The Movie Paradise

The revitalization of the Planet of the Apes franchise has really been fantastic. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was absolutely phenomenal-- a heartbreaking, emotional saga that honestly should have seen Andy Serkis earn an Oscar nomination. While I didn't like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as much as I liked Rise, it was still a great movie that built upon the story. So naturally, I've been really excited to see the third installment. Awhile back, we learned that the title of the film would be War for the Planet of the Apes, which was exciting in of itself. We then learned that Woody Harrelson would be joining the film as the antagonist, which was also nice to hear. But other than that, we have heard nothing about this movie. A couple days ago, director Matt Reeves revealed that the film would be attending New York Comic Con, and it would debut its first footage there. But ahead of its NYCC appearance, the official synopsis for the film has dropped.
You can read the synopsi…

While Blair Witch didn't turn out to be the revolutionary horror movie everyone hoped it was going to be, it wasn't a bad sequel. It may have copied the original plot point for plot point, but it also tried to expand on the mythology. And this was the best part of the film, in my opinion. You can read our full review of the movie here. Before I go any further, I am just going to warn you that there are spoilers for Blair Witch in this article. So if you have yet to watch the movie, go see it and then come back to this article later.
***Spoilers Ahead***
So when Lisa (Callie Hernandez) is in the house at the end of the film, we see a few flashing seconds of a white figure in the background that was scary as sh*t! I jumped in my seat when we saw it at first. It was creepy as hell. And everyone coming out of the movie unanimously believed this to be the Witch. I didn't think there was any doubt. And while we didn't see much of it, what we did see was terrifying, and I was…

Denzel Washington is a fantastic actor. In everything he does these days, he gives a hundred percent. He just starred in The Magnificent Seven this past weekend (you can read our review of it here), and he was great in it. Washington knows when just to be fun and to be a badass, and when to bring the power and the emotion, and it looks like that's what we're getting with his next film, Fences. It's the film adaptation of a play of the same name that Washington and Viola Davis both starred in on stage, and now they are bringing it to the big screen, with Washington directing. I hadn't really heard about this movie, until I saw that the trailer had been released online. And upon finding out all the backstory I relayed above, I was eager to see this trailer.
I loved this trailer! I think there's something quite special about adapting plays into films, because there's such a simplicity to plays... it just works really well on screen. Washington and Davis both look …

The Magnificent Seven has been one of my most anticipated films of the year, and definitely my most anticipated of the fall. I have loved the trailers. From the style to the action-- it's all looked fantastic. Plus, you have talent like Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Antoine Fuqua behind the camera. It was a recipe for a damn good batch of cookies. So I had very high expectations for this film. I walked in wanting to love it, and wanting it to be one of my favorites of the year. And maybe my expectations were ultimately too high. Don't get me wrong, I really liked this film, but I just didn't love it the way I thought I was going to. The Magnificent Seven is a very engaging and thrilling film, even if it doesn't reach the heights I had wanted it to.
After the evil Bartholomew Bogue (Alexander Sarsgard) takes over a small town, recently widowed Emma (Haley Bennett) enlists the help of bounty hunter Chisolm (Denzel Washington) in …

Jon Favreau undoubtedly did a brilliant job in bringing The Jungle Book to life. From the voice casting to the impeccable CGI effects, Favreau did a masterful job in making the whole thing come together, and tell a compelling and engaging story. So it wasn't a huge shock when he was confirmed to do a sequel shortly after. But after seeing The Jungle Book, one of my immediate thoughts was that I now wanted to see a re-imagining of The Lion King. After seeing what they could do in making CGI photo-realistic, I wanted to see how they could apply that to the world of The Lion King. It's one of the best animated films to date, but there is something truly special you could do in re-inventing it in a "live-action" format. Well, Disney must have overhead me, because now The Lion King is officially in the works, with Favreau at the helm. 
I think the most fascinating part of this news is Favreau's involvement. At first, when I read it, I thought he was simply a producer,…

On Saturday, September 24th, actor Bill Nunn passed away at the age of 62, after a long battle with cancer. The actor was most well known for his turn as Robbie Robertson in the Spider-Man trilogy, and as Radio Raheem in Do The Right Thing. 
I haven't seen many of the films Nunn has been in, but I thought his passing was an important one to address. First of all, he was great in Spider-Man. Robbie Robertson is a character that has a lot of depth and development in the comics. Although it was disappointing to see the movies not take the character in that direction, Nunn did a fantastic job bringing the character to life. They captured the back and forth between him and J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) perfectly. But, in my opinion, more importantly, Nunn played a truly iconic role in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. The film itself was important for its time, and it is still, sadly, incredibly relevant today. Maybe even more so than back in 1989, when the movie was released. Whi…

The Light Between Oceans is a film I've had mixed feelings about for a while. On one hand, it looked and felt a lot like a sh*tty Nicholas Sparks film. From the touching heads-style poster to the failed soap opera-type title, it just reeked of Sparks stink. However, it stars Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, who are two of the best names in the industry right now. In the recent months, I've actually been really excited for this movie. I mean, it is Fassbender and Vikander! This could be the unofficial kick-off to the Oscar season, and I for one was excited for it to start. But once the film hit theaters, I began to hear mixed things. The critic's score on Rotten Tomatoes was very much in the middle. A favorite reviewer of mine absolutely detested the film, while my good friend absolutely loved it. So I went in not sure exactly what I was going to think. Well, I think "mixed" is the word of the day, because that's exactly how I felt walking out of the th…

John Wick is a movie that I missed in theaters, and I wholeheartedly regretted it once I finally saw the film. It's a kickass movie that proves to be the return of Keanu Reeves. He may not be the best actor overall, but he is an incredible action star. The Matrix is my favorite movie of all time, and he was absolutely brilliant in that film. And John Wick proved to be a throwback to those kinds of films. It was slick, smart and brutal. So since I saw the first one, I've been really looking forward to seeing the sequel. We've known that another one is coming, but we haven't heard many details about the plot, actors or when it will be coming out. All we've heard is that it will be in 2017 at some point. However, now we have our first look at the movie, along with an official release date.
The first poster for John Wick: Chapter Two has been released, which also confirms the release date to be February 10th, 2017. You can view the poster below:

I like this poster. It&…

Snowden is a movie I've been looking forward to for a while now. It was supposed to be released last year, but was pushed back into 2016. I had hopes that it was because they thought they had better Oscar chances with it being released in this year rather than last year, but it also could have moved because the studio wasn't confident in the film. I was hoping for the former. I really like Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an actor, and from the pictures and videos I had seen of the real Edward Snowden prior to the movie, it looked like Gordon-Levitt was perfect casting. Plus, I like Oliver Stone's movies. He knows how to tell intricate and complex stories, even if he does inject a lot of his own political biases into them. But he seemed like a good fit to tell this story. So all in all, I was really excited to see Snowden, but the recent release of the Rotten Tomatoes critics scores lowered my expectations by a lot. People weren't liking it, so I went in expecting it to be medi…

Passengers is a movie I've been fascinated with ever since I initially heard about it. First of all, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are two of the biggest and most popular names in the industry today. Lawrence has already proven herself to be one of the most talented actresses working today, but Pratt has yet to truly prove his acting chops. He's an awesome guy, and I love him in Parks and Recreation, Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, but he has yet to show on screen that he can be more than an action star or the funny dumb guy. I've been waiting for him to show his dramatic ability, and this seems like a project where he could really surprise us. Plus, the film is directed by Morten Tyldum, who did a brilliant job with last year's The Imitation Game. So with all of these factors combined, I've been really excited for this film. And now we finally have our first trailer.
I liked it a lot. It didn't necessarily blow me away, but it was a good first …

We've known for a while now that J.K. Simmons would be playing Commissioner Gordon in the DC Cinematic Universe. We've also known that he would have a very brief role in Justice League, but would have a much more substantial role in the Batman solo film. I love Simmons as an actor, but I've never really seen him as Gordon. Maybe it's because I loved Gary Oldman in the role so much in The Dark Knight Trilogy, and the fact that I attribute Simmons to J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man, but I've never really been able to picture him as Commissioner Gordon. I've had faith, though, that it would work, but I've wanted to see an image of him in costume so that I could be sold on the fit. However, we have yet to get a picture of Simmons as Gordon, until now.
To celebrate Batman Day this past Saturday, Justice League director Zack Snyder dropped a noir-heavy wide shot of Simmons' Gordon standing next to the Batsignal. You can view the original image below, along wi…

Blair Witch is a movie I've been really looking forward to the past couple months. Up until San Diego Comic Con this year, it was known as The Woods, and had no connection to The Blair Witch Project. Then, at Comic Con, they screened the film and revealed its true nature as a sequel to Project. Coming out of that screening, critics were raving about just how good this movie was. So, as a fan of the original, of course I was excited to see this film. And this has also been a really good year for horror movies. I'm not usually a fan of the genre, but 2016 has had some especially good ones, including The Conjuring 2, Lights Out and Don't Breathe. So with all of this combined, I was expecting a great movie. But with the recent update on the Rotten Tomatoes, its score has dropped considerably, along with my expectations. But in hindsight, lowering my expectations was a good thing. Blair Witch is definitely better than its critics score, but is not nearly as good as initial revi…

Jessica Chastain is an actress who just gets better and better with every film she does. I didn't see Huntsman: Winter's War, so I can't comment on her acting chops in that movie, but from everything I've seen her in, she's been excellent. So when I heard there was a political thriller coming out around Oscar time starring Chastain, I immediately became very excited. She's been nominated for two Oscars already, and she has many more nominations ahead of her. But from the sounds of it, this movie has all the makings to be a major Oscar contender, and a chance for Chastain to add another nomination under her belt. So, needless to say, I was excited to see that a trailer for Miss Sloane had dropped online.
I actually really liked this trailer. Chastain proves her character to be a very formidable and intimidating person, and she looked fantastic in the role. The issue of gun control is something that is a hot topic in our country today, and it's impressive to …

Stan Lee is probably my biggest childhood hero. It goes back to a surprisingly mature ability in my childhood to distinguish the man from the art. As a kid, I loved Spider-Man. He was my favorite superhero, and was huge in my development as a person. But I loved Stan Lee more, because I recognized him as the creator and writer for Spider-Man. I even mailed him a fan letter when I was six. Of course, he never wrote back, but it's interesting for me to look back and I realized I was more caught up in the man behind the curtain than Oz itself. Stan Lee even came to a comic con near me last year. I desperately wanted to get his autograph, but they were $80, and I was going through a bit of a rough patch financially, and I didn't know if I wanted to dish out that amount of money. I ended up not doing it, and I really regret it. I say all of this to give you a thorough understanding of how much Stan Lee means to me, in light of this recent news.
It has been announced that Fox has go…

Zack Snyder has gotten a lot of hate for his turn at directing Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. While the film itself was overly disappointing, Snyder is definitely not deserving of the level of hate he received. But hopefully, some good can come out of this situation. When Dawn of Justice was released, Snyder was in the final stages of pre-production of Justice League. And if the set visits from a few months ago told us anything (you can read about them here), Snyder listened to the fans outcries. Snyder has maintained that he has listened to the complaints, and is working to fix those mistakes in Justice League, which is an extremely reassuring thing to hear. But a more interesting aspect of the set visits was the reports of Batman (Ben Affleck)'s many different suits and technology that would be shown in the film. There were upgrades to the Batmobile, new vehicles such as the Flying Fox and the Nightcrawler, as well as changes to his Batsuit.
Just today, Snyder dropped a ne…

Sully is a movie I was really looking forward to seeing. I remember hearing on the news the story of the miracle on the Hudson when it happened, and I was blown away by just how incredible of a tale it really was. It's a story about true heroism, and was definitely ripe for a cinematic telling. And who's better to portray this on the big screen than Tom Hanks? He is undoubtedly one of the best actors working today. He brings an excellence to every role he has, and he is truly one of my favorites. And I think Clint Eastwood is a great director. I loved his work on American Sniper last year. Not only was it a really good overall movie, but I thought the direction of the film especially shined. So hearing that Hanks and Eastwood would be teaming up to tell this story really caught my interest. They were the right team to bring this to the big screen. So I went into Sully with high expectations, and it didn't necessarily meet them. Sully is a really good movie. However, it doe…

**Warning: Contains Violence and Strong Language**
I saw the first trailer for Free Fire a while back, and I didn't necessarily know what to think of it. The idea of a movie centered around a gunfight sounded really interesting. It sounded a lot like a Quentin Tarantino movie, although he has nothing to do with the production. I really like all the cast members in the film: Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer and Sharlto Copley are all fantastic actors. But my big hesitation was that I didn't think the story could sustain an entire movie. Could a gunfight really last an hour and a half, and be compelling and entertaining all the way through? That was my main concern with the film, and honestly, I had completely forgot about the movie until I saw that a new redband trailer had dropped. My one real hope was that this trailer would show me why this premise warrants an entire film, and that there will in fact be enough meat to it to hold my interest for the entire time I'…