The A-Team: Pity the Fool Who Expects Too Much!
by Sandra Olmsted
Rarely does adapting a television series to the big screen work, but the new version of Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell’s series, The A-Team, does because writer/director Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces) and writers Brian Bloom (debut) and Skip Woods (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) connect with the spirit of the original and translate that spirit into excesses and excitement large enough to fill a movie theater. Carnahan’s The A-Team is exactly what it should be. The film is escapist summer entertainment meant to sell popcorn and to thrill audiences who want a two-hours respite from the real world where physics and gravity control outcomes and where mere mortals can’t always overcome injustice. In this quick moving adaptation, Carnahan, Bloom, and Wood add a running dialogue of witty retorts, some romance, a dash of philosophy, and sexy characters, and the result is a fun film, suitable for most family members.

Shrek Forever After: A 3D Breakthrough!
by Sandra Olmsted
Obviously based on the plotline of It’s a Wonderful Life and not offering anything new on the idea, Shrek Forever After, director Mike Mitchell’s (Sky High) promised finally installment in the franchise, does deliver a fun and funny diversion for a board audience of youngsters and adults. The best part of the film, however, is that the 3D technology is used intelligently to forward and explicate the story. This might not sound like a big deal, but the reemergence of and new developments in 3D technologies and the all too eager embrace of this new syntax of film language have not always resulted in an effective use of that language. Many recent films have used the technology without any thought to what the film language indicates in terms of the story. In Mitchell’s Shrek Forever After, the 3D images enhance the story elements rather than distract from it by incessantly reminding the audience that the film is in 3D. Mitchell uses the film language of 3D with a care and understanding that has not been seen since Alfred Hitchcock made Dial M for Murder in 3D.