The Good Dinosaur

While Inside Out was released to box office success and acclaimed reviews, The Good Dinosaur released in the holiday season to little fanfare or attention.  It was pretty clear which of Pixar’s 2015 movies was its champion last year.  And sure enough, The Good Dinosaur doesn’t reach the storytelling heights of Inside Out, must does […]

Jupiter Ascending

At first glance, Jupiter Ascending is a fascinating film. It hints at a grand scope of intergalactic intrigue with incredible world-building. For example, we see some typical “grey” aliens used as minions to higher powers, which seems fascinating. This movie appears to be a peek into the vastness of a larger, interconnected universe full of […]

Fant4stic

I’ll start off by saying that this wasn’t the unmitigated disaster that I was expecting. It was a movie with a lot of problems but it also had some admirable qualities a well. I think I’ll start with those. First I’ll say that I liked the visual aesthetic of the film. The darker tone may […]

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

And so the Hunger Games series which arrived with a bang, leaves with a whimper.  The second half of the third book, split into two purely for financial reasons not story reasons, is a slight improvement over the numb first half, but I still can’t say I liked it.   The story dragged, the emotional connections […]

The Hateful Eight

I didn’t have high expectations for Hateful Eight. After Django, which had a lot of strengths, dont get me wrong, I was worried that Tarantino was delving into self-indulgence a little too much. Now I realize that’s like saying Scrooge McDuck may have had a little too much money, but that’s how I felt. And […]

The Peanuts Movie

I’ve been a fan of Peanuts since I was a kid. I always identified with the Charlie Brown, the perpetual screw-up. However, I was skeptical about the idea of a modern Peanuts movie being released in 2015 with CGI animation. As it turns out the football was pulled out from under me and my skepticism […]

Spotlight

Spotlight is one of those pictures that some might find powerful, others might find dull, and others simply interesting.  Its hard to say where you may fall, so its hard to recommend or not.  Personally, I fall into the finding it interesting category.  Spotlight tells the story of the Catholic abuse scandal being broken by […]

Room

Room is a very interesting movie and it took a while for my thoughts to solidify on it. There are some brilliant moments and brilliant aspects in this movie, slightly blunted by a sense of tedium. Room tells the story of a kidnapped woman and her son who have lived in a wood shed for […]

Steve Jobs

Most people didn’t bother going to see Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs movie.  Most were turned off by that other recent Jobs movie starring Kelso and Olaf.  Others were probably just sick of hearing about the guy.  Whatever the reason, it was mostly ignored and in and out of theaters quite quickly.  Which would be all […]

Bridge of Spies

Spielberg has given his take on WWI, WWII, and the Civil War, and now he tries his hand at the cold war. Bridge of Spies tells an intriguing story about a prisoner exchange between the US and the Soviets which is expertly told. Its nice to see a spy drama grounded in the reality of […]

The Revenant

The Revenant is the story of a man who ends up really needing a bath. Alejandro Inarritu has made many great movies throughout the years, such as the frenetic Birdman and the chaotic yet pensive Babel. But he had yet to make a film that I truly loved. Until now. The Revenent is a powerhouse […]

The Big Short

No one saw the market crash of 2008 coming! Well, actually that’s not true.  Some of those greedy Wall Street investment bankers actually did see it coming, and did their best to profit from it.  The Big Short tells the story of how these investors came to the realization that the market was going to […]

My Worst 5 Movies of 2015

5. Kingsman: The Secret Service Man, I really dislike Matthew Vaughn as a director.  He is the movie industry definition of “too cool for school”.  Kick Ass was a piece of trash, and this movie was made in a similar vain.  Again, this reminds me of a teenager who thinks that if they swears a […]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars is back. As I’m sure most Star Wars fans did, I went into this new film with cautious optimism. I was thrilled to see another Star Wars movie again, but was very worried that the movie wouldn’t meet the high standards that the trilogy has set. After all, we already had a whole […]

Spectre

And so the new Bond re-imagining comes full circle with its inclusion of Spectre and Bond’s nemesis Blofeld. And I quite enjoyed it. Spectre is a very solid entry into the 007 franchise. It offers a great villain, a great love interest, and a plot I was interested in following along with. The action scenes […]