Home

Review by Bob Ignizio

In the new animated feature HOME, the Boov are an alien race renowned for running away from danger. They positively excel at it. Which would probably be okay as far as that goes if it didn't lead them to subjugate other, less advanced planets whenever they need to flee their previous world due to the imminent arrival of The Gorg, an more powerful alien race that has it in for the Boov.

The Big Year

Review by Matt Finley

Back in 2007, CBS News dubbed bird-watching the “fastest-growing sport in America,” citing that, with 75 million participants, this unlikely “spectator sport” had attracted more fans than NASCAR. With a built-in demographic of that size, by-the-numbers birding comedy THE BIG YEAR could’ve been all woodpecker taxonomy jokes and sarcastic rejoinders about binocular etiquette, and still made a mint. Instead, director David Frankel (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, MARLEY & ME), in his third effort to tap nonfiction writing for its core-lurking emotional sap, has made a film intended to appeal to everyone. The result is a wholly generic, breezily innocuous 100 minutes of road-tripping, life-affirming, bird-watching fluff. Now, go back and re-read that last line without all the sarcasm in your head-voice. See – that description doesn’t have to make the movie sound terrible. (Admittedly, the tagline - “Everyone is searching for something” – kinda does).