‘Mama’ Delivers Family-Style Chills
By JAMES DAWSON Front Row Features Film Critic Jessica Chastain shines in this contemporary classic ghost story as a reluctant stand-in mother who has a violently possessive rival from the afterlife. The charm of this family-in-peril piece is its elegant simplicity, with a small cast that plays t [...]
‘Les Mis’ Musical Is a Must Miss
By JAMES DAWSON Front Row Features Film Critic “Les Misérables” is the kind of bloated, cornball and sappy spectacle that makes people say they hate movie musicals. Most of the melodies (by Claude-Michel Shönberg) are unmemorable, most of the lyrics (by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Nat [...]
‘Ice Age’ Arrives on DVD, Blu-ray
By JAMES DAWSON Front Row Features Film Critic Just in time for the holidays, “Ice Age: Continental Drift” sets sail Friday, December 11 on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Loaded with extras, the 3D Blu-ray version of the hit animated feature includes a  [...]
‘Hobbit’ Has Familiar Ring
By JAMES DAWSON Front Row Features Film Critic There’s no middle ground when it comes to Middle-earth. Although director Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy was a multi-billion-dollar franchise, it paradoxically retained a fanboy-cult flavor that left detractor [...]