Movie Review – Ninja Assassin (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
What is it: Ninja Assassin is a ninja movie.
Who should see it: People who like ninja movies. Read more 
Movie Review – De Dana Dan (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
Writer-director Priyadarshan’s De Dana Dan is a comedy that is intermittently very funny; there is a really good 100 minute farce inside the 165 minute running time. Still and all, the smashing finale and note-perfect ending make the trip to the theater worthwhile. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
LIMITED RELEASE THEATRICAL FILMS OPENING IN INDIANA THIS WEEK – This is quite the slow week for new limited-release films in central Indiana, with no new art films starting at the Keystone Arts and little new at the Georgetown 14. Still, there are a few new movies out there, along with more than a few holdovers and special screenings. Read on below for more on all of that, along with a special feature at the end of this week’s column – a piece on a Significant Anniversary of the theatrical release in Indianapolis of an Important, Life-Changing Film…. Read more
DVD of the Week – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
by HELEN GEIB
Disney has never been reluctant to re-release its animated classics and the two-disc DVD edition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that came out today is not the first good quality DVD release of the film. While it has some new features and a spiffed up print, it seems to be mostly a follow-on to last month’s Blu-ray release, a three-disc edition packed with extras and that includes a DVD copy of the film. I’m not sure exactly why someone who buys a Blu-ray copy of a movie would want a DVD copy too; perhaps to give away as a gift to technologically backward friends or keep in the family car to play on road trips. The release of the new DVD edition is at any rate perfectly timed for holiday gift giving. Read more
Movie Review – The Blind Side (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
The Blind Side is an of-the-moment biopic of a rookie NFL player named Michael Oher. The film focuses on Oher’s transformative high school years in Memphis. Quinton Aaron stars as the teenaged football phenom and Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw play his adoptive parents, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy. Read more
Movie Review – Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
by TOM NIXON
The most interesting thing about Fantastic Mr. Fox, disappointingly, is that Wes Anderson decided to do a Roald Dahl adaptation in the first place. The idea of projecting Dahl’s escapist fantasies of grotesquery through the lens of Anderson’s too-close-for-comfort tragicomic ensemble dramas is an exciting one, especially as both like to mine the messy sprawl of family bonds for their respective brands of idiosyncrasy and both meticulously order their cluttered, off-beat scenarios in ways that instill personality above and beyond the characters. Ultimately though the film is less an intriguing blend than a fun little side project, more Anderson than Dahl and puzzlingly less mature for that; concerned as it is with being a cute little exercise in style, the film neglects Dahl’s relative darkness and its attempts at thorniness feel half-hearted and trivial. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
LIMITED RELEASE THEATRICAL OPENINGS IN INDIANA THIS WEEK – If you enjoy Indian films on the big screen, then this is your kind of week at the Georgetown 14 - five movies from India will be playing at that theater between now and next Friday. The Keystone Arts has no new limited release films this week, since Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire also will be at five other local theaters, and will be on multiple screens at several venues (including the Landmark). For all of the news on what’s new (and holding over) in the world of limited-release films across the state, read on below. Read more
Movie Review – The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
Based on the book by Ron Jonson, The Men Who Stare at Goats is a comedic romp about psychic soldiers, or Jedi warriors as they like to be called, who were recruited by the American military after Vietnam and taught how to fight armed only with their minds. Sounds crazy? Well, its craziness only makes the story more realistic. Read more
DVD of the Week – Star Trek (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
One of the criticisms I heard of the new Star Trek film, a prequel to the original “Star Trek” TV show and a re-launching of the franchise it spawned, was that it was overly focused on action and comedy at the expense of the social commentary intrinsic to series creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision. My informal survey of people who watched the series when it first aired (that would be my parents) produced two responses to this criticism: the first, that action and comedy were just as important as social commentary to the show’s appeal, if not even more so; and the second, that the show was worth watching despite the overt sermonizing, not because of it. Read more
Movie Review – Astro Boy (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
Astro Boy is an animated family film about a robot boy who becomes a superhero. Although the film is an American production, Astro Boy’s hero is the latest incarnation of a character created by pioneering Japanese author and animator Osamu Tezuka in the early 1950s. Astro originated in manga and after a successful print career, made the transition to the small screen as the star of the first anime series. International success followed when the anime series became one of the first Japanese cartoons broadcast in the U.S. Read more
