TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

The odd couple troupe is one of the oldest cinema can offer: but if it ain't broke, right? The joy of The Nice Guys , a good turnaround for acclaimed writer/director Shane Black, who we last saw helm Iron Man 3 , is seeing these two Oscar-nominated actors play the camera for laughs. You don't think belly laughs when you think of Russell Crowe. Ryan Gosling was in last year's Oscar-winning comedy The Big Short , and he was pretty funny it, and we know he has chops from his "SNL" appearance. But they're generally seen as dramatic actors, so the joy of seeing them drive around 1970's L.A. with a hallucinatory creature is pretty spectacular. The plot (for a mystery, anyway) is much pretty straightforward, with a few curves and backtracks to make it juicy. Healy, a "hit man," as I like to call him, because he pretty much just punches you in the face (Crowe) comes to private eye Holland March's (Gosling) door, breaks his arm and tells him to not ...

You won't understand The Big Short . "Stop calling me Michael Scott!" That is, unless you're an insider in the banking business. That's probably not even how you use that phrase. Banking industry? How about super villain headquarters? Yeah, I like that a little better. As we learned from The Wolf of Wall S treet (and uh, common sense: how many articles talk about the nice guys of Wall Street?) there are plenty of bankers and investors willing and ready to make a profit at the risk of the 99%. Ryan Gosling's Jared Vennett certainly knows this. He's one of the insiders who saw the 2008 bubble pop, the housing and banking collapse that led to one of the largest recessions in U.S. history. Everyone in this movie is based on real people, based on Michael Lewis' nonfiction book of the same name. But this movie will tell you when it's fibbing on the truth a little: and that's the biggest thing it has going for it. As I said, laymen to this bus...

Since there are rather obscure categories (Gut-Wrenching Performance? Best Kiss? And now Best Villain is referred to as "Best On-Screen Dirt-bag?" Geez) in the MTV Movie Awards, I'll only cover a few major categories.  "Hunger Games" and "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" appears so often it's almost ridiculous, but here are the big categories ("*" indicates my prediction to win): BEST CAST: Bridesmaids Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 The Hunger Games* 21 Jump Street The Help It's good to see actual Oscar movies nominated for this awards show.  The only movie actually in theaters right now from this list is "Hunger Games" and "21 Jump Street" (barely).  You want to know what was nominated last time they had a Best Cast award? "Fantastic Four" and "The Dukes of Hazzard."  Yeah. That's real. BEST ACTOR: Joseph Gordon-Levitt- 50/50 Ryan Gosling- Drive Josh Hutcherson...