Nerd in the 'Noke

I Kill Giants (2017), NR, 1h 46min - This film is a live action adaptation of the 2008 Image Comics series of the same name, created by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura.  It was a series that I had long heard great things about, and one which I was happy to have finally gotten the chance to read this past week.  This weekend marks the film's initial, limited, theatrical release - meaning it won't get to my area for at least another week or two - however, thanks to its simultaneously being available to rent digitally through Amazon Prime , I didn't have to wait, and I'm happy to report that this is a pretty worthy adaptation. I gave a vague overview of the story in my review of the graphic novel yesterday, and I will attempt to do the same here: I Kill Giants is the story of Barbara Thorsen (Madison Wolfe), a nerdy, sarcastic, introverted, middle school-aged girl, using her imagination to simultaneously avoid and cope with life's problems while interacting with oth...

RoboCop (2014), PG-13, 108 minutes - I'm not sure when it started, but a trend has come to my attention over the last couple of years.  That of movie studios dropping macho-centric flicks over Valentine's Day weekend.  Last year it was A Good Day to Die Hard and this year it was this reboot of the RoboCop franchise.  I see what they are trying to do, but I'm not sure it has been all that successful.  Although, I suppose that could be in part because neither of the films mentioned were all that spectacular.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this reboot, but it wasn't Earth-shattering enough that I would have been able to talk my wife into seeing it over something more romantic!   To be honest, this new version of RoboCop was better than I expected.  The same basic idea of the original was kept in place: in the not-too-distant future (2028) a private defense firm (OmniCorp) is developing drones to help combat crime and must find a way to 'humanize' t...