Shattered Crystal

As an administrative employee at a local university, I am consistently baffled at the idea of a sabbatical; do you mean to tell me that I can promise to do research for a few months and get a whole semester away from the office? Who are these softee professors who can’t stand a full year’s worth of teaching and research? Surely, they could take some lessons from Prof. Henry Jones, Jr., who fought off Nazis and recovered more than his fair share of fabulous artifacts while teaching a full course load. The adventurous academic returns after 19 years in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and while Hitler, Marcus Brody and Henry Sr. are long dead, the fedora, bullwhip and sense of fun remain in tact. If only the last half hour of the movie wasn’t so far-fetched.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

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Notice Me, Horton

I guess I missed a major opportunity not writing this review on the 15th of May, considering all the wordplay I could get out of it, but I’ve had thoughts on Horton Hears a Who rattling around my head for a few weeks and haven’t gotten the chance to express them yet. For a while, I was tempted to compare the movie to Seussical, the magical musical that tells the same story (and that I have a soft spot for), or to How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat, the two live-action attempts at recreating Dr. Seuss’ material. In the end, though – as with all movies – it’s best to let Horton stand on its own.

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Iron Man: Solid Gold

Many people thought the comic book movie renaissance reached its creative peak with 2005′s Batman Begins, a property of comic giant DC. Though rival Marvel had started the upswing with Spider-man three years earlier, it was thought that DC had claimed dominance when Marvel answered Batman with the underwhelming trilogy-cappers Spider-man 3 and X-Men 3: The Last Stand. Add to the evidence that DC is set to release The Dark Knight this summer to a drooling, anticipatory public. But it seems that Marvel had one more trick up its sleeve, and that trick is Jon Favreau, director of the meritorious Iron Man and key to the studio’s bid to remain relevant.

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