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.

Summer 2011 In Review

This summer, I managed to snag a job reviewing for my town newspaper. As a result, I saw more movies this summer than I ever have in my very brief and insignificant existence. There were some highs and some lows, but this summer saw a significant redemption from last year's crapfest (excluding Inception and Toy Story 3, of course). Here is what I thought of the films I saw.

30 Minutes or Less - Review

I had thirty minutes or less to write this review, so here we go.

A fine genre known as the stoner comedy has emerged recently, due to the rise of Judd Apatow and actor Seth Rogen. We've seen it in films like Pineapple Express and Harold and Kumar. It often refers to the fact that the film heavily features pot, but I tend to think it's more descriptive of the films' sense of humor. In this, the film feels like it's written for younger audiences with a sense of humor that, well, you may have to be stoned to get. With that in mind, 30 Minutes or Less probably fits the bill just fine.