Wednesday 22 May
 
 

Dexter: The Seventh Season

There's no way to discuss the seventh and penultimate season of Showtime's hit Dexter without acknowledging how the previous year ended. Therefore, if you haven't finished the sixth season, stop reading now. You've got work to do.
05/21/2013 | Comments 0

Nightfall

As Simon Lam gets older, he gets better. The veteran actor has appeared in such in seminal HK action films of the 1990s as Once Upon a Time in China (opposite Jet Li) and Bullet in the Head (directed by John Woo); in the aughts, he graced audience and critical favorites Election and Ip Man.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

Grand Duel

Lee Van Cleef enjoyed a secondary career in Italy cranking out spaghetti Westerns, with little regard to quality. However, 1972’s Grand Duel — aka The Big Showdown — is deserving of its Grand label. No wonder Quentin Tarantino borrowed its sweeping theme song by Luis Bacalov for Kill Bill; you'll recognize it in two notes.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

The Last Stand

Early in The Last Stand, the small-town sheriff played by Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's my day off. Should be a quiet weekend." That's the new way of saying, "I've got one week to retirement," because it signals — with flashing neon and everything — that life is going to royally upend those plans.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0

Texas Chainsaw

One of the most inconsistent franchises in movie history is the one beget by Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. How does one follow all those less-than-beloved sequels? Lionsgate's latest in the series — the seventh — has a solution: Ignore 'em.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0
Home · Articles · Movies · Children's · The Spiderwick Chronicles
Children's

The Spiderwick Chronicles


None February 21st, 2008

spiderwick

Reviewer's grade: B-

 

Remarkable child actor du jour Freddie Highmore ("Finding Neverland," "August Rush") leads a solid cast in this fanciful but never cloying family fantasy adventure about three children in an old house who discover a secret book that reveals the wonders "” and frights "” of the unseen creatures around us.

 

Wicked ogre Mulgarath (Nick Nolte) wants the book because it will allow him to kill all the humans and conquer his world, but as long as the children keep the book within the protective circle in which the house sits, he's stuck. But Mom has to go to work outside the circle, and never was there a better reason to phone in sick. With a cast that includes Mary-Louise Parker, Joan Plowright, David Strathairn, Martin Short, Seth Rogen and Sarah Bolger, and a dream behind-the-camera team, this one should be a winner. And is.

 

Paramount would like for this to be the start of a new fantasy franchise, but this first entry is a complete story with no loose threads. There is some scary stuff, so prepare your children. PG

 

"”Doug Bentin 

 
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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