TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

In a year where the most anticipated movie franchise is The Hunger Games , the movie coming out this weekend is The Maze Runner , and  Divergent is one of its more successful films, what a wonderfully refreshing surprise it is to see The Giver , a sci-fi action(ish) movie based on a beloved young adult book. They're really changing things up here in 2014. All joking aside, I was actually pretty excited to hear a few months ago that "The Giver"   was finally getting its dues. The novel we all had to read sometime or another as tweens (for me it was fifth grade) gets the silver screen adaptation. And full disclosure, that is the last time I've read "The Giver." For me it was a complicated time, and I have memories of lying on my beanbag chair, reading that final chapter, wondering what the book was all about. It certainly wasn't "Magic Treehouse" or "The Bailey School Kids," no this was definitely a young adult book, emphasis on adult...

Wow this summer's films have been boring. I'd hate to be a pro-critic, I'd have 2 see movies like "Killers," "Sex in the City 2," and "Marmaduke;" all getting awful reviews from critics. I've only seen a handful of 2010 movies, not a single original-written movie I've seen or a sequel that has blown me out of the water seen yet. I plan on seeing "Toy Story 3" with a few friends this coming Saturday, non 3-D unfortunately. Then in July I'm not missing Christopher Nolan's ( Batman Begins, The Dark Knight ) "Inception." These, along with a few other films I've seen advertised look like (POSSIBLY) what (1/2) the Academy might choose come voting time: Love Ranch (with Oscar winners Helen Mirren & Joe Pesci ) Inception (they gotta repay Nolan for the TDK rob of Best Picture in '08) Toy Story 3 (maybe finally the 1st animated Best Picture winner, #7 on IMDB's Top 250) Eat Pray Love (with Os...