TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

I've never seen so many people in my life in a movie theater lobby. Apparently the must-see movie of the year (and take in the year is less than 20 days old as of this publishing) is Ride Along , a buddy cop movie with Kevin Hart and Ice Cube. As original as a funny guy getting teamed up with a serious cop going through a series of wacky antics sounds, I chose instead to catch up on my Oscar movies. I'm happy to report that "Nebraska" and "Her" are small, pleasant films for anyone looking to avoid the January movie dumping grounds, and are competing against each other for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. NEBRASKA: There isn't a single moment in Alexander Payne's latest family drama Nebraska that doesn't ring true. Growing up in a small, semi-rural town myself, the relatives of Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) are utterly authentic. You're probably familiar with the premise: Woody gets a notification claiming he needs to go to Lincoln, N...

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...