Argo - Review

There are some stories out there that most people just won’t believe. They’re too crazy, ludicrous, and impossible to be true, or even theoretically work. If you saw these events in a movie, you just might call it out on its stupidity. Argo is based around such incredible events.

The Fall - Review

Anyone who isn't a hipster can tell tell you that one of the most annoying personality traits someone can have is pretentiousness. That general attitude that you are better than everyone and everything else, and that you deserve some kind of attention simply because you exist. This is the exact attribute of The Fall that offended and annoyed me to such a strong degree, which is to say: it annoyed the living piss out of me.

The Raid: Redemption Review

It has been a very long time since a single action movie has come along and knocked you on your ass. Correction: it's been a long time since an American action movie has done this. Let's face it, Hollywood has been manufacturing the same cookie-cutter, stylized fluff for years and peddling it as to audiences who wouldn't know any better. Leave it to Welsh director Gareth Evans and an entirely Indonesian production to come along and show them how it's done.

Hating Kristen Stewart

Recently I was discussing upcoming movies with a few of my friends, as I am apt to do as a film fanatic. One of the films I brought up was the upcoming fantasy epic Snow White & The Huntsman, a film that I personally am looking forward to quite a bit. Each of my friends gave this general consensus. They agreed that the film could be good, but all were turned off by the main star, Kristin Stewart. When I asked why they held such distaste for her, they gave a one word answer: Twilight.

Die Hard - Review

Around this time of year, people start asking each other what their favorite Christmas movie is. I always get a funny look when I answer Die Hard. And I can't blame them. Die Hard has no Santa, no elves, no snowmen, no awkward family meals, and no underlying moral lesson about family and the spirit of the the holiday. There aren't any gifts exchanged, but instead bullets and awesome one-liners. And there lies the reason that I love it so much.

Jack and Jill - Review

"Burn this. Burn all copies. No one should see this."

This line comes from one Al Pacino during the closing moments of Jack and Jill, Adam Sandler's latest assault on the box office. What a fitting way to end such a horrid film. Of course, Pacino was referring to the ridiculously lame and embarrassingly unfunny commercial he starred in in the film, but in this case it also applies to this ridiculously lame and embarrassingly unfunny movie.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints - Review

To quote an oft-mocked trailer for a recent action movie, never forget where you came from. It's a bit of sound advice that Dito Montiel seems to have taken to heart with the release of his book A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. That is, until he returns home for the first time in 15 years.

Here we see the sick father whose love he rejected. We see the young lover he left behind. We see the friends he abandoned and the lives he forgot in his desperation to leave his inner city neighborhood. But most of all, we see the events that caused all of it, and how it was almost unavoidable, in this deeply personal Sundance film.