Popcorn Zombies

Yes, as critics have pointed out numerous times, don't see Jigsaw if you don't like gore or the Saw franchise. It's as simple as that. You will hate it. If this is not the case, feel free to read further. Ah, another Halloween with a new Saw movie to keep us in the grisly spirit of wincing and laughing at tortured and lost souls! I am partially kidding... but of course, there are endless opportunities here to remember that you must "cherish your life", a message that will repeat so often that it will feel like a slap to the face, or rather, a rusty nail-garnished baseball bat to the head. In all seriousness, this is what I want from a Halloween movie and nothing more. As I get older I find that I want to cherish Halloween more, and would rather not spend it pondering existentially about the horrifying historical cases of demonic possession while forcing myself to keep the lights off watching The Exorcist or The Conjuring (both incredible movies, however, ...

Graham Craycraft Suburbicon is directed by George Clooney, written by Clooney and the Coen Brothers, and is set in 1959 in the community of Suburbicon which models Anytown USA. The film balances two levels of plot which seems at first to be poorly executed, but on further study and thought it is executed mediocrely. There is a clear cut racial issue of a black family moving into the solely white lived community of Suburbicon. Matt Damon’s character, Gardner Lodge,  and his family deal with the tragedy of losing his wife to violent criminals and those criminals are also looked into with some detail. Clooney’s different plot channels would be better suited to separate movies. He weakly, or absently, mixes in the race issue with the study of the Lodge’s family. They only work together in a few scenes which I’ll let you get to on your own as they would spoil some level of the movie. With great acting and one well thought out storyline Suburbicon is a good movie. Damon, who ...

Graham Craycraft Curb your Enthusiasm season nine debuts with the episode "Foisted." Larry David is finally back after many years of a break from the show. The time in between season eight and nine was much longer than any usual break. Larry David loves doing this show and has said before that it is the most fun thing he does right now. So why the large gap? Well David said for years after season eight that he was thinking of revamping the show but just still wanted it to be funny. The same issue plagued Seinfeld during those years. One of the most popular shows in television history did not return after season nine because they wanted it to be funny up until the end. So with that in mind let's get into the new season. As previously stated, the first episode is named "Foisted," and begins in a kind of strange way. After the immediate hilarious opening of David in the shower trying to open a bottle of pump shampoo, ultimately ending with him destroying i...

By Michael Momper In a world full of mindless and trivial sci-fi movies that often unravel to be little more than quick cash-grabs, it is a SEQUEL that stands alone in 2017 as the most thought-provoking, riveting, and beautifully photographed sci-fi film yet. Blade Runner 2049 is an achievement in filmmaking on its own, but it is absolutely astounding to me that it can so accurately capture the atmosphere and philosophical musings of its source material that came 35 years before it. Regrettably, the sci-fi film industry has decided to masquerade behind a shiny facade of CGI as effects have become more stunningly realistic; this facade usually serves as a distraction to the fact that there is little emotional depth, and very little rumination on parallels between the futuristic world created therein and our world today (movies with a lot to look at but little to say, such as " Jupiter Ascending ", come to mind). Director Dennis Villenueve, however, is no sucker for hollow...

By Michael Momper It has come time for a review of a brand-new movie with very mixed reviews and some surprisingly negative backlash: The second addition to the Kingsman franchise. I am writing this review not to play Devil's advocate, but to tell you why I believe many of the top critics are looking at this movie in entirely the wrong light. En route to a somewhat disappointing opening weekend, the newest Kingsman movie had quite a lot of hype after the first movie came seemingly out of nowhere to entertain millions. This surprise success, directed by Matthew Vaughan, was not only bolstered by incredible action and very creative special effects, but also did a great job of satirizing the seriousness of some spy and heist movies. The first Kingsman movie had some great characters (namely Colin Firth's secret agent mentor, Harry), but also had a very fun and lighthearted approach that acted as a catalyst for the superb action sequences. It was a wildly different spy movie, ...

Graham Craycraft Wind River is Taylor Sheridan’s third screenwriting achievement. After movies like Sicario and Hell or High Water, I was already impressed. Now I’m in disbelief. Not only is Wind River another great film, but it is also Sheridan’s directorial debut. While only clocking in at 111 minutes, this film feels like a lifetime. We’ve all sat through a mediocre movie that can just never find its ending. This is not those movies. This “lifetime” that I am referring to is a journey that you will never want to end. Immediately when the movie started I thought to myself how Tom Hardy would’ve been a perfect cast, and not Jeremy Renner for this role. Jeremy… I’m sorry. You have proved me so wrong and I love you for it. Renner’s character shares the audience’s frustration at the lack of evident facts at hand. He is no lawman and doesn’t pretend to be one. As he reminds the characters and the audience a few times, he is just a hunter and a tracker. And he’s ready to hunt whateve...

By Michael Momper Logan Lucky is an incredibly fun and delightful bit of popcorn entertainment. Now, with that out of the way, I would like to bring up a dishonest cinema trick that has irked me for years- you can call it "quote mining".  This occurs on most DVD boxes or advertisements for movies that get very few truthfully positive reviews. For example, if film critic Graham Craycraft were to say that Bad Grandpa is "Unabashedly and unapologetically awful, with absolutely zero moments of hilarity within", I would not be surprised if the film studio ran an advertisement that quoted him saying "Unabashed and unapologetic, with moments of absolute hilarity within".  Believe it or not, stuff like this happens all the time in the movie business because some movies just have nothing positive to be said about them.  It is always frustrating when a movie reviewer starts a sentence saying "Far from the best movie of the year..." and the advertising c...