Topic: Morgan Freeman

The Dark Knight: perfection in every way

By David W. Shelton | July 18, 2008 |

When the closing credits rolled for The Dark Knight, I was left in stunned silence. In what is easily the best film of the year so far (and possibly one of the best in the last thirty years), director Christopher Nolan has delivered his shining star; a masterpiece that has set a new standard in crime dramas.

Oh, it’s a comic book adaptation? How I seem to forget that simple little thing. To be honest, it’s easy to forget that this complex, juicy, layered dissertation of the human condition is based on a nearly seventy-year-old comic book character that first began in the half-toned pages of Detective Comics back in November of 1939.

The Dark Knight, unlike Superman or Spider-Man 2 (which themselves were the best of their own genre), has completely emerged from not only from its paneled source material, but has soared into skyline of cinematic brilliance. «Read the rest of this article»

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“Wanted” promises action; delivers

By David W. Shelton | July 3, 2008 |

Wanted, the new action film from Universal Pictures, is a crowd-pleasing action film that’s sure to keep the adrenaline pumped in audiences everywhere. Before I continue with this review, perhaps I should confess my own secret love for underdog-turned-badass movies since there’s that twelve-year-old in me that will never grow up.

Films like Wanted appeal to just that kid-on-the-cusp-of-adulthood mentality that most adult men share, driving all of us to wonder just what we’ve done with our lives. Since most of us who shell out our eight bucks to see this kind of movie aren’t interested in anything but violence, guts, sex, and profanity, director Timur Bekmambetov (with his first American film) delivers all of these elements within the first five minutes of the narrative.

That’s not to say it’s a bad movie, really. Bekmambetov’s style is clearly an attempt to capture the equally-adult comic book in film, a task which is largely successful. Having never read the comic (I know, they’re supposed to be called “graphic novels,” but frankly, I don’t care. They’re comics.), I was able to look at the film as its own entity. Since the vast majority of the film’s audience is equally ignorant of its source material, that’s probably a good thing.

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Of surfers and arks: Journeys into the realm of the divinely dull

By David W. Shelton | July 2, 2007 |

Evan Almighty: 6/10
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer: 5/10

It seems that every Summer has its share of bland films that appeal only to those whose attention span will prevent any thorough reflection of just how inane they really are. This year’s finest examples are Evan Almighty and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

At a surface level, both films offer plenty of razzle and dazzle, and enough of a spectacle to wow the audience with its special effects and dry humor. However, neither one of these big-budget blockbusters is able to rise above their abject mediocrity. Since I don’t want to confuse anyone, I’ll start with Evan Almighty. «Read the rest of this article»

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