On Twitter:
@JamesEppler"The Adventures of Tintin" is one of the best movies in theaters right now. This sweeping adventure finds Steven Spielberg directing animation for the first time, and it feels like a very personal film for him.
He loves the source material - a series of comics by Belgian artist Herge that are wildly popular in Europe. They follow the adventures of a young reporter named Tintin, and an old drunken sea salt named Captain Haddock. I was raised on these stories myself, and this movie gets everything note-perfect.
The stop-motion animation looks fantastic, and the film plays like vintage Spielberg - a globe-trotting adventure with terrific characters, great interplay, and eye-popping visuals and a John Williams score. Why aren't more families seeing this movie?
The fourth "Mission: Impossible" movie called "Ghost Protocol" is another impressive adventure movie. It moves at a break-neck pace, and features some of the most amazingly-staged stunts I've seen in recent memory.
Watching Tom Cruise scale the tallest skyscraper in the world will flip your stomach. He's back as Ethan Hunt, and his entire team's been disavowed and blamed for a terrorist attack.
Jeremy Renner is a nice addition to the series as a paper-pusher with a few secrets.
The movie is directed by Brad Bird, skilled in animated adventures like "The Incredibles." He proves here he has the chops for live action.
But in the end, this is Cruise's show, and he's fantastic.
The filmmakers behind the "Sherlock Holmes" series appear to be trying to turn the detective into Ethan Hunt, or maybe a smart-mouthed Jason Bourne.
Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are a lot of fun as Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively, but this second film called "A Game of Shadows" is pretty empty.
It looks great with Guy Ritchie directing again, and this time we get "Mad Men's" Jared Harris as a menacing Moriarty.
But this is mostly an action showcase, and it mostly made my eyes glaze over.
RATINGS:
Tintin: * * * *
Mission: Impossible: * * * 1/2
Sherlock Holmes: * * Out of five stars
