Mr. Holmes

Review by Pamela Zoslov

No one was more surprised by the worldwide popularity of Sherlock Holmes than his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, who had conceived Holmes as new kind of detective, one who used scientific methods to solve his cases. Conan Doyle had trained as a doctor and clerked in Edinburgh for Dr. Joseph Bell, a doctor with the ability to diagnose patients solely through the power of observation. Conan Doyle modeled Holmes after Dr. Bell, who took pride in having been the model for Holmes and assisted in police investigations in Scotland.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Review by Matt Finley

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES is my clear favorite of the (bleeping Balrogs, I can't believe they made it a) trilogy.   

Clocking in at just under the 150-minute mark, the final entry in director Peter Jackson’s trilogy adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is the shortest of the three - a fact that would be wholly meaningless if it weren’t also the most focused. Taking it’s first 15 minutes to breezily wrap up the dragon rampage that cliffhung the prior film, FIVE ARMIES jumps right into its titular conflict - a massive confrontation between men, dwarves, elves and orcs that resolves THE HOBBIT while acting as a flashpoint for the coming Ring War that will be at the center of THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Review by Bob Ignizio

With X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, filmmaker Bryan Singer reminds us that before Marvel started taking cinematic matters into their own hands, he had already shown that super hero movies that treat their source material with respect can be successful with fanboys, general audiences, and critics alike. The X franchise is where the modern super hero film truly began, and while the series lost its way when Singer left to pursue other projects, the situation for the team of mutant heroes improved considerably with his return (in the capactiy of producer) for 2011's X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. That film was a step in the right direction, and things have only gotten better now that Singer is back in the director's chair.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Review by Pete Roche

Bilbo Baggins and the Company of Dwarves continue their quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain of Erebor for would-be dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield in THE HOBBIT:  THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG.

The second chapter in Peter Jackson’s tripartite prequel to last decade’s acclaimed THE LORD OF THE RINGS saga will be revered with the best middling movie installments for its effectiveness in fleshing out characters we’ve already met, thrusting them into knuckle-whitening new perils, and setting up narrative dominoes we know will topple next time out (or saw unfold already in LOTR). 

Don’t worry if you’re a little hazy on your Tolkien.  Like his celluloid LOTR adaptations, Jackson’s HOBBIT films are as long and winding as the journeys undertaken by their protagonists, and it’s easy to get lost among the colorful characters and fanciful places—or forget a few plot points between outings. 

The Hobbit

Review by Bob Ignizio

As anyone who has read J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy or watched the film adaptations directed by Peter Jackson should know, the events of that story were set in motion some years earlier when an unassuming hobbit named Bilbo Baggins found himself in possession of a certain ring of very great importance. Bilbo's tale was recounted in Tolkien's first novel about the time lost world of Middle Earth, The Hobbit, which has now been brought to the screen by Jackson as well. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is the first installment of what is evidently going to be another cinematic trilogy of films.