Movie Reviews

Who is the target audience for Warcraft? Based on the marketing materials, one might assume it’s for fans of Lords of the Rings: a high-fantasy action flick featuring orcs and dwarves, wizards and swords, mystical creatures and a hero who vaguely resembles Viggo Mortensen if you tilt your head just so. One might also assume that Warcraft was made for fans of World of Warcraft, the immensely popular multi-player online RPG that shares many of the same characters and basic narrative threads. But after actually seeing Warcraft, a different answer emerges: it’s for 13-year-old fans of Power Metal who run D&D games on the weekends and spent their allowance on a commemorative replica of the One Ring.

Kids grow up so fast these days. They have to if they’re going to watch the movies Hollywood makes for them.

There’s a scene in The Boss where Melissa McCarthy’s character, a disgraced business mogul named Michelle Darnell, tries to rebuild her financial empire by going to a country club to woo potential investors. Her pitch goes badly, from both a practical perspective and a comedic one. Not realizing one of the investors’ wives is dead, she mocks her and calls her terrible names, and basically makes a fool out of herself. None of this is funny. The conversation goes on and on, fumbling for some kind of ending, until Michelle excuses herself and then suddenly and randomly falls down a flight of stairs. End of scene.

I loved Mrs. Doubtfire as much as everyone else. The Birdcage made me laugh out loud, too. But my very favorite Robin Williams movie, in fact one of my very favorite movies of all time, is one that not many people remember all that well - The Fisher King.

Awards season is here, and there are a number of excellent movies to catch before the hardware is handed out. What are the best flicks you've seen recently?