Beauty and the Beast (2010 Tour)★★★☆☆
San Diego, 2012 The simpler staging & costumes work well enough, but the big numbers suffer from the smaller cast.
Beauty and the Beast (3D Theatricals)★★★★★
Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 2016 An elaborate production by a local company with great performances from the leads, and a surprise understudy.
Belle’s Dreams of AdventureI never thought Belle gave up her dreams of adventure. I figured she had one, and gained the opportunity to have more. That’s why I hate the song ‘A Change in Me.’
Beowulf (in 3D)Impressive monsters and realistic animation. Better than 300, a bit reminiscent of the recent Lord of the Rings films.
Conan the Destroyer★★☆☆☆The first movie holds up. The second tries too hard to fit in a PG rating and ends up as self-parody.
Earthsea (TV)Every once in a while I’m reminded of SyFy’s notoriously bad TV adaptation of Earthsea, and think, maybe I should watch it just once, like the Star Wars Holiday Special. This is not a review. This is why I still haven’t seen it.
Final Crisis (Audio and Graphic Novel)It actually flows better than the comic book, especially toward the end, when the comic starts fragmenting the narrative.
Flash Forward (TV Pilot)★★★★★The first episode of Flash Forward is one of the best-constructed pilot episodes I’ve seen in a long time, especially of an arc-driven series.
Flash: Stop Motion (Audio)
Mark Schultz The concepts are intriguing, the characters are handled well, and the full cast and sound effects make up for the lack of visuals in superhero novels.
From Hell (Movie)★★★☆☆A fairly decent Jack the Ripper film (if there is such a thing), but tossed out the main themes of the graphic novel.
Heaven’s Vault (Novels)★★★★☆
Jon Ingold Aliya and the robot sail the Nebula, seeking clues to its history and future. The first two novels tell a story similar to the game, just different enough to feel new. Ancient writing appears throughout, sometimes translated and sometimes left for the reader. Book three picks up both after the game and long before, exploring a changed Nebula and the Loop.
Jurassic Park (Movie)★★★★★
Steven Spielberg The original Jurassic Park film is still great, more than 30 years later. The dinosaurs are still impressive, it’s well-paced and dramatic, and despite contemporary reviews, the characters are engaging.
Justice League: The New Frontier (Movie)★★★★☆Cooke’s drawing style and the 1950s retro look to the artwork both translate well to the screen. A bit disjointed at first, but settles into a solid story about hope and trust.
New Spring (Comics): The Long Publishing SagaIt’s taken a long time (and three publishers) to complete this adaptation of the Wheel of Time prequel, even though it only covered eight standard-sized comic books
Ragtime★★★★★
Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 2014 Ragtime has even more emotional impact on stage than the songs do alone, and the historical themes resonate strongly with the present day.
Ready Player One (Movie)★★★★☆
Steven Spielberg Better than I expected, having soured on the book by the time it came out. Not a straight adaptation so much as a rewrite of the same premise that’s more character-driven and yes, more cinematic. With Spielberg.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Movie)★★★★☆It’s a fun mash-up of movie, comic book and video game sensibilities, though it does suffer from cramming six books into a single movie.
Stardust (Movie)★★★★★Light-hearted fantasy adventure built around a love story, Stardust takes itself just a touch more seriously than The Princess Bride. Enjoyable on its own, and stays true to the heart of the book.
A Wizard of Earthsea (Graphic Novel)★★★★★
Ursula K. Le Guin and Fred Fordham Fordham’s watercolor-style art is absolutely gorgeous. The adaptation plays to the medium’s strengths, allowing the visuals to tell the story when possible, keeping Le Guin’s prose when needed. Wide seascapes, rocky coasts, forested landscapes, people (not whitewashed!) and dragons…
Xanadu (Stage Musical)★☆☆☆☆
Segerstrom Center, 2009 The stage musical of Xanadu is a silly, self-aware parody that revels in its camp. I really liked about 10% of it. The rest, not so much.
