TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

When things become a sucess, I don't know, I feel like I missed them, I blink, and all of a sudden they're a huge success.  Like the TV show "Modern Family."  I decided I'd give it a chance because I love Ed O'Neil from "Married...with Children," and of course the pilot killed.  By the end of the first season people were declaring it one of the best sitcoms ever, it had enormous Emmy buzz...and I just feel like I missed the moment where "Modern Family" became this massive success.  I love the show though, it's one of the few new things on TV I watch nowadays.  That's why I feel accomplished when I'm able to see a superstar being born in Tom Hardy when I watched "The Dark Knight Rises" last week.  "Inception" already made him a breakout star back in 2010, but his performance as Bane really cemented his celebrity status.  I don't even like that word "celebrity," it cemented his status as a gifted,...

My 1st Woody Allen film was a little movie called "Annie Hall," Allen's Best Picture-winning film from 1977, which famously beat out the 1st "Star Wars" movie for the top prize. I don't agree with that choice, but the "little movie that could" was clever, a little snarky, but had some majorly good messages of love and how hard it is to keep relationships alive. "Midnight in Paris" keeps some of these themes, but does it in what I'm tempted to say is in an even better format. "Midnight in Paris" was the first gem for me in 2011 cinema. The one movie I was fascinated by though was Terrence Mallick's "The Tree of Life," which sounded alot like last year's "Inception" in that people weren't really sure what it was about and when they left the theater they still weren't entirely sure what they saw. I respect and love movies that have that effect on people. "Tree of Life" was in lim...

2010 was not a fantastic year for movies like 2008 was, but it did provide some very good offerings, especially in the field of animation. Here are my 5 favorite films of the year two-thousand and ten: 5. "How to Train Your Dragon" I remember seeing the poster for this while seeing "The Blind Side" and thought that it looked unbelievably lame. I was very wrong, this is a beautifully designed and produced film for children and adults alike. The story is fairly original, and the Scotish voice talent is very humorous ! The scenes where Hiccup (the main character) gets to know Toothless (the dragon in question) is both comical and touching, and the film is not at all regular kid-fluff, making it my #2 favorite animated film of the year. 4. "The King's Speech" The likely Best Picture winner for this year is a very moving and emotional piece of classic drama. Performances are spot-on, especially Colin Firth's masterful art of stuttering, and it r...

Wow. I've been anticipating this movie for EVER . The constant reviews flaunting: "It will change the way movies are made" and "Matrix meets James Bond" were very encouraging, even though I hadn't seen either of those films. I finally found someone who was interested in going and headed into the theater knowing maybe 5% what this movie was really about. Oh. My. God. Chris Nolan, the same dude who made every one's favorite sequel "The Dark Knight" 2 years ago returns with this modern masterpiece about dreams. I've seen at least 3 sequels already this year, and even though they were all great, I'm expecting what's going to happen because they're treading on familiar territory. IT GETS OLD, GUYS. "Inception" is a huge breath of fresh air that takes whatever you thought you knew about this film, turns it upside down and slaps you silly with something new at every corner. Alfred Hitchcock once said "If the audien...