TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Oscar season has kicked off with the arrival of "Gravity," so what better time to reflect on the buzzed around movies that have already been released this year? "Lee Daniels' The Butler" (directed by Lee Daniels, who would've known) and Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine" both saw a lot of potential, while being vastly different in subject matter. I give my abbreviated reviews of both in this double Oscar bait movie review! LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER: Carey in the mute performance of a lifetime "The Butler" features a "Where's Waldo?" cast of celebrity cameos that range from John Cusack (Nixon) to Alan Rickman (as Reagan no less) that greatly distract from the emotional impact Lee Daniels' "Lee Daniels' The Butler" attempts to portray. The first mistake "The Butler" makes is having Mariah Carey as our protagonist's slave mother in the opening sequence. I think Daniels has a suppressed cra...

Last year, Woody Allen made what some people would call a "comeback."  Is it really a comeback though, when you're Woody Allen?  Woody Allen's been making virtually a movie a year, and a lot of times he makes good movies, but not to the point of success that "Midnight in Paris" did.  I loved "Paris," but I also loved what some consider one of his misses, the Larry David comedy "Whatever Works." (But that could be because I love "Curb Your Enthusiasm.")  Overall I'm just a big Allen fan, although I've seen maybe 6 of his films at the most, he's become one of my favorite directors, due to his obvious style in cinema. "To Rome with Love" is the third (and supposedly final) installment of his European trilogy (along with "Paris" and the exquisite "Vicky Cristina Barcelona").  Allen is like Picasso in that way, when he goes through a period of films.  The fact that he could just go on a...

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...