Isaac's Film Reviews

Don't worry -- the odds are in your favor. Full review by Isaac Handelman Let’s cut to the chase. If you loved Suzanne’s Collins’ novel , then there’s no question that you will feel similar towards  The Hunger Games. This is a fan’s movie, if there ever was one. Do not fret that Games will stray too far from the book’s narrative -- it doesn’t. Don’t be afraid that Katniss’ actress won’t be any good -- she is. If you have read the book, then stop reading now, go to your nearest cinema and see this movie. If you have not read the book, then go read the book, and then go to your nearest cinema and see this movie. Either way you go about it, you will heartily enjoy The Hunger Games. If you don’t already know the story of The Hunger Games , then you may be in need of a serious pop-culture refresher. The story revolves around Katniss Everdeen, a seventeen year old living in a dystopian future where a group of twenty-four young people are chosen at random to participate in an a...

Hollywood's fourth Seuss adaptation struggles with storytelling. Full review by Isaac Handelman Having been a big fan of the 2010 surprise animated hit  Despicable Me , I was cautiously excited when it was announced that the same studio would be forging ahead on an adaptation of one of Dr. Seuss’ most beloved offerings. I had hoped that, despite the wildly fluctuating quality of past Seuss adaptions, the folks at Illumination Entertainment would be able to pull another  Horton Hears a Who  and make a  Lorax  adaptation work. Unfortunately, while  Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax   doesn’t stoop to the lows of that-film-which-must-not-be-named (hint: it stars Mike Myers as a giant talking cat), it’s also a far cry from even beginning to approach the brilliance of its source material. What’s initially problematic about  The Lorax  is its structure. The film begins after the original story left off, then recounts the book’s narrative in a ser...