TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Several weeks ago in early July, I claimed that this film would  be the next big thing in science fiction. Was I right? Well not exactly. Here's something I didn't take into account for: the budget. When your budget enters the nine digits you know sometimes that size and scale will come before the characters and storytelling. But wow, with "Elysium," what size and scale. Still retaining the gray and brown color palate for a ravaged Earth as he did in his directorial debut "District 9," which shocked everyone with four Oscar nods, Neill Blomkamp displays what he does best (well, with two movies anyway) a dystopian universe with an underdog hero who becomes strapped with some serious tech. But that's where the similarities end. I have deep respect for any writer/director who can craft a movie solely out of their imagination, and not rely on any other sources. Blomkamp partly does this; he takes the decidedly American topics of  healthcare, the 1%, etc....

There is an impending doom that runs through Ryan Coogler's feature film directorial debut "Fruitvale Station." Like the movie that landed in my top five films of 2012 last year, "Lincoln," "Fruitvale Station" is actual history, and from the opening sequence with actual cell phone footage shot from an onlooker at the train station you know the fate of Mr. Oscar Grant III. A cop who allegedly thought he was tasering Grant shot him in the back, fatally wounding him. But fatally wounded is such a politically correct word, the cop killed Grant. He murdered him, albeit maybe unintentionally, but the movie takes no bias and clearly shows the cops aggravated and eager to ruffle up Grant and his friends in order to "keep the peace." Only eye witnesses know what happened that day, but I have to review the movie in front of me. If the officers were pistol-whipping Grant and his crew and laughing at them, then yes, I'd say there were liberties t...

My very first written short film is up now, on my good friend/director/actor/editor (he's busy) Aaron Haynes' Facebook page as we speak! Since movie news is rather slow this week, and I'm mostly trying to play catch-up on "Fruitvale Station" and waiting for "Elysium" to come out; I figure now it's time to debut the short film "Keeping it P.C.!" My character Dean was modeled after the political correctness of today's heated racial topics, mostly drawing inspiration from the Paula Deen controversy, where the celebrity chef admitted to using a racial slur. WELL OF COURSE SHE DID. She was a southern white woman growing up in a time where that was commonly accepted. Deen isn't necessarily a racist more than she is a product of her time. I obviously don't condone the use of that word at all, but I realized the outraged media reporting it needed a reality check. That's why I wrote "Keeping it P.C." after talking t...