Mr. Brown Versus

In October of 2012, I heard Adele's contribution to the latest 007 picture  Skyfall , and I thought the title track of the same name would go on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song, which tuned out to be spot on. So far, I have a perfect 1-1 track record in predicting what will win the Academy Award in music, so I'm going to make another accurate prediction: not only will the theme song to this new James Bond film, Spectre , will not only miss a Best Original Song nomination, but it will also go down as one of the worst 007 tracks in the franchise's storied history. I hate to do this, because, in general, I do think Sam Smith is a very good singer-songwriter. I love that he goes for a mix of soul, lush melodies and emphasis on production value. I think tracks like "Stay With Me" & "Not The Only One" are solid pop tunes. The problem is that his soft falsetto voice does not mix with the theme of a Bond song; and furthermore, the track comes off...

Geez, Hunger Games  franchise: I know Mockingjay - Part II  is the last movie in your sci-fi YA series, but there's no excuse to all but announce that Prim (Willow Shields), Katniss Everdeen's younger sister, is going to end up biting the dust! Basically, the latest trailer is an extend montage between Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and her younger sister, from the first movie in the series, to the clip of the two of them dancing at Finnick's wedding. All thought this is the two of them conversing from previous exchanges of dialogue from various moments in the series, which, along with the music attached to it, makes it even more obvious that the younger Everdeen is going to die. And why would the Lion Gate's PR team spoil such an important plot point in the first place? I get they're playing on fans who have already read the book, but for those who haven't read Mockingjay, this trailer is just a big, fat announcement that a major character isn't making it ...

It's been 23 years since Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park was released and was hailed as another crowning achievement from the master storyteller, and another 8 years since Joe Johnson milked dry the udders of what was left of the franchise with Jurassic Park III . It was rumored that Universal and Spielberg have been in talks for years about making a fourth installment of the series, but I didn't think by this point, that people would care enough to go see another JP film, much less be any good. Imagine my surprise: Jurassic World  was a monster hit for the studio, beating Marvel's The Avengers  record for the highest grossing 3-day weekend of all time with $208 million, became the third-highest grossing film in the U.S. with $648 million and is now the third highest grossing film worldwide. But, of course, numbers don't mean jack to me if the picture is basically another Michael Bay-style soulless spectacle. Again, Imagine my surprise: Enter Colin Treverrow, th...

If Avengers: Age of Ultron constantly flirts with falling back on old blockbuster tricks, then Pitch Perfect 2  announces, within seconds of the Universal logo being unveiled, that yes, you have, indeed paid to watch the same movie twice. The Barden Bellas are back, and four years after their triumphant victory in the national a capella competition, the all-female singing squad have become a national hit, as they invited to perform at the birthday gala for President Obama. If you guessed that this performance goes to shit, then congratulations, you saw the first movie! Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) has a wardrobe malfunction in front of Pres-O, and the girls are banned from every a capella showcase across the nation, as well as disbanded by their university as a result. Becca (Anna Kendrick), the group's leader, make a deal with John Smith (John Michael Higgens) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden-Feinberger (Elizabeth Banks), the two a capella commentators to reinstate the Bellas if they win at ...

For the next two weeks, I won't be going to the movies. Sort of. I'm taking an extended hiatus from watching the last bits of late summer movies or the early fall flicks due up on the docket, and instead, I'll be holding off until mid-September for the crime drama Black Mass , due out on the 18th, and (maybe) for the second installment in the Maze Runner  series, The Scorch Trials . Don't worry - I'll still be writing; in fact, I have a backlot of stuff of summer movies I've been meaning to review, but never got around to them, so what better time, with the fall and Awards season looming around the corner, than now to start talking about what I thought about this season's mix of summer offerings? In 2012, I called Marvel's The Avengers  the best film of the year - yes, better than Zero Dark Thirty , Lincoln , Life of Pi  and Django Unchained . I still stand by my choice, because, as I stated before , I saw Joss Whedon's superhero team-up as the...