David Raitt – Off-Topic

2009′s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was an original and very humorous story about an inventor’s machine that goes haywire. The sequel, with its new directors, committee-written script and forumulaic plot, feels like it’s been produced by an equally haywire machine. Luckily, it does throw a lot of funny material at the wall, and more often than not it sticks, so at least the kids should enjoy it.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

Prisoners is arguably French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s first “mainstream” Hollywood film – and what a way for the world to get to know him. It’s a nail-biting mystery with an involving moral debate at its centre – how often do we see those two things together?

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

Lee Daniels’ The Butler is saddled with its director’s name in the title due to a legal dispute over a similarly-named film from 1916. (Ah, Hollywood!) While it’s an excellent drama, it’s historical setting also proves to be just as cumbersome.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

In recent years, we’ve seen many high-profile financiers exposed as frauds living off their clients’ money. As the media focuses on the trial and conviction of these crooks, one thing that’s often forgotten are their families. It’s easy for us to blame spouses and children for turning a blind eye in order to preserve the lifestyle they’re accustomed to, but what really becomes of them after that lifestyle disappears? Blue Jasmine is writer-director Woody Allen’s story of one such wife, and her struggle to carry on.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

These days, it’s interesting and unusual to find a movie that defies expectations. When this happens, most of the time it’s the result of creative marketing trying too hard to make a film into something it’s not. But occasionally a script and director will take a seemingly-fixed premise in a different direction. Such is the case with We’re the Millers, which has the setup and intention of a raunch-fest but instead becomes a light, even endearing comedy. Depending on your expectations, that will please some and upset others.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

Whether caused by zombies, aliens, disease, or anything else, stories of worldwide apocalypse are all the rage these days, and now we have Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s The World’s End to add to the fire. It’s a funny little actioner in the same style as their previous comedies, and though it doesn’t quite hold together all the way through, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

While spaceships and gadgets are sometimes pure fun, the best science fiction also explores ideas, examining the present human condition through the metaphor of future worlds. Elysium starts along this path well, but then abandons its ideas for a brute-force ending that leaves it drowning in missed potential.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.

I may be speaking mostly for the boys here, but what kid (or kid at heart) doesn’t love a giant robot? Especially one you could climb inside and control, and big enough to let you use a cargo ship as a club to bash an equally gigantic alien monster? If that’s your fantasy, Pacific Rim gives it to you, and maybe a little extra, too.

Read the rest of my review at Oakville.com – click the title link.