Birdman (2014)

When we first see Michael Keaton as a has-been Hollywood actor at the opening of tar-black fable “Birdman,” he is floating in midair as the intimidating voice of his once big-screen superhero alter ego -– see the title -– talks aloud inside his own head. That’s the start of this wondrously warped story. Yes, Keaton, who played comic book hero Batman, plays an actor who played comic book hero Birdman. Meta comedy is promised and delivered. Plot: Keaton’s Riggan Thomas is determined to reset his relevance by staging a Broadway play. The impossible task consumes Riggan: His lead actor is a prickish actor played by infamously prickish actor Edward Norton, and Riggan’s daughter (Emma Stone) teeters on drug relapse. Stone, of course, plays Spider-Man’s girlfriend. Spider-Man appears as a mocking taunt. Brilliant. Questions pop: Mainly, Will Riggan escape Birdman? Director Alejandro G. Inarritu serves a must-rewatch film about a man more scared of obscurity than death and a damning of the Marvel Movie Universe ruling cinemas and then flames his own film as Marvel-like action plays out. More than the art-house deep-thoughts comedy, this strange film is pure wicked fun to watch unspool. A

Maleficent (2014)

Without Angelina Jolie, would there have been any reason to make, much less watch, “Maleficent,” the new, live-action take on the “Sleeping Beauty” evil lady turned dragon? Likely not. The star of “Tomb Raider” lords over this movie with absolute ease, dressed in black leather and horns, and makeup that makes her already sharp cheek bones seem as if razors. We’re quickly told the fairy tale story we all know is bunk, up is down, down is up, and Maleficent is the wronged and wounded fairy that is our hero, and villain, justified in her anger. She begins a graceful child with wings and love of nature who befriends a young human boy who will years later –- and after a grievous deed -– become a crazed Macbeth-type king (Sharlto Copley) with … well, honesty not much of a motive. Yeah, there’s the curse the baby Aurora thing, but it’s iffy up ’til then. Despite lots of busy useless narration. Script issue? I digress. Is anyone here for the script? Does it matter the climactic “true love’s kiss” is easily known and blasé? No. This is all for Jolie. Period. She’s breathing fire, and happily laughing evil. (Psst, Aurora is a side dish here.) B

Crossworlds (1996)

Rutger Hauer in 1982 did the impossible: He stole “Blade Runner” from Harrison Ford, copping the greatest ad-lib in film history, talking tears and attack ships. “Crossworlds” is no “Blade Runner,” or much of anything. It follows a college student (Josh Charles, later of “Sports Night”) who gets swept up in an adventure with powerful warriors (Hauer as the wise elder and Andrea Roth as the hot-head fighter) who can jump dimensions using magical sticks as they battle for the universe’s survival against a natty, nattering British type (Stuart Wilson). There’s a whole bit about Charles’ student’s dead father being a genius/archeologist/hero, but I forget the details. Plot holes abound, the story seems random, and I kept waiting for the pace to quicken after countless scenes of Wilson’s villain yammering about power, me thinking, please, someone kill someone. Threats of sequel arise. None ever came. Thank the gods. C-

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

“The Wizard of Oz” is the absolute Hollywood classic. Every fantasy film starts here. The story is simple: A Kansas farm girl is knocked unconscious during a storm and -– it’s a dream -- but let’s say she is taken by a twister to a Technicolor land of witches, scarecrows, tin men, wizards, and Munchkins, far from her sepia-toned world of dirt. To get back home, the girl must steal the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West, played in the greatest villain turn ever by Margaret Hamilton. Judy Garland is the girl, Dorothy, who within 10 minutes sings “Over the Rainbow” and makes us forget the world’s problems. Check the date on this post and deny thinking this week we all wanted to be someplace else, escape our world. It’s the childhood film that gets better watching as an adult. At 70+ years, this is go-to film of optimism, not a drop of cynicism or snark, where everything can go right if you have friends, and you can be home again if only you click your heels thrice. Yes, it’s wishful thinking. Garland OD’d. But we need a bit of “Oz” and often, even the Flying Monkeys. A+

Highlander (1986) and Highlander 2: The Quickening (1991)

Has there ever been a fantasy franchise with such a genius hook more crapped from the beginning than “Highlander”? I love the premise: A 16^th century Scottish warrior is killed in battle, but arises from the grave whole and healed for he is Immortal, an ubermensch race known only to their own kind. They are determined to kill one another until only one is left. 

In the original, hero Connor McCloud (Christopher Lambert) learns of his powers, lives for centuries, relocates to New York, and finally must battle Clancy Brown as Kurgan, which means He Who Cannot Enunciate. 

The plot is good, but the cheap dialogue and director Russell Mulcahy’s relentlessly vulgar metal-band rock video antics are blinding. This bargain-bin Michael Bay never lets his actors or story breathe being too busy shattering glass and blowing up water. Sean Connery as an Egyptian-turned-Spaniard mentor living in Scotland is some kind of painful joke, and the man is dressed like a bed pillow. But it’s all watchable. 

Not so DOA sequel “Quickening,” a cinematic cluster-fuck from the start that rewrites the Immortals as time-traveling aliens in a story too baffling to explain. Michael Ironside looks ashamed as the villain. 

Original: C+ The sequel: F

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

J.R.R. Tolkien’s seminal 1937 children’s book “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” is concise, funny, and light in spirit, which I cannot say for director/writer Peter Jackson and his team from the famed “Lord of the Rings” trilogy in their adaptation of the newly titled “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” There is no “Back Again” here, and there shall not be for two movies, and six (!) more hours. 

This toss-in-the-kitchen-sink trilogy opener stops just shy of three hours as it spells out in detail how Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman, playing the young version of Ian Holm, who appears as well) came into possession of the powerful ring –- the Ring -– that sets in motion the 2001-2003 films and 1954-1955 books fans know so well. 

First thing out of the way: I saw “Hobbit” in 2D and regular frame rate, not the 3D and 48 frames-per-second rate that has garnered much press. Second: I read the book so long ago I cannot recall it in my memory. I judge by hunches and –- God help me -– the Web. 

Movie wise, “Hobbit” is split as Tolkein’s greatest and most troubled character, Gollum, the schizophrenic villain/victim who owned and lost the preciousss golden circle to Bilbo, who decades later will hand it over to nephew Frodo, and you know the rest. Team Jackson –- including co-writer Gillermo del Toro -– take not just the “Hobbit” book, but myriad side-stories, prefixes, appendices, and shopping lists written by Tolkein and knit out a story that is jovial, eye-popping in wonder, and maddeningly dull and repetitive to the point of tedium. Even during the big CGI action sequences. 

(There’s a fist-fight between two black-rock mountains (!) that is impressive, bizarre, laugh-out-loud ridiculous, overlong by half, and in the end, useful as a lecture on thermodynamics.) 

I could not repeat all the plot tentacles to save my soul, except this quick sketch: Homebody Hobbit Bilbo is thrust into joining 13 dwarves (led by Richard Armitage as the dreamiest “GQ” dwarf ever) as they set out to kill the dragon that took their mountain homeland decades ago. The instigator of this hunt is the wise Moses-like wizard Gandalf, again played by Ian McKellan. The troupe is hunted by trolls, a vengeance-seeking one-armed orc, and wolves. Llittle of this is in the book, but thrown in by Jackson, who seems set on making a simple fable into something far darker and massively important. 

I know that’s nit-picking. Changes were made to the “LOTR” trilogy, especially the loss of the vital “Scouring of the Shire” finale, but so much of this movie is filler created solely because the filmmakers have the budget and technology, not because it serves this story. 

As with prequels, characters are re-introduced wholesale to goose memories. In almost every instance, these are time-killers. We don’t need Elijah Wood as Frodo. Nor Holm as old Bilbo. Cate Blanchett’s elf queen, so majestically introduced in “Fellowship of the Ring,” stumbles into this film with such little fanfare, one can’t imagine her importance. Same with Christopher Lee’s Sauramon, parked in a chair and practically giving away his whole game plan of evil to come later on. Ditto Gollum and his long slow intro, now redundant I suppose. I'm muffing some of the details here, but the point stands -- especially if this film is viewed as a true prequel.

See, Jackson is making these as a man looking back, nostalgic for every morsel he can scrape, not a man looking forward with this chapter and its two coming successors as predecessors to what befalls Bilbo, Gandalf, and all our beloved characters. 

All gripes aside, I have hope for “Hobbit” parts 2 and 3. Freeman -- Watson in BBC’s “Sherlock” -- turns in a star-making reading of Bilbo, a man (Halfling?) who finds his worth far from home. He’s funny, irritating but sincerely so, curious, bold, and thorough, a wonderful homage to Holm’s take. 

When Bilbo and Gollum meet –- toward the end -– the scene crackles and brings “Hobbit” to Must Watch status. (Andy Serkis as Gollum again shine as the MVP of this series. As well, the CGI work to bring this foul creature to life is still the best use of computers in a life-action film, ever.) As Bilbo holds a sword to the neck of a seething, panicking creature, Jackson and all the wizards behind this tale put us in the hot seat. We know striking down Gollum will prevent much agony later, and I thought, “Push it through.” Knowing full well that won’t happen. 

It’s a twisty definitive, solid moment in a film full of holes, not the Hobbit kind. B-

Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

Talk about a lump of coal: For a film titled “Santa Claus” ol’ Saint Nick is MIA for most of his own notorious movie, no less from the producers behind the “Superman” films. Dang. Fetch Rudolph, and sorry, Virginia, this cinema origin tale focuses on the jolly toy-giver for only 30 minutes –- covering the North Pole, reindeer, and toys. Then it switches sleighs for a runaway elf (Dudley Moore) who takes up with a corrupt toy company CEO (John Lithgow). Santa? Ho-ho-hum, dude is relegated to a sad-sack grump sitting by the fireplace wondering if he’s still relevant. That right, Santa has an existential crisis. Talk about meta. Frances Church, help us! Add in a dull and cheap-looking production, even recycling flying footage from 1978’s “Superman,” and watching this is almost as disappointing as finding out you-know-what about you-know-who. That said, we get David Huddleston –- “The Big Lebowoski” himself -– as Santa, and you can tell he cherished this role. Just don’t steal his carpet. Lithgow’s OTT Grinch is a parody of the famous “SNL” Dan Aykroyd villain Irwin Mainway, so … why not just hire Aykroyd? A missed perfect gift. C+

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)

Warner Bros. made “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” for 3D big screens in 2012, but watching the pop-art colors, goofy-grin special effects, and family-on-an-adventure story, I thought of the Disney movies from 30 years back, fantasies that put children center stage. “Journey” is proudly rah-rah family fun, hokey with “I love you, dad” montages that rocket past cringingly cloy, but it is miles better than the first “Journey” film, “Center of the Earth.” That piffle drowned in bad CGI, but here we get tiny elephants, giant bees, raging waters, and falling rocks that ring more true. (Sort of.) Speaking of Rocks, Dwayne Johnson replaces Brandon Fraser as the adult who joins our teen hero (Josh Hutcherson) on an adventure that again focuses on Verne and a missing relative (Michael Caine as one cool grandpa). Hutcherson is too old to be short-bus style yelling “Grandpa!,” but Johnson has a ball singing and playing a ukulele. Adults won’t mind when the cast breaks the fourth wall and smirk. B-

Mars Needs Moms (2011)

Walt Disney picked up the 3D motion-cap CGI animated pic “Mars Needs Moms” from Robert Zemeckis’ own studio, and released it with much fanfare. It became one of the biggest box office bombs ever. The stunner: It’s not a bad film. It’s an hour-long story stretched to 90-plus minutes, so sight gags are repeated 10 times rather than three times, and many a badly sketched character need not exist. The story: A bratty boy must rescue his mother from aliens who have taken her to Mars, intent on sucking her good motherly instincts from her body. A wicked way to spook a child. Critics derided that, as if “Bambi” never existed. “Mars” is in line with other Zemeckis fare “Polar Express” and “Christmas Carol,” but bouncier and better animated. But, shorter is better. B-

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)

“Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole” is one of the best-looking animated tales I have ever seen: Golden hues of sunlight abound, and our owl heroes and villains at the center of this fantasy adventure are computer-animated with such jaw-dropping precision that the details of feathers and the glint of eyes make one stare with childish glee. But “Legend” is a wash, a gorgeous body with an empty soul. The story is based on a series of books, so far be it for me to proclaim this a rip-off of “Star Wars” and “Chronicles of Narnia,” but I’ll do it anyway, as our tale follows two brother owls (Jim Sturgess and Ryan Kwanten on voices) who fall into the clutches of an evil owl queen, with one sibling summiting to her will, and the other escaping to join a heroic rebel alliance. Bonus Lucas points: There’s a wise old warrior owl and an evil metal-masked owl. They duel. For all of director Zack Snyder’s (“300”) visual delights, I was constantly trying to sort out which owl was which, especially during a climatic aerial fight that left me squawking “Hoo?” “Hoo?” “Who!?!” Thankfully not out loud. C+

Hanna (2011)

Here’s a fairytale the Grimm Brothers dare not have imagined: A 16-year-old girl, raised in full isolation and trained to be a ruthless assassin by her golden knight father, is set out onto the world to exact revenge against the wicked witch who killed mommy. “Hanna” is not that bluntly supernatural, though. Daddy (Eric Bana) is an ex-CIA agent who we think is nutty paranoid until we learn he is rightfully so. The Wicked Witch (Cate Blanchett) is his CIA boss, a soulless Texan obsessed with material goods. Yes, it’s a commentary. Director Joe Wright is clearly having fun by squashing logic and ending his taut thriller at a derelict amusement park, with Blanchett walking out of the mouth of the Big Bad Wolf. This would all be laughable were it not for Saoirse Ronan, who ruled over Wright’s “Atonement.” As Hanna, she effortlessly bounces from a teen with no memory of women, and no idea of TV or music or cars, to a killer on a dime. She’s a better heroine than the girl from “Twilight.” Very “Never Let Me Go, Jason Bourne.” B

Under the Mountain (2010)

From New Zealand comes “Under the Mountain,” a fantasy that marries the adventurous pace of “The Hardy Boys” to the imagination of a J.R.R. Tolkien-like story. Here, a twin brother (Tom Cameron) and sister (Sophie McBride) are sent to live with relatives after the death of their mother. The house of their aunt and uncle sits near a volcanic lake and an old mansion with creepy crawly owners. Lurking about is a stranger (Sam Neill) who appears to have created fire with his hands. Did he? It’s a cute, fun, small-budget film that rightfully stays within its own sandbox, but even the most forgiving of happy film-goers will wonder aloud at the plot holes and inconsistencies. (A last minute forced edit?) The teens are OK. But not much else. Neill adds spark as the wise old guide who is grouchier than Gandalf ever dared to be. C+

City of Lost Children (1995)

“City of Lost Children” is an amazing-looking, mind-screw of a film. A dark, wet, sewer-level nightmare of and about children intended only for adults from French directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. In this alternate past, a grim-looking megalomaniac (Daniel Emilfork) kidnaps children from a local city and brings them to his water-bound tower of doom. Krank is a crank. He is dreamless, therefore he is sleepless. He steals the dreams of children as compensation, seemingly commanded by a talking brain in a fish tank that could be HAL’s grandpop. Among Krank’s victims is a boy (Joseph Lucien) with a much older brother who can pop chains and lift huge weights. That’s French-speaking Ron Pearlman, he of future “Hellboy.” Pearlman's character befriends a local girl named Miette (Judith Vittet), and here’s where the film gets creepy. They snuggle on burlap sacks in a back alley, and he gives her a deep, long foot massage. Nothing untoward happens, really, but the hints, the insinuations … linger. They make the film squirmy. Me squirmy. There’s not much otherwise depth or feeling to compensate. Those French. B

Dragonslayer (1981)

How do you know the sorcerer you hired to kill the nasty dragon terrorizing your village sucks? He has a perm haircut, weights 110 pounds and can’t even move a table. Magically or by hand. And he’s played by Peter MacNicol. “Dragonslayer” swaps plot from Beowulf, magic from “Excalibur” and a bit of whiny-ass hero from “Star Wars,” but flames out. The film is saddled with an incoherent start, a villain never explained, and sets and costumes bought wholesale from “Monty Python.” Food for thought: In a village where young virgin women are sacrificed to the cruel dragon, you’d think every teenage girl would fuck any man or boy alive to, you know, not be a virgin. Not so. The smartest girl dresses as a boy, and the rest become BBQ. Are these people worth saving? No. Unintended laughs -– MacNicol on a horse -- abound, making this watchable, but for the wrong reasons. C-

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

A misfit boy learns that he not only has incredible powers, but that he is a vital player in a supernatural drama outside the scope of normal humanity. Harry Potter? Well, yes. But also Percy Jackson. Who? Think Boy Wizard - Sorting Hats + “Clash of the Titans.”

In “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” our title character (get the pun?) is thrown from a sorry existence into the realm of gods, demigods and monsters. Chris Columbus directs this franchise kick-off as he did the first two Potter films, but to lesser effect.

“Percy” is adventurous and has ace scenes (Uma Thurman as Medusa), but it lacks the spark that makes even an adult think with childhood whimsy, “I want to do that!” The adult cast is underused, underwhelming, or in the case of Catherine Keener (as Percy’s mom) saddled with oblivious roles. FYI, we have Pierce Brosnan and Sean Bean looking for things to do.

Young actor Logan Lerman as Percy seems more boy band than action hero, but he’s fun to watch, particularly when baffled at a magical pen or, slack-jawed, discussing “The French Connection” in a prison-like casino. Logic? There is none.

When did the gods of the universe, with all their might, immigrate to the United States? I guess if you watch Fox News or vote GOP or you are 5th grade or under in America, this is natural. God and gods equal USA. For me, I am stumped. Never mind. I digress. Out. C+

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is my (close) favorite films of all time, and regularly races to the top spot on most occasions, besting 1962's "The Manchurian Candidate." It is brilliant, the first film I saw that got my wheels spinning in my head on what film as art can mean, and how it plays with our minds and souls. And about aliens.

Steven Spielberg's 1977 film is a religion to me, the story of a family man (Richard Dreyfuss) who doesn't quite fit into the world, suddenly sucked into the drama of the arrival of aliens in America. Meanwhile, a small boy (Cary Guffey) and his mother (Melinda Dillon) also have visits from the extra-terrestrials, with the child being sucked from his home in a tour-de-force scene of light, smashing appliances and John William's knock out score. The world government moves fast to cover up the visits.

Every time I see this film I'm fascinated about a new aspect, and I've seen this film easily three dozen times. One glorious time on the big screen in Charlotte. My latest obsession -- the use of language in the film, the constant need of interpretation among the Americans, Mexicans, Spanish, Indians and a host of other races, but the aliens cut through all that and are heard and understood through music.

The finale at Devil's Tower, Wyo., still gives goose bumps (especially when I caught this at that theater) as the mother ship -- a floating fortress of lights like an oil refinery -- arrives in a thundercloud and one man finally finds where he belongs. Not here.

The kicker: We have nothing to fear from those outside our world, it's ourselves that are the enemy. I could go on, but I haven't the time. A+

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

I can't say enough about "Pan's Labyrinth" ("El Laberinto del fauno") ... it's one of my all-time favorites, and not just because I caught a late-night show in NYC upon its initial release. (Is there a better city in the world to see a film then walk out into the night? Hell, no.)

Written and directed by the brilliant Guillermo del Toro, it follows Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) the child of a dead tailor and a hugely pregnant, horribly ill mother (Ariadna Gil) now married to a sadistic fascist colonel (Sergi Lopez) in the Spanish army circa 1940s. The country still is under mass civil war and disorder; violent death is every where.

Ofelia comes to live with the colonel ("He's not my father") at a house in the middle of the rural woods. Behind this house is an ancient labyrinth. To all adults, it's a simple maze with pretty stone workmanship. To Ofelia, it is the portal to her real birth world, where she is the princess of a God-like king and queen, her parents.

Her only contact, the only way into this heaven, is a mysterious tree-like faun. The faun tells Ofelia she must prove herself worthy to him to regain her throne, under her parents. She must take a key from a fat, disgusting frog, then take that key and enter the dining hall of a demon and open a cabinet to take a knife. Then she must let her new brother (the prince) bleed by the knife.

Del Toro's film is so complex and layered, so rich with strong religious and "Alice in Wonderland" overtones, one can watch the film a dozen time and pick up on new themes, messages and feelings. Indeed, as Spain and likewise Ofelia's new family's house/army base sinks further into savage violence, so does the girl's secret world.

Is the faun becoming a sadist, like the colonel, or is he testing Ofelia's good will, her Christ-like love? The most important question at the end of the film: Did Ofelia imagine her world of fauns, demons, a king and queen? I change my mind every time as the blood-soaked FUBAR ending is wonderfully, eternally debatable. Right now, this instant, I think all is lost, this is a film of doom.

I never waver, though, on how much I love this film -- its look, the intricate plot, the magic, the demon in that dining hall with eyes in his palms and skin melting off his twig body, and the rivers of blood. I love the film's refusal to be sentimental, to paint violence with an uncensored brush that is shocking to watch even after a dozen views. This is an adults-only film in the clothes of a child.

From the very opening scene, del Toro promises a grim but fantastic journey, and he delivers. Baquero gives one of the best child performances I can remember. Lopez is pure fhk'n evil as the depraved colonel hell bent on dying violently, and as the faun and the saggy-skinned monster, Doug Jones should have gotten some type of Oscar. What kind, I can't say. A+

The Cell (2000)

Directed by Tarsem Singh, "The Cell" is a serial killer/science fiction thriller with a fascinating twist -- the action takes place inside the disturbed mind of the killer.

Jennifer Lopez ("Out of Sight") stars as Catherine Deane, a young psychiatrist working with an experimental technology that allows a doctor to "enter" the mind of a comatized patient to help awaken him. Meanwhile, the seriously ill and depraved Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) is murdering women before turning their bodies into doll-like figurines. Just as two FBI agents (Vince Vaughn and Jake Weber) close in for an arrest, Stargher suffers a seizure and lapses into a coma. The problem: The latest victim is alive -- for now -- and only Stargher knows her whereabouts. Enter Deane and her sci-fi technology.

The film takes off in wild directions once we sink into Carl's baked noodle, where the killer is alternately an androgynous god and an animal-like beast. And a FUBAR little boy. The art direction, costumes and makeup seem sent straight from hell, and I mean that as a compliment: Dozens of scenes are horrific, dreamy and stick with you, especially a horse sliced to living pieces and a scary muscle-bound hermaphrodite. Umm, you gotta see that. Can't explain it.

But the film is saddled by a miscast Vaughn. He's a good comedic actor, but he has no dramatic depth or authority. Frankly, he's embarrassing. To all police. Some dopey dialogue doesn't help Vaughn's cause. It's a huge fault in a film that could have been a cult hit. D'Onofrio commands the screen as a psycho off his mental leash, while Lopez sparks with a keen intelligence and curiosity. B-

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

The movie "Dungeons & Dragons" is as exciting as the board game. Not at all. The dull plot has an evil wizard (Jeremy Irons) fighting a young queen (Thora Birch) for command of her realm, and it's up to two dullard thieves (Justin Whalin and Marlon Wayans) and a young woman (Zoe McLellan) to save the day. Or so I recall, I quit paying attention fairly quick. The level of bad acting is painful, even for a crap fantasy film. Irons doesn't chew scenery, he sucks it in whole and vomits it back up while screaming every line. Surprisingly, it's Birch ("American Beauty") who is the worst of the lot. Her queen has the personality of stool, and dresses like C-3PO. The VFX, the whole reason for these genre films, is pure 7-Eleven midnight sale. But there's one ray of hope: Wayans keeps the film from getting an egg. Seriously. I first thought his comedic performance as the token black sidekick was a horrible minstrel act not seen since the days of "Gone with the Wind." But it occurred to me that Wayans is far too talented ("Requiem for a Dream") for such nonsense. He's riffing off his brother's turn in Spike Lee's satire "Bamboozled." When his dead character is resurrected at the end, Wayans is smart enough not to appear on screen. Smarter than any dragon here. D+

Inkheart (2009)

In "Inkheart," Brandon Fraser plays Mo Folchart, an American bookbinder living in Europe who has the gift of a Silvertongue -- any book he reads aloud comes to true live when he reads it. For instance, reading the "The Wizard of Oz" will put into the real world a tornado or flying monkeys. (I can only guess what reading "The Story of O" will do.) Long story short, Folchart's life has been marred by a fantasy book titled "Inkheart": his wife has disappeared into it, and multiple characters have escaped from it, and they terrorize Mo. Among the escapees is Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), a juggler with powers of fire, and Capricorn (Andy Serkis), a power mad villain who seeks world domination. The film is silly and not always consistent, but it's also surpassing fun in vein with 1980s romp "Willow." Even the camera work suggests it. I also love the makeup effects throughout the film -- many characters have ink lettering literally covering their skin as they are not perfectly brought to life. B