Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

Its poor box office returns are by no means an indication of the quality of How to Train Your Dragon 2, a worthy sequel to its high-flying predecessor. Like the first, this follow-up is the rare movie actually worth seeing in 3D because of its plenitude of dynamic point-of-view shots. You're continuously immersed in the action, often seeing things from the same vantage point as Dragon's underdog hero, one-legged Hiccup (Jay Baruchel). Hiccup is the resourceful dragon rider of Toothless, a rare Night Fury with his own handicap in the form of a mutilated tail.

More Like Olympus is Flailing

by Tony Dayoub

One doesn't go into Olympus Has Fallen expecting originality or nuance. As trailers have made pretty clear, this is a noisy, over-the-top potboiler that basically boils down to this description: Die Hard in the White House. However, Antoine Fuqua—whose last solid film was Training Day and displayed the most ambition in 2004's flawed, but not-hard-to-like, King Arthur—seems here to be working out some resentment over not getting a chance to do the long-planned 24 theatrical upgrade he was briefly up for. Or at least it feels that way because Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is as generic a clone of Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer as one has seen in a long time. And as goes our hero, so goes Olympus Has Fallen, a scattered mess of a picture as far as even movies of this kind go.

DVD Review: P.S. I Love You - Pulling Punches Causes Romance to Miss the Mark

by Tony Dayoub

A clever idea gives P.S. I Love You a little more of an edge than normal. Holly Kennedy (Hilary Swank), a widow, starts receiving letters from her late husband Gerry (Gerard Butler). The letters are designed to help her deal with his death, and move on. They start out cute: go buy yourself an outfit, go out with the girls on a night out, get onstage and sing some karaoke. But by the time Gerry sends Holly on a trip to his native Ireland to a club where he used to play, and she hears the house band sing the first song he sung to her... well, there is more than a little manipulation from dear old Gerry from beyond the grave.

The film is not quite lighthearted enough to be a comedy. It is also not tragic enough to be a full-on tearjerker, either. But with a subtext that seems to be screaming that the charming Gerry, though dead, is not exactly ready to be metaphorically buried, it would have been extremely daring to veer in that direction.

The cast is there to pull it off. The two stars are genial, but better known for their dramatic roles. And with the oddball supporting cast that not only contains Harry Connick, Jr., Gina Gershon, and Lisa Kudrow, but also Buffy the Vampire Slayer's James Marsters in a strong extended cameo, the opportunity exists to do more with this film than the trifle ultimately depicted.

Neither comedy nor tragedy, the film plays more like one of those dramatic episodes of Sex and the City where Samantha was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Yeah, I'd watch it once, but it's hardly a keeper. Skip this one.