TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

While this summer hasn't exactly been a blockbuster season, some definite big films have come out, some surprising us with their superhero goodness, and some disappointing us with....Johnny Depp as a vampire.  With no further introduction, here's a look at some of the most prolific movies of the summer, and maybe there's one you haven't seen: The summer officially kicked off back in May with "The Avengers" premiering with the biggest box-office weekend ever, eventually getting up to over a billion dollars. While parts of the movie felt a little bloated, I think it was all worth it just to see every Marvel superhero together fighting Loki (except Spider-Man, who always gets left in the dust).  With this mammoth of a franchise left theaters, the dust settled with...well, some major disappointments.  Disappointment number one rolled around with Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows."   When even Johnny Depp seems lame in a vampire movie, you kn...

When it comes to Pixar, so many people are defensive about the studio geniuses.  My generation (born in the late 90's) was practically raised on Pixar, for many of us "Toy Story" was our first movie.  Then there's "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc.," "The Incredibles" when we got older.  But that isn't the only reason why people will go to war over Pixar; it's because they treat us so good.  When you go into a Pixar film, you're treated to a great short film beforehand, the knowledge of knowing the movie ahead is going to be great from all the reviews you've read, and the silence of all the children because Pixar's stories are good enough where kids actually listen.  Well, the last thing listed isn't always  guaranteed , but you get where I'm going.  (Nearly) all the Pixar movies are instant classics, but I wouldn't go branding "Brave" that title just yet. Earlier this year in my early predicti...

Bane from "TDKR" Although it's outrageously early, I like guessing next year's Best Picture nominees!  I do it 3 times a year; I chose 2 random dates (April 25 and the first of September) and the day after the Golden Globes (Usually I'm most accurate on the last date.)  Last year I guessed 4 out of the 10 movies I chose both dates.  Let's see how I do this year. BEST PICTURE NOMINEES 2012: (I do it out of 10, even though it could be 5-10) The Dark Knight Rises Prometheus The Hobbit Brave To Rome with Love Les Miserables Life of Pi Django Unchained The Great Gatsby Moonrise Kingdom Woody Allen working on "To Rome with Love" So I'm thinking 2012 might be the Oscar year of blockbusters!  There are also the inclusion of great director's work, Tarantino ( Django ), Wes Anderson ( Moonrise ) and Ang Lee ( Pi ).  Pixar has also had 2 Best Picture nominees in the race in the past few years, so "Brave" is a strong ...

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...