Review: LOCKOUT

While this has been a personally disappointing year in cinema so far, I still find myself at the movie theater. Perhaps to escape the early nice weather, I don’t know. The string of disappointments started with “Tailor Tinker Soldier Spy” and at least continued through Guy Pierce’s bicep showcase, “Lockout.” In the interest of full-disclosure, shortly after leaving the theater, I must have been bludgeoned over the head as I cannot recall a startlingly large amount of the movie. Thankfully, the plot was neither a primary nor secondary nor even tertiary concern to the film production. I suspect the crews’ catering occupied more deliberations and concerns. Why some action movies cast themselves as so defiantly passive is beyond me but it makes for a nice exercise in viral criticism.

Review: THE HUNGER GAMES

Before seeing the intended feature film, two movie previews juxtaposed together revealed that the most obvious, and perhaps best, trailer mash-up for this year will be “Twilight: Breaking Wind: Part Two” and “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” That my computer-literacy tops out at around updating a blog stops me from creating the fan-trailer myself—well, that and I now I feel the joke has been acknowledged and drained of its comedy. Measurably more shocking, and for the first time in a long time, two hours later I found myself in a very, very small circle of dissenters and carping faultfinders holding an abysmally low opinion on the year’s first megahit: “The Hunger Games.”

Wilder's Top 10 of '11

Hey internet. Time for my annual round up of, in my opinion, the ten best movies of the year. Jose did the same thing, so you can check his out here. So here's my ten favorites. Keep in mind, I didn't see The Artist, Shame, or A Seperation. This year's list was especially hard, because nothing I saw was truly as amazing as most of last year's nominees.

Review: CHRONICLE

Anyone who has ever bullied another kid in school should be forced to watch Chronicle. It's easily the best "found footage" movie so far. Chronicle took everything that was good about Cloverfield, Quarantine, The Blair Witch Project, and others and kept it, all the while eliminating and fixing the things that were wrong with those films. Chronicle is a very good movie.

Review: THE GREY

The urge to stay alive is a peculiar one. Thousands of people kill themselves every day and millions more want to kill themselves to varying degrees of sincerity when the line at the grocery store moves too slow or when a former love announces on Facebook that they’re getting married to a drug dealer on April 20th. Hypothetical? Yes. Philosophical? Indeed. Depressing? You bet your meaty ass. Surviving is not enough; one needs a reason to live. Liam Neeson's latest romp in a string of ultra-masculine, brutal, inwardly driven films, is “The Grey” and never has a search for purpose come up so empty.

Wilder's Oscar Blurbs

Hello the internet!

I know you've all waited on bended knee to hear what I have to say about this year's Oscar noms, so I'll get right to it. Bold will indicate what I want to win, and italics will indicate what I think is going to win. I'll write some stuff about films I think either did or did not deserve to be in the category too. It's important to note that I haven't even seen "The Artist", but regardless, I expect it to destroy urrybody.