I Still Believe in Heroes

             In May of 2017, Universal Pictures announced that the Tom Cruise led The Mummy reboot would be the beginning of its own cinematic universe known as the Dark Universe. This cinematic universe would see Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man, Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s monster and Angelina Jolie was long rumored to join as the monster’s bride. Those of us who love the Universal classic monster films were thrilled by this announcement. To bring such incredible talent to our beloved monster films was a sign of great things, because why would they sign on if the material was anything less than amazing? Two weeks after this announcement, The Mummy was released and it became apparent almost immediately that this new film was both the beginning and the end for the Dark Universe. 2017’s The Mummy reboot is the latest attempt to bring back the classic Universal monsters, but not the only one. In 2014, Lu...

It has been five years since Guillermo del Toro’s original hit theaters, but Pacific Rim is finally back. Pacific Rim: Uprising is directed by Steven S. DeKnight, the man behind Marvel’s Daredevil series, and stars John Boyega as Jake Pentecost. Joining Boyega are fellow newcomers Scott Eastwood as Nate Lambert and Cailee Spaeny as Amara Namani. Burn Gorman, Charlie Day and Rinko Kikuchi return to reprise their roles from the original film. If you’ve never seen the original, don’t worry, Pacific Rim: Uprising does a well-enough job at filling the audience in on the events leading up to this film. Uprising picks up 10 years after the events of the original and it sets up a world that is still rebuilding after the devastating events from the war against the Kaiju. The film wastes no time in introducing the troublemaking Jake, son of fallen hero Stacker Pentecost. After running into trouble with the law, Jake is forced to train a new generation of Jaeger pilots in order...

The official nominations for the 2018 Academy Awards are here. As is the case every year, there were some surprises along the way. Below are the nominations for each category along with my biggest takeaways. BEST PICTURE Call Me by Your Name Darkest Hour Dunkirk Get Out Lady Bird Phantom Thread The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Biggest Takeaways: I was really rooting for Phantom Thread  but I doubted its chances to get in. It ended up doing much better than I thought it would and that makes me very happy. Get Out becomes just the third horror film ever to be nominated for Best Picture, following in the footsteps of The Exorcist (1973) and The Silence of the Lambs  (1991).  I really hoped that either Logan or Wonder Woman would maybe sneak in, but figured they wouldn't. Finally, I really wish Coco  would have been nominated for Best Picture because it honestly deserved it. BEST DIRECTOR Christopher Nolan - ...

On Sunday, January 7th the 2018 Golden Globes will be taking place. Below are my predictions. Please note that I will only be making predictions for the film side of things. BEST MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA Call Me by Your Name Dunkirk The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Should win: Call Me by Your Name Will win: The Shape of Water While I think Call Me by Your Name has a legitimate shot at winning, it's hard to ignore the amount of love and hype behind The Shape of Water .  BEST MOTION PICTURE - MUSICAL OR COMEDY The Disaster Artist Get Out The Greatest Showman I, Tonya Lady Bird Should win: Get Out Will win: Get Out Look, there is absolutely no reason why Get Out should be nominated in this category since it is neither a comedy nor a musical, but here we are now. While I wouldn't argue with anyone who thinks Lady Bird will win, I think that Get Ou t 's social relevance will g...

2017 has been a ridiculously good year for film. The amount of legitimately great movies we got is outstanding, but it also made this list extremely difficult to make. There are so many films I genuinely thought deserved to be on my list and having to pick which ones were going to be left out was harder than I thought it would be. I would like to point out that these films are on my list because of how they made me feel, and not necessarily just because of how well-made they are. So, without further ado, here are my top 15 best films of 2017! Honorable Mentions: The Shape of Water, The Disaster Artist, The Babysitter, Gerald's Game, Battle of the Sexes, I Tonya, Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. 15. Wonder Woman, dir. Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman  has to be looked at as one of the most important superhero films we've ever had. It came out in a year where the female voice was louder and clearer than it has ever been. There has never been a female-led supe...

"Oh, what's the use? Walter, you wouldn't know what it means to want to be respectable and live a halfway normal life." Hildy Johnson - His Girl Friday           When His Girl Friday  came out, way back in 1940, society was in a place where women were still not fully integrated into the work force. For the most part, women worked in clerical or sales work and they were often faced with hostility from many of the men that worked with them. Women working in journalism was a rare thing, and that is where this film takes place.           There are many things that make this a great film, but one of the things that I admire the most about it is how ahead of its time it was. It wasn't just the fact of placing Hildy (Rosalind Russell) in a male-dominated work environment, it was the fact that Hildy was a character who was respected and admired by her male peers. There are multiple comments throughout the film from the male repor...

 1. Pixar's Coco I can't overstate how much this film meant to me. To finally be able to see my culture being represented on the big screen in an accurate and loving way was overwhelming in the best way possible. I've seen this film twice now and both times I was overcome with a sense of pride at seeing a film being able to perfectly capture the essence of Mexican culture. Every single aspect of this film, from the behaviors to the music, was treated with dignity and respect. I didn't realize how much this film would affect me, but I'm thankful that Coco was made and that it is getting the amount of love that it is. In my eyes, this is the best Pixar film ever made. 2. Horror is Killing it This Year Horror has always been my favorite genre in film and to see how hugely successful horror movies were this year has been awesome. Films like It and Get Out made huge amounts of money, but more importantly, they were excellent films that people wanted to see over a...

Movies have been a part of my life for as long as I remember. As I have gotten older, I have realized that I love cinema and I wish to be involved with it in any way possible. I see cinema as a way to escape reality and be in a world outside of our own. I love analyzing film and trying to figure what any particular shot in a movie meant or what it was supposed to show. Movies have a way of affecting certain people in certain ways and that's what this list is about. The following list is NOT what I consider to be the greatest films of all time. They are simply the films that have impacted my life significantly. This list might contain minor spoilers/plot points but I will do my best to keep that to a minimum. I hope you guys enjoy this list and I encourage you to watch any of the films on here that you may not have already seen before. This list is not in any particular order. 1.  Hercules  (1997) Disney's Hercules  is one of those movies that I wish people would ...