TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Reading the reviews of Richard Linklater's Boyhood , you just start to get emotional simply getting the feel of what the movie is going to be about. For a while it had a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, a feat movies like The Godfather  have only accomplished on the site. There's no negative backlash yet, nothing that could hurt the chances of everyone on board. Boyhood  has all the elements of a movie that will win Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards. Look at the facts: every single Best Picture nominee last year was released from October on, kicking off with the special effects extravaganza Gravity . A movie hasn't won Best Picture since 2009's The Hurt Locker , which got an extremely low-key limited release in the summer. I remember wanting to see it, then seeing it explode into pop culture once the Golden Globe nominations weren't released. The bottom line: you have to have your movie released later for the voters to remember you. But Boyhood  seems...

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog knows I'm a big James Franco fan, but I don't worship the guy. I love his zany performances in Spring Breakers and Pineapple Express , respect his more serious work in excellent dramas like the first two Spider-Man  movies and especially 127 Hours . But here's the weird thing I noted in my Oz the Great and Powerful  review: he's been upstaged by primates: twice. The first came courtesy in Rise of the Planet of the Apes , where Franco had the spotlight easily taken from him by Andy Serkis' masterful creation: Caesar. The other problem with the 2011 prequel to the superior 1968 original was, though it was building up to it, it still focused too much on humans when all we want to see were the apes. I am very happy to say this film took note of our laments, and corrected them. Caesar is a father now, his wife just giving birth to another baby boy, along with his other son, Blue Eyes. It's been a decade since humans have ap...

Getting "TFIOS" for my 17th birthday It's only too easy to dismiss TFIOS as a chick flick if you are unfamiliar with the source material. While it does sound a bit sappy that two cancer stricken kids would meet together and fall in love, I suggest you familiarize yourself with the works of John Green, and his signature, smart alec wit. There hasn't been a wrong note in his novels, Looking for Alaska  probably being the most deserving in my book. Avoiding most cliches of the hospital drama, Green instead chose to go the route of love, not pandering at all to his fan base, who appear to be nearly as intelligent as the rapid, word churning YouTube vlogger himself. The big question to nearly every adaptation in the business: is it as good as the book? Honestly...nearly. The film isn't flawless like your teenage daughter will tell you, but it's a very solid addition to not only the teenage romance canon but to cancer movies, which can be partially indistingui...