TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

It seems like people are always facing off in Zack Snyder films. With 300 , it was the Spartans v. the Persians. With Watchmen it was a batch of old superheroes against the effects of time. With Man of Steel , he pitted Kal-El against the insanity of General Zod (though some could argue Michael Shannon didn't realize he was in a Superman movie and the cameras kept rolling). And with Batman v Superman , Snyder is dramatizing the ultimate battle: himself v. the source material v. the studios v. setting up a franchise v. fans' expectations v. making a coherent blockbuster (in March?!) that additionally serves as a sequel to Man of Steel v. establishing a new Batman. Oh and Wonder Woman's in it. And Lex Luthor. And Holly Hunter? Spoiler alert: I'm afraid Snyder lost this fight. I was initially very disappointed walking out of the film, thinking of the things they could have cut, other heroes they could've introduced (how many times do we have to see Lex Luthor onscree...

Let me confess my full love of and practice of magic before I continue this review. Magic, well for me mostly card tricks, was a huge part of my life in fifth grade. I got my friends and I to pull them off, amazing (or at least slightly surprising) my peers and adults who were patient enough to tolerate as I carefully balanced where their card was going to be. I even performed a card trick (with a deck of Power Ranger cards, no less) for my sixth grade talent day. Of course, as seventh grade hit, puberty pulled off the evilest trick on me: making my love of card tricks disappear. So I've always been enamored with magic, especially the act Penn & Teller, who aren't afraid to show you how some of their tricks are performed. Unlike Penn & Teller, or me at my sixth grade performance, "Now You See Me" doesn't blow you away with the big reveal. It leaves you confused and mad you sat down for such a long...trick. The Hollywood dazzle, and product placements (...

Last year, Woody Allen made what some people would call a "comeback."  Is it really a comeback though, when you're Woody Allen?  Woody Allen's been making virtually a movie a year, and a lot of times he makes good movies, but not to the point of success that "Midnight in Paris" did.  I loved "Paris," but I also loved what some consider one of his misses, the Larry David comedy "Whatever Works." (But that could be because I love "Curb Your Enthusiasm.")  Overall I'm just a big Allen fan, although I've seen maybe 6 of his films at the most, he's become one of my favorite directors, due to his obvious style in cinema. "To Rome with Love" is the third (and supposedly final) installment of his European trilogy (along with "Paris" and the exquisite "Vicky Cristina Barcelona").  Allen is like Picasso in that way, when he goes through a period of films.  The fact that he could just go on a...

I feel bad, I did the quick update over a month ago telling my "loyal readers" that I'd see "Social Network" and review it soon. I guess couldn't see my blog over the tons of homework I've been having, so I apologize for that. If "The Social Network" were bad, I wouldn't have bothered to review it after all this time. But it was absolutely EXCELLENT, and I hope while you're reading this right now you've seen or going to see it. Walking into the theater, "Social Network" already had several great things going for it: It had director David Fincher , who directed last year's (IMO) best movie, "Benjamin Button;" it has Andrew Garfield, the new Spider-Man (he's actually British); anadthe important one it featured the site that everybody loves: FACEBOOK ! I bet Tom from MySpace (which I deleted my account last summer) is kicking himself for not thinking of a MySpace movie sooner. Everything works in this...