“THIS IS CETI ALPHA FIVE!”

No, actually, this is not Ceti Alpha Five. But it is one of those reviews that I am really nervous to write. Why? you might ask. The answer is that this would be my second favorite film of all time. You might remember when I wrote my review of The Matrix that it was my favorite film of all time. Well this is the second film on that list.

It is true that I love pretty much all things that have to do with Star Trek, but I am not blind, nor do I place this film in second place of my favorite films list lightly. And indeed, as much as I love Star Trek, I think if…

Following up on the major box office success that is TRON: Legacy, director Joseph Kosinski has placed himself squarely back at the forefront of the sci-fi genre in a big way, with a fairly big star: Tom Cruise.

Cruise may not be the most versatile actor, but when he works in a role, he works very well. My favorite role for Cruise to date may well be Minority Report. Tom Cruise is essentially playing the same part in all the films he’s good in. So the question is/was, is he cast right in this role?

The Casting

I can give a resounding yes to that question. For whatever reason, Cruise…

A team of amateur organized baseball players stop at a gas station for a fill-up. Jackie Robinson (played by Chadwick Boseman), one of the African American ball players, is refused entry to the washroom. The team says they’ll find another gas station so the attendant allows Jackie to use it to keep their business.

As Robinson comes out of the washroom, a baseball scout for the Dodgers approaches him and asks Robinson to join him for a trip to Brooklyn.

Branch Rickey (played by Harrison Ford), the general/executive manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers, is looking for a new first baseman.…

Do you remember how fun G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra was? I mean despite the fact that it was a little light on plot and a little heavy on action, it really was a fun film. Had I been reviewing and rating films in 2009 I think I would have given that film about 3.5 stars.

Unfortunately I must inform you that this film comes nowhere close to that. This film is unfortunately very much like the video game Dwayne Johnson and Channing Tatum were playing in one of the very early scenes of the film.

With almost little or no fanfare, very early in the film, one of the primary characters from…

We have said a lot about Roger Ebert this week. Considering his wealthy contribution to movie reviews, it’s no wonder how much we appreciated his expertise. He has been some of the inspiration for my own reviews.

So, I find it very fitting that Roger’s last published movie review would be for Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, a soul-searching drama that explores some spiritual matters pertaining to life and death itself.

A more conventional film would have assigned a plot to these characters and made their motivations more clear. Malick, who is surely one of the most romantic and…

Stephanie Meyer has enjoyed an immense amount of success with the Twilight saga in both book form, and film form. But before writing the final book in the Twilight saga, she took a break and wrote The Host. I have not read the book (which I cannot say about the Twilight series), but my wife has and she says there is much to recommend it over the Twilight saga. But it still does have some flaws.

Joe read the novel and finds it to be better than Twilight novels as well. And I’m with Joe. Given what I know from the film, I would rather spend time in the universe of The Host. But such is not…

Django, have you always been alone?
Django, have you never loved again?
Love will live on, oh oh oh…

Life must go on, oh oh oh…
For you cannot spend your life regretting.

So sings Luis Bacalov in the opening titles of Django Unchained, the second in a series(?) of revisionist history/revenge epics from the ever-controversial Quentin Tarantino. Inglourious Basterds handed the reigns of vengeance to a band of Jewish Nazi-hunters (thereby conjuring up a far more incendiary conclusion to WWII than the one where Hitler cried ‘Uncle!’). In this case, the injured party who gets bloody…

Are you ready my brothers? Today we shall climb up the beanstalk to take a look at giants whose leader sounds suspiciously like Bill Nighy.

I realize I am extremely late getting this review out, but I’ve had a lot of demands on my time lately. Still, I would like to put “pen to paper” and let my thoughts loose on the world, particularly because this film is seeing such poor reviews and no one is going to see it in theaters.

This is unfortunately getting to be a thing with Bryan Singer. I love his films, the world hates them. Well to be fair, most folks love the first two X-Men films.…

Gerard Butler is all-American presidential security guard Mike Banning. In this epic terrorist attack action flick, he uses all his dedication, manhood,¹ and skill to save the president of the United States and America itself. Dude…

The trailers for Olympus Has Fallen say it all: this is a crazy-dangerous movie with loads of ambition to deliver the greatest action film of 2013 to date.

Storyline

On a ride from Camp David on a bitter winter’s night, tragedy strikes the U.S. president’s limo convoy on an icy bridge. Presidential security guard, Mike Banning (played by Gerard Butler),…