Whiplash

Whiplash is a great movie. If you are like me and are hesitant to watch it because you really dont give a damn about jazz music, let me put your mind at ease. You do not need to love, or even like, jazz music in order to fully appreciate and enjoy this film. The theme […]

Nightcrawler

What a cool movie.  Nightcrawler tells the story of a social outcast who finds his passion in late-night news photography and will do whatever it takes to become the best at it.  Its engaging, interesting, and captivating right from the start.  The reason its all of those things is because the character of Lou Bloom […]

Foxcatcher

Foxcatcher tells the story of two wrestling brothers who allow themselves to be taken under the wing of an eccentric millionaire as their coach.  Its based off of a true story, but whether that gives it more or less power is up to how you feel about it I suppose.  It’s is a competently made […]

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Okay, lets talk.  We need to chat about book adaptations.  I confess there was a time when being faithful to the source material was important to me.  I remember having a number of nitpicks when the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out, for example.  But over time, the movie fan in me has grown […]

Under the Skin

Under the Skin is a weird movie to be sure.  Its also an oddly compelling one.    The premise is pretty much like Species; an alien under disguise as a female human seduces victims.  But that doesn’t at all prepare you for what kind of movie this is.  What we actually get is a more contemplative […]

Big Hero 6

This turned out to be a much better movie than I expected, and I can see now why it won the Oscar. That puffy robot just killed me, I think I laughed at almost everything he said or did. “I am not fast.”  Or when the kid told him to kick the door down. Great […]

Birdman

Birdman has a lot of stuff going on, that’s for sure. Some things I got, others I didn’t. But regardless its clear that everything that is in this manic movie mayhem is there for a reason. For example, I don’t know why he imagines himself having telekinetic powers, but I’m sure there’s a reason (a […]

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

Its one thing to complain about the decision to make The Hobbit into 3 films for monetary purposes. But when that decision legitimately affects the quality of the films, its something else entirely, and that is just what has happened here. The third Hobbit film has an odd story structure which pretty much relies on […]

Boyhood

A pretty great achievement from a bold idea of filming a fictional film over time to keep the natural aging of the characters authentic. And “authentic” is the word du jour for this film. All Linklater’s efforts are put into making this as realistic and genuine of a look inside the life of a boy […]

The Imitation Game

The Imitation Game is a good movie hampered by some sizable problems and missteps. Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing is pretty much playing the movie version of Sheldon Cooper, but his performance is the best part of the film and his anti-social behaviour immediately makes the film engaging. He continues to be an interesting character […]

Life Itself

I know I’m not alone here, especially among movie fan circles, but Roger Ebert is someone who had a big influence on my love and appreciation of movies. He is a critic whose reviews I usually go out of my way to watch or, later on, read. He was one of the few celebrities whose […]

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy! Marvel films go cosmic as this adaptation of a lesser known comic series tries to insert itself into the movie canon. Thoughts? A new Star Wars? Lets face it, Guardians of the Galaxy really, really wants to be the new Star Wars. It has characters which very obviously fill the roles […]

Edge of Tomorrow

I didn’t hold much hope for Edge of Tomorrow. Living a day over and over again as a premise seemed more like a chore than anything else. And otherwise it looked like a video game. It even has that restarting gimmick to feel like a video game. Turns out, Edge of Tomorrow is pretty awesome. […]

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

This Planet of the Apes “reboot” series is an interesting animal. Its taken an old series which, lets face it, gets pretty corny by the last few movies, and has turned it into a deeper and more serious contemplation of the themes going on. And yet they don’t feel like they are going overboard and […]

22 Jump Street

21 Jump Street surprised a lot of people with how fun it was. 22 Jump Street doesn’t have that element of surprise, as everyone now expected it to be funny. And while 21 is probably the better film, I have to say that 22 was probably the funnier of the two. Some of the funniest […]