Movie Review: Gnomeo and Juliet

As you can guess from the title, this film is based on Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. In fact, the bard himself (voiced by Patrick Stewart) makes an appearance as a statue. The twist is that all of the characters are garden gnomes. There's even one hidden in the title of the movie.[1] In this scenario the garden gnomes are owned by Mrs. Montague and Mr. Capulet, who live in Stratford-Upon-Avon, one in apartment "2B" and the other in house "Not 2B", who have a long-standing feud. This feud is carried out in parallel by their garden gnomes. Mrs. Montague's gnomes are blue while Mr. Capulet's are red.

Movie Review: D.O.A.: Dead or Alive

Dead or Alive was a video game long before it attempted the transition to the silver screen. There is also a nod to the spin-off game, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. Films based on video games can fare pretty well at the box office (e.g. Resident Evil, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, etc. [1]), though they're generally panned by movie critics. But there have also been some movies that bombed at the box office despite the popularity of the video game they were based on (e.g. Super Mario Bros., Doom, Double Dragon, Tekken, etc. [2]).

Movie Review: Robin Hood (2010)

I think most of us are familiar with the Robin Hood story because of the Disney movie of the same name, though there are several other portrayals of the legend that I have experienced, including Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe, T. H. White's novel The Sword in the Stone, and Errol Flynn's film The Adventures of Robin Hood.[1] This is more like a prequel to the Robin Hood story. But it's also kind of a remake of Gladiator: it has Russell Crowe in the lead, it was directed by Ridley Scott, the actor who plays Prince John is quite similar to Joaquin Phoenix, and I suspect that if Richard Harris hadn't died, he would've been cast as Richard the Lionheart.

Hindu Chalk Art I

Hindu chalk art has many regional names: alpana, aripana, chowkpurana, kolam, madana, muggu, muggulu, pookalam, poovidal, rangoli, rangavalli, etc. Women often draw the pattern using rice powder, chalk, etc. in front of a home, especially during Hindu holidays.[1] There are different types of design.[2] For this round, I'll be focusing on two similar types. Read on.

Movie Review: Howl's Moving Castle

I first saw this film at the BYU International Cinema with my friends from the BYU 38th Ward Book Club. Given that it was originally produced by Studio Ghibli in Japan, I'm surprised that the decision makers for the BYU International Cinema chose to show the English-dubbed version rather than the Japanese version with English subtitles.[1] But since that's how they chose to show the film, that's how I first experienced it. And it may be the only film where I prefer the English-dubbed version over the original language. The movie is based on the 1986 book, Howl's Moving Castle, by British author, Diana Wynne Jones. That is, I should say, loosely based on the book. There are quite a few differences between the movie and the book, several of which are significant.

Movie Review: The Green Hornet

This movie started being advertised around the same time as The Green Lantern. Since I am not a comic book aficionado, it was easy for me to confuse the two. This one is based on what began as a radio drama and eventually evolved into a television series, several movies (including this one), a comic book series, and several novels.[1] It is about a newspaper magnate who doubles as a masked vigilante with the help of his valet (and martial arts expert), Kato.[2] As a bonus, he always knows where to send his reporters for breaking crime news.

Movie Review: Battle: Los Angeles

The movie Battle: Los Angeles is almost a hybrid of Cloverfield and Saving Private Ryan. It depicts an alien invasion of the U.S. coastal city of Los Angeles (much like the Cloverfield creature ravaged the U.S. coastal city of New York). The camera work is intended to make you feel like a part of the action (much like Saving Private Ryan [1]) and you're treated to the horrors of war—whether the opposing combatants be human beings or extraterrestrials.