The Music Video For Taylor Swifts Bad Blood Goes Big On Spectacle And Nonsense

The Good, The Bad And The Swift

Being a huge fan of Taylor Swift, you can imagine my excitement over her debuting the music video for her new single, Bad Bloods. My anticipation was likely heightened due to how much I enjoy the song itself; every time it popped up on my iTunes Radio Top 50 Pop station, I couldn't help but get giddy and/or dance. It's a shame then that this music video is just so incoherent. I mean, what the hell just happened here?

Unfriended Review

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

You know what's a fun game? Watching movies that aren't even that old (in some cases, as little as six years later) and noticing the outdated technology characters carry around. I first noticed this in Mars Attacks!, when Sarah Jessica Parker is eating breakfast, when she suddenly gets an important call on her massive cell phone. It's relic of another age, but instead of reducing the entirety of the feature to being an outdated piece of entertainment, seeing this kind of tech more often than not just comes off as charming to me.

Melancholia Review (Classic Write-Up)

When The Stars Align

Well, this is gonna be tricky. That was my first thought when I set myself on the task to review Lars Von Triers 2011 feature Melancholia. This is an unorthodox film that mixes a humongous event (the end of the human race) with a minuscule scope, setting its sights on two sisters as the vessel to tell the tale of humanities final days. To put in terms so simple they feel sorta insulting for a movie of this complexity: some of it works, some of it doesn't, but at least it all, in some shape or form, leaves an impression on you.

It Follows Review

Fearful Following Frightens

It was interesting leaving my screening of It Follows, as I heard the other audience members murmur to each other their thoughts on the film, which ran quite contrary to mine. "I could film a better movie in my garage!" "What terrible acting!" "Nothing even happened!" It was pity to hear that, as I was sorry to hear these viewers had not enjoyed the movie like I had. As they say, one mans trash is another mans treasure, or in this case, the slower pace they found to be excruciating was something I found to be exhilarating.

Daredevil Episodes 1+2 Review

Dare To Go Beyond Expectations

It's kind of fitting that Marvel Studios and Netflix have come together for a television program, considering how they're two entertainment companies changing the face of entertainment today. Both had plans that sounded crazy when they first started; creating a shared universe across multiple films and a streaming service dedicated to original film and television content may seem commonplace today, but they most surely were not even five years ago.

The Divergent Series: Insurgent Review

To Live And Divergent In LA

In the year since Divergent was released, so much has changed for the cast. Shailiene Woodley (along with Divergent co-star Ansel Elgort) dazzle in The Fault In Our Stars, Miles Teller starred in one of the best movies of the past few years, Whiplash, and Theo James did.....uh, I think he signed on to star in a reboot of the Underworld movies. Simply put, these guys have done some great work since the first Divergent film, which makes seeing them return to this franchise disappointing, especially considering how lackluster it is.

Frozen Fever Review

Frozen Fever is a short film playing only on Cinderella in it's theatrical release. I originally was just going to write a paragraph about this short, but decided I had more than enough thoughts over it to warrant a separate review.

Disney's two animation studios (Walt Disney Animation Studios and PIXAR) have been using short films as a way to continue the adventures of some of their most beloved films, like Tangled and Toy Story, for a while now, but Frozen Fever may be the most hyped of these shorts. It's been prominently pumped up in ads for Cinderella, and why not? Frozen is the fifth biggest movie of all-time, it's not exactly a shocker that Disney thinks audiences might have an appetite for more adventures with Elsa and Anna.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Review

Heartwarming Hotel

There's no shortage of extremely pleasing scenery in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is to be expected considering the majority of the film (aside from an opening scene involving two characters in America) takes place in a location in India meant to be a serene place for those in their elderly years to spend their remaining days. Those older residents are played by a number of well known actors, such as Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith, who help make this two hours of one's life that you won't fall in love with or even be that entertained by, but I also doubt anyone could really find this movie to be that painful of an experience.

Unfinished Business Review

How to Not Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

Well Vince Vaughn, here you are again. After starring in two big duds in 2013 (namely, The Delivery Man, one of the worst films of that year), you've returned to movie theaters...for some reason. His newest feature, Unfinished Business, has no problem continuing his streak for creating low-quality comedic films, despite a cast full of well known and talented names that could have brought the laughs in another, more competently produced film. 

Chappie Review

I (Didn't Care For This), Robot

My gut instinct is to say that Chappie goes off the rails, but that would imply the film was on the rails in the first place. Here is the kind of bad film that isn't just low on quality, but constantly left me gobsmacked at the poor decisions every aspect of it's production made. The newest film from director Neil Blomkamp is a cataclysmic and unfocused disaster that's I do feel comfortable dubbing memorable, albeit for all the wrong reasons.

Some Like It Hot Review (Classic Write-Up)

Starting with the opening sequence of Some Like It Hot, the film has a palpable sense of assuredness, with no dialogue being used in a car chase scene that utilizes escalation excellently in order to establish the movies primary antagonists and their menacing nature. That assuredness continues throughout the rest of the film, whether it's tackling the backstories of it's characters or the way the film embraces it farcical sensibilities.

Focus Review

The Con, The Chef, The Wife And His Lover

There's a lot of money stolen, exchanged and gambled in Focus, a con artist feature that's kind of a drama, sort of a comedy at times, and mostly functional without ever being memorable. I doubt anyone will get bored by it, but I also doubt you'll be quoting it weeks later or contemplating the more intricate aspects of it's performances. It's the kind of movie that's born to be sold for five dollars at your local Kroger, but that doesn't mean Focus is without it's distinctive charms.

Blade Runner Review (Classic Write-Up)

The most notable visual aspects of film noir are some of the more distinctive ever put to cinema, and it's quite a treat to such unique attributes put into the sci-fi realm of Blade Runner, a 1982 film that constantly surprised me in it's innovation. It uses those aforementioned tropes of film noir to create a future, set in 2019. overwhelmed with uncertainty (and rain, there's lots and lots of rain here).

Still Alice Review

Still Struggling

Family life is very rarely idyllic paradise. There's always some kind of fraught conflict existing between spouses, siblings, parents and their offspring that can range from the mundane to the cataclysmic. Having a mother diagnosed with a familial form of Alzheimer's is obviously the kind of development that can change a families entire outlook on life, and as for the mother, her life will never be the same. 

Up In The Air Review (Classic Write-Up)

An Air-Raising Adventure

I've always liked George Clooney, but watching Up In The Air for the first time this evening allowed me a chance to realize what exactly makes me gravitate towards the guy. Here's a shocking twist: Clooney has charm, charisma, good looks, a dapper personality and a persona that exudes confidence. But he uses those aspects of his personalities in his films not in roles covered in poorly executed storytelling tropes, but to uncover the vulnerabilities of the characters he portrays, and that's never more true than in this 2009 Jason Reitman feature.

The Rock Review (Classic Write-Up)

Rock N' Roll All Night

Watching The Rock is like stepping into some kind of super warped time machine, one that takes it's viewer into the wonderful world of 1996. Here is an age where Michael Bay was a promising director coming off the previous years hit Bad Boys, and was making easily his most audacious project yet; The Rock, an action feature that has Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery teaming up to take down Ed Harris, who has taken the entire facility of Alcatraz (it's also referred to as, cue dramatic music, THE ROCK) hostage. Oh, and did I mention the villain has numerous deadly bombs with him?

The Graduate Review (Classic Write-Up)

A Graduate Of Great Directing

Who doesn't worry about the future? It's such a chaotic element, as unpredictable as a hurricane, it's only natural to be worried about the possibilities that the future could bring. Now that he's graduated from college, Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), is consumed by worrying about what he'll do with his life now. From the first frames of the film, this sort of internal conflict is apparent through the recurring use of close-up shots of Ben's face that emphasize his inner turmoil as well as the similarly prominent use of Art & Garfunkel's The Sound Of Silence.

Her Review

What? Is She Funny Or Something?

Some people spent last night going to parties, or going on dates, but me? I was the coolest dude on the planet, because I spent the evening alone watching the best movie of 2013: Her. Rewatching the film for the first time since it's theatrical release only reaffirmed my praise for this modern masterpiece, which is one of the best artistic depictions of the deeper intricacies of love and human connection ever brought to life.

Kingsman: The Secret Service Review

On His Kingman's Secret Service

There's a self-referential streak in Kingsman: The Secret Service surrounding the tone of spy movies in the past and present that starts with Harry Hart (Colin Firth) feeling current spy movies are too serious for his taste. It's an interesting gag, mainly because Kingsman feels like it's combination of the older James Bond films (which director Matthew Vaughn heavily hearkened in his last movie X-Men: First Class) and the more entries in the spy genre. The over-the-top style and more light hearted tone found in earlier spy films is found in spades, as is the sleek modern action of more recent adventures starring the likes of Jason Bourne.

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery Review (Classic Write-Up)

You've Got The Touch...You've Got The Austin Pooooooowweeerrr

In an interview given a few months back, Daniel Craig noted that the primary reason elements like Biofeld, Q or fun gadgets had been seen in Bond films was that Austin Powers had parodied such tropes of the James Bond features in such a well-known manner that they couldn't use them, at least for the time. I find it interesting that Skyfall managed to incorporate some of Bond's most well-known aspects once again, suggesting that Austin Powers grasp on pop culture had faded enough for 007 to fight bad guys in elaborate lairs again.