I've never read a word written by Robert E. Howard (Creator of "Conan") and I barely made it through the Schwarzenegger "Conan" movies, but I love dark, brutal fantasy and have been waiting for Hollywood to make one to scratch my itch. Today, that itch was scratched! In a legendary time of humanity's past, a barbarian child named Conan is the only survivor of a raid that wiped out his entire village. Growing into manhood his greatest wish is to kill the men responsible for the murder of his people. As it happens, the man responsible is also trying to awake an ancient evil and plunge the world into darkness, death and chaos, so if Conan succeeds, everybody else wins too. The action is bloody and brutal and the portions are generous. The fight choreography is cool, but not too fancy and in favor of the dark mood. The story isn't original by any stretch, but feels like a return to a classic framework in this movie, rather than a tired cliche. Jaso...

I wasn't going to review this movie, since most people have never heard of it and wouldn't be expecting a review of it from me. It would have been a great chance to free up my time a little this week. But after watching this highly unusual film on Blu-ray this week, I felt compelled to express some thoughts about it. "Super" is a low-budget, independent film (that uses it's money to GREAT effect!) with some very familiar faces and names. The story follows Frank D'Arbo, a socially awkward short order cook (played by Rain Wilson, The Office ) whose wife, a recovering drug addict, leaves him for her dealer. Desperate to reclaim his wife and furious over the injustice of life, Frank creates a superhero persona that he believes is inspired by God, and hits the streets to fight crime and save his wife. Joining him in his odd quest is comic book store employee, Libby, who is even more socially inept and seems to live almost completely in a fantasy world the mor...

This weekend Fox Studios rebooted (again) their Planet Of The Apes franchise with "Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes", starring James Franco as a scientist developing a cure for Alzheimer's who gets more than he bargained for. Before I get into the meat of this review, I should admit some bias and baggage I took into the theater with me, which you should keep in mind when applying my review. First, I don't like what I call "horse movies", in which an animal is the focus of the plot (and usually has the movie named after it) and audiences are expected to emotionally invest in the fate of this animal in the same way we would for human characters. I like animals (a dog person myself, my wife prefers cats) and believe that part of our role as stewards of God's creation is to safeguard and care for them when possible and reasonable, given our other responsibilities as humans. But I do believe that animals do not have value or rights equal to humans an...