Jurassic World: Are you not entertained?

You can’t experience first love twice. That was my problem walking into Jurassic World. I wanted so badly to fall in love again just as I had 22 years ago when I sat in a movie theater watching Stephen Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. My ten-year-old self sat wide-eyed, with my feet pulled up onto my seat …

JAWS The Ballet

Last weekend I saw a Smuin Ballet performance of "Spring Bouquet." While I can appreciate the artistry and painstaking skill that goes into every ballet performance, I couldn't help but feel like something was missing: a compelling story. To me, ballet can feel a bit stuffy and tedious after thirty minutes of watching men and women swirl …

2011 Oscar Predictions

With the Oscars only a couple days away, everyone from Rodger Ebert to any random person with a YouTube account is flooding the internet with predictions on who will take home those naked golden men Sunday night. While you have probably read or watched a million different predictions already, I figured it couldn’t hurt to …

Piranha 3D Review

"Piranha 3D" is a hyper-exaggerated satire of “blood in the water” films that depends heavily on its audience being in on the joke. Unlike the many utterly idiotic spoof movies that followed “Scary Movie,” (“Date Movie,” “Epic Movie,” “Vampires Suck,” etc) “Piranha 3D” has enough humor, a fairly talented cast, and enough bite to be a …

Flash Movie Review: Dead Snow

"Dead Snow" should have been called “Zombie Nazis” because that is really all it offers. It could have been a good cult classic like “Evil Dead” with its promising zombie premise and playful undertones, but instead it got too caught up in insipid spoofing, formulaic storytelling, and bland characters. Every good zombie movie offers a …

Review: Clash of the Titans (2010)

I feel as though I should preface this review by stating a mildly embarrassing fact. I am a geek for Greek mythology. While all my friends dressed up their Barbies in trendy 80’s fashion, I dressed mine in togas I fashioned out of toilet paper. I named them after my favorite Greek Gods and Goddesses and …

Alice in Burtonland

Loosely based on Lewis Caroll’s novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Disney’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland re-imagines Alice’s adventure and gives the classic tale the Tim Burton treatment: landscapes are stamped with Burton's trademark Gothicism, the characters are quirky and often grotesquely exaggerated, and the story focuses on misunderstood outcasts and split …