transform a horrid blind date into a surprise African vacation in the romantic comedy Blended. An overly laid-back store manager and father of three girls, Jim Friedman (Adam Sandler), goes on a blind date with an obsessive closet organizer and mother of two boys named Lauren Reynolds (Drew Barrymore). Jim’s used to having a […]