TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

When I was vacationing in Myrtle Beach for winter vacation, I saw a slew of critically acclaimed movies: "Young Adult" ( http://tito-ito.blogspot.com/2012/01/review-young-adult-r.html ), "War Horse," "The Muppets" and this film, "My Week with Marilyn."  It follows just what it promises: a third assistant director on "The Prince and I"'s week with the legendary Marilyn Monroe. People like Lindsay Lohan can say they're channeling Monroe when they pose naked with blonde hair all they want, Michelle Williams sincerely looks like it's the late actress on the screen again.  Totally by coincidence, I had watched with my family "Don't Bother to Knock," a thriller starring Monroe as a psycho babysitter.  After viewing the film, and watching "Some Like It Hot" a few months later, there is absolutely no denying Monroe's keen acting ability, or immense beauty.  Williams conveys all of that into her version ...

While you're sitting in the theater I found myself with a question: Would I watch this movie if Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter himself, wasn't in it?  That's a no.  Radcliffe is making his premiere post-Potter performance, and if it seems like a step-down to what he could be doing, it is.  I don't think it's far off from saying Radcliffe and the rest of the Harry Potter youths are cinema's most powerful players; I saw Emma Watson in "My Week with Marilyn" but it was more of a cameo, and ultimately forgettable.  So would "The Woman in Black" prove to be a decent first wand-less film for Radcliffe? It really depends on how you look at it.  In terms of horror movies, it's one of the better ones I've seen.  The film doesn't rely too heavily on gore like some of the flicks I've seen these days.  The mood is consistently dark and scarier, and you're always waiting on something to pop out at you, maybe a crow flying through a w...

It's that time of year again, when critics announce their ten favorite films of the year!  I'm unfortunately at a disadvantage, for the year of 2011 I only saw about 20 movies in the theaters, where pro-critics see about 80-90 movies.  2011 was a GREAT year for cinema, truly marking some of the best movies I've seen a while.  You got movies about Marilyn Monroe, a man trying to find his coma-stricken wife's lover and a whole lot of movies about Paris.  Go figure.  Here are my top five films of the year, some others that didn't quite make the cut, and some movies I wished I just hadn't seen.  I plan on seeing other 2011 films before Oscar season, like "The Artist," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and "The Iron Lady," but since I'll be seeing them in 2012 they won't necessarily count for this list. 5.   MONEYBALL Just like with last year's "The Social Network" Aaron Sorkin writes another incredible scr...

This year's Golden Globe's were surprisingly straightforward, where really nothing was totally out of the park. There were  no head-scratchers like last year's "The Tourist" and "Burlesque" getting Best Comedy/Musical nods except for the lame "Cars 2" getting a Best Animated Feature nomination.  This year's selection of movies was so good they actually expanded the Best Drama category to 6!  Here are the major nominees: BEST DRAMA: The Help (an audience favorite with 2 supporting nods for Spencer and Chastain, who both deserve the award) The Descendants (an excellent little movie I've yet to review, that's been generating a lot of buzz) War Horse (the yet-to-be-released Spielberg epic that's gotten considerable lauding) Moneyball (one of my favorite films of the year got both Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill nominations) Hugo (Scorsese's breathtaking love letter to cinema of yesteryears) The Ides of March (Clooney got ...