The big-screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera was a flop. The big-screen adaptation of The Cat in the Hat, featuring Mike Myers in gruesome cat makeup, was a flop. You'd think Hollywood would have learned from this. And yet we now have Cats, essentially a CG-laden hybrid of Phantom and Cat in the Hat. And it,… read more!

The title of this film is a spoiler, as Colin Firth's character, King George VI, isn't even crowned until the last act, but never mind. The King's Speech is an entertaining, thoughtful drama about the turmoil Britain's royal family faced in the 1930s, as Albert, Duke of York – "Bertie" to his family – made his unexpected ascent to the… read more!

Previously, my only exposure to Victor Hugo's 19th century novel Les Misérables was Claude Lelouch's terrific 1995 film adaptation, which was in French and had no singing and updated the drama to the era between World Wars I and II. Lelouch took many other liberties with Hugo's story, as it turns out, so going in to see Tom Hooper's Les… read more!