Mr. Brown Versus

I think it's fair to assume that a lot of us were very skeptical upon hearing that Masmure Shinrow's cyberpunk manga Ghost in the Shell  was being updated for mainstream audiences, in the form of a live-action film. We've seen how this business has handled manga/Anime properties in the past, and the track record, outside of the Wachowskis' Speed Racer , has been dismal, to say the least. When it was revealed that Scarlett Johansson was chosen to play Major Motoko Kusanagi, the Internet went ablaze, the cries that studio suits were whitewashing a beloved Anime character, as well as petitions making the rounds to remove the actress from the role in favor of an Asian actress to carry the role. When the first trailer dropped in mid-November of last year, I think most of us were blown away with just how, on a surface level, it looked like the live-action version might do the original source material justice. Then, the actual film was released. It's hard to talk about...

I can't very well talk about some of the most rewarding films of the year without putting my $0.02 cents on the ones which rewarded the least; the ones that left a bitter taste in the mouth, months after first watching them on the big screen. Transformers: The Last Knight  - I was going to review Bay's latest toy commercial during a week-long retrospective on each of the installments of the Transformers  franchise (and I will end up finishing said retrospective soon, I promise...), but here's the cliffnotes version on what I've got to say for movie no.5: It's still the same mindless junk he's put out since the surprise 2007 hit, just even more tedious and uninteresting than before. I'm tired of Optimus Prime and his cohorts, the Autobots, in yet another attempt to tell us stupid humans that the Decipticons are bad news and that they'll never leave our world alone unless they work together to stop them; I'm tired of the unrelenting obnoxious comi...

Ah, so where was I? Ah, yes - Day two tackling Michael Bay's Transformers series..... Wait.... It's August?! The Summer Movie Season is just about wrapped up and we're heading into Award season??? What do you mean a woman single-handily saved DC's interconnected universe??? Nolan made a war film how short??? Who the fuck is Tom Holland??? Transformers 5 was a box office disappointment in North America??? Fuck yes! And Sony really made a cartoon which featured the shit emoji??? What's next: the President of the United States defends white supremacists live, in front of the press? So, as you can see, I hit my annual writer's block, this time last over most of the summer (including most of 2017), which means I am extremely behind to the point I'm up to my damn neck in stuff I want to talk about. Good thing September is just around the corner and there's not too much to go out and seek in that time frame, but that doens't mean I haven...

A bit of backstory here: I was at a bar last Saturday night, chatting with fellow film fan Mason Daniel via social media when an ad for Michael Bay's latest Transformers  flick, The Last Knight , appeared on television, in which I had said that I would talk about each of the last four films before I (eventually) pay to see the fifth installment of the franchise. Also, I need to get back into writing and reviewing movies, because given everything that's happened in the world, and everything that has yet come to pass, I could use the distraction and escape. What better way to do that than to revisit the site's original whipping boy (before Jimmy Dore took the crown recently) and his soul-crushing franchise of noise and destruction? Oh, Michael Bay. You and I have had a long, contentious relationship - most of it (extremely) negative. However, I do think his talent, purely from a visual aspect, is to be commended: every last one of his films has a slick Hollywood feel and ...

Sometimes you find something so incredibly stupid and so utterly irresponsible on social media that you have to address it. Last weekend was the Peoples' Summit in Chicago, where a coalition of Sanders supporters and left-wing activists flocked to a three-day event to discuss about where the movement, which started back in 2016 behind then-candidate Bernie Sanders, would and should go in the Trump era, including whether the Democratic Party can be (or should be) saved, or if the time has come to abandon the party and start a new People's party instead. Enter The Young Turks correspondent Nomiki Konst and her thoughts on why the Democratic establishment should accept and embrace independents who don't lean either with the R's or D's in primary battles. "No open primaries for Democratic Party equals voter suppression and racism with young independent voters" @NomikiKonst #PPLSummit — Holly Mosher (@FilmsForChange) June 10, 2017 *Rolls eyes H...

............You know what? I'm just going to throw this line out there for everyone to hear: Anastasia: "Here I am, trying to be all romantic and you're distracting me with your kinky fuckery." In the five years that I've been reviewing movies for this site, I've never come across any line in any movie this jaw-droppingly stupid. This line came out of Anastasia Steele's mouth post-coitus when Christian Grey began probing her belly button with his tongue. There was no reason for her, or the writers, to commit to that sentence! And yet, somehow, Fifty Shades Darker  seems to sink lower from there. This sequel to 2015's snorefest picks up....I don't know, days after Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) leaves Mr. Grey (Jamie Dornam) for being "fifty shades of fucked up"? Being the creepy, abusive and aggressive stalker he is, our rich prick wants her back, but this time, he wants a normal, vanilla relationship. Okay, not really because he st...

In the era of Donald Trump and the rise of the alt-right, a movement took shape which pledged fierce opposition against the President's xenophobic, racist and misogynistic agenda. The day after Trump was sworn in, protests around the country and around the world sprang up like wildfire; the message being the same: #resist!. Since then, The Resistance have banded together to protest Trump's Muslim ban and disrupt town hall meetings; in particular, when the Republican-led Congress tried to implement Trumpcare. Because of the efforts to raise the public consciousness about the severity of Trump's dangerous to-do list on his agenda, the administration's attempts to block refugees from entering the United States has hit road blocks from the lower courts and Speaker Paul Ryan was forced to remove the American Health Care Act from bringing the massively unpopular bill to a vote in the House of Representatives. In short - The Resistance has scored two major victories against ...

On Oscar Sunday, I had the honor of doing a podcast with Al Robinson, Write Out of LA's Robin Write and the other half of Awards Daily, Ryan Adams; along with fellow film fans Julia and Joel, and spent over 5 1/2 hours talking about the telecast, from host Jimmy Kimmel bringing in civilians to the show, to an ending which will be talked about for years to come. Needless to say, this will become a trend. That's right - you can now hear me now talk about movies with fellow movie nerds!

Of all the complaints I would've expected to hear from people about the live-action adaptation of Disney's Beauty & the Beast , questions about its star flaunting her sexuality was at the bottom of the list. Sadly, that's where we are, as two items are taking center stage ahead of the March 17th wide-release of the classic story of bestiality between a young woman and a hairy beast that makes John Holmes look more attractive by comparison. Jokes aside, the first part, where star and eternal crush of mine Emma Watson posed nearly topless for Vanity Fair, leading to questioning whether or not she's a hypocrite for posing half-nude while promoting feminism. The photo in question, lensed by British shutterbug Tim Walker and styled by  Vanity Fair  fashion and style director Jessica Diehl, features Watson in a cape, sheer shirt and lace skirt from Burberry's February collection. It has sparked debate on social media about whether or not the image, which casts Wat...

Here are just a few personal thoughts about the list of nominees for the 89th annual Academy Awards ceremony I'd thought I'd share (the full list of nominees can be found here ). * Amazing What a Hashtag Can Do: It shouldn't come as a surprise that three movies - Hidden Figures , Fences  &  Moonlight  - all centered on African-American leads which do a terrific job telling stories about the black experience in America have now been nominated for Best Picture today. All three deserved the praise and accolades they have been showered with, but let's also acknowledge that the Academy would have been slaughtered by the press and by Twitter if they went a third straight year with a lineup that was all lily white, and rightfully so. Hell, I think Twitter would be screaming bloody murder had Moonlight  not made the cut for Picture, along with its writer/director Barry Jenkins if he wasn't nominated for Director. * Oh, Amy....: I'm ecstatic to see the sci-fi dra...

Sometimes, in order to move on and forward, you have to look back and reflect. All this month and the next, thanks to January & February being the dumping grounds for terrible movies, I will be doing exactly that. There's dozens of stuff I've missed out on during the holiday rush, from Award-fare, to mainstream blockbusters everything in between, as well as my list for both the best and worst of 2016 and the Oscar race coming to its inevitable conclusion. I'd also love to announce that I'm now a registered contributor for Write Out of L.A., the home of my film friend across the pond, Mr. Robin Write. If you haven't gotten to read his pieces on his site, please do. There is a good chance that I won't start reviewing new material until March, but that doesn't mean that (hopefully) I won't be writing. There's still my segment of The Netflix Files I need to revive from the doldrums as well as my editorials about current events, which I feel (and fe...