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Show Your Kids The Emoji Movie, Not Coco

In today's entitled culture, kids have come to expect that everyone will put forth effort to give them things.  They expect nothing but the best.  We have conditioned them to expect that we will give them intelligent, funny, well-animated movies with everything from Dreamworks to Pixar.  Illumination kind of gets that we need to be more lazy to teach the kids a lesson, but they haven't gone full retard yet, although Minions came dangerously close. But one movie has come out this year that is so devoid of talent, creativity, effort, or humor, that it takes the prize as one of the best animated films of all time, in regards to what kids need.   Not only do kids need to know they don't deserve the best, but they need the message contained within this movie.  The message is to always be yourself...unless you're a princess, in which case, be a princess.  Kids haven't seen this same message done a million times before in better movies.  Inside Out?  That movi
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15 Examples of What I Consider Stellar Screenwriting

So, I'm feeling very fatigued right now.  That's because I just got done with the first draft of my very first (maybe last) screenplay, Shock Jock.   Maybe I'll share that publicly, once I have assurance nobody could possibly steal it... The point is, I've been thinking about what kinds of movies are good to take inspiration from when it comes to just the initial writing of it.  And there are a number of movies I've seen where I adore the writing and think it would be just as good if you could only read the screenplay and not see the entire movie. I like innovative screenplays, but what I really like is when the writing can be engaging, no matter what's being talked about, so here are fifteen of my favorite movies that also have some of my favorite scripts.  Some entries will be combined as they have the same author... 1, 2, 3.  The Social Network, Steve Jobs, and A Few Good Men I really like Aaron Sorkin's method.  He breaks some rules b

10 Bad Things About the Marvel Cinematic Universe

So, last time I talked about good aspects of the much maligned DCEU.  Now, I'm going to point out some shortcomings of the mostly beloved MCU.  Hopefully Thor 3 can correct some of these, as Phase 3 has been pretty solid thus far, but I'm kind of doubtful. 1.  Average/Bad Sequels Except for Captain Americas 2 and 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the sequels are mostly meh, if not completely horrible.  Iron Man 2 was forgettable.  Iron Man 3 was a joke.  Thor the Dark World is a boring mess.  Avengers:  Age of Ultron isn't bad necessarily.  I personally still enjoy it at least.  But in no way delivered on all the trailer hype or met the bar set by the first Avengers, Guardians, and the Winter Soldier. 2.  Repetition This happens a lot within this franchise.  The same plot gets recycled in another movie and people still say it's SO good, if not better than the first.  Say what you want about the DCEU, even if the st

10 Good Things About the DC Extended Universe

If you pay any attention to movie reviews, you know that the DC cinematic universe has not been received terribly well by critics or audiences, outside of those who stick by DC through thick and thin.  I have been a bit angered myself by many of the choices made in these movies, but I also don't think it's fair to overlook the good parts just because of all the bad stuff.  So, I am going to list ten things I think are good about the DCEU. 1.  The Casting No, the acting is not always the best.  But I chalk that up more to the directing because in the right hands, i think these castings are perfect (besides Eisenberg).  Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Jeremy Irons as Alfred, Michael Shannon as General Zod, Gal Godot as Wonder Woman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and especially Russell Crowe as Jor-El are all spot on.  And with the proper directing, I think all of them should have no problem killing it.   2.  The Visual Style Yes, I understa

My Top 10 Favorite Directors of All Time

It feels kind of weird that I haven't done a list of my favorite directors since I've been blogging about film for so long.  So, I finally decided to do it. My rule is that I have to have seen at least three movies from the director for them to qualify for my list.  So, even though I like the one or two films I've seen from them, I sadly could not include Sofia Coppola, Akira Kurosawa, Woody Allen, Denis Villeneuve (though hopefully I can remedy that with the upcoming release of Blade Runner 2049), or Alejandro Inarritu.   Before I get into the actual list, here are my honorable mentions, which I think are fantastic directors, but they just couldn't fit into the top 10: Richard Linklater, Tim Burton, Sidney Lumet, Terry Gilliam, Francis Ford Coppola, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, John Carpenter, Ridley Scott, Alfonso Cuaron, John Ford, Oliver Stone, and Wes Anderson. I should clarify that these directors aren't what I consider to be the absolute greatest or