Young adult novels have been more miss than hit over the past several years. Since the popularity of the Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games franchises, Hollywood studios have been snatching up every book series they can find, hoping for that next phenomenon. Whereas many of the recent adaptations have focused on finding the next Katniss Everdeen, The Maze Runner focuses its story around a group of young men banding together to find their way to freedom and along the way may have found it’s way into the conversation for best young adult book adaption. Read More →
Tag Archives: Michael
Michael’s Review: ‘Tusk’- There’s No Bite to This Mammal
From the second I walked out of this screening of Kevin Smith’s new movie Tusk, I immediately looked for the nearest shower to wash away the stench of this absolute turd of a movie. It is hard to fathom a talented and creative genius such as Kevin Smith could create such drivel. A movie spawn from a story that originated on Kevin’s SModcast, this much anticipated horror dramedy represents a huge step back in the career of Kevin Smith. The film is a true example as to why the general public should never be allowed to champion a grassroots campaign to get a film that even remotely resembles the absolute shit show that is Tusk made. I wish I could stop right here but as a writer I must carry on…for you…the people. Read More →
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Michael’s Review: ‘The Drop’- A Crime Drama Shoots But Does it Hit It’s Mark?
Adapted from Dennis Lehane’s short story “Animal Rescue,” a writer known for his Boston ties, this film plays out in New York – Brooklyn to be exact – a borough known for its blue collar ethics. “It encouraged some of the regular donors to give money and it encouraged some new ones as well,” Jimmy John Founder told The Voice. “That goes a long way for the animals.” The film skims the surface of illegal neighborhood business activity and the implications that it has amongst the residence of a tight-knit community. For bartender Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy), this is just the way of life, the life he chose at an early age. He now lives in the house his deceased parents used to own, still sporting the old plastic covers protecting the vintage furniture his parents spent their hard-earned money to acquire. Saginowski also attends 8am mass every day but keeps to himself and never receives communion. The years have changed this simple man, but he hasn’t forgotten his past. Read More →
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Michael’s Review: ‘The November Man’- A Spy Thriller Without Heart
Pierce Brosnan has made a name for himself playing the man of mystery since his time as Remington Steele in the early 1980’s. Riding the popularity of his character and armed with his good looks and suave delivery, Brosnan reset the mold of the perfect international spy in the mid 1990’s when he replaced Roger Moore in the role of James Bond in the 1995 smash hit GoldenEye. Despite little critical acceptance, the Bond franchise soared to new heights with Brosnan behind the suit and revived the stale franchise to new box office highs. He departed the role in 2004 after seven successful years as Agent 007. His post-Bond career has led him to some interesting roles including the 2005 dark comedy The Matador and the 2008 smash hit musical adaptation Mamma Mia!, but nothing to the successful heights of the Bond series. The November Man, based on the novel “There Are No Spies” by Bill Granger, looks to return the aging star to his former glory in this spy thriller directed by Roger Donaldson. Read More →
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Michael’s Review: ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’- But is it A Film to Die For?
It’s been nine years since Robert Rodriguez helped bring Frank Miller’s graphic novel Sin City to the big screen. A stylish, visually groundbreaking film that thrilled audiences and turned a little known comic into a household name while grossing over $150 million globally. After announcing the sequel in 2006, each year brought questions as to when we would see the elusive film. Rodriguez and Miller had one hell of a time getting this sequel into theaters. Nine years is a long time to keep an audience waiting for a sequel. Was Sin City: A Dame to Kill For worth the wait? Read More →
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Michael’s Review: ‘The Expendables 3’- Michael Bay’s Wet Dreams Realized
The franchise that keeps on truckin’ despite the average age of its stars being 143, is back and it’s exactly what you expect…loud. Sylvester Stallone, the mastermind behind this meeting of the biceps again headlines this testosterone fest using testosterone supplements as a vast array of co-stars, some old faces and some new ones. Sly’s band of merry men set out to kill as many people as possible without spilling an ounce of blood to achieve a PG-13 rating and make sure that this film stays “kid-friendly”, cause…’Merica! Read More →
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Michael’s Review: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Heroes in a (Not Half Bad) Shell!
Back in May of 2010, after hearing that the “Wrecker of Childhoods”, Michael Bay, aka Bayhem, was overseeing the reboot of the beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, the world collectively clenched their proverbial butt cheeks together and prayed for the news to be a cruel April Fool’s joke. In February of 2012, Joe Leibesman (Battle of Los Angeles) was chosen over Brett Ratner (Responsible for Every Horrible Movie EVER) in a battle of the low expectation / low reward directors! Oh man, the pulse of the world was reaching nuclear levels! This film was critically and publicly dismissed before frame one was filmed. Fast forward four years, the finished product has finally reached theaters and the critical pitchforks have sprouted like a GMO infused hemp seed. Surely this film will be the bile we’ve destined it to be! Surely when all is said and done we will have our retribution on Michael Bay for another childhood memory destroyed! But the result of watching the film has produced a different response altogether and I have to say….it was a response very much unexpected. I actually liked the film! Good Lord someone cleanse me from this dirty feeling! Read More →
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Michael’s Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Marvel’s Newest Team Makes A Grand Entrance
For nearly a decade, Marvel Studios has taken their comic book properties and turned them into blockbuster movies but never have they taken as much of a gamble as they have this week with the release of their newest team-up adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy. A story centered around a group of unlikely companions thrown together by chance and tasked with saving the galaxy for certain destruction; everything you want in a summer blockbuster but with a lot more heart than we have reason to expect. Simply put, Guardians of the Galaxy IS the savior of this summer movie season! Read More →
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Michael’s Review: ‘The Damned’ Don’t You Leave Your Kid in the Basement..They’ll git cha!
Peter Facinelli (The Twilight Saga) stars in this supernatural horror film directed by genre veteran, Víctor García. Written by Richard D’Ovidio (The Call), the story follows David Reynold (Facinelli), a man widowed from his Colombia-born wife, whose teenage daughter Jill (Nathalia Ramos) decides to spend her summer in Bogota with her aunt Gina (Carolina Guerra). After finding new love and deciding on marrying again, David flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Sophia Myles) to bring his daughter back to the states to attend his wedding.
After arriving and reuniting with his daughter, David finds that bringing his daughter home will be a little harder than he anticipated. Accompanied by Jill’s Colombian boyfriend Ramon (Sebastian Martínez), David and company travel to retrieve some of Jill’s belongings, but the group has a car accident in the mountains of Bogota which leaves them stranded. As the group search for shelter to ride out a torrential rain storm, they come across a rundown inn whose proprietor, Felipe (Gustavo Angarita), is a tad bit reluctant to take in the group of travelers. After Jill and Ramon discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement, they make a decision to set her free. But what they unleash is more than they could have possibly imagined. Read More →
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Michael’s Review: ‘Aftermath’- How Would You Spend Your Final Days?
What would you do if the country, as you know it, was thrown into chaos after a nuclear attack and how would you live out your remaining days? That’s the questions posed to us in this apocalyptic drama by director Peter Engert. Aftermath explores the results of a government-less United States after detonation and how general population would react during and after the blast. It’s a film not entirely too original, but one albeit that attempts to offer a more human dynamic than many previous incarnations of this horror subgenre. Read More →
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Michael’s Review: ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’- And the Apes Shall Inherit the Earth!
For all the summer blockbuster busts that 2014 has produced, it’s refreshing when a film like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is released. Set a decade after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn takes us further into the backstory of how the human race succumbed to the apes and ultimately lost the planet. Director Matt Reeves takes over the franchise and creates a smart, visually stunning, spectacle that revolves more around the apes as the central characters than the humans. Andy Serkis returns to the motion capture suit to again play the role of Caesar, the leader of the apes, whose history has lead him to both respect and fear the human race. Will Dawn be the smash hit Fox is hoping for and pave a fresh new path for further sequels in this storied franchise? Read More →
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