The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Review
Magicians are fun. As Alan Arkin’s Rance Holloway tells us, audiences love to have a sense of awe and see the impossible. There’s a reason magician films have worked in the past (most recently with The Prestige and The Illusionist). We want to be fooled. We want to be amazed. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is [...]
2013 Oscar Predictions
On Sunday, we’ll bear witness to the most recent batch of actors, filmmakers, and writers duke it out for the title as Greatest Person In History. I’m kidding, of course, but even without the Oscars being a WWE grudge match (which I would most definitely watch, by the way: think mud wrestling between Jessica Chastain [...]
5 of the Best Performances to be Snubbed an Oscar Nomination
We are currently in an odd film awards season where three of the biggest powerhouse talents of the year (any of which would have deserved a win in their category) didn’t even garner a measly nomination. We’re talking, of course, about Ben Affleck for Best Director, Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Supporting Actor, and Quentin Tarantino for [...]
Who Will and Who Should Win the 2013 Golden Globes
Well, here we are. The eve of the 2013 Golden Globe award ceremony. Gotta say this year has a ton of worthy films and performances to focus on. I hardly know where to begin. On Sunday, we’re going to see which of those films and performances the Hollywood Foreign Press has chosen as the best [...]
Zero Dark Thirty Review
Every year when we enter the ‘film award season,’ I come across films that question my viewing sensibilities. I ask myself if being well-made, showing ambition and having a great cast makes up a great movie? I can’t think of a recent film more worthy of this question than Zero Dark Thirty, a movie that has [...]
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review
Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s acclaimed prequel to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (the first of three films based on the book) chronicles the early years of Bilbo Baggins (previously played by Ian Holmes, now given a likable turn by Martin Freeman). This film shows Bilbo’s fateful meeting with Gandalf (a wittily [...]
Skyfall Review
Apparently, MGM’s financial woes couldn’t have been a bigger boon for its biggest money-maker. Using the forced hiatus since 2008′s Quantum of Solace, the James Bond franchise was able to nab a fantastic story, an eye-popping director and a riveting villain for its 23rd entry into the saga: Skyfall. It was time well spent. From [...]
Cloud Atlas Review
Every once in a while, you come across a film that gives you hope that maybe, just maybe, cinema still has a few surges of innovation, passion and vision left. You see a bright light which shines through the constant barrage of garbage. Now I’ve been lucky enough to have found a healthy handful of [...]
Seven Psychopaths Review
Colin Farrell and Sam Rockwell star as best friends Marty and Billy. Marty is an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter trying to write an original screenplay entitled “Seven Psychopaths” and Billy is a dog kidnapper who teams up with Hans (Christopher Walken in his best role in years). Our heroes run into trouble when Billy kidnaps the [...]
Looper Review
The real star of “Looper” is writer/director Rian Johnson. Rian Johnson’s Looper is explosive in how blasts beyond the structural confines of the science fiction genre. Johnson is that special type of director and storyteller who doesn’t allow himself to be creatively limited in an way, a character trait he showed with great aplomb with Brick and even more [...]
