On a devastated futuristic Earth, an ordinary man’s dream to cross the literal divide between classes comes to the forefront in Elysium. Matt Damon stars as the ordinary man, Max Da Costa, who grew up in the early 22nd century on an Earth that’s overpopulated, unhealthy and dangerous. It’s so bad that the richest populace […]

It used to be that the summer’s biggest blockbuster would come out for the Fourth of July. Well, that horse already ran from the stable, so the film that should have received the prestige spot gets the attention this week. Pacific Rim is everything I want in a big-budget, special-effects-heavy movie. It’s exactly what you’d […]

Humanity fights back against an onslaught of monstrous creatures from the deep in the new action extravaganza Pacific Rim. Of all the talent in Hollywood, no one’s work intrigues me more than Guillermo del Toro. I certainly haven’t liked everything he’s done, but much of his work I find downright fascinating. His latest film, Pacific Rim, […]

Brad Pitt looks to save his family and, reluctantly, the rest of humanity from a new pathogen that turns the infected into bloodthirsty zombies in World War Z. Speaking of reluctance, I’ve never been a big fan of zombie films. I’ve generally found them to be as mindless as the zombies themselves. There have been […]

Zombies are all the rage these days thanks to the success of the TV series The Walking Dead, which follows a long line of other zombie films, TV shows, comic books and books. It all goes back to Night of the Living Dead, but there have been all kinds of interpretations that lead to unique […]

Henry Cavill dons the iconic suit and red cape in the latest incarnation of the story of Superman in the Man of Steel. Superman, as a superhero tale, has never been a favorite of mine. Many of the Baby Boomers grew up with George Reeves‘s TV portrayal in the 1950s. I grew up with the […]

Superman is one of those iconic comic book characters who transcends his origins and adaptations such that he’s one of the most recognized characters in the world up there with Mickey Mouse and Jesus Christ. It’s no surprise that yet another director wanted to take a crack at Superman after the mediocre Superman Returns. Unfortunately, […]

Will Smith costars with his son Jaden Smith as a father and son trapped on a hostile world in the futuristic sci-fi adventure After Earth. A thousands years have passed since humans were forced to leave Earth and establish a new colony on another planet. The problem is that the planet they’ve chosen, called Nova Prime, is […]

There are a few people whom I would kill if given an opportunity, but I’ll keep that to myself just in case the events of The Purge come to pass in another decade. Set in a dystopian future where America treats crime in an entirely different method, this movie tries hard to establish a premise […]

There’s a reason that fan fiction is so enjoyable. When someone who loves an entertainment property creates his own story to add to the canon, it’s likely that it’s as good as if not better than other entries. As a fan of Star Trek, director J.J. Abrams rebooted the series in 2009 and still managed […]

Robert Downey Jr. returns in Iron Man 3, taking on a new villain in the latest installment of Marvel‘s heaviest of heavy hitters. I’m not a comic book guy, and frankly, before I saw the first Iron Man movie, I’d never even heard of the character. However, I loved both the concept and the film. Then came […]

I usually dread sequels of any popular film and superhero sequels in particular. They mostly dilute the original instead of expanding upon it, but there are many notable exceptions like Aliens and The Godfather: Part II. Superhero sequels are another creature entirely. In many such movies, the villains set the tone for the experience — sometimes […]