The Twilight Series, love it or hate it, is now a part of our popular culture’s history. A lot can be said and a lot has been said about this series. Stephanie Meyer’s series of books seems to be very polarizing for most people.

For me though, I tend to fall on the side of loving it more than hating it. What I mean is this: I think the writing of the novels is fairly horrible. But as a sci-fi/fantasy nerd, I love the core story of this series. As such, though I liked the books and was able to read past the sometimes horrible writing, I enjoyed the movies perhaps more because I didn’t have…

Did you know that from the time of the Founding Fathers until the time of President Lincoln, the date Thanksgiving was observed varied from state to state? The final Thursday in November had become the customary date in most of the states by the beginning of the nineteenth century, but Thanksgiving was first celebrated on the same date by all states in 1863 by a presidential proclamation of Lincoln.

Influenced by the campaigning of author Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote letters to politicians for around 40 years trying to make it an official holiday, Lincoln proclaimed the date to be the…

2012 has been a terrific year for superheroes at the movies.

May brought us Marvel’s The Avengers, in all its hilarious, exciting, Hulk-smashing glory. July gave us The Dark Knight Rises, the final chapter in Chris Nolan’s epic trilogy, and the biggest, boldest Batman film of them all. Both of these cinematic behemoths garnered critical acclaim, with good reason. But there’s another piece of comic book filmmaking that deserves applause, and that is The Amazing Spider-Man.

Does it reach the same mind-boggling heights as Batman and The Avengers? Not quite. Does it live up to its title? Oh…

I must admit I really toyed with the idea of titling this review “Skyfail”, but that would be low hanging fruit, not to mention it would not completely reflect my opinion of this film.

Let me help you see where I am coming from. I have determined that I am somewhat immune to movie hype. Not completely, not even mostly, but immune enough. I can wade through the hype and figure out whether I think a film is going to be any good or not. Sometimes I am wrong, but more often I am right.

Two of the things with Skyfall that I was very aware of were 1). The hype surrounding this film had…

Spielberg’s War Horse of last year’s end was met with much critical acclaim. If that historical epic wasn’t enough, then Spielberg’s Lincoln looks to satisfy your every urge with a political, historical, and patriotic masterpiece. Is it a history lesson? Is it propaganda? Or is it a work of art?

Here’s a sneak peek from Dana Stevens’ review:

Blessedly, we soon move into the main storyline, which focuses very tightly on the last few months of Lincoln’s life, as he struggled both to end the Civil War and to pass the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. The script by Angels in America…

You may not have realized yet what family film Disney had in store for us this holiday season. What with so many sequels released in recent years from their animation studios, it’s easy to overlook the occasional original story they might release. It only occurred to me the other day as I watched the trailers before a showing of Wreck-it Ralph that this is their holiday theatrical release.

With a budget to the tune of $165,000,000 (estimated) it’s more than surprisingly delightful. This first film — in an undoubtedly new movie franchise — has been well-received. It is sure to attract…

How do you describe Flight in one sentence? Easy, like this: Flight is a film about substance abuse.

Substance Abuse

Question, how do our lead characters in this film even have a liver left? There’s a lot of substance abuse in this film, and in many ways it is a somewhat compelling, if not completely satisfying drama. The drugs and alcohol are not the only adult themes in this film either. The film opens to show us just how depraved Captain Whip Whitaker is by showing him in a bedroom scene with someone named Trina (Katerina Marquez) whom we very soon discover is a flight attendant on…

“Our lives are not our own…”

That’s certainly the way I felt when watching Cloud Atlas for three hours in the theater. My life was no longer my own, it was hijacked by a very bad movie. I have never walked out on a film, and that statement is still true even after Cloud Atlas, but I wanted to walk out of this one.

Not that there weren’t enjoyable moments, but there was no cohesive whole. And the further into this three hour nightmare I went, the more I began to question whether the film would ever make any sense.

How Many Threads Now?

I must confess here and now that I have not read…

Ridley Scott. He gave us Blade Runner and he gave us Alien: two classics that still rank among the best that science fiction has to offer. Prometheus sees him returning to the genre — and while I’d love to call it a glorious return, I can’t. Scott’s latest work is tense and it’s entertaining, but it’s also something of a disappointment.

Where No Man Has Gone Before

In the year 2089, archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) find pre-historic drawings on the walls of a cave in Scotland — drawings that match other drawings found on other…