TheRetroCritic

With the box-office proving repeatedly that 3D fantasy films do very well financially these days, it's no surprise that, following the successes of both Alice In Wonderland and Oz: The Great And Powerful , yet another contender would come along and attempt to do just as well. Which brings us to: Jack The Giant Slayer . Directed by Bryan Singer, the film merges Jack And The Beanstalk with Jack The Giant Killer to tell a story in as traditional a way as possible without having to resort to that recently in vogue steampunky Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters -style Hammer horror vibe. The film actually opens on our two main characters as kids in their respective beds, one is poor, one is a princess, being told fairy-tales involving giants and a world in between Heaven and Earth. Then the film stumbles around for a while feeling like a mix between a flat episode of Blackadder and an ugly, live-action retelling of Disney's Aladdin . Seriously: this movie's Aladdin.

James Franco stars in this decent TV movie about the life of troubled Hollywood icon James Dean. The casting of Franco is perfect and his portrayal is entertaining to say the least. The film itself is the usual biopic template with Dean's daddy issues and his climbing success steadily developed throughout. The film looks great and although it romanticizes a lot of Dean's life, that style feels strangely appropriate. Perhaps the melodramatic nature of Dean's work ( Rebel Without a Cause , East of Eden ) makes it a logical choice and adds a tragic feel to the whole thing. For such a short life as a subject, the film does really well to keep us hooked and although there's the usual name-dropping inevitable with biopics (Martin Landau!) it doesn't overdo it and sticks to the important stuff. Not bad, definitely worth checking out.