The Simpsons: Season 24, Part 3 of 3
The problem with current episodes of The Simpsons is mental storage. How many storylines can a single person fit into their head before things start...
View ArticleThe Wolverine: Marvel at the Mediocrity
There was an astonishing amount of goodwill going into the release of The Wolverine, the sixth installment in the 20th Century Fox-run X-Men series and the...
View ArticlePacific Rim: Rock ‘em – Sock ‘em With a Soul
Pacific Rim is a film that knows exactly what it’s about, and knows exactly how it’s about it. This may seem like damning with faint...
View ArticleBlue Jasmine: I Always Play Russian Roulette in My Head
Boy, the feminist community is going to have a field day with this project for years to come. Let me start by illustrating a point...
View ArticleBlackfish: Free Willy (Before He Kills Again)
The degree to which Blackfish is effective is, like with most animal documentaries, dependent to some extent on the degree to which you as an...
View ArticleThe World’s End: Dance (and Drink) Apocalyptic
Immaturity and defiance are what might save the human spirit. Immaturity and defiance are what threaten to destroy the Earth. Immaturity and defiance are what...
View ArticleLee Daniels’ The Butler: Race Relations (and Oscar Bait) 101
I walked out of Lee Daniels’ The Butler slightly confused. I knew what I had just seen. I knew how the majority of the audience...
View ArticlePrisoners: A B-Movie in A-Movie Clothing
Prisoners is a lurid, pulpy whodunit disguised as a thought-provoking psychological thriller. Which is not to say it’s badly made – in fact, almost everything...
View ArticleGravity: Journey to the Center of How-the-Hell-Did-They-Do-That
The following review contains spoilers, which will be marked with (SPOILER ALERT) at the beginning and (END SPOILER ALERT) at the end. Gravity is an...
View ArticleThor: The Dark World: Lather, Rinse, Loki
Thor: The Dark World succeeds at what it sets out to do, which is provide the audience with explosions, fan nods, one-liners, mythology expansion, and...
View ArticleThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: More of the Ring (and Everything Else)
Six hours and two films into Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, it’s a bit hard to look at the end results – An Unexpected Journey...
View ArticleThe Wolf of Wall Street: A Wolf in Sheep’s Coke-Fiend
Jordan Belfort’s a salesman, a gangster, a rock star. He’s an addict, a leader, a swindler, a spitfire of unpredictable pizazz and power. He’s also...
View ArticleInside Llewyn Davis: Liked, But Not Well-Liked
Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before. A young man – determined, idealistic, perhaps a bit difficult at times, but aren’t...
View ArticleCommunity: “Repilot” Plus One
The season five premiere of NBC’s Community (titled “Repilot”) ends pretty clearly, metaphorically speaking. The episode had a lot of narrative legwork to get through in just a short...
View ArticleThe Russell Hustle: An American Master at the Top of His Game (and on the...
Much like Martin Scorsese and John Ford before him, David O. Russell makes genre and studio films that also function as vehicles in which to...
View ArticleThe Amazing Spider-Man 2: B.Y.O.M. (Bring Your Own Meaning)
The following review contains spoilers, which will be marked with (SPOILER ALERT) at the beginning and (END SPOILER ALERT) at the end. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the kind of movie that threatens to...
View ArticleA Million Ways to Die in the West: When DeLorean Becomes Fact, Print DeLorean...
Following on the heels of the smash hit Ted, one of the contemporary Kings of American comedy sets his sights on the old West for his second feature film. A Million Ways to Die in the West is...
View ArticleMagic in the Moonlight: Woody’s Moon Wanes Too Soon
Illusions, skepticism, mysticism, cynicism, romanticism, jazz, infidelity, chance, luck, misanthropy, philosophy, Magic in the Moonlight covers all these familiar Woody Allen interests, and somehow,...
View ArticleTusk: Stout Mask Replica
The birth of Kevin Smith’s Canadian horror film is already legendary—some see it as nothing but a pot-addled dare that went too far at the expense of the filmgoer who stumbles onto it, others see it as...
View ArticleEverything is Better in the Season Two Premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The polite consensus on the first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was that the show finally hit its stride after the titular organization was dismantled in Captain America: The Winter...
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