(Unlike my 10 Cloverfield Lane review that posted earlier this week, this article WILL discuss spoiler and plot points. If you have not seen 10 Cloverfield Lane yet and have any interest in seeing it, I would recommend clicking away now.)

10 Cloverfield Lane had one of the best teaser trailers in recent memory. It told you all you needed to know about the film: it takes place in a bunker, there are rising tensions and occasional conflicts among the characters, and there is something dangerous outside. Then, there was the kicker: a title card with the word “CLOVERFIELD,” before fully revealing the title as “10 CLOVERFIELD LANE.”

It’s that last part that is causing trouble for part of the movie’s audience. 10 Cloverfield Lane has a B- on Cinemascore right now, which usually reflects how accurately marketed a movie is. Reddit is swarmed with people who are disappointed with the film and its marketing, and even on AV Club’s spoiler section, where comments are usually solid, several commenters are expressing their thankfulness for having a place where they could easily spoil the movie, confirm their suspicions, and avoid seeing it altogether.

Continue reading The Good and Bad of 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Marketing Campaign →

It’s that time again! This Sunday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hand out awards to whatever films win the most votes from its members! But in what is essentially a popularity contest, influenced by multi-million dollar ad campaigns and industry-insider connections, how is one to make sense of it all? Well, if you’re part of a betting pool or you’re just curious about what’s going to happen, read on for my expectations and personal picks! Continue reading Oscar 2016 Predictions →

Every year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association releases their list of nominees for the Golden Globes and puts on a big star-studded show. Just as reliably, critics and social media addicts complain incessantly about how poor the association’s choices are, how corrupt the organization is, and how little their awards matter. And yet, nothing ever changes: the celebrities keep showing up, the show keeps getting broadcast, and people keep complaining.

Why? It’s a difficult question with nebulous answers, but I’m going to try to get to the bottom of it. Here are my guesses as to why we still pay attention to the Globes, as viewers, as fans, and as critics.

As Viewers Continue reading Why Do We Care About the Golden Globes? →

Over the past year, I have occasionally participated in an event of my own making called James Bond Friday. It’s pretty much what you’d expect: I would watch a James Bond movie, slowly working my way through the entire series, and I would tweet about it.

While going back over my tweets to refresh my memory on certain films in the franchise, I decided that some of these were pretty funny (possibly funnier out of context), and figured I’d share them all with you here!

A couple notes. First of all, I didn’t livetweet EVERY movie in the franchise, but I did at least tweet SOMETHING for 16 of them. That’s a whole lot of tweets. Also, I’m copy/pasting these EXACTLY  how they were, typos, mistakes, and all. Given how quickly I was rattling these off, this means that there are a few things that are inaccurate (most of which I correct myself in future tweets), and lots of spelling and typing errors that I would normally be ashamed of on this site. But take this as it is: a glimpse into my mind as I watched 16 movies of varying degrees of insanity. Continue reading James Bond Fridays: The Archive →

Just last week, the latest movie in the Bond franchise, SPECTRE, was released. I’ll be reviewing that later this week, but one thing that really struck me about it was how the history of the franchise colors your feelings and expectations of the film. I love the Daniel Craig Bond films to death, but having recently watched through the entire Bond franchise, from Dr. No to Spectre, I now have an even deeper appreciation for what the more recent films have set out to do.

This particular piece will set out to define what, exactly, makes a Bond movie a Bond movie by tracing the origins and evolution of the franchise. Continue reading The James Bond Retrospective →