Author Archives: Guest Contributor

Get on Up (2014)

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Get on Up is the latest Hollywood biopic and this one follows the life and times of the godfather of soul, the hardest working man in show business, James Brown. He is played brilliantly with great energy, enthusiasm, and electricity by 42’s Chadwick Boseman, who also played Jackie Robinson. He IS James Brown and he is the lifeblood of the movie. Every moment he’s on screen, you are captivated by his performance and what he brings to the table. While he doesn’t sing the original songs himself, as he is lip synching, he does bring the dance moves and overall essence of James Brown to the big screen.

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22 Jump Street (2014)

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21 Jump Street was a film that I thought was funny on its original viewing, but I didn’t find it as hilarious or over the top hysterical as many others did. Recently, however, after two current viewings, two years later, I’ve come to discover that it is a very funny movie and it holds up incredibly well. Needless to say, I was excited to see what they were going to do with 22 Jump Street and I was excited to be spending more time with these characters. It’s hard to deny their chemistry and it is back and in full force with 22 Jump Street.

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Throw Batman At It.

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Warner Bros. has yet to capture the cinematic success of the Marvel movies with any of its properties other than Batman. And that’s because Batman is so close to being a Marvel character that if he killed people he’d be one.

All the WB knows how to do is Batman, which is why they’ve decided to throw him at the already ailing new Superman franchise to forgo the trouble of rebooting yet again, in a shamelessly blatant attempt to repackage the classic Frank Miller penned The Dark Knight Returns (a book which pretty much laid the foundation for the modern portrayal of Batman) and distract detractors of Man of Steel.

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Breaking Well: Why Walter White is Better Than Dexter

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Breaking Bad is the best television show of the 21st century (so far). It managed to offer week after week of not only compelling stories, but enough symbolism and alternate character interpretations to keep even the most snobby English-Lit major interested, while distracting less intellectually focused viewers with instances of “bad ass” behavior.

Vince Gilligan used to write for The X-Files (in fact, Bryan Cranston appeared in the episode directly before the first episode Gilligan wrote) a show I haven’t watched regularly since the nineties, but proves to me that he has a lot of talent. He knows how to tell a good story, obviously. His real genius with Breaking Bad is in how he draws characters, especially television characters. On TV, people don’t really change. There is an illusion of change, but very little actually occurs.

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The Paradox of Cool

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One thing that’s immediately noticeable is that no one says anything is “cool” anymore. I understand that you will hear people say “that’s cool,” which would appear to contradict what I just said in the previous sentence, but you’re paying attention now and that’s good.

Coolness is a complex and elusive concept. People are commonly aware of the designations of “cool” versus “uncool,” but are not always certain how exactly to apply these distinctions. Is Justin Bieber cool? Lots of girls want to bang him; he drives flashy, expensive cars (and gets pulled over for speeding!); he vandalizes public and private property; and he’s overtly disrespectful to authority figures. He meets several qualifications for coolness, but saying Justin Bieber is cool is kind of like saying McDonald’s salads are healthy.

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What It Means to be Incredible

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One thing that’s immediately noticeable is that no one says anything is “cool” anymore. I understand that you will hear people say “that’s cool,” which would appear to contradict what I just said in the previous sentence, but you’re paying attention now and that’s good.

Coolness is a complex and elusive concept. People are commonly aware of the designations of “cool” versus “uncool,” but are not always certain how exactly to apply these distinctions. Is Justin Bieber cool? Lots of girls want to bang him; he drives flashy, expensive cars (and gets pulled over for speeding!); he vandalizes public and private property; and he’s overtly disrespectful to authority figures. He meets several qualifications for coolness, but saying Justin Bieber is cool is kind of like saying McDonald’s salads are healthy.

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Head Cases: Serial Killers in the Delaware Valley (2013)

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Independent filmmaker Anthony Spadaccini always had a keen visual eye, leaving no stone left unturned. You can tell by watching his films that he takes great pride in every shot and every camera angle. His films are an emotional experience, but even more than that, they are a visual experience to remember. You feel as though you are entering another dimension or another universe. You are a little uncomfortable, scared, and unsure, yet you can’t look away and you can’t wait to see what unfolds next. It grabs the viewer right from the get go and doesn’t let go.

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