Silver Linings Playbook movie review.

In 2010, director David O. Russell ended his six year absence, and returned to the big screen with his knock-out hit (No pun intended) The Fighter, which managed a grand total of seven Oscar nominations, including wins for actors Christian Bale and Melissa Leo. Flash forward two years later, and his next movie is up for a whopping eight nominations, also setting a record as one of the only movies to ever have nominations in all four acting categories. That movie is Silver Linings Playbook. I’ve been anticipating this one for months, ever since it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Let me just say it didn’t disappoint. I’ve established before that I think Zero Dark Thirty is the best film of 2012, but if I had to pick a second favorite, this would be it.

Zero Dark Thirty movie review.

It’s been three years since Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to ever win a Best Director Oscar for 2009’s much acclaimed The Hurt Locker. While I really liked that film, I was never a huge fan of it. I preferred Inglourious Basterds and Avatar, so sue me. So when it was announced that Zero Dark Thirty would be her follow up, I wasn’t too excited... up until these last few months, where I was suddenly becoming hyped for it. Not only did it meet my expectations, it exceeded them. It’s taken me almost a year of searching and about seventy movies to get to this point. Unless I find a movie from the very few I have left to see that overtakes this one, we’re probably looking at the very best 2012 has to offer.

Les Miserables movie review.

The time is nigh! It’s been a long journey to the silver screen for Les Miserables. 27 years ago, the stage musical began running performances in London and Broadway to significant acclaim and massive staying power. Written by Claude Michel-Schonberg, Alain Boublil, and Herbert Kretzmer, and based on Victor Hugo’s classic novel (a book that’s literally longer than the Bible), it is often considered to be the greatest musical of all time. You can see why adapting it to the screen would be a challenge of unheard expectations. Following up his Oscar win for The King’s Speech, director Tom Hooper was who would eventually lead it there. Assembling together a talented eclectic cast, Les Mis would either rally others to its crusade, or leave them singing the song of angry men. In many ways, it’s considerably much different from the stage show itself, but is it for worse or for better? Well, why don't we take a look and find out?

Django Unchained movie review.

Equally loved and hated for his indulgent stylistics, Quentin Tarantino is the proper definition of an auteur. Often regarded for classics like Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, and Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino specializes in a unique visual identity, and his signature long conversations that showcase his writing. I can only speak for myself, but no one writes dialogue better than he does. After flirting with spaghetti western undertones in Basterds, it seemed only obvious that his next would be a full on, gritty western. However, the question still remained: Would it translate well to the screen? Let’s put it this way. If you’re not a fan of his style, this won’t change your mind. If you are a fan, you’ll probably have a blast with Django Unchained.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movie review.

It’s been nine years since Peter Jackson ended his epic retelling of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga, which in its lifetime garnered billions of dollars in worldwide gross, and won a combined total of 17 Academy Awards, including Best Picture for Return of the King. The whole trilogy is a collective success that is one of the few cinematic achievements that I would ever consider as perfect. Flash forward to the present day, and we now take a trip back to Middle Earth with The Hobbit, the prequel to the trilogy. Originally slated to be split into two sections and directed by Guillermo Del Toro, Jackson later took the helm, and decided to split the book into a trilogy like that of The Lord of the Rings. While this may sound quite excessive, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey mostly justifies the viewing experience. Mostly...

Rust & Bone movie review.

I've already noted several times before how much I was antipating this movie, so I won't bore anyone with the details. I'll just get down to why I thought this movie was so great, which it is. It's Jacques Audiard's follow up to the excellent A Prophet from 2009. It's a love story that centers on the lives of a killer whale trainer who has lost both of her legs in an accident, and a man who helps her, a man living with his sister while he tries to raise his son.

Flight movie review.

Robert Zemeckis has got to have one of the oddest careers in Hollywood. Known for his much respected live action films like Forrest Gump and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, he's spent the last twelve years specializing in films entirely made through motion capture. He makes his return to live action with Flight, a movie that centers on an airplane pilot under investigation after a drastic plane accident, where he saved the lives of 96 people on board, but was discovered to have alcohol in his system at the time of the flight. This guy's got to be the best drunk driver ever...

Cloud Atlas movie review.

Just one of several reviews I plan on posting today. Finishing up the rest of my must watch list is coming along well, and I should feel confidant in locking up the year eventually. It's strange that it all flew by so quickly, but a new year has begun, and I look forward to what's ahead. I hope you'll continue to tune in regularly this year.

I confess that I was never the biggest fan of Andy or Lana Wachowski, best known for their genre smash hit The Matrix, perhaps the only film they'd ever directed that I actually like. However, what they cook up along with co-director Tom Tykwer is a beautiful mystery of a movie that I'm confidant will be talked about many years from now. There is no one definitive story to Cloud Atlas (Based on the 2004 novel of the same name), instead, it's a collection of stories set in different timelines ranging from 1849 to 106 years after apocalyptic events, utilizing an all star cast to wonderful effect.