Past the Popcorn film roundup—When Pickings Are Slim, They’d Best Be Good
Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.
This time of year, the big summer blockbusters take over thousands of screens each week, pushing the struggling smaller films out the door… and who wants to compete with Iron Man or Prince Caspian? So the field is left almost entirely to the Big Boys.
So when you’re looking to see what’s new on the marquee, and you only find one title, you’re likely to think, “Well, this had better be good!”
In the case of Prince Caspian… well, you’re in luck, big time. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe managed to be a huge success in spite of being a mediocre film that almost completely missed the spirit of C.S. Lewis’s book. But the corporate shackles of creativity have apparently been loosed, and this time out director Andrew Adamson delivers what feels like a personal and vital cinematic experience.
“Even at almost two and a half hours,” says Kathy Bledsoe, “Prince Caspian never allows the audience to get restless. As for Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Anna Popplewell, and William Moseley who play the Pevensie siblings… well… it’s just plain hard to believe that they are the same children from the first film.” She recommends the film for families with kids of almost all ages, in spite of the extensive if bloodless, PG-rated violence.
In other releases: the award-winning Israeli fantasy-drama Jellyfish.
