If you’re going to bring the world to and end, or make any kind of disaster flick in general, it needs to be big, dumb and most of all, fun. The emphasis should always be on the word fun. Let that be a lesson to you Hollywood hotshots. This includes Bay, McG and Sommers...[more]...

Oh, how I love a good Christmas film and there are lots to choose from when the season roles around every year. Starting on Nov. 1 is when I typically begin letting the season’s music start jingling in my ears. When it comes to picking which ones to watch every year there are standards, the non-traditional and then there are the unintentional...[more]...

I have never been a big fan of Michael Jackson. That could be considered offensive to say in a review of a film put together so soon after his death. As a child of the ‘80s however, I am fully aware of the icon the man truly is. My parents weren’t fans and neither are any of my friends from that time period. All I really have known about the man is that he is mostly referred to as “The King of Pop” and has about a “million” hit singles played regularly on the radio or at Halloween parties...[more]...

With the current releases of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and Pixar’s “Toy Story” 3-D double feature you could assume that a major studio release of yet another CG-animated film would be a bad idea. If the quality could match either of those two releases one would be wrong. That Summit Entertainment has unleashed such a gross misappropriation of expectations would be an understatement...[more]...

In the annals of zombie movies there’s definitely a broad share of the good, the bad and the ugly. It may not be my favorite sub-genre of horror but I do enjoy my fair share of the undead rising from death to munch on hapless passersby. Whether it be straight out horror to the occasionally played as thriller to the outright loving spoof, there’s a great many variety when it comes to these types of films...[more]...

WHIP IT...[more]...

Sports are definitely something that I have very slowly become a little bit more of a fan of over the years. For a very long time the only game I was ever a fan of happened to be baseball with my favorite team being the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I’m not sure exactly why they’re my team of choice but it could be that they’re the parent team to my local Triple A affiliate the Salt Lake Bees. I am far from what one would call a big fan and some who know me are usually very surprised that I even have a slight interest in any sports team. I even have a super-secret superhero character I made up back in the day that goes by the name “Anti-Sports Guy” so obviously I’m the last person who should like sports films...[more]...

Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh have each made very different films over the years and Damon has now been in five of Soderbergh's. Soderbergh is more known for his bigger titles such as “Erin Brockovich,” “Traffic,” and the “Oceans” trilogy but that may be about it. While two of those five were Oscar nominated, Soderbergh is probably much more well known within the indie art house crowds. From his debut film “Sex, Lies and Videotape” which played as part of the 1989 Sundance Film Festival in my local Park City, thru films such as “Out of Sight,” “The Limey,” “Full Frontal,” “Solaris,” “Bubble,” and parts “One” and “Two” of the “Che” films along with his most recent “The Girlfriend Experience” starring adult film star Sasha Grey...[more]...

When the original “Final Destination” was released back in 2000 it had a few scenes that literally made me forget to breathe. From the opening plane crash to a character getting squashed like a bug by a bus I could sense that I had found my new favorite horror series outside of the “Scream” trilogy. The Rube Goldbergesque setups ending with a character going splat was truly horrifying yet so utterly silly that it was always hilarious...[more]...

What has two balls and sucks more sand than a David Hasselhoff wannabe? Michael Bay...[more]...

When you go into a franchise having only seen one of the two previous features and the last time you saw the original was upon its initial release 7 years ago you can bet that there’s going to be some confusion on who characters are. Luckily, with an animated feature film it makes things a little easier as you only really have to remember which celebrity voice is who and it all comes flooding back...[more]...

Some movies have the trademarks of their producers all over them. Normally, whenever you saw “Steven Spielberg Presents” before a film you knew it was going to be something special. However, that moniker has officially changed forever with the abysmal “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” Now we get Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro’s names presenting us some pretty good stuff after “The Orphanage” and the upcoming “District 9.” Then there’s Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. These two have brought us their fair share of laugh riots with “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights,” the online skit “The Landlord” seen on www.laughordie.com, and most recently the movie I loved and most loathed, “Step Brothers.”...[more]...

Director Robert Rodriguez definitely keeps himself busy. Everyone knows he is really good friends with another director Quentin Tarantino. Mr. Tarantino is a very busy man as well. The key difference between the two is completely obvious when their newest features are released on the same day and are so utterly different and one is a million times better than the other. Rodriguez has now officially released twelve feature films in the span of seventeen years and the quality of each movie has been pretty inconclusive. Mr. Tarantino has only completed seven full length features and each one has been a continuing triumph over the last. What do these two fantastic directors have least in common? Storytelling...[more]...

Sundance is definitely known for bringing the cinematic world an independent voice. Fox Searchlight has also been largely known for buying up Sundance hits and managing to bring them to the public’s wider attention. I used to attend Sundance every year for a good number of years until prices became higher and higher that it just seemed unreasonable to pay as much as $15/ticket when a lot of the films will see a distribution at some point. Whether it be at a local multiplex or on home video most of the films made for Sundance will be seen soon enough...[more]...