At the end of the last Pirates of the Caribbean film in 2007, we last saw Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) missing his ship, the Black Pearl – but with a special map that would lead to the Fountain of Youth. In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the race is on to see who can find the Fountain first: the Spanish, the English, or dread pirate Blackbeard. On the English side, Sparrow is hired by King George II …
Tron: Legacy
1982’s Tron showed us what might be going on inside computers, where programs live in The Grid, and fight for survival against the evil Sarc and his Master Control Program. At the end of that film, creator Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) – who had been sucked into the computer – managed to escape and take control of ENCOM. As Tron: Legacy opens, seven years later in 1989, we see that Flynn now has a son, Sam, and has made ENCOM …
Tangled
Tangled is not only Walt Disney Animation’s 50th feature-length release, but it’s also the most expensive animated film made (to date). Early on in the studio’s history, Walt Disney was keen on adapting classic fairy tales into new stories. The story of Rapunzel was in development at the studio since the 1940s, but it was not until this past year that it finally made it to the big screen. Tangled starts out with some back story. Gothel (voiced by Donna …
Inception
In Inception, the idea of corporate espionage is taken to the next level. Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an "extractor" – someone who, through shared dreaming technology developed by the military, steals sensitive information from his targets. Along with his point man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Cobb was trying to extract information from Japanese businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe), but things went wrong when the subconscious representation of his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) showed up and ruined the plan. It turns …
Toy Story 3
In 1995’s groundbreaking Toy Story, we were introduced to Woody (Tom Hanks) and the gang. When a new toy, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) was introduced to the group, Woody was convinced he was going to be replaced as Andy’s favorite toy. By the end of the film, after a series of adventures, the two were best buddies. In 1999’s Toy Story 2, the dynamic took a bit of a turn when Woody is stolen by a toy dealer, and discovers …
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
It’s increasingly rare that films in Hollywood come from truly original sources. Witness the never-ending surge of sequel, remakes, spin-offs, re-imaginings, adaptations, etc. But just because something is an adaptation of a successful property, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will capture the audience that it tries to caters to. (See Phantom of the Opera, for instance.) In the case of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the source material was not only the video game of the same …
Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland has had numerous film and television adaptations, but one of the most famous ones is the Walt Disney Pictures animated feature from 1951. Tim Burton – who had recently given us his unique spin on such properties as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street tackled Alice in Wonderland not as a retelling or remake of novel (and the sequel Through the Looking Glass), but rather as a …
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr. Fox is Wes Anderson’s unique animated film adaptation that expands on the original Roald Dahl short story. After promising never to steal squabs again, Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) live a simple life – he’s a columnist for a newspaper and they have a moody son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) – but he wants something more. Deciding to move out of their hole in the ground, he purchases a home in a tree (against …
Up in the Air
Based on the 2001 novel of the same name, Up in the Air is a dour dramatic comedy about Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), who spends his time travelling around the country as a corporate downsizer, laying people off when their bosses are too cowardly to do it themselves. When the company office in Omaha, Nebraska decides to entertain a new plan by young co-worker Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), to cut costs by doing the layoffs over the internet, Bingham realizes …
Avatar
A military man in a far-off land forges a relationship with the natives, falls in love with one of them, sympathizes with them, and ends up leading an uprising against his own people who seek to exploit the natural resources of the land. No, I’m not talking about Pocahontas or Dances with Wolves. I’m talking about Avatar, the first feature film in 13 years from Oscar-winning director James Cameron, following 1997’s Titanic. Set in 2154, humans have colonized space, and …