TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

You should've seen the enthusiasm on my friend's faces when I asked them if they wanted to go see "Rango" with me: none. They were too busy seeing "Battle: Los Angeles" which I heard got awful reviews. I didn't see "Rango" merely for the acclaim it's gathered, I saw it because I thought it genuinely looked good, and an animated western about a chameleon is better then 2 hours of blowing LA up anyways! The PG rating is a little misleading, not because of the age-appropriate content but it isn't really a kid-oriented film. "Rango" is for adults who can understand its rapid-fire pop culture references, or film buffs (like myself.) There is a pivotal scene featuring a "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" version of Clint Eastwood that guides Rango in the right direction. What 7 yr. old is going to understand that? "Rango" is aimed toward that audience that can catch the cultural riffs but also put up and ju...

My 1st Woody Allen film was a little movie called "Annie Hall," Allen's Best Picture-winning film from 1977, which famously beat out the 1st "Star Wars" movie for the top prize. I don't agree with that choice, but the "little movie that could" was clever, a little snarky, but had some majorly good messages of love and how hard it is to keep relationships alive. "Midnight in Paris" keeps some of these themes, but does it in what I'm tempted to say is in an even better format. "Midnight in Paris" was the first gem for me in 2011 cinema. The one movie I was fascinated by though was Terrence Mallick's "The Tree of Life," which sounded alot like last year's "Inception" in that people weren't really sure what it was about and when they left the theater they still weren't entirely sure what they saw. I respect and love movies that have that effect on people. "Tree of Life" was in lim...

As a movie critic walks out of a theater, he has to think hard of how much he enjoyed the movie, but mostly, what the majority of people do reading reviews, think of the bad parts to warn patrons of the cinema.  As I walked out of Alexander Payne's "The Descendants," I realized I couldn't find anything wrong with it.  It really is one of the best films of the year. We begin by seeing Matt King's (excellently portrayed by a subtle, defeated George Clooney) wife water skiing happily on a motor boat.  The next scene we hear Matt's voice giving us the intro to his life, the work that consumes him, his profane little girl who wants to be anything but, and his other little girl, who really isn't little anymore, a rebellious, headstrong teen named Alex, played with devastating confidence by Shailene Woodley, who will hopefully no longer be solely associated with that stupid teen pregnancy soap opera.  Most importantly, we see King's wife in a coma.  We...

"Warrior" is a unique sports movie that actually doesn't make the same mistake so many others make of focusing on the sport instead of the players.  A generic sports movie, say "Gridiron Gang" lacked heart, and what it suffered in performances, it surpassed in emotional speeches.  "Warrior" features a sport so brutal, it's hard to picture any of its players being anything but insane. The premise of "Warrior" starts out believable...but in all fairness, it turns out extremely unlikely.  Paddy, (played so well by Nick Nolte in this movie he gets his own paragraph in this review) is an ex-alcoholic who wants to reconnect with his sons.  That plot point right there has sappy potential.  But the film goes another way.  Instead of being glad his dad wants to be back in his life, Tommy (Tom Hardy, who gives a ferocious performance that seems to have gone unnoticed because of Nolte's tour de force work here) rejects his old man, and in the ...

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 ...

 "Moneyball" is notable for a few reasons. It got robbed at the Oscars, 6 nominations with 0 wins. It was one of the last appearances of "Fat Jonah Hill." Fat Jonah Hill, known for his crude frat boy persona he developed in movies like "Superbad" and "Knocked Up," got an Oscar nomination.  Therefore he's now known as "Skinny Oscar-nominee Jonah Hill." One of Fat Jonah Hill's last appearances. Though none of those reasons adds up to why "Moneyball" was one of my favorite films of the year.  Once again I'll be perfectly honest, I don't really know why F.J.H. got the Oscar nomination, and a Golden Globe nomination to boot.  He was Brad Pitt's portly sidekick.  He was very smart, and came up with the whole concept for the moneyball formula, but he was still his portly sidekick. Brad Pitt on the other hand...he's incredible in this movie.  To see scribe Aaron Sorkin's (The Social Network) ...

It's been brought to my attention that recent Best Picture winners haven't been great.  Common winners that are cited that suck are: "The Greatest Show on Earth," (God was that long) "Chicago" (a satisfactory musical at the most) and "Around the World in 80 Days," which I've yet to see.  I omit one Best Picture winner that EVERYONE calls the worst because I sincerely enjoyed it, and that is 2005's "Crash."  People take a dump on "Crash" a lot, but I really liked it when I saw it on TV several months ago.  Was it the best movie ever?  No.  Was it the best movie of 2005?  I wouldn't even go that far.  I'd even go as far as to say there probably was homophobia among Oscar voters, and that's why "Crash" won over the favorited "Brokeback Mountain," because their Rotten Tomatoes scores are: Crash-76 Brokeback Mountain-87. That's a significant 11 points.  I've yet to see "Brokebac...

I'm very behind on this but I figured I'd cover it anyway!  There were some surprises after all, I was shocked to see Clooney not get his 2nd Oscar. I hate to say it but it is very unlikely Jean Dujardin, or should I say Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin will become a big Hollywood star, but whatever.  Meryl Streep won her 3rd Oscar, Christopher Plummer got his prize, but Octavia Spencer seemed the most overjoyed out of all of them. I think it a great thing favorite Viola Davis was the first to give Streep a standing ovation, I'm sure there'll be further nominations for her in the future.  I was glad to see Woody Allen and Alexander Payne to win for their great scripts!  I'd accepted "The Artist" was going to win Best Picture long ago, so I was...happy to see it win. Well, now that all the buzz has settled it's starting to look like another promising Oscar year with Pixar's "Brave,"  Nolan's final "The Dark Knight Rises" and Ri...