TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

What a wonderful, marvelous year it was for the movies. Emphasis on the Marvel: the studio produced three movies this year, and honestly all three could've been added to this list in a weaker year. I think what bonds this list of five films together is uniqueness: each put a spin on either a tired formula or predictable pattern and exceeded everyone's expectations, and brandished interesting and complex faces into the ever-growing, endlessly fascinating world of the movies. For a couple hours at a time I was able to fly with Michael Keaton, investigate with Ben Affleck and drive with Tom Hardy. Movies have such a way of whisking you away for a while, and I think that's why everyone got so up in arms when The Interview was cancelled because of the Sony hackers. Though it's a low-brow bro-humor movie, everyone should be able to have free artistic license with their film, and we ultimately did not bow down. As usual, here are a list of films I either need to see or reg...

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...