Cinefantastique Online

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For many months now I have been looking forward to the release of James Cameron’s AVATAR. But with all the hype, much of it coming from Cameron himself, I was prepared to be mesmerized by the visual display, but to feel let down by the storyline. Thankfully, the visual elements lived up to the hype, [...]

It’s nice to finally see a Terry Gilliam film on the big screen again. It’s been a long time since the back-to-back box office debacles of BRAZIL (1985) and THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN (1988) sent him scurrying to prove that he could turn a profit by working more as a hired gun than an auteur, directing [...]

It’s Christmas Eve, all, so we here at CinefantastiqueOnline.com want to wish you the very best of Christmas holidays and a most pleasant 2010! And in keeping with the jovial spirit of the season, we submit the following question: Does the world need another version of Charles Dickens’ 1843 perennial classic, A CHRISTMAS CAROL?
Yep, there be yet [...]

For many decades, this 1951 production was considered to be the best adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and it is easy to see why: it features excellent production values and a wonderful performance by Alastair Sim as Scrooge.

AVATAR is an enormously entertaining piece of screen spectacle that goes a long way toward redeeming the somewhat debased concept of a Hollywood blockbuster: It is epic in scale and lavish in production, filled with qualities that can only be purchased with big bucks, and yet it never feels like a hollow money pit.

It’s the last Tuesday before Christmas – meaning it’s the last release date for new horror, fantasy and science fiction on home video – so you might be expecting a glut of last-minute shopping opportunities. No such luck. This week’s batch of releases offers only a couple of interesting titles; fortunately, one of them is [...]

“Something strange is coming to their planet…Us!”
When I saw that tagline in the first trailer for PLANET 51, I thought folks could look forward to a nice little family-friendly animated film (and maybe I could get a clever Sci-Fi fix). It looked lively and I was rooting for it to be so.
Okay, so it isn’t all [...]

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON has to be the most anticipated film of the year, at least by high-school girls. I’ve read the Stephanie Meyer books on which this film and its predecessor, TWILIGHT, were based, and thought they told a great story. The first film, however, left me disappointed:TWILIGHT was not gritty enough, and the actors [...]

Dan O’Bannon, the creator of ALIEN, passed away in a Santa Monica hospital on Thursday at the age of 63; the cause of death was Crohn’s disease.
O’Bannon was one of a seminal generation of film school graduates that included the likes of John Carpenter, Brian DePalma, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg – life-long film fans [...]

The Blu-ray disc provides a gorgeous transfer and good extras, but the film remains a high-sheen jumble designed for attention-deficit viewers.

A short promotional film offering a glimpse behind the scenes of director Peter Jackson’s film version of Alice Sebold’s best-seller.

Hugh Jackman dons the adamantium claws once again for this prequel revealing the back story of Wolverine, but even his considerable charisma and thespian skills are no match for an ill-conceived scenario that buries its intended emotional resonances beneath an avalanche of typical action-movie antics, and then further aggravates the situation by tossing in a [...]

The Wall Street Journal offers an early look at James Cameron’s AVATAR – or, more precisely, a look at some films with elements that prefigure AVATAR. The hit parade includes DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN, ALIENS, DANCES WITH WOLVES, GULLIVER’S TRAVELS and LORD OF THE RINGS.