Mini-Review: Hardly awesome, but entertaining nonetheless. This Alice left me wanting a bit but it's not horrible. The worst part is that, with the big bad Disney label, the film is terribly safe when it should border on absolute madness and danger. Oh well, guess Burton seemingly dropped the ball again acting as a studio director without caring much for the project or any kind of vision. This pat adaptation hardly soars, it's just a product, but it's watchable and Mia Wasikowska makes for a charming Alice.

Mini-Review: Perhaps not as cool as it was 50 years ago, this holds up amazingly well. Having never seen the film before (I know) and refusing to know much about its twisting plot, North by Northwest kept me guessing and surprising me constantly. A rocking Herrmann score just adds to the overall greatness and Hitchock works wonders with his sharp framing and odd camera angles. It all climaxes rather beautifully atop Mt. Rushmore, too bad James Mason suddenly vanishes from the picture.

Mini-Review: More like a case of a brilliant filmmaker going through the motions, 'The Lovely Bones' is not a bad film at all, it's just cruelly disappointing. In more cases than one can count, it feelks like Jackson is scared shitless of the "thorny" material, so it's all very pleasing and well, nice. The glorious CGI vistas are beautiful, but distracting; however, there ARE great moments here and there, all looming in a film in desperate need of finding the right tone. This one deserved a hard R rating.

Mini-Review: Predictable notwithstanding, Cameron's expansive (and expensive) sci-fi opus is just a visual marvel. Its more memorable moments are filled with that long-missed sense of true awe & wonder. In order for you to love it you must accept its almost new-agey sensibilities but beyond that, it just a kick-ass film from a great filmmaker. The motion-capture technique has taken a new level of detail and fluidity you have never seen before. Groundbreaking and even moving, this is a true beauty to behold.