12 Years A Slave has been one of the year’s most anticipated movies for cinephiles because of its high profile cast, new take on a familiar subject matter, and Steve McQueen’s first film following his critical hit and cult breakout “Shame”. The movie looks to present American slavery in a new light by telling the…
Category: Film Reviews – Written
An archive of my film reviews across all publications.
Captain Phillips Review
Director Paul Greengrass has built a name for himself in the last decade with his action hits in the Bourne franchise as well as his ventures into documentary style drama with United 93. Captain Phillips looks to retell a true story about a captain whose ship was attacked by Somali pirates. It may look like…
Rush Review
It’s been a few years since director Ron Howard has delivered a truly memorable movie to the big screen, but Rush looks like a return to the genre that made him the Oscar caliber director of legends. Like “Apollo 13” and “A Beautiful Mind” that came before it, Rush is looking to deliver a heightened form of…
Playing Catch-Up: Summer 2013 Micro-reviews
We’ve hit the end of August which means that the summer blockbuster season is finally coming to an end. It has been a summer filled with blockbusters upon blockbusters upon flops and explostions. In an upcoming post, I’m going to give a report card to the 2013 summer blockbuster season that starts in May and…
Kick-Ass 2 Review
“I try to have fun. Otherwise, what’s the point?” -Colonel Stars and Stripes What would happen if the every day comic book nerd tried to be a superhero? We’re not talking Watchmen realism, the down and dirty Punisher realism, or even the Christopher Nolan Batman realism; we’re asking what would happen in our world? This…
Elysium Review
Neill Blomkamp is still a bit of a rookie in the film industry despite delivering 2009’s smash hit “District 9”. Now that it has been a few years and he’s parted ways with his big time collaborator Peter Jackson, Blomkamp is carving out his own path in Hollywood by making another piece of original sci-fi in…
RED 2 Review
In 2010 RED was a nice little surprise that seemingly came out of nowhere. The movie had an exciting cast, some really innovative bits of fun action, and a some really enjoyable writing. The movie was so successful that despite there not being additional source material to adapt, Summit and DC entertainment decided to pursue…
Pacific Rim Review
“Today at the edge of our hope, at the end of our time. We have chosen to believe in each other! Today we face the monsters that are at our door, today we are cancelling the apocalypse!” -Stacker Pentecost In 2007 mainstream audiences were given their first major exposure to the nerdtastic concept of giant…
Despicable Me 2 Review
“Gru’s back in the game with cool cars… gadgets… and weapons!” -Gru Despicable Me was one of the biggest surprises out of Universal in 2010 with its heartfelt story,clever twist on portraying an anti-hero, and army of unpredictably amusing minions. The first film may have lacked depth, but it certainly didn’t miss a beat when…
White House Down Review
Director Roland Emmerich hasn’t been satisfied with destroying the White House, New York, or even the entire world(twice!). Now that he’s finally run out of new toys to play with , he’s running right back old ones with his latest movie White House Down. Emmerich may be turning down(no pun intended) his scope a few notches, but…
Caleb Masters 