Peter Murmann

My expectations about this airplane film were modest. A family is cursed and the fist female bay will be born with a pig’s nose. Ok. A little children’s movie. Yet to my surprise Penelope is one of the most clever films I have seen in a while. It is Cinderella, Romeo and Julia, Miss Piggy [Read More]

Die Hard is not the kind of title that lures me into the theatre. But one day in a hotel room somewhere around the globe I came across a TV channel that showed one of the earlier Die Hard movies. I don’t remember which one it was. It played in New York City. The film [Read More]

Shrek 1 and 2 bored me sufficiently that I never watched the entire movie. Could the makers of the Shrek sequel come up with an animation film that could compete with Pixar creations? Yes, but only after teaming up with the comedian Jerry Seinfeld.  Having watched a very funny trailer for the film a few [Read More]

High School Movie. Not long until graduation. Boy wants to become a writer in New York, escaping his controlling widow mother. Girl, after losing her mother, is angry and assumes the role of a violent troublemaker and gang leader. Girl kills boy, smacking him once too hard on the head. But there is a twist. [Read More]

Brad Bird (writer, director) and Pixar have done it again. I continue to stand in awe of the dazzling imagination this team is bringing to the movies. Visually and conceptually Ratatouille is exquisitely pleasing. You don’t feel that this new film is a tiny bit repetitive of their previous effort The Incredibles. Guenter Grass selected [Read More]

The film invents a skill that no human has ever possessed: to see for two seconds reliably into the future. Such a capability comes in handy. You can win against the Casino, you can prevent a robber from killing two people, and more.Yet our hero (Nicolas Cage) is ambivalent about his skill. It helps him [Read More]

It takes imaginative writers to stretch a story across multiple films.  Spiderman 3 lacked such talent. Compared to the first two installments, the film feels uninspired, repetitive and contrived. Audiences can only stomach so much transformation in the lead character before they will turn way.

On a previous flight this film was offered to me for lunch. I passed. Without any sound the beginning looked slow and quite lame. On this new flight I tuned in and discovered that the story has unexpected depth. Extraterrestrial creatures have come to earth to recapture what was lost in perfecting their ability to [Read More]

This musical on ice cannot compete with Pixar’s animated films as far as plot is concerned. But some if its Southpole animations can rival what Pixar pulled off in Finding Nemo. The film initially covers similar territory as The March of Penguins but then turns into a fantasy about singing Penguins. One Penguin [Read More]

Uma Thurman plays a female version of Spiderman. Unlike Spiderman, G-Girl has a bad temper and has trouble keeping a boyfriend. When she is dumped yet again, she becomes exceedingly angry and vindictive.  Now she uses her supernatural powers not only to rescue people in need but also to cause mountains of trouble for her [Read More]