Fantasy

[7] First of all, Batman Forever is not Batman and Robin, which came out two years later. For whatever reason, nearly everyone tends to confuse the two or lump them together. Both were directed by Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys, Falling Down), but in my mind they are very, very different movies. I enjoy Batman Forever way more than I should, but Batman and Robin …

[7] In the wake of Star Wars, all the Hollywood studios were scrambling to replicate its success with similar big-budget sci-fi/fantasy epics. Krull was Columbia Pictures’ effort, released the same summer as Return of the Jedi, and destined to box office failure in the formidable match-up. I think Krull is actually a pretty good movie in its own right, though — much more than a …

[6] Arnold Schwarzenegger returns in his only Conan sequel, a less serious and more family-friendly adventure to help a princess (Olivia d’Abo) find a legendary horn for her aunt, Queen Taramis (Superman II‘s Sarah Douglas), who promises Conan she’ll bring his lover from the previous film back to life once he completes this quest. Mako returns as Conan’s wizard companion, along with a motley collection …

[7] Director John Milius (Big Wednesday, Red Dawn) brings Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian to the big screen with Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role. The film is an origin story, opening with young Conan witnessing the murder of his parents at the hands of Thulsa Doom (a well-cast James Earl Jones), a religious cult leader with a propensity for pillaging and …

[6] Writer/director James Cameron (Titanic, Aliens) returns to the world of Pandora thirteen years after the first Avatar film broke all box office records. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) now lives completely among the planet’s tall, blue natives – the Na’vi. He and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) are raising four children, including Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), who has a mysterious, powerful connection to all life on Pandora. They’ve …

[7] Cary Grant and Constance Bennett play a carefree wealthy couple who die in a car wreck after a night of hard partying. When they discover they are ghosts with no purpose, they decide to do a good deed in hopes of getting into heaven. So they try to rescue their stuffy bank manager friend, played by Roland Young, from the stifling lifestyle his wife …

[6] Benedict Cumberbatch makes his first official sequel as Marvel’s Doctor Strange, although he’s appeared in many other Marvel movies since the first film was released in 2016. The core concept of this movie has dramatic potential, casting one of the good guys, Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, as the new villain. Wanda’s character arc is one of the more compelling ones in the Marvel universe. …

[8] Director Tim Burton (Batman, Ed Wood) followed his debut feature, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, with this stylish fantasy-comedy about a young deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) trying to haunt an annoying new family out of their quaint countryside home. When the new family ends up more amused than alarmed by their ghostly antics, they’re left with no choice but to summon the …

[3] I’ve never been a fan of Lewis Carroll’s source material, so I’m not surprised to find this 1933 all-star studio production of Alice in Wonderland to be another tedious incarnation. You know the story: a little girl (Charlotte Henry) goes into a mirror and meets one fanciful character after another until sweet mercy brings the credits rolling. The details don’t matter: She drinks and …

[4] In this animated rock musical out of Canada, a waning pop star named Mok seeks to summon a demon for his own nefarious gain. But to do so, he must find a voice powerful enough to open the gateway to the demon’s dimension. He finds that voice in Angel, a singer vying along with her boyfriend, Omar, for the top spot in their band. …

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