Bird Box's Better Aspects Get Let Down By An Overly Convoluted Script

Over the course of the last few days, Bird Box has become one of the most talked-about movies of the moment, with memes (which seem to be coming from genuine real-life people despite early reports to the contrary) centered around the movie popping up everywhere and Netflix bragging about their record-breaking viewership numbers for the film. Well, I guess since the internet is now so abuzz with so much talk regarding Susanne Brier's new movie Bird Box, I suppose now is the time for me to pen down my thoughts on the motion picture, which I never could have imagined generating so much widespread conversation, for good and for ill.

The Cast Steals The Show And Then Some In The Fun But Visually Derivative Ocean's 8

Director Gary Ross proves to be a far better filmmaker helming Ocean's 8 compared to his last two directorial efforts The Hunger Games and Free State of Jones, both of which, particularly the latter disaster, suffered from amateurish direction that heavily stilted the already struggling stories they were bringing to life. However, Ross as a filmmaker still finds himself struggling with Ocean's 8 as he (along with the cinematography by Eigil Bryld and some of the editing by Juliette Welfling) channels the visual style and rhythm of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven trilogy in a manner that ends up feeling evocative of those three films without ever being fully accurate or satisfying. It's so familiar yet distinctly not the same, it's like, as Jenny Nicholson once put it in describing a Porg toy from Target, "...waking up to everything in your house shifted a few inches to the right."

The Inconsistent Miss Congeniality Has Glimmers Of Real Creativity And Laughs

To follow the trajectory of Sandra Bullock's career is to see a fascinating career path that, with the benefit of hindsight, really does just exemplify longevity. Bullock garnered large amounts of fame in the 90's, thanks to Speed and While You Were Sleeping kicking her career into overdrive and she maintained that star wattage through the next two decades of her career, with the only real bump in her career coming in the 2006-2007 era where she just had some mild box office underperformers. Right after that though, the 2009 double-whammy of The Proposal and The Blind Side took her to the next level of stardom that she's been riding ever since. Nine years prior to those two movies though, Bullock starred in one of her most famous motion pictures, the comedy Miss Congeniality.

Our Brand Is Crisis Review

Man, Our Brand Is Crisis could have been something truly special. How do I know this? Because the elements in here that work are legitimately exceptional. But there just aren't enough aspects in this feature that excel, especially considering the meandering pace that consumes the story and stretches the movies 107 minute running time into what feels like eternity. Under a script by Peter Straughan and direction from David Gordon Green, Our Brand Is Crisis tells the tale of Jane (Sandra Bullock), a political strategist trying to get a successful presidential election campaign going for Pedro Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida).

First Trailer For Our Brand Is Crisis Has Sandra Bullock Facing A....Well, Crisis, I Guess

After a dynamite 2013, a year where she headlining two $150+ million grossing movies and got another Oscar nomination for her leading turn in Gravity, Sandra Bullock has remained off the radar, sans providing the voice of Scarlet Overkill in Minions. Well folks, the star of one of the worst Best Picture nominees of all-time (yes, I'm talking about The Blind Side) has returned, this time starring in the motion picture Our Brand Is Crisis, which just released a trailer that you can watch below.

Minions Review

One In A Minion

What are the Minions exactly? Are they corn pops? The spawn of Twinkies gone awry? How do they breed? There are no female Minions (to the best of my knowledge), so are they asexual? Do they lay eggs? And what's the lifespan for these things? One Minion depicted with placing starfishes over his nipples in prehistoric times is shown to be alive in 1968, so are these guys immortal or something? For some reason, the movie is not interested in answering those questions and instead concentrates all of its efforts on making purely a product, one that's inoffensive enough to make sure no parents feathers get ruffled and one that can supply ample opportunities for numerous marketing partners.

2015 Is The Year The Oscars Officially Lost Credibility

There's a headline that's bound to get chuckles from many readers, particularly those who've seen the various choices that the Academy Awards have made over the various years. Going back all the way to the 40's, one can see various winners of awards like Best Picture that feel ridiculous in retrospect, but those feel almost quaint compared to what the Academy Awards has become in recent years. Crash winning Best Picture? Happy Feet winning Best Animated Feature? Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side winning Best Actress? What the hell kind of wins are those?

The Despicable Me Minions Meet Sandra Bullock In New Minions Trailer

Illumination Entertainment's 2010 debut feature Despicable Me showed a lot of promise for the company, which Hop pretty much failed to live up to. Their third feature, The Lorax, had it's charms, but also had a clumsy script to hold it back. Despicable Me 2 is what really made me doubt the companies capabilities of creating more compelling features, as it just felt like a lazy cashgrab with no depth or interesting humor. A new entry in their biggest franchise, Minions, just dropped and fails to stir my confidence. You can watch it below.

Horrible Bosses 2 Review

A Horrible Waste Of A Trio

Comedy sequels have grown more popular in recent years, thanks to the success The Wolfpack had back in 2011 with their first successive adventure. It received dismal reviews, but managed to make more than enough money to make studios fall in love with the idea of making more sequels to entities like Dumb And Dumber and Horrible Bosses. The latter's sequel, Horrible Bosses 2, is the subject of this review, and from a quality perspective doesn't exactly make compelling case for more Bosses movies down the road.

The Minions Are Getting Their Own Movie. Enjoy The First Trailer For It.

I don't wanna sound like that guy, but I'm gonna do it anyway; I miss the Minions of old. In the first Despicable Me, a charming and fun adventure, they were a humorous bunch who did a good job being lovable supporting characters for the main plot. But in the extremely underwhelming Despicable Me 2, the plot revolved around them instead of the other way around. They had some funny moments, don't get me wrong, but at some point it felt tiring instead of humorous.