Cinema Alliance Movie Reviews

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the latest release from director David Fincher (one of my personal favorites director-wise) since The Social Network. Check out Fincher

Pixar is back with the third installment of the beloved story that started it all. And you would think that it would be tough to keep things fresh but as usual, the excellent talent behind Pixar manages to do just that…

At this point, Andy is getting ready to move off to college and the fate of the toys is in question. Off to college with Andy? Off to the trash heap? Banished to the attic? All weigh heavily on our weary heroes as they end up split up and sent off to different points including a day care center. The Sunnyvale Daycare center seems nice enough but the toys quickly find that not all is as it seems. Meanwhile, Woody is trying to get back to Andy and is torn while trying to reunite with his friends at the same.

It all plays out in a way that you would expect but that’s part of the enjoyment. This is a G film and even though all seems dire, it all works out in the end. The writing is spot on and really keeps you wondering how things will work out and who will end up where. There’s a lot of humor of course, some geared towards kids, some adults (the Ken and Barby segments are really clever). There is a moment where your heart breaks a bit, but they do a very good job at smoothing the moment over and making you glad they did it anyway.

The talent from the first films are back with some new additions. The impressive lineup includes: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Laurie Metcalf, and newcomers Ned Beatty and Michael Keaton.

See this one with or without the kids, you’ll enjoy it either way.

reviewed by Sean McKnight

Jim Carrey stars in this animated re-telling of the Dickens Christmas classic. The story goes as you’d expect and aside from being a truncated version, the story holds true to the original. Less emphasis on Tiny Tim and the other side characters and more on Scrooge in this iteration but that was kind of necessary given the nature of the presentation this time. It keeps moving, which is kind of a drawback given the pacing of the original story is slower and more detailed and seemingly by comparison, a better fit in terms of pacing.

This version isn’t necessarily bad, it has merit, especially visually. The detail and the animation is amazingly detailed, beautiful and at times, exhilarating. There are some flying scenes that made me wish I had seen the film in the theater. Unfortunately, some of the characters just look, well, creepy. Especially Scrooge, who is supposed to be not-likable and he is. The problem is, even after his character arc, he still seems creepy, maybe even moreso when he’s trying to be nice. The dour design of the characters is something that would be true to the look of the people at the time but remains resonate after the point where the story should turn more uplifting.

The voice acting is well done and includes a great lineup that includes Jim Carrey playing Scrooge along with a number of other characters alongside Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Cary Elwes, Bob Hoskins and Robin Wright.

Robert Zemeckis wrote the screenplay and directed.

It’s worth seeing if you’re tired of watching the black and white version and want to shake things up a bit. I would see the original first if this is your first viewing or perhaps check out Bill Murray’s Scrooged instead.

reviewed by Sean McKnight

Some movies just aren

Halloween is over and I am back from the insane asylum where I usually spend the holiday. If you are looking for something to do when you get back from your Occupy Wall Street protest and rinse the pepper gas out of your eyes thoroughly enough so that you can see again, why not take a Canadian style look at the good ol