Maleficient, Million Ways to Die in the West - Sandy Kenyon reviews
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Four years have passed since her last starring role and Disney is betting Angelina Jolie fans will welcome her back by going to see her in Maleficent.
It's a visually stunning movie that is also designed to draw the millions of young girls who made Frozen such a big hit.
The centuries' old fairy tale of "Sleeping Beauty" has been re-imagined as a story of female empowerment. No longer is the beauty awakened by a handsome prince. His role is little more than a cameo. The beauty portrayed by Elle Fanning is a supporting role because this version's told from the point of view of Maleficent, described in the original film as the "mistress of all evil."
As played by Angelina Jolie, Maleficent is less scary and more sympathetic than it might appear. Even in 3-D, she is strictly PG, and not so much maligned as misunderstood - Guilty with an explanation, done wrong by a prince who does more than just clip her wings. Maleficent has a message for little girls: just because someone is mean to you does not give you the right to be mean to others.
The movie runs just a bit more than an hour and a half, which is a welcome relief among bloated summer blockbusters. (NOTE: The movie is produced by Disney, which also owns WABC-TV.)
A Million Ways to Die
The old west shown us by Seth MacFarlane was a dangerous place. With 'A Million Ways to Die' and he proves again the truth of the old adage: dying is easy, but comedy is hard. If by hard we mean genuinely funny as opposed to going for cheap laughs with gross gags and bad language.
Charlize Theron as a wife looking to cheat on her bad guy husband, played by Liam Neeson, is the best part of a very stupid and surprisingly boring movie. McFarlane fans will laugh, though not has hard or as often as they did at Ted.
