TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

I have been so hyped about this movie through friends, TV, the enormous box-office numbers and of course the Internet that I was afraid I would walk in the movie and just positively hate it. Luckily , Pixar is too smart for that. Pixar has never once created a bad film (see my above blog post) but they have had a few not-as-good ones. Once you make a movie like "Toy Story" to start out with, it's hard to reach that bar. They've reached it and far above so many times now it's ridiculous. Now they're taking a break from originality (long overdue) and are churning out sequels (Cars 2 and Monster's Inc. 2 are due '11 and '12 respectively). "Up" was a beautiful blend of kiddie comedy and adult themes, and was one of my favorite films last year. It went on to win 2 Oscars and was up for the biggest of them all: Best Picture, which "Hurt Locker" took home as we all know. It was only the 2 nd time in history an animated movie'...

Wow this summer's films have been boring. I'd hate to be a pro-critic, I'd have 2 see movies like "Killers," "Sex in the City 2," and "Marmaduke;" all getting awful reviews from critics. I've only seen a handful of 2010 movies, not a single original-written movie I've seen or a sequel that has blown me out of the water seen yet. I plan on seeing "Toy Story 3" with a few friends this coming Saturday, non 3-D unfortunately. Then in July I'm not missing Christopher Nolan's ( Batman Begins, The Dark Knight ) "Inception." These, along with a few other films I've seen advertised look like (POSSIBLY) what (1/2) the Academy might choose come voting time: Love Ranch (with Oscar winners Helen Mirren & Joe Pesci ) Inception (they gotta repay Nolan for the TDK rob of Best Picture in '08) Toy Story 3 (maybe finally the 1st animated Best Picture winner, #7 on IMDB's Top 250) Eat Pray Love (with Os...

I saw 3 movies in the past weeks, and I'm here to share my opinions with you guys: Iron Man 2: A delightful mix of high-packed energy and witty dialogue , plus fine performances from Downey Jr. and the "Russian" actor Mickey Rourke, but still not as the good as the near-classic original. 8/10. Shrek Forever After: After 3 excellent films, this movie doesn't disappoint , but doesn't serve up nearly as many laughs as the 2 nd or original Shrek movie. Go see it though, if this really is the end of the iconic ogre- tastic franchise. 7/10. Babies: Can you say " awwwwww " for 80 minutes. A well done film that chronicles 4 babies growing up all over the world, and how each parent chooses to raise their babies in their own unique. No narration, dialogue is scarce, but I promise you you'll never be bored with this heart-warming documentary. 8.5/10. And that's all for right now! I'll be back later this month to review yet another sequel, t...

Iron Man 2 is the ( un )official kick-off for summer movie season to arrive! I'm seeing it next week with some friends, and the feedback I've heard so far means to expect the same greatness I'd hoped for back in '08 when the 1st Iron Man film was released. I'm also confident this is the most-hyped about movie of the year (last year's was Avatar and Transformers 2 , both respectively getting nominated for Best Picture and winning Worst Picture) so I'm really psyched to being able to finally see it. It certainly doesn't have that infamy that was attached to Transformers 2, critics say it's almost as good as the first. I'm going into it knowing it won't be as original and superb as the original, because when I saw that it really wowed me over to a new level, filling in the void of the Spider-Man movies I thought were done for good (I hear buzz there's a prequel coming in 2012), plus Downey Jr.'s performance was hilarious. I'll...

Now that the best movies of the year have past, and "The Hurt Locker" has been crowned the best movie of 2009, we've had to wade through the romantic comedies, the kiddie movies, and the lame adult comedies to finally get through to what everyone, adult, kid or otherwise looks for in movie season: the SUMMER BLOCKBUSTERS! Last year's were the winner for Worst Picture "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," the best picture nominee "Up," "The Hangover," "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and many, many others. I for one am extremely glad we're in Summer Film Season, I've only seen 2 movies made in 2010, though both blockbusters in their own right, "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" & "Alice in Wonderland;" both adaptions of loved books, one more than the other. They were both great, "Alice" being the more superior, but I'm glad the time is coming near on us,...

THE OSCARS: Although my favorite to win was the now highest grossing movie of all time, Avatar , but of course the Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker took it home, along with Bigelow becoming the first woman to ever win Best Director. Meanwhile, Waltz and Mo'Nique took home the supporting awards, Bridges won Best Actor, and (most deservedly) Sandra Bullock, probably the only time she'll win, won Best Actress. Screenplay-wise, The Hurt Locker also recieved Original Screenplay, while (surprisingly) Precious won Adapted Screenplay. Up won Best Animated Film, The Cove got Best Documentary, and The Secret in Their Eyes won Best Foriegn Film. What happens happens I guess, and I'm pretty excited about seeing The Hurt Locker sometime in the future, 5 or so years from now.

I just added a Part 2 to expand so the original blog wouldn't be to long. To give props to the Oscar guys, they made the nominees seriously interesting. An animated movie mixed with a few sci-fi flicks, some adult-only indies, and a war movie here and there. But if Oscar was to stick to its traditional roots, everyone knows it would be narrowed down to Basterds, Precious, Hurt Locker, Up in the Air and Avatar. But it's good to mix up the otherwise boring bag. We all know Bullock is taking Best Actress home, Bridges will be receiving Best Actor, Mo'Nique will get Best Supporting Actress, and Christoph Waltz for his impressive performance in the Best Supporting Actor category (watch the first 20 minutes of Basterds , it's chilling.) Up in the Air is going to get Adapted Screenplay, Avatar is going to win every technical award of its 9 nominations, but I gotta bad feeling The Hurt Locker is going to win Best Picture and Best Director. I'd like to add as well Freema...