Showing Tag: "alien" (Show all posts)

REVIEW: A Nonzero Sum Game, Arrival Is All About Using the Weapon Language, the Cornerstone of Civilization

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, November 13, 2016, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Arrival





Directed By: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Tzi Ma

It's been one hell of a week.  For the better part of it, I've been sleepless and sick to my stomach as I reflect on bizarre, hateful turn of political events.  It truly pains me to accept that Donald J. Trump will be moving into the White House toward the end of January.  It's absolutely befuddling.  America is speaking two languages, one of love and respect for our fellow ma...

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REVIEW: Star Trek Beyond – Public Enemy And The Beastie Boys Set The Stage

Posted by SoberFilmChick on Saturday, July 30, 2016, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
Star Trek Beyond
SoberFilmChick




Directed by: Justin Lin

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, and Idris Elba

The summer box office season hit a bit of a slump.  While animated fare has been plentiful and dominant, there have not been enough “must see” movies this summer.  Independence Day: Resurgence, Tarzan, etc. were not enough to get me excited about this summer season.  Audiences were waiting for an event movie, and Star Trek B...

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REVIEW: Down to the Earth's Magma Core, Independence Day: Resurgence Wants But Doesn't Quite Get One Happy Fourth of July

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, June 26, 2016, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
Independence Day: Resurgence





Directed By: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Travis Tope, William Fichtner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Judd Hirsch, Jessie Usher, Brent Spiner, Vivica A. Fox, and Angelababy

LinkedIn has a way of reminding us all of certain milestones in our lives.  This week for me, it's been the fact that my pride and joy Sobriety Test Movie Reviews has been around for five long years serving up film critiques and drink selections.  I...

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REVIEW: For Gamers Brenner, Wonder Kid, Fireblaster & Chewie Need Cheat Codes Instead of Light Cannons to Make Pixels Worthwhile

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, July 26, 2015, In : 0.12% Hard Liquor 
Pixels





Directed By: Chris Columbus

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, Brian Cox, Ashley Benson, and Jane Krakowski

I've really come to despise Adam Sandler movies in recent years.  For some strange reason, however, I held out hope for Pixels.  After all, its premise is more than just Sandler waltzing around screen giving American cinema a bad name.  Pixels is about the characters that laid the foundation of the gaming world we know and love today.  ...

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REVIEW: Biking Through the Nevada Desert in Earth to Echo, Tuck, Alex & Munch Beep a Bit Too Much

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, July 5, 2014, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
Earth to Echo





Directed By: Dave Green

Starring: Teo Halm, Brian "Astro" Bradley, Reese C. Hartwig, and Ella Wahlestedt

This Fourth of July has brought us all sorts of movies at the mainstream box office, just not particularly great ones.  While Deliver Us From Evil offers a rather routine possession flick, Melissa McCarthy's Tammy offers a waste of money we all can loathe.  The remaining film I've yet to review is Earth to Echo. Now admittedly, I've held off on writing this review.  The film is ...
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REVIEW: Transformers: Age of Extinction – In This Seemingly Endless Film, KSI, Lockdown, Yaeger, and Optimus Mix It Up

Posted by SoberFilmChick on Saturday, June 28, 2014, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
Transformers: Age of Extinction
SoberFilmChick




Directed by:  Michael Bay

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, John Goodman, Ken Watanabe, Nicola Peltz, and Peter Cullen

Harold Attinger: “We have a saying here on Earth: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Lockdown: “I too have a saying: I don’t care”

Transformers, both the toys and the cartoon, mean something to those of us who grew up in the 1980’s.  So I was delighted to hear that the movie franchise was being rebo...
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REVIEW: 2.3.5.41...The Signal at Area 51 is What MIT Student Nick Eastman Finds When He Goes Looking for the Hacker Nomad

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, June 14, 2014, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
The Signal





Directed By: William Eubank

Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke, Beau Knapp, and Lin Shaye

Alien movies are a dime a dozen.  Just think about it.  In the last couple of months, we've had the likes of Under the Skin and Edge of Tomorrow.  We have the likes of Earth to Echo, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Guardians of the Galaxy in the coming weeks.  This makes it especially difficult to craft an exceptional alien flick.  After all, what can top E.T. phoni...
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REVIEW: In Edge of Tomorrow, Major William Cage & Angel of Verdun Rita Vrataski Lead UDF's Operation Downfall Against Omega & Its Mimics #LiveDieRepeat

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, June 7, 2014, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Edge of Tomorrow





Directed By: Doug Liman

Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, and Brendan Gleeson

"Battle’s the great redeemer.  A fiery crucible in which the only true heroes are forged."
-Master Sergeant Farrell Bartolome (Bill Paxton)

The age of movie stardom may be long dead, but Tom Cruise's career on the big screen is quite far from it.  After a career full of ups and downs in this risky business, the timeless actor still remains willing to take a gamble at the box office.  Whil...
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REVIEW: In Under the Skin, Hot Alien Scarlett Johansson Seduces the Men of Scotland Into Her Pool of Black Tar-Like Liquid

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, April 13, 2014, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
Under the Skin





Directed By: Jonathan Glazer

Starring: Scarlett Johansson

It's been quite a while since we've had a weird one at the indie box office.  There was no movie like Holy Motors or The Paperboy in 2013 to leave me utterly baffled by what transpired on the big screen.  Thus far, I can mostly say the same thing about 2014.  No filmmaker has tested the limits of moviegoers' tolerance for the bizarre or disgusting this year.  One movie this spring comes close to doing so, however.  That's J...
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REVIEW: Pacific Rim – Jaegers Battle Kaijus In This Godzilla Meets Voltron Meets War Of The Worlds Flick

Posted by SoberFilmChick on Sunday, July 14, 2013, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
Pacific Rim
SoberFilmChick




Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Starring: Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Rob Kazinsky, and Max Martini

Pacific Rim is an interesting entry into the summer 2013 blockbuster season. It is not a sequel, it does not contain an A-list cast, and the title is a little bland. Moreover, there was even controversy before its release as Michael Bay seemingly took potshots at Pacific Rim as a Transformers rip-off.  Pacific Rim however delivers ...
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REVIEW: In Man of Steel, A Modern Superman Proves That Evolution Wins Most of the Time

Posted by James Brown on Friday, June 14, 2013, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
Man of Steel





Directed By: Zack Snyder

Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, and Russell Crowe

"You will give the people an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders."
-Jor-El (Russell Crowe)

Every movie lover has that one film each year they can't wait to see above all else.  F...
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REVIEW: In Oblivion, Jack Harper and Julia Make Quite an Effective Team Despite Scavengers, Drones, and Even Victoria

Posted by James Brown on Friday, April 19, 2013, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Oblivion





Directed By: Joseph Kosinski

Starring: Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

"And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods."
-Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Horatius", Lays of Ancient Rome

The summer movie season is almost upon us!  In a couple of weeks, Iron Man 3 will roll into theaters, and we'll be getting down to some real business.  Until then, we have a littl...
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REVIEW: The Host - The Wanderer, Wanda and Melanie Battle The Seeker In Stephenie Meyer’s New Film

Posted by SoberFilmChick on Saturday, March 30, 2013, In : 0.09% Cocktails 

The Host
SoberFilmChick




Directed by: Andrew Niccol

Starring:  Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, Jake Abel, Max Irons, and William Hurt

With the end of the wildly successful, but critically panned Twilight series last year, teenagers are looking for the next Stephenie Meyer series to fall in love with.  Enter The Host.  I must say, that as I sat in the theater and a horde of giggly teenagers came pouring in, I could not help but roll my eyes and curse my luck at drawing the short stick on movie revie...


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REVIEW: In Dark Skies, the Sandman and the Grays Do Nothing But Let Us Down

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, February 23, 2013, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
Dark Skies





Directed By: Scott Stewart

Starring: Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, and Dakota Goyo

It's Oscar weekend.  I'm happy to say that we're at the end of another lengthy awards season.  While it means that awards shows are thankfully at an end, it also means that we're almost through the worst part of the year for moviegoers.  The key word there is almost.  Unfortunately, snoozers are still crowding movie theaters.  This weekend, the new snoozer at the box office goes by the name of Dark Skies...
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REVIEW: With Orgies, Magnum Condoms, & Green Semen, The Watch Keeps Its Eye on All Kinds of Sex But Not Another Damn Thing

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, July 28, 2012, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
The Watch





Directed By: Akiva Schaffer

Starring: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, and Rosemarie DeWitt

This final weekend in July feels like déjà vu.  Around this time last year, I was talking about the film Cowboys & Aliens and how it failed to live up to its hype.  Despite all its talent in front of and behind the camera, the film couldn't deal with the complicated task of being a sci-fi western.  Aliens don't fit too well in a world of cops and robbers.  As it turns out...
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REVIEW: Prometheus Has Some Big Questions For the Engineers & the Real Engineer Ridley Scott Gives Some Damn Good Answers

Posted by James Brown on Friday, June 8, 2012, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Prometheus





Directed By: Ridley Scott

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron

It's been 33 years since Ridley Scott took us to LV-426.  After all this time, he's come back to the Alien universe to tell another epic sci-fi story.  Now, he takes us to LV-223 in his latest film Prometheus.  We've all seen the awesome marketing campaign for the film.  We've all been waiting for it and wondering what he'll bring to the table this ti...
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REVIEW: With Chicken Burritos, Mighty Mo, & the Art of War, Hasbro's Battleship is a Transformers Wannabe

Posted by James Brown on Friday, May 18, 2012, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
Battleship





Directed By: Peter Berg

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson

When I first heard of the movie Battleship, I laughed uncontrollably.  First of all, Hollywood is so desperate for money that they’re trying to turn a board game into a film.  Second, the film's got plenty of potential to have some terrible acting from a cast that includes the likes of Rihanna and Brooklyn Decker.  Finally, the awful trailers made it clear to me that Battlesh...
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REVIEW: When the Ants Get the Boot, The Avengers Kick Some Ass. Then They Get Some Shawarma.

Posted by James Brown on Friday, May 4, 2012, In : 0.00% Water 
The Avengers





Directed By: Joss Whedon

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, and Samuel L. Jackson

"There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, so when we needed them, they could fight the battles that we never could... "
-Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson)

2011 was a good year for comic book movies, but 2012 is the year of the superhero movie.  If movies were people, last year's comic book flick...
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