TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

I guess dreams really do come true!  Just last week I posted my desires to see "Spring Breakers," honestly thinking it'd be months before I could rent the film by controversial director Harmony Korine on DVD.   I got a little too excited when I realized it received a wide release, because really who would want to hide a movie like this?  I went into "Spring Breakers" with the full knowledge it was going to be a crazy film.  I was wrong.  "Spring Breakers" is not a crazy film.   It is the craziest film. Initially we're showed a rapid montage of repeating images of scantily clad women and douches looking like they're having the time of their lives on spring break.  This is a recurring motif in "Spring Breakers," the idea that these kids are having "the time of their lives," when it's no more than potentially lethal intakes of booze, coke, and college boys, who will, to put it kindly, degrade you and use you for a one nig...

It's a rather dry movie news week so far, since I've never seen "Veronica Mars," so I wanted to take a brief little post to talk about a movie I am unabashedly seeing be it with friends or myself if it's playing in my area to see: "Spring Breakers."  I'll give you the trailer link here so in case you haven't heard of it, but if you're even remotely interested in current releases, you'll know the film.  I first was alerted of this masterpiece by Phillip DeFranco, my favorite YouTube news reporter, who linked to the trailer in the description.  I watched it and....my mind was blown. On a serious note, I love when actors are cast against type.  I especially love it when actors are cast against type as villains.  Oh, I eat that up.  Mo'Nique in "Precious."  Leonardo DiCaprio in "Django Unchained."  Those are the characters you walk out of the movie remembering.  So when I saw James Franco's name mentioned by Phi...

It's been a while since we've seen old James Franco in something big.  I tried to think back....and flashbacks of the Oscars, ones that I've tried to suppress for going on three years now.  After a bit of crying and some warm milk I felt better and thought of what movies he'd been in; "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."  He and the girl from "Slumdog Millionaire" were perfectly fine in that...but they were both completely upstaged by the main ape that ignited the revolution: Andy Serkis as Caesar.  I'm sad to report, ladies and gentleman, that James Franco has once again been upstaged by a motion-capture monkey, this time voiced by Zach Braff. Franco better realize this trend before he signs up to do a "King Kong" remake, and perhaps take some lessons on how to be less of a stiff when the cameras roll.  We all can recall the charismatic showman who appeared behind the curtain at the end of the 1939's "The Wizard of Oz."  H...

Wow, wow, wow!  That was a truly remarkable Oscar awards!  First off, congratulations are due to first-time Oscar host Seth MacFarlane, who knocked it out of the park, and only had one joke who didn't land for me: the Lincoln joke.  You know which one I'm talking about.  MacFarlane and the hilariously placed William Shatner predicted what today's headlines would read, and attempted to alter it by providing classy dances, while MacFarlane had previously made a sock-puppet version of "Flight," made out with Sally Field, and a song dedicated to....the risque women of cinema, to put it politely! MacFarlane was a welcome presence when commenting on the length of the show, saying 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva had been Quvenzhane Wallis' age when the program began!  But what I really came for was to see the race between "Argo," "Lincoln" and "Life of Pi," the presumed front-runners.  The awards started off great though, with Christop...

It's that time of year again, the Oscars are less than a week away!  I have to admit choosing the "will wins" have been particularly difficult to choose.  So let me not dilly dally, time to discuss what will win the coveted Oscar on February 24th: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: ( Lincoln, Life of Pi, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Silver Linings Playbook) Should Win: "Lincoln"'s poetic and difficult, 19th century jargon really deserves it.  It flowed so beautifully, and was the only movie this year that made me feel that way.  Just listen to Tommy Lee Jones bashing a congressman who's anti-13th amendment! Will Win: "Pi," "Playbook" and "Beasts" all had wildly original premises, and executed perfectly, but "Lincoln" should have this award.  Look for "Playbook" to pull an upset though; Russel won a BAFTA for it. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: ( Moonrise Kingdom, Django Unchained, Flight, Zero Dark Thirty, Amour) ...

Let me tell you that it is not an easy task seeing all of the Best Picture nominees when you're not a professional critic!  I've been scrambling to see the last ones in theaters, and finally got around to catching one of the two relatively quiet Best Picture wannabes: "Beasts of the Southern Wild." (The other nominee being that feel-good film "Amour" about old people dying, (in subtitles) which I have still yet to see.)  Unlike last year while I dozed off during "War Horse" and was unsatisfied with "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," there hasn't been a movie nominated this year that hasn't blown me away in some fashion. "Beasts" kept up this streak, and that blown-away factor coming in the form of pint-sized force of nature Quvenzhane (Kwah-ven-juh-nay) Wallis, who I'll refer to as Q for the sake of review brevity!  At the age of six Miss Wallis shows us how strong the human spirit can be, as Hushpuppy, a to...

First off, if you want this question explained in one sentence it's this: A movie called "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" is the biggest movie 2013 so far.  What does that say about America? But if you want a further detailed explanation, keep reading. January is already an absolutely desolate month for movies, and February is no better.  Movie studio executives look at the movies that wouldn't do well literally any other time of year and defecate them into theaters for the audience's joying pleasure (*cough cough* lets make some money off some real idiots *cough cough*).  With my handy dandy friend Wikipedia (don't judge, this is actually accurate shtuff), I'll go through movie by movie and explain why it came out and why it bombed.  Maybe with a little assistance from yours truly people will realize the only reason to go to a theater in January is to catch up on your Oscar movies! TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D (ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 19%) The name alone offer...