A few reviews

Total Recall is a remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie of the same name, and in my opinion its far inferior to the original. I won’t argue that Quaid’s angst was much more believable in Farrell’s hands up to the point where he visited ‘Rekall’, but from that point on it was your standard-issue shoot ‘em up.  The greatest gaffe, in my opinion (other than Jessica Biel’s stilted ‘acting’) was their complete abandonment of the “is it real, or is it recall?” idea that permeated the original right up to the finish. In this one, the ambiguity was all but ignored from the moment he sat in the chair. The way they played it, I’d say it was pretty darn obvious this was all just a little vacation in Quaid’s head (a few friends thought the opposite, so maybe I’m full of it.)

Grade: C-

DC Cupcakes was a reality show centered on the two sisters who run Georgetown Cupcakes in the nation’s capitol. It is mindless fluff, and worst of all the acting is so terrible you lose all pretense of this being a ‘reality show’.

Katherine is hot tho’.

Grade : C-

On the other hand, Mindy Kaling’s new sitcom The Mindy Project is smart, funny, and a pleasure to watch.  Tune in Tuesday’s on Fox.

Grade: A

Frankenweenie is a stop motion animation movie by Tim Burton.  When I saw this with the family I was worried the kids would rebel because it’s in black and white, but happily they loved it. It’s the story of a boy whose beloved dog dies and is brought back to life ala Frankenstein’s monster, but there’s nothing monstrous about this pooch.  Soon the secret is out, however, and the safety of the entire town is threatened.

I loved the movie. Sweet and funny, with plenty of nods to Mary Shelley’s novel and the film adaptations of it, this was a hoot.

Grade: A