TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

It's 2013!  Hooray!  It's that time again for me to gather the films I've seen this year, and somehow sort them into a dignified list of the most quality films I've seen in 2012.  As noted already, in the history of cinema, 2012 has been one of its greatest years, financially or otherwise.  Bloated sequels and bland remakes still crowded the cinemas, but the majority of films managed to blow me away.  Keep in mind I'm not a professional critic, and only count movies released this year I've seen from 1/1/12-12/31/12.  On my wish list are "Zero Dark Thirty," "Silver Linings Playbook" and "The Impossible," but I welcome criticism.  Let's begin, and don't forget to see the ones that juuuuuuust missed the mark, and the ones that were, well.... un remarkable. 5. BERNIE I didn't review this or the following film on my list because I saw them way too late, but I caught it on DVD over winter break.  Jack's nomination fo...

It''s that time again to take another ridiculous stab in the dark to see which movies are going to be nominated for that big gold trophy that will ultimately make their careers peak early.  My April 25th predictions can be seen here , and I was definitely off on at least half of the predictions.  The blockbuster films "Brave" and "Prometheus" both debuted to positive, but not Oscar-status reviews; "To Rome with Love" fell a little flat by Woody Allen standards, and "The Great Gatsby" got pushed to next summer.  Here are the 5 films I stand by that I'm pretty sure will get nominated from April 25th: The Dark Knight Rises (can Bane get a supporting Oscar?) Life of Pi (the trailer has cemented its status as one of the best movies to look out for) The Hobbit (despite Jackson turning this into a trilogy) Django Unchained Moonrise Kingdom Les Miserables (after the role of Catwoman people are starting to really pay attention to M...

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 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,...

People are calling "The Dark Knight Rises," the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy "the most anticipated movie of the summer."  I'd like to think they're underplaying it a little bit, so let me be the fanboy who hypes/hams it up: "The Dark Knight" is arguably the best superhero ever made, some say one of the greatest period, Heath Ledger won on ACADEMY AWARD for playing the Joker, something that would've sounded bizarre but made so much sense after you watched the film, and America has been teased with whatever dental-wear we thought Bane had going on, the debate if Anne Hathaway was sexy enough which will make you feel dirty after watching "The Princess Diaries," and wondering if the trailers, posters and reviews of this film will ever succeed the unreachable mountain standards set by that Oscar-snubbed film in 2008? Well, it has.  I won't pretend I liked it better than "The Dark Knight," but as a...

I'm no news reporter, you can ask anyone.  But when I heard of the Aurora, Colorado movie theater massacre last Saturday...well I didn't know what to think.  I was at a hotel and the news just sort of stunned me.  At the time it was reported 15 people killed and dozens more injured, and I was sort of in a state of shock.  After learning more details, and seeing the suspect's  disturbing profile, confusion and frustration quickly  transferred  into anger and melancholy. As I said I'm not a news reporter, but I'm a movie critic.  I'm not even a real movie critic, I see films I want to see and write my stupid opinion about them.  But I am an avid moviegoer, and that is why I'm talking about this....because it hits home; hard.  The movies are a place to relax and avoid the drama and complications of everyday life while watching someone else go through those things.  Going to the movies is as American as it gets, and not even being abl...

Before I go into what is going to be a considerably lengthy review, I'd like to inform you on my weird, complicated past with Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight:" when it came out in theaters the summer of 2008, my uncle read a review in the Washington Post claiming the movie was too violent for preteens, so I couldn't go.  I didn't feel like I really missed anything until Oscar time, where I heard there were raves for Heath Ledger's performance.  Weirder still was he had died, and the mystique of his death only added to me wanting to see "TDK" even more. Well I finally got it for Christmas of 2008, and got around to watching it early 2009.  Almost immediately after I watched it, I had this sudden urge to vomit, not due to the movie of course,  but I had eaten too much previously.  Though it didn't sour the experience for me (I thought it was still an excellent film, if not a little over-hyped) I still associate "TDK" with thes...

A good writer must always be willing to realize he made a mistake, and I've realized one has occurred.  In my review of "The Hunger Games" I stated that it was the most buzzed about movie of the year.  I was wrong.  It is obviously "The Avengers." Realistically it'll probably be "The Dark Knight Rises" coming out in a few months, but at the moment, "The Avengers" is the only thing people want to talk about, the only thing they want to see, the only thing they want to think about.  I haven't seen my peers, fellow critics, and others more excited about a superhero movie since the original "Dark Knight."  To say my hopes weren't at an all time high for this is an insult to my hopes. That said, (I feel terrible, writing about the film this late, but I was told people were sitting on theater steps during it's gargantuan opening weekend, so I didn't even attempt) the buzz is 100% accurate, but I can't call it t...

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 ...

It's been brought to my attention that recent Best Picture winners haven't been great.  Common winners that are cited that suck are: "The Greatest Show on Earth," (God was that long) "Chicago" (a satisfactory musical at the most) and "Around the World in 80 Days," which I've yet to see.  I omit one Best Picture winner that EVERYONE calls the worst because I sincerely enjoyed it, and that is 2005's "Crash."  People take a dump on "Crash" a lot, but I really liked it when I saw it on TV several months ago.  Was it the best movie ever?  No.  Was it the best movie of 2005?  I wouldn't even go that far.  I'd even go as far as to say there probably was homophobia among Oscar voters, and that's why "Crash" won over the favorited "Brokeback Mountain," because their Rotten Tomatoes scores are: Crash-76 Brokeback Mountain-87. That's a significant 11 points.  I've yet to see "Brokebac...

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...