The Movie Paradise

For pretty much the entire year, I have been hearing nonstop about how great The Big Sick is. It's been playing at festivals, garnering a lot of buzz and excitement. So I've been looking forward to seeing it for a while now. I've known who Kumail Nanjinani is, but I don't think I've actually ever really seen him in anything. And I was completely unaware of who Zoe Kazan was. What caught my eye about this film was the casting of Ray Romano and Holly Hunter as the parents. I've been a fan of Romano for a long time, but he hasn't really been in anything much recently other than the Ice Age films. So I was excited to see what he would do with a movie like this. And Hunter is a great actress, so I'm always excited to see her in things. Unless it involves "Granny's Peach Tea", that is. So the cast overall intrigued me, as did the story. This is the true story of how Kumail met his real-life wife, and I found that fascinating. So I walked into t…

Before Spider-Man: Homecoming hit theaters, my plan was to rewatch and review the first three Sam RaimiSpider-Man films. However, life got in the way, and I didn't get around to seeing them until after I had already seen and reviewed Homecoming. I really liked that film a lot, as it brought to screen a lot of character elements that weren't translated as well in Raimi's films. You can read our full review for Homecominghere. But there is still so much that Raimi nailed about the character, things that I think even Homecoming fell short of adapting properly. We live in an age now where Spider-Man can co-exist with the Avengers and the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I think it would be foolish to completely ride off Raimi's movies. I still think Spider-Man 2 is a better film than Homecoming, even if Homecoming is a better Spider-Man movie. I think watching these movies after seeing Homecoming really helps put these films in perspective, and allows me to look at t…

Anyone who has read this site for a while knows how big of a fan of Christopher Nolan I am. His movies are some of my favorites of all time. He is a masterful director, and I am always interested whenever he has a new movie coming out. In the spirit of Dunkirk, I ranked all of Nolan's films in order of my personal preference, which you can check out here. So I have been looking forward to seeing Dunkirk for a long time, ever since it was first announced as Nolan's next film. I have been saying for a while that, if Nolan is to cement himself as one of the all-time great directors, he needs to venture out of the comic book/science fiction genre. That is where he is comfortable, and he has made excellent movies there. But if he is to join the Mount Rushmore of great directors, alongside people like Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg, then he needs to be able to do something different. And Dunkirk presented itself as a perfect opportunity for Nolan to show what he can do, by d…

Most of my excitement thus far for It has come from the hype surrounding it. I never read the book, and I don't know much about the story, so the majority of my anticipation came from how excited everyone else was. The first trailer was good. It certainly did catch my attention. With horror movies, you have to be careful. Most of the horror films that come out nowadays are complete sh*t, but every once in a while one will slip through the cracks that is excellent. What I noticed from the first trailer was how well made it was. The direction by Andrés Muschietti stood out, along with the cinematography. So I knew we would be getting a film that was at least competently made. But I wasn't sold yet on the story or the scares. Yes, Stephen King's book is renowned as being absolutely terrifying, and there's some f*cked up sh*t in there (I looked it up, trust me), but that's not a guarantee that it will translate well into film. Just because it looked like the people be…

While Atomic Blonde hits theaters this weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to see it at an advanced screening a month ago. Ever since I saw it, I've been raving about it! It's an excellently made film, with outstanding directing, writing, editing, cinematography, score, coloring. The performances are excellent, with Charlize Theron (Lorraine Broughton) and James McAvoy (Perceval) being the stand-outs. I had my apprehensions about the film going into it, but they all dissipated once I saw the first shot appear on screen. It's an action-packed thrill ride, and builds real and tangible suspense. It certainly has one of the greatest action sequences of the year, but I won't spoil what that is for you. If you want to know more of my thoughts on the film, you can read our full, spoiler-free review here. Needless to say, Atomic Blonde is a fantastic action movie, and is one of my favorites of the year so far, and made an appearance on my list (which you can read here). An…

I've been interested in the prospect of a Captain Marvel film for a while now, mainly because of the casting of Brie Larson. She is such a tremendous actress, and I've been on board with her ever since she blew me away with her performance in Room. It was shortly after she won her Oscar for that film that Larson was confirmed to be playing Captain Marvel. Other than Larson's casting, I wasn't entirely invested in this film. I know very little about Captain Marvel from the comics, so my enthusiasm mainly came from Brie Larson's attachment. Regardless, I've been interested to learn more information about the project. I'm always intrigued by a new Marvel movie, and I will always give the studio the benefit of the doubt. But I was still looking for some story elements or some details that would actually get me excited for this film. We still have a couple years until it hits theaters; it doesn't come out until March of 2019. But we've known it will be …

While everyone's focus going into Marvel's Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic Con this weekend was on Thor: Ragnarok (you can see the new trailer here), Black Panther, and Avengers: Infinity War, expectations for Ant-Man and the Wasp news seemed to be low. Even though the film comes out right after Infinity War, just a year away from now, it is still relatively under the radar. I rather enjoyed the first Ant-Man. I didn't think it was a fantastic movie, but it was certainly better than it could've been. Marvel did an excellent job of taking a character who could have come across as utterly ridiculous, and spinning him in a way so that you can buy into his character. They made light of some of the more campy elements of the character, which is the complete opposite approach DC took to reinventing Aquaman, which was to simply make him the antithesis of what people had come to understand the character to be. Casting Paul Rudd was a stroke of genius. It allowed for so…

Prior to the release of this trailer at San Diego Comic Con, I had no real expectations for Ready Player One. I had heard the book it's based off of is really good, but that's not really enough to garner true enthusiasm for me. Most of my interest in this film came from the single fact that Steven Spielberg was directing. He is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and anytime he is doing a new movie, you immediately have my attention. So I was certainly aware of Ready Player One, but it wasn't a movie that was exactly on my radar. When I heard they would be doing a Comic Con presentation for the film, I didn't think much about it. It didn't even occur to me that they would show a trailer. Even if the thought had crossed my mind, I wouldn't have exactly cared. If the movie had come out a day before this trailer was released, I wouldn't have exactly cared to go see it. But now my tune has changed. Warner Bros. released the first trailer for Ready Play…