Review: “Sabotage”

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David Ayer is a tasteless filmmaker. When he started his career as the screenwriter for such hits like Training Day and The Fast and the Furious, he had the benefit of filmmakers who knew how to incorporate gritty, over-the-top violence in ways that were emotionally raw, in Training Day’s case, or zanily pulpy, in Fast and Furious’. Behind the camera as a director, however, Ayer seems to have no control, relishing in bloody, bombastic shootouts that overshadow any sense of plot, pace, or character development. Senseless violence on screen has always been a hot button issue and Ayer seems to be its biggest proponent. Unfortunately and unsettlingly, his latest, Sabotage, a DEA actioner starring an aged Arnold Schwarzenegger, is as tasteless as filmmaking gets. Honestly, it’s downright disturbing.

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Review: “Divergent”

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As Nick Franco noted earlier this week , Divergent, Neil Burger’s $80 million adaptation of the first novel in Veronica Roth’s best selling dystopian trilogy, comes at a crucial, make-it-or-break-it time for the young adult adaptation genre. The Twilight Saga and its endless string of hypnotically tiring stares shot in extreme close up are long gone, the juggernaut Hunger Games and its fearless, emotionally complex protagonist are half over, and the rest – Beautiful Creatures, The Host, Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones, Vampire Academy – have all failed miserably trying to combine the burning passion of the former with the strong-willed independence of the later. Fortunately, Divergent is way better than the recent rut of young adult adaptations, but I’m not so sure its moderate success will be enough to save the dying genre. It’s a semi-entertaining lifeline but hardly the anchor this genre needs now that The Hunger…

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Review: “The 86th Annual Academy Awards”

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Was there a better moment this entire awards season than when Lupita Nyong’o passionately took the stage to accept her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress? I don’t think so. The 12 Years A Slave stunner, looking gorgeous in her light blue gown, capped off a remarkable debut awards tour with a much-deserved win (the fact Nyong’o is such a radiant ball of joy makes her soul-shattering agony in 12 Years all the more worthy of the prize) and a truly impeccable speech, dedicated to all the dreamers out there striving to make their goals valid. An Academy Award for your first film performance out of college aint too shabby.  Nyong’o was just one of many winners who delivered unusually tasteful speeches, along with Jared Leto’s heartfelt tribute to his mother and Matthew McConaughey’s existential rambling about the three things he needs most in life. Is it just me or…

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86th Annual Academy Award Predictions: “12 Years”, “Gravity”, & More!

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We finally made it folks! After months and months of campaigning and one precursor award after the next, the 86 ^th Annual Academy Awards airs tonight at 8pm/ET on ABC. It’s been a truly remarkable year for cinema and tonight the Academy chooses which films and performances enter the prestigious pantheon of Oscar-winners. With Ellen DeGeneres taking the reigns as host, we have no doubt that we’re in for a hilarious evening , and with so many films worthy of Oscar love, we’re hoping the Academy is more generous than usual this year in spreading the wealth around to a multitude of deserving pictures. Above all, we’re beyond excited to see how this year’s dramatic Best Picture race – a three-way, neck-and-neck race between 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, and American Hustle – turns out. It’s not every year the Oscar race ends in a photo finish, so we should…

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