It’s no secret that I’m underwhelmed by origin stories when it comes to superhero movies. I understand why they exist, and I tolerate them with every reboot of the Spider-Man and Batman franchises. I prefer the films where they assume that you already know something about the characters and just plop them in the middle […]
A lonely introvert finds comfort in the “arms” of his new, highly-advanced cell phone operating system in Her. Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is demoralized by the breakup of his marriage to his first love, Catherine (Rooney Mara). It doesn’t help matters that his job as a creative letter writer requires him to be fully in […]
A young boy is chosen to be a top military strategist in a battle to save the future of Earth from the onslaught of an alien race in Ender’s Game. Orson Scott Card‘s beloved sci-fi best seller is brought to the big screen for the first time. It’s the story of young Ender Wiggin (Asa […]
When I first heard about Gravity, I joked about it and thought that it could never work. An entire movie of Sandra Bullock and George Clooney floating around in space?! No way! Would it be a disaster or a triumph? As I always do, I withhold judgment until I actually see a movie — no matter how […]
A space shuttle crew effecting repairs on the Hubble Space Telescope is bombarded by space debris, leaving them helpless in the vacuum of space in Gravity. It’s the most hostile environment known to mankind. Without extensive protection, humans wouldn’t be able to survive in it for even a few seconds. That harsh environment we call space […]
Vin Diesel first entered the consciousness of moviegoers with Pitch Black (2000) and The Fast and the Furious a year later even though he had small roles in Saving Private Ryan and Boiler Room. Diesel knows how to give back to his fans and doesn’t snub his nose at the movies that propelled him to […]
A group of childhood friends reunites to complete an unfinished epic bar crawl from their youths only to find their path blocked by alien robots in The World’s End. Gary King (Simon Pegg) hasn’t ever been able to come to grips with getting older. Once the charismatic leader of his group of friends, it’s now […]
Pub crawls are a rite of passage for many young adults as they turn the legal drinking age or otherwise want to mark a special occasion. I went on two such crawls in my senior year of college at Villanova University right before graduation. We did an impromptu private crawl in which there were no […]
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 […]