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June 11, 2013, By Tim Fak, Here at the Logan County Herald we use a variety of means to determine what readers most want us to place in each daily edition. Some are technical, some not so much so (and believe me, it’s always encouraging to get personal responses from readers.) From these means, it’s pretty clear that comedies are one of the most consistently popular genres in this column. Since our motto is “If it’s important to you, it’s important to us”, I thought it would be appropriate to make this week’s review another comedy: "The Internship". I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing some very funny comedies so far this year, but unfortunately this is one that makes me wish I had my own movie man intern to send out on reviews. (Click for more) | | June 4, 2013, By Tim Fak, If you’ll allow me to toot my own horn for the moment, one of the areas I’ve been working hard to improve this column has been to cover a wider selection of films. In that spirit, I thought I’d take a break from the adult oriented fare of the last few weeks and make this week’s review a film targeted at a younger audience, the newest animated offering to come down the pike: "Epic". While I’m not quite ready to say that this film is actually all that epic, I did find it to be surprisingly enjoyable and engaging, and a fairly rousing adventure story to boot. (Click for more) | | May 28, 2013, By Tim Fak, For the last few weeks, I’ve opened my column with some sort of anecdote or quip about the spring weather. However, several days of being waterlogged and the prospect of several more to come has left me in no mood to quip about rain. Ok, it’s fair to say I’ve been in a bit of a grumpy mood the last few days, so it should come as no surprise that I decided to take in a comedy this weekend to attempt to lighten my mood, this week’s review: “The Hangover Part III”. Released 4 years ago, the original Hangover was a surprise hit, while the first sequel was generally considered a tremendous let down. This new installment mostly splits the difference, not quite achieving the high water mark set by the original, but still going a long way toward redeeming the poor quality of part II. (Click for more) | | May 22, 2013, By Tim Fak, If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind that summer was officially here, the last week of warming temperatures should make things pretty clear. It’s about this time every year when Hollywood dusts off a few of the perennial powerhouse franchises to give us a new crop of summer spectacular action films and 2013 is already shaping up to be no exception. I’ve already reviewed a couple of these films, and will undoubtedly review a great many more over the next few months starting with this week’s film: "Star Trek into Darkness". (Click for more) | | May 14, 2013, By Tim Fak, Recently it occurred to me that this month will mark the tenth anniversary of my graduation from high school, which also means I’m “getting old”. Ok, maybe I’m not quite that old yet, but I’m certainly beginning to feel the passage of time, and occasionally, I’ve already begun to catch myself muttering something along the lines of “back in my day…”. I won’t bore you any further as I’m sure you want to read this week’s review instead of my budding quarter life crisis, but all of this seems somehow appropriate for this week’s film: "The Great Gatsby", the latest cinematic adaptation of the literary classic (which I had to read in high school.) mounted in a brash, modern style (which made me feel like an old man yearning for the stylistic trappings of years past.) See, I was going somewhere with all that. (Click for more) | | May 7. 2013, By Tim Fak, Some things in life come back year after year with the seasons. Unfortunately, one of these things for me is my annual spring cold. Thankfully, my preferred leisure activity of watching films is something that’s a near perfect activity to indulge in when one’s feeling too poorly to do much else. Despite feeling under the weather, I still was able to spend an enjoyable afternoon at the Lincoln Theater 4 taking in another annual tradition, the latest big budget spectacular from Marvel Studios: "Iron Man 3". Coming off the heels of last year’s "Avengers", "Iron Man 3" had some huge shoes to fill. I’m not sure it was able to raise the bar over its predecessors, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an enjoyable film just the same. (Click for more) | | April 24, 2013, By Tim Fak, People often ask me about my favorite film. To be honest, I find it really hard to pick a favorite and my list of favorites is probably hundreds of titles long. Therefore, my answer to the favorite question varies day by day according to my mood. On days when I’m feeling a bit mischievous, my answer will frequently be "Evil Dead II", usually followed by a tongue in cheek comment about how cinema reached its peak with that film. Although I’m half joking when I say that, I really do love the Evil Dead films and was very excited to see the newest entry on the series titled appropriately enough: "Evil Dead". (Click for more) | | April 16, 2013, By Tim Fak, Although I’m glad last week’s slight departure from my usual format generated some nice positive feedback from my readers (thanks for that by the way), I must confess that I’m also glad to be back on more familiar ground this week. Seeing as this week marks something of a return to the classic form of my column, it’s appropriate that the film I’m reviewing this week: "42", is also of an old fashioned entertainment. Although this was definitely another entry on that growing list of films I wouldn’t have gone to see were it not for this review column, once again I ended up surprised, so much so that I’d have to say this film is my favorite of 2013 so far. (Click for more) | | March 26, 2013, By Tim Fak, The hardest part of writing my weekly film review is coming up with something (hopefully) catchy to serve as an introduction. When I get stuck, I’ve noticed I tend to fall back on some sort of statement about what season it is. However, owing to our recent weather, I’m honestly not sure what season it is, so that tactic will have to be shelved this week. However, one of the best things to do when you’re snowed in is watch a film, and if you’re looking for a fun one for the family this week, you may want to try this week’s review: "The Croods". While it’s not exactly a classic of animation, it is a fun film, and a good way to spend some time while you’re waiting for outdoor weather to return. (Click for more) | | March 13, 2013, By Tim Fak, One of the things that’s always fascinates me about films is that they represent one of the few experiences most people have in common; who hasn’t seen a film at least once in their life, right? Going further, there are a small handful of films which represent an even stronger common experience, those films which most people have seen. If I were to draw up a list of such films, there’s no doubt that the 1939 Classic "The Wizard of Oz "would have to be near the top. Therefore, I’m guessing the film I’m reviewing this week: "Oz the Great and Powerful" is one of the most anticipated films of the year for a lot of people. With such a beloved predecessor, this film has some awfully big shoes to fill, and unfortunately I found it to be much less than up to the task. In fact, to me it was a fairly big disappointment. (Click for more) | | Most everyone loves a good fairy tale. I know I did as a child, and for the most part still do. Although there were many that I loved, laughed at and was, not infrequently, scared by, my undisputed favorite of all time would have to be Jack and the Beanstalk. So this week, my column will be something of a trip down memory lane for me, as I review this week’s film: "Jack the Giant Slayer", a big budget fantasy adventure based on this beloved tale. While it may be a story that everyone knows (and that has been done to death) this new version manages to keep things lively and add just enough twists on the old formula to keep things interesting for both the young and the young at heart. (Click for more) | | February 26, 2013, By Tim Fak, Usually after seeing a film, I have a pretty strong initial reaction as to how I felt about it. In fact, I often use the intensity of this reaction to help me gauge how to rate a film. if I feel very strongly it was good, it will obviously get a positive review. If I come out feeling like I just saw a stinker, it’s going to rate a poor write up. Although I’m sure this seems like common sense, I mention it here because occasionally I stumble across a film that leaves me with something of a confused reaction. Such is the case with this week’s film: "Hyde Park on Hudson", a film I have decidedly mixed feelings about. On the one hand it’s a well-made film. On the other it’s has some very deep flaws that seriously hamper its overall success. (Click for more) | | February 19, 2013, By Tim Fak, It’s a time honored practice in comedy films to build laughs around various topical issues of the day. Given that we’re currently inundated with news reports about identity theft scams and commercials for consumer protection services, it’s not surprising that someone would eventually make a comedy about these issues, titled appropriately enough, "Identity Thief". What is surprising given the rather lackluster track record of many other “topical” comedies is that this one is actually a pretty good film, or at least a very funny one. (Click for more) | | February 4, 2013, By Tim Fak, George A. Romero, the man who practically invented the modern zombie genre on film, once said in an interview that his idea of a happy ending to a zombie film would be if one of the zombies decided to eat a hamburger instead of brains. These days, with zombies being one of the most popular subjects around for films, books, television and assorted popular culture, it seems as though that’s one of the only approaches to the subject that hasn’t been tried. Well, after seeing this week’s film, "Warm Bodies", perhaps the world’s first cinematic zombie love story comes closer to that premise than any other film I can think of. And you know what? It also happens to be a pretty engaging film, a testament to the fact that a bit of originality can go a long way.
(Click for more) | | January 29, 2013, By Tim Fak, The new year is shaping up to be a banner year here at the Logan County Herald. It’s also shaping up to be something of a banner year for me and this column, both in terms of the quality of the films I’ve gotten to see so far and in reader feedback, which I’m most pleased to announce, has picked up significantly over the last several weeks. As you long-term readers will no doubt be aware (due largely to the fact that I’ve repeated it ad nauseam I suppose) that I always try to meet the requests of my readers. To that end, I present this week’s review: “Zero Dark Thirty”, a film many of you wrote in to request I review. While I can’t say that this film was my absolute favorite out of the crop I’ve reviewed lately, it is certainly an excellent film that I expect many people will find extremely compelling. (Click for more) | | January 15, 2013, By Tim Fak, Now that the holiday season (and the general havoc it brought to my schedule) is in the books, I’m pleased to be back on the film review beat once more. This weekend was the first time in several weeks I’d been able to get to the local cinema to take in a film, and thankfully a whopper of a film it was: "Django Unchained". Representing the latest offering in a prolific last few years from renowned cult director Quentin Tarantino, "Django Unchained" continues his march through all the various b grade film genres, this time presenting an homage to the spaghetti western’ s of the 60’s and 70’s. While, like Tarantino’s previous work, this film is decidedly not for everyone, it does take those partial to stuff like this on a very wild ride. (Click for more) | | January 2, 2013 By Tim Fak, I said last week that I’ve had a lot of fun over the past year writing this column, and I meant that. The part of that that’s hard for me to believe is that I have in fact been writing this column for the better part of a year; time flys I guess. This week I was faced with a rather interesting challange, what to do for my final column of 2012. I had considered going with the old film critic’s standby of a “top 10” list, but frankly there’s still way too many 2012 films that I haven’t been able to see, and in all likelyhood won’t catch up with all the ones on my list until sometime next summer. Therefore, I’ve decided to devote this week’s edition of The Movie Man to a few hidden gems that you probably didn’t see this past year, but which you might want to catch up on sometime. (Click for more) | | December 19, 2012, By Tim Fak, With the end of the year fast approaching, it’s somewhat hard to believe that I’ve been writing a film review column for the better part of a year. It seems appropriate to reflect on that passage of time when writing this week’s review: “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” which is the first in an anticipated trilogy of films based on the classic book of the same name, and closely related to the Lord of the Rings franchise, a series I remember eagerly attending upon its release 11 years ago. Given the popularity of its predecessor’s and the length of time that has elapsed between them, “The Hobbit” had a great deal to live up to, and I’m pleased to report that in my opinion it more than lived up to this ample hype. (Click for more) | | December 4, 2012, By Tim Fak, As has been the case a time or two in the past, my schedule the past few weeks has caused my “movie man” viewing to fall just a bit behind what I would like recently. Because of this, I’m only now catching up with what may be one of the most anticipated films of the year, locally speaking: "Lincoln". By now the film has played locally for almost 3 weeks and has drawn sizable audiences, so I’m sure many of you have either already seen this film or else have no desire to do so, but I shall endeavor to add my voice to the local conversation on this film nonetheless. (Click for more) | | November 19, 2012, By Timothy Fak, On a weekend when the majority of attendees at the Lincoln Theater 4 were there to see either the final Twilight film or “Lincoln”, I saw neither. Now before you start sending notes to the office that I should have my Movie Man credentials revoked, rest assured I was not asleep on the job. Instead, my trip to the cinema was spent catching up on a much anticipated (at least for me) film that I didn’t manage to catch last week, “Skyfall”, the long awaited 23d entry in the venerable James Bond Franchise. While it may not have generated the interest of the weekend’s two heavy hitters, I nonetheless found it to be an excellent addition to the world’s longest running film series, as well as a fitting tribute to the 50th anniversary of secret agent 007 on film. (Click for more) | |
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