On the Screen Reviews has been active in the blogosphere since 2012, and during this four-year span, I’ve serendipitously stumbled upon other great movie blogs.
I’ve never made an appreciation post to the websites I frequent and interact with, so I’ve decided it’s time to pay respect. These are the top 10 movie blogs you should be following, and they’re the ones I interact with the most.
In no particular order, here’s some clickbait.
With the awards season ebbing towards us we ought to pay some respect to the films gone by in 2016 before they get swept away. More specifically, then, with an array of cinematic moments to choose from I plucked these 7 indelible scenes from 7 very different movies, which have all left their mark on me in various ways. By no means my favorite moments, or my favorite movies (though some are), but certainly deserve their pin in the 2016 map. In no particular order…
The Birth of a Nation is a great made for TV movie. There. I said it.
Nation is being billed as an important movie — a story that demands to be heard. I hear it, but my most anticipated movie of the year has left me completely empty.
Since it’s double win in January at the Sundance Film Festival taking home both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize, Nation was the movie to beat in the 2017 Oscar race. The film was picked up by distributor Fox Searchlight who ushered movies like Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave and Birdman to Best Picture glory. It’s been the most talked about movie of 2016…but for all the wrong reasons.
Director Nate Parker said he wanted to make a film that fell in line with films like Braveheart and Defiance, where the opposed rose up against the oppressors. But let me tell you, this is no Braveheart.
Hello, lovelies. Thank you to Courtney at On The Screen Reviews for allowing me to do a guest post. Today I wanted to list my personal top 10 fantasy films. I am a big lover of films and so being able to do a Top 10 is right up my street. So, lets begin!
Rebellious teenage orphan Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) is shipped off to live with a foster family in the New Zealand countryside. Unhappy with his new surroundings, he attempts to run away and hide in the unforgiving wilderness. His reluctant caretaker Hector (Sam Neill) eventually finds him, and the unlikely duo survive in the harsh terrain as a nationwide manhunt is launched to find them.
Thanks to Wendell @Dell on Movies and KG @KG’s Movie Rants for putting together the Against the Crowd Blogathon!
Here are the rules:
1. Pick one movie that “everyone” loves (the more iconic, the better). That movie must have a score of at least 75% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you hate it.
2. Pick one movie that “everyone” hates (the more notorious, the better). That movie must have a score of less than 35% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you love it.
3. Include the tomato meter scores of both movies.
4. Use one of the banners in this post, or feel free to create your own.
5. Comment on this post, or on KG’s Movie Rants with the two movies you intend on writing on.
6. Publish your post on any day from Monday August 22 through Friday August 26, 2016.
Great movie soundtracks act like an additional actor in the movie. More than setting, more than costume, more than clever editing in the studio, music is the final dimension that conveys emotion, place and character, sometimes without even having to say a single word.
These compilation albums are the best of their kind, and their accompanying movies would have been lost without them. So grab your headphones, sit back and enjoy the tunes—they’re some of the greatest of all time.
“It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be awesome. Awesome ain’t easy.”
It takes Steve an hour-and-a-half to get out of bed in the morning, but he hasn’t lost his sense of humor or purpose in this world.
While you think you may have a grasp on what this documentary will cover, you really have no idea until you watch it. This isn’t a documentary about football, and it’s not even a documentary about living with ALS. Gleason is about being human and learning how to survive under extraordinary circumstances.
“My intention is to pass on as much of who I am as I possibly can to you,” Steve Gleason says in the trailer to his unborn son, Rivers.
The film originated as a passion project after his diagnosis with ALS in 2011, as a series of video journals for his son, but as time progressed, his project became larger than life.
“What was that? I should kill everyone and escape? Sorry, it’s the voices. Ahaha, I’m kidding! That’s not what they really said.”
“FUCK YOU, MARVEL,” announced overconfident Suicide Squad writer/director David Ayer at the movie’s world premiere in New York earlier this week. He’s now eating his words.
Suicide Squad is the unconventional superhero film desperately needed in the DC universe (or universe in general) to combat the superhero fatigue everyone is experiencing. What made this project so unique is that it is the first movie in the series of DC adaptations that is not directed by Zack Snyder. Sounds perfect, right??
With the disappointment of Batman v Superman, Warner Brothers felt responsible for proving to the world that they had a firm handle on DC Comics characters. They needed a box office hit fast. Suicide Squad was intended to be their saving grace, but with re-shoots and severe tinkering, their sticky little fingers fudged any possibility of redemption. Warner Brothers only has themselves to blame for the film’s 32% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The hype surrounding this movie has been astronomical. Since it’s killer teaser trailer at last year’s San Diego Comic Con, Suicide Squad was my most anticipated movie of 2016. And their marketing campaign has been building the hype-train heavily for a solid year…more exposure than I can remember from a movie. The problem with movies like this one with such a deep-rooted fan base is that expectations are inconceivably insane. It’s a rarity to please both the fanboys and the critics with comic book source material, but whether it’s positive or negative, everyone is talking about this movie.
But does the movie defy the generic and live up to the hype?
“We never would’ve upset you if we knew you had superpowers!”
If you combine the wonder of Steven Spielberg, the dread of John Carpenter and add a heavy dose of Stephen King, then you’ve got all the ingredients of the SciFi Netflix show Stranger Things.
This 80’s nostalgic-heavy hybrid is this summer’s binge-worthy eight episode television experience involving parallel universes, telekinesis and a whole lot of references to 80s classics and culture.
On November 6, 1983 in suburban Indiana, 12-year-old Will Byers mysteriously vanishes. Will’s mother, Joyce, frantically begins her own quest to find Will, while Police Chief Hopper begins his own investigation. The next day a mysterious girl with supernatural abilities named Eleven is found by Will’s friends and claims to know Will’s whereabouts. The closer everyone comes to the truth, the stranger things become. They’ll have to evade a government agency with their own agenda, and a sinister supernatural entity, to get Will back.
This series hits some serious highs with it’s acting (particularly the child actors), it’s atmosphere, electronic soundtrack (I hear you, Tangerine Dream!), nostalgia and the possibility of Winona Ryder’s Winonaissance. The series even has the immaculate stamp of approval from the almighty Stephen King himself, so why do I feel so lukewarm about it?
