TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

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...

Before I go into detail about the powerhouse musical that is "Les Miserables" (referred to as "Les Mis" in this review, though throughout awards season I've heard it referred to as at least 5 other titles.), let me exclaim my bias for musicals, as I have worked on several of my high school's musicals along the way.  At first guys never want to profess their interest for the movie musical, but after a "Grease" or "Sound of Music," their interests are usually turned for the best.  The truth is, despite the macho stereotype, there are decent, non-Disney musicals out there on the market for an audience, and "Les Mis" happens to be one of them. Well, I suppose you could go into a "Grease" or a "Seussical" with no prior musical background and still be pleasantly surprised.  "Les Mis" is strictly for musical lovers, as it's not so much a musical as it is an opera (think "Jesus Christ Superstar,...

People are calling "The Dark Knight Rises," the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy "the most anticipated movie of the summer."  I'd like to think they're underplaying it a little bit, so let me be the fanboy who hypes/hams it up: "The Dark Knight" is arguably the best superhero ever made, some say one of the greatest period, Heath Ledger won on ACADEMY AWARD for playing the Joker, something that would've sounded bizarre but made so much sense after you watched the film, and America has been teased with whatever dental-wear we thought Bane had going on, the debate if Anne Hathaway was sexy enough which will make you feel dirty after watching "The Princess Diaries," and wondering if the trailers, posters and reviews of this film will ever succeed the unreachable mountain standards set by that Oscar-snubbed film in 2008? Well, it has.  I won't pretend I liked it better than "The Dark Knight," but as a...