12 July 2008

One crown to rule them all

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Crit

I idolize Guillermo del Toro, so I'm going to call this an hommage to The Lord of the Rings rather than a ripoff (to Peter Jackson's LOTR, that is, with which I'm infinitely more familiar than with Tolkien's), but gee whiz, it pays its homage generously. Also a lesser debt to Star Wars. Then again, he also rips off--er, pays homage to--his own Laberinto del Fauno and especially to the clockwork creature of Cronos.

Bottom line, as comic-book flicks go, this one's gorgeous and literate, plus, I gotta say that after about a zillion flicks, Selma Blair has really begun to grow on me.

Brick Lane

Crit

This barely reached the downtown bar, but I liked it more than I expected to: goes in an expected direction for a long time, then takes a surprising but legitimate turn in the late going. Haven't read the novel, so I don't know how much credit belongs to Monica Ali, how much to the screenwriter, Laura Jones, and director, Sarah Gavron.

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