Popcorn Zombies

By Michael Momper Instead of watching the newest Star Wars blockbuster, cozy up with a glass of Woodford Reserve and enjoy the somewhat-lavish casino world of Mississippi Grind , the latest stellar piece of art from writer and director Ryan Fleck. Fleck, at this point, seems to be a master at capturing the snowball effects of addiction, as he did so marvelously in the 2006 film Half Nelson , one of my favorite movies of the millennium. In Mississippi Grind , released in 2015, his newest character study centers around the crippling gambling addiction of real estate agent Gerry, portrayed perfectly by talented character actor Ben Mendelsohn. His suave and charming foil character, Curtis, is played by Ryan Reynolds and turns out to be the perfect complement to Gerry's hard-living charisma. What follows is an atmospheric and riveting journey down the Mississippi River's state borders, as we see just how easy it is to fall victim to the siren that is the Gambler's Fallacy. ...

Graham Craycraft Curb Your Enthusiasm Season Nine’s finale titled, Fatwa!, ends the show on a brilliant note. Larry David’s hesitation to make this new season left fans wondering as well if it could live up to the other seasons prior. Not only did this season live up to the others, but it far surpassed some as well. Larry’s theme for the new season, getting sentenced with a fatwa by the Ayatollah, was hilarious in itself, but also expertly executed. In classic Larry David fashion, no small mistake or annoying social mannerism could go unnoticed. Watching some of these episodes from season nine I would audibly call out "why can't you just leave it alone?" but always through laughter. Even the amount of ketchup a person uses must be called out. The plot itself pokes fun and looks a little bit into the life of Salman Rushdie, another man living with a Fatwa, only this one being real. He is forced to run, hide, but eventually breaks out into the world of fatwa sex (so e...

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, ...