With WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, as the title suggest, war is the status quo. Director Matt Reeves returns (co-writing this film, along with Mark Bomback, who also had a hand in scripting DAWN) in what is hands down the boldest and bleakest APES entry yet, once again shifting the focus further into the world of the apes...
Read moreStar Wars The Force Awakens Movie Review (Spoiler-free)
The movie's good. Damn good, actually. Besides one noticeable throwaway mention early in the movie there's almost nothing from the prequels on display. It's clear as crystal this is a course correction and a direct continuation from the original trilogy. Nothing negates the prequels, mind you, so prequel fans don't need to get immediately defensive. No, it's just that the focus is squarely on capturing the OT tone, sense of fun and adventure and continuing THAT story.
Read moreTop 16 Movies of 2014
This has been a good year for film in my eyes. We’ve been privy to what I believe was a nice array of storytelling from a major variety of different filmmakers. Now there may not have been too many movies that I flat-out loved this year (if I did this would’ve been a way longer list), but there were plenty that I liked a whole lot and deserved to at least be mentioned for attempting to take a tired premise and revamp it into a refresher on its particular genre. And it was also a swell year for studio tentpole pictures as there were a handful of filmmakers that found ways to turn multi-million dollar corporate investments into somewhat personal and slightly subversive pieces of entertainment. My own Top 16 list runs the gamut from big studio films to very small, contained dramas. If your favorite film wasn’t found on this list, there might be a chance I didn’t get around to seeing it. But if I did, let me reiterate that this is only my opinion, and if there was a favorite of yours that I may have overlooked, please post in the comment section below. I would love to hear what your top 10, 16, heck 35 movies of the year were.
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