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Blinded by the Light is a one-third Bruce Springsteen hagiography, one-third kitschy ‘80s recreation, and one-third feel-good father/son coming together. Surprisingly, however, it works. The movie combines an infectious spirit with a serious...

Hope Springs has the unusual distinction of providing a sample of what an Ingmar Bergman movie might be like if made for mass American consumption. The production leavens the painful psychological introspection that defined the Swedish director's b...

It has often perplexed me why there have been relatively few fantasy adventure animated films. With their mix of monsters, magic, and heroism, they would seem to be an ideal fit to captivate the imaginations of children and adults alike. Putting asid...

In the pantheon of fantasy writers, no diety is treated with greater reverence than J.R.R. Tolkien, who is regarded by most readers as the Father of Modern Fantasy. During the past three decades, the fantasy area in bookstores has expanded from a ...

According to the calendar, Christmas is December 25. According to the movie release schedule, it's December 17. There can be no greater gift for a movie lover than the one bestowed upon audiences by Peter Jackson, whose The Lord of the Rings: Th...

If there is a primary quality needed to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to the screen, it is vision - an attribute possessed in abundance by director Peter Jackson. In more than 100 years of motion pictures, few cinematic campaigns of...

Considering the success of Peter Jackson’s live-action The Lord of the Rings trilogy and, to a lesser extent, his Hobbit movies, it may be difficult to remember that, during the 1970s and 1980s, the medium used to bring Middle Earth to the masse...

Romantic comedies are a little like junk food: they're not healthy or sophisticated but, when made right, there's something addictive about their tasty familiarity. Going in, you know what you're going to get. There are no surprises, nasty or other...

Groundhog Day was released in 1993. For the next 20+ years, no major production touched the Twilight Zone-ish premise. Recently, however, a new generation of filmmakers has discovered Groundhog Day and decided to try their hands at expanding t...

Note: I consider this review to be “spoiler-lite.” Although there are no overt revelations of things that can’t be learned by scanning published cast lists or watching the trailer, if you don’t want to know anything about the movie, co...