The Apparition

A dumb concept, scripted and directed poorly, brought to screen lifelessly via subpar performances.

The 2012 Fall Movie Preview – Part I

With this weekend’s release of “The Expendables 2” and “ParaNorman”, the summer movie season is pretty much over. One weekend remains in August, and those movies wont have much room to run before school is back in session.

Nope, the season of the big blockbuster is behind us. It’s time to look ahead to the fall.

Not to despair, though, the fall brings sharp movies for the thinking movie fan. Movies which may have more selective box office appeal, but which may be some of the best movies all year.

So click through to take a look at the first part of this year’s fall preview. Today we’ll look at the last week of August, plus September, and then we’ll come back tomorrow with October and the first week of November. Together they’ll take us right up to the start of the Holiday movie season, and the November 9th release of Skyfall!

Now showing on cable: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I”

Premiering this weekend on HBO was the penultimate movie in the Harry Potter franchise, 2010’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I”.

When I think of the final two “Harry Potter” movies, the analogy I can’t resist is the 1998 movie “Twins”.

In it, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito play a couple of genetically engineered twins, separated at birth. The gag is, Ahnuld was spawned from the most desirable elements of the genetic code, and DeVito was created from the residual elements.

To me, that’s how I feel about the final two “Potter” movies. The second part is a nonstop explosion of action, character reveals, battle scenes and resolutions. It’s a phenomenal movie, a genuine big ticket movie.

This one? Not so much.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

“Born Free!! As free as the wind blows…

As free as the Grass gr—“ Oh shit. Sorry. I’ve gotta stop doing that!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was an excellent flick! I was totally surprised how much I liked it. It tells the story of how the planet fell to the apes in the first place. And is probably a little more plausible than just “There was a talking circus pet in Ricardo Montalban’s circus”.

Here’s the unexpected thing that the previews don’t really show you though. The Apes aren’t the villains in this movie… they’re the heroes.