Beautiful Creatures

“Beautiful Creatures” is a dull, silly movie overburdened with exposition in order to establish its vapid mythology, all surrounding a tween-targeted romance between two low-wattage young stars.

Suffice it to say, I’m not a fan.

The 2013 Winter Movie Season Preview

Ok, boys and girls. The Holiday Season is over… and the Spring Season, full of mini Blockbusters, is still months away.

Between now and then lies Hollywood’s dumping ground. The Hollywood fields lie fallow in the winter, bearing little quality product. It’s the two months of the year we need to “Get through”. While January typically offers some limited releases from the prior year going wide, there’s typically little else to get excited over.

Will this year be different? Are there any movies to get excited about these next two months? Let’s take a look at the release slate and see what we’ve got!

Won’t Back Down

“Won’t Back Down” stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis as a parent and a teacher, respectively, who get fed up with the conditions and the poor results of the school they’re both involved with. Out of frustration with the ruling bureaucracy, they take matters into their own hands and attempt to overtake control of the school via their State’s “Parent Trigger” law. Essentially, if they can muster enough support for their proposal and the school board approves their motion, they can disband the current school administration and turn the school into a charter school.

It’s a well acted, if heavy-handed movie. It raises numerous issues with the educational system, without presenting any valid solutions. Still though, the earnestness of the performances, and the fact that for the most part they try to avoid shameless emotional manipulation and stick to a relatively plausible story made for an enjoyable watch for me.

The 2012 Fall Movie Preview – Part I

With this weekend’s release of “The Expendables 2” and “ParaNorman”, the summer movie season is pretty much over. One weekend remains in August, and those movies wont have much room to run before school is back in session.

Nope, the season of the big blockbuster is behind us. It’s time to look ahead to the fall.

Not to despair, though, the fall brings sharp movies for the thinking movie fan. Movies which may have more selective box office appeal, but which may be some of the best movies all year.

So click through to take a look at the first part of this year’s fall preview. Today we’ll look at the last week of August, plus September, and then we’ll come back tomorrow with October and the first week of November. Together they’ll take us right up to the start of the Holiday movie season, and the November 9th release of Skyfall!

The 2011 FMR MAJOR Award Winner for Best Actress

Drum roll please!

This post beyond contains the winner of the FMR MAJOR Award for the Best Actress of 2011.

Five wonderful actresses who all did incredible jobs, and really, really impressed me with their talent. But there’s only one Leg Lamp to be given out.

Your nominees are: Viola Davis, “The Help”, Rooney Mara, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, Carey Mulligan, “Drive”, Charlize Theron, “Young Adult”, Kristen Wiig, “Bridesmaids”.

Who will the winner be?

Click continue reading to find out!!