In the land of movie-going, this summer has been all about extremes. Explosions! 3-D! Genetically-spliced creatures! People surgically connected to one another, anus-to-mouth! In addition to concepts, it has been all about extremes in the sense of quality. They were either soul-crushingly awful, overwhelmingly mediocre, or just simply fantastic with very little middle ground [...]
Sylvester Stallone directs a huge cast of action stars in his newest film “The Expendables”, including the likes of Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Steve Austin, Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Stallone himself, and in brief cameos, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. The concept of this film is that it pays tribute to [...]
There are very few films that can come even relatively close to defining an entire sub-culture. Enter “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”, a whirling, lightning-cut epic made about and ultimately for, the geek generation.
Michael Cera (still as gleefully meek as ever) plays Scott Pilgrim, a 22-year old bass guitarist stuck at something of a [...]
Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo, and Julianne Moore head an ensemble cast in the family dramedy “The Kids Are All Right”. This film was a huge success at Sundance Film Festival, and has been getting a ton of critical praise now that it’s in nationwide release. Having seen it, “Kids” is simply put, a treat to [...]
“Winters Bone” is an independent film that has received a load of accolades in the past few months, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It stars Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly, a 17-year old girl who lives with and basically cares for her mentally ill mother and two younger siblings in [...]
Angelina Jolie stars in the latest action movie, “Salt”. This is the latest in a seemingly endless cycle of action films this year where government agents go on the run for a crime they supposedly didn’t commit, such as “Knight and Day”, “The A-Team”, “The Losers”, the upcoming “Red”, and now this. Now, the quality [...]
Allow me to begin this review by saying: “Predators”, the new Robert Rodriguez-produced reboot of the franchise, does not in any way live up to the standard set by the 1987 original. Then again, what can? “Predator” was one of the finest action films Hollywood has ever produced, a perfect blend of tension, action, and [...]
Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest directors of this generation. The man has made some of the true cinematic masterpieces of the last several years, “Memento” and “The Prestige”, not to mention his billion-grossing-juggernaut “The Dark Knight”. I can’t quite put into words what makes his films so compelling and so popular, but the [...]
M. Night Shyamalan has made a name for himself for coming up with small-scale, yet interesting thrillers, often with twist endings. Some are pretty awful (”The Happening” and “The Village”) yet some I feel are simply fantastic (Unbreakable” and “Signs”) and one, “The Sixth Sense”, has become a cultural juggernaut. (Overstatement? How many times have [...]
Twilight was not made for me. I know that. Twilight was not made with the thoughts or feelings of non-”Twihard” males in mind, and you know what? I’m totally fine with that. 95% of all large movie franchises are geared towards guys, so to see a franchise made with females in mind is actually something [...]