The Movie Paradise

It was a war at the box office this weekend (pun intended). Avengers: Infinity War opened, and we all knew it was going to be an absolutely massive film. Everyone and their mother going was going to go see it. The question wasn't wouldInfinity War be big; it was how big would it end up being? Tracking numbers put Infinity War in a very good spot to challenge the current record holder for the biggest domestic opening of all time, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. The record was $248 million, with projects showing Infinity War to make anywhere between $230-250 million. I wasn't positive if Infinity War would end up beating this number or not. I thought it had a very good shot at it, but $248 is a ridiculously high number. As much buzz as there was surrounding this movie, I just wasn't sure it could be a juggernaut of that level. I really like the movie a lot (you can read our spoiler-free review here), and I can see how it's a film that requires people to rush o…

Run Time: 2 hours, 29 minutes Rating: PG-13 Directed by: The Russo Brothers Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Josh Brolin 
Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). Captain America (Chris Evans). Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). Spider-Man (Tom Holland). Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). Vision (Paul Bettany). Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Falcon (Anthony Mackie). War Machine (Don Cheadle). The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). Wong (Benedict Wong). Star-Lord (Chris Pratt). Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Drax (Dave Bautista). Mantis (Pom Klementieff). Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper). Groot (Vin Diesel). Nebula (Karen Gillan). Thanos (Josh Brolin) is coming, and it's going to take all of these heroes (and more!) to take him and his Black Order down before he can retrieve all of the infinity stones and bring "balance" to the universe through mass genocide. This is a supersized movie to say the least, …

With Avengers: Infinity War opening in theaters this weekend, I thought it would be a good opportunity to put out another installment in my editorial series, "How I Rank". Here, I take something in the film world. It could be a director, an actor, a franchise, or anything really along those lines, and I rank the films within it based upon my personal preferences. Some of these rankings you may agree with, and some of them you may view differently. Please feel free to jump into the comments section to voice how you think these movies should be ranked. These aren't necessarily based on how objectively good the film is; it's all based on my own personal preferences, and how I would rank these movies based on my individual enjoyment of them. So take a look at the list I've crafted for how I would rank the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
#18 Thor: Ragnarok



This may be the point in this article where I lose people, but so be it! I recognize I am in the minority for thinking…

With every new weekend comes more new movies to go see in the theaters. The movie theater is easily the best place to see a film. As good as your setup may be at home, nothing will ever come close to the magic of the movie theater. And getting to go see a movie on a Friday or Saturday night after a long hard week is simply euphoric. Now, not every movie that opens in theaters is a winner. We've all been tricked by a film that we thought would be good and it ended up being horrible. On the flip side, we've also all avoided a movie that we thought looked bad but it ended up being really good. It's tricky to know exactly what to see and what not to see. So, in this new weekly series, I break down what new movies are opening in theaters, what the critics are saying about them, and I state whether or not I think they are worth seeing. On that note, let's look at what's opening this weekend. 
Avengers: Infinity War- 4,200 Theaters

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 87%
Directe…

**SPOILERS for A Quiet Place**
One of the best horror films in years is A Quiet Place, which took everyone by surprise when it debuted earlier this month. The John Krasinski-directed film opened to mass praise, with many hailing it as a new horror classic. I loved the movie, and it's one of my favorites of the year so far. What Krasinski accomplishes with the film is just staggering, from the narrative he crafts to the sophistication of the technical elements. It's just a fantastic movie, and everyone should go out and see it. You can read our full review here. If you did not see the warning above, I'll reiterate now: I will be getting into spoilers for A Quiet Place, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, stop reading here. The film leaves itself open for more story to tell. The final shot is Emily Blunt cocking her gun as several monsters head towards the house. By definition, the ending is left open. However, I never wanted a sequel. The story they told is everything…

Run Time: 1 hour, 41 minutes Rating: PG-13 Directed by: Wes Anderson Starring: Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton 
To be completely honest with you, I hadn't seen any Wes Anderson movies leading up to Isle of Dogs. So, in preparation, I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel and Fantastic Mr. Fox in order to get acclimated with his style. And I'm glad I did, because it certainly helped me appreciate Isle of Dogs more. The film looks at a futuristic Japan where, after a dog virus breaks out, Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) signs a law forcing infected dogs to be sent to a distant island to fend for themselves. There, we follow a pack of dogs led by Chief (Bryan Cranston) as they try to help a young boy named Atari (Koyu Rankin), who crash lands on the island, find his pet dog. Seeing Fantastic Mr. Fox beforehand (literally the night before) definitely helped, as it prepared me for Anderson's stop motion animation style. And I actually found myself liking Isle of Dogs eve…

Run Time: 1 hour, 47 minutes Rating: PG-13 Directed by: Brad Peyton Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan 
When three animals become supersized beasts, what do you do? You call Dwayne Johnson, the only other supersized beast who can stop them. Rampage is based off of an old-school arcade game, and it seems like a strange choice for a movie. What kind of story can you tell around a game that really only involves giant monsters fighting each other? But leave it to the powers at Hollywood to find a way to make it a big blockbuster motion picture in order to suck the money out of the audience's wallets. At least, that's how I saw Rampage going in. Nobody was asking for a Rampage movie. When you talk about the most desired video game movie adaptations, you hear names like The Last of Us or Uncharted, not necessarily Rampage. My hopes were never too high for this movie. I love the Rock, but he doesn't always make the best movies. For every surprise hit he …

Venom has been a roller coaster of expectations for me. When Sony first announced they were doing a Venom movie, I wasn't that interested. However, then they brought on a stellar cast including Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Woody Harrelson, and Jenny Slate. With that, my anticipation for Venom began to grow rapidly. It ended up becoming my fourth most anticipated movie of 2018, and I was expecting that the film would ultimately take everyone by surprise and be fantastic. But then the first trailer dropped, and I hated it. The entire trailer was building up to Venom, and there wasn't any Venom in it! I don't know how a Venom trailer without any Venom got past Sony and was put online, but that's what happened. After that trailer, my faith in the movie was majorly shaken. It's to the point where I think whether or not Venom will be any good is a coin toss. I've been looking forward to seeing a new trailer. Hopefully, Sony can get me back on board, and a…