Kurt Loder on John Carter and Silent House

The most awesome of the many special effects on view in the new John Carter is pyrotechnic in nature. As Kurt Loder observes, how often do you get to watch $250-million (the movie's reported budget) go straight up in flames? Making his first live-action feature, Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton seems to have been swamped by the picture's sprawling source material. Watching the film is like sinking into a 3D bog of unending—and surprisingly dull—confusion. Silent House, on the the other hand, is a new haunted house movie allegedly filmed in one take. It could have been a snappy little horror film, Loder writes. But it's constricted by its gimmicky concept. When you have a story of any interest at all, why not just tell it? Loder reviews them both.