Alan Rapp

Belfast

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Belfast
  • IMDb: link

There’s a nostalgic feel to writer/director Kenneth Branagh‘s semi-autobiographical film about a young boy growing up in Belfast during the times of The Troubles as communities were torn apart by Protestant and Catholic sides over national rather than religious fervor. The lens which events are shown is the likable schoolboy Buddy (Jude Hill) who loves his home, neighborhood, and family despite the violence that rages around them to a point where soldiers deploy and barricades are erected.

Buddy’s family includes his mother (Caitriona Balfe), mostly absentee father (Jamie Dornan), older brother (Lewis McAskie), and grandparents (Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds). Despite the tumultuous setting, much of the movie centers around Buddy’s everyday life, his crush on a girl (Olive Tennant) at school, going to the movies with his family, and getting dragged into situations by an older neighborhood girl (Lara McDonnell) he isn’t ready for.

…

BelfastRead More »

Belfast Read More »

Finch

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Finch
  • IMDb: link

Tom Hanks stars as grumpy scientist Finch in a post-apocalyptic future where his only friend is a dog and the robots he builds to help him cope with the desolate landscape. The movie begins with the building of a new robot. Far more complex than the rover Finch has been using, the sentient Jeff (voiced by Caleb Landry Jones) is designed to take care of the dog once Finch is gone.

Boiled down, the movie is basically a road trip trying to stay ahead of a super storm likely to kill them. There’s also a thread of Jeff learning about humanity through Finch’s pessimistic eyes, and even the hard won friendship that eventually develops between the robot and the dog. Other than flashbacks, and very few of those, the film is devoid of other actors as Finch and his friends avoid other humans like the plague while hoping to reach San Francisco.

There are of course questions about the plot concerning the devastation that left the sky scorched, destroyed crops, and yet left roads and highways largely free of any blockages that could possibly interfere with Finch’s journey. And, of course, Finch always finds what he needs (even if that need is to build the most sophisticated robot the world has ever seen). The film’s look is consistent, if far from the most interesting post-apocalyptic world rendered on film.

…

FinchRead More »

Finch Read More »

The Lost Symbol – Cascade

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Lost Symbol – Cascade
  • IMDb: link

“Cascade” introduces another member of the Solomon family as Robert (Ashley Zukerman) and Katharine (Valorie Curry) visit her mother (Laura de Carteret) to break the news about Zachary only to discover she’s known he has been alive for some time. It’s also revealed that she, not the group Zachary was indoctrinated in while in prison, has been funding his efforts (although she has been largely ignorant of how bloody those efforts have become). Robert, looks like you dodged a bullet in not marrying into this crazy-ass family.

…

The Lost Symbol – CascadeRead More »

The Lost Symbol – Cascade Read More »

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants #1

/ / Comics

The four-issue mini-series adaptation of Hellboy: The Bones of Giants begins here with Hellboy and Abe Sapien sent to Sweden to investigate the discovery of what appears to be the smoking skeletal remains of the Norse God Thor. After picking up the hammer, Hellboy witnesses odd visions and becomes temporarily possessed. Even after regaining his senses, Hellboy is incapable of laying the hammer down and still seems mentally connected to the hammer’s pull leading the group to a cave in the mountains which has recently been disturbed.

Looking for help on the unusual situation Professor Edmond Aickman who isn’t exactly pleased to see Hellboy even decades after their previous encounter involving King Vold, but he is initially quite curious about the hammer although something concerns him enough to flee in the dead of the night. Just what has Hellboy stumbled into this time?

…

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants #1Read More »

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants #1 Read More »