I'm often able to squeeze in a dozen or more films in the last couple weeks of December - mostly stuff that others have told me is worth checking out that I either missed when it came out in Chicago or titles that simply never came out locally. I hope you dig the list and that it gives you some ideas for purchases, streaming, rentals, and most importantly, going to the theater and checking them out on the big screen (a few of these are still in theaters). I saw a lot of good movies this year, so condensing this to 15 was not easy...
Read moreThe Hateful Eight Movie Review
Quentin Tarantino's unrequited love for 60s era spaghetti westerns is again on full bloody display in The Hateful Eight. It is a gruesomely violent, garrulous, and protracted homage to a style of filmmaking the director fervently adores. Shot in 70mm with an overture, intermission, and score by the legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone; The Hateful Eight clocks in at a staggering three hours and seven minutes. The film is an ugly, yet fascinating discourse on race relations and loyalty.
Read moreThe Revenant Movie Review
Years from now when people look back at “The Revenant,” one thing is really going to stand out – the brutality of this film. This movie depicts both man and nature at their worst and it absolutely glues you to the screen. The movie is part survival story, part revenge tale and it depicts both unflinchingly.
Read moreHow Star Wars has Influenced Modern Computer Science
In honor of the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens this Thursday, December 17th, the New Jersey Institute of Technology computer science program wanted to commemorate the event with a video that looked at how Star Wars and other bedrocks of the science fiction canon influenced and predicted the future of computer science.
Read moreStar Wars The Force Awakens Movie Review (Spoiler-free)
The movie's good. Damn good, actually. Besides one noticeable throwaway mention early in the movie there's almost nothing from the prequels on display. It's clear as crystal this is a course correction and a direct continuation from the original trilogy. Nothing negates the prequels, mind you, so prequel fans don't need to get immediately defensive. No, it's just that the focus is squarely on capturing the OT tone, sense of fun and adventure and continuing THAT story.
Read moreImplementing Small Habits to Create Big Change
I’ve learned and grown more in 2015 than in any year prior and am truly grateful for all the experiences I've had. In some ways, I feel like I've evolved as a person more in this year than all prior years combined. I spent a lot of time on myself - reflecting, meditating, reading, writing, dreaming, planning, and executing. The year went by incredibly fast, but at the same time, I feel like I put so much into it and was able to get even more out of it. This is, without a doubt, the direct result of the habits I created based on the goals I set at the beginning of the year.
Read moreCREED Movie Review: A Love Letter
When we first meet Adonis Johnson in 1998, he’s serving time in juvenile detention. He is coiled rage, ready to strike, fists gripped tight. No one can get through to him – at least, until Mary Anne Creed (a returning Phylicia Rashad) comes into his cell and drops a bit of familial truth on him. Adonis’s fists slowly unclench, and his eyes grow wide. “What was his name?” he asks, and we smash cut to the title. At that point, Ryan Coogler’s CREED owned me.
Read moreAces' Guilty Pleasures: Starship Troopers
The moment when you discover what Starship Troopers is really about is one of the great eureka moments in the life of any young movie dork. I’ve got vivid memories of sneaking into and staggering out of a suburban multiplex in 1997 and sputtering, “What the fuck was that?” To my young self, it was basically Saved by the Bell plus giant alien bugs cutting people in half. And since I liked the spectacle of giant-monster-related carnage, I wasn’t even mad. I was just confounded. Like: Why were all the human characters so stupid? Could it be possible that a movie so big and expensive could also be so blindingly, knowingly dumb? And how is someone going to make a grand-scale blockbuster with Doogie Howser, MD as the most famous person in the cast. (Neil Patrick Harris was still unequivocally Doogie at that point; he would remain Doogie until the first Harold and Kumar flick. Look, 1997 was a long time ago.) And when a friend’s mom told me, years later, that the movie was really about fascism and militarism, I absolutely thought that person was full of shit (sorry Ms Spurlin). But that’s exactly what it is. Starship Troopers may be the greatest joke ever played on the American movie going public.
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