$5 Bin Film School: The ‘Alien’ franchise

Hi, my name is Jake and I have a problem. I have entirely too many unwatched films just laying around my apartment. Those of you who know me well also know this problem well, and have told me many times to cull the collection down. That’s what this blog series is all about. $5 Bin […]

$5 Bin Film School: Stanley Kubrick

$5 Bin Film School: All the films I should have seen, but never have

This post is the start of a new project for me. I’m trying to watch through the nearly 200 unwatched movies I have stacked around my apartment. I know, I know. I could save a ton of space by just keeping the digital download cards from those films, and physical media has been dying for […]

‘Aloha’ is a beautiful disaster

Against my better judgment, I ignored the terrible reviews and went to see Cameron Crowe’s latest film, “Aloha,” this weekend. I used to live in Hawai’i and wanted to see some of the scenery again. I was also intrigued that the film would show more of the military side of living on O’ahu— it’s set almost […]

My Top 10 Films of 2014

This list isn’t definitive, but it’s an alphabetical ranking of my favorite films I saw this year. I haven’t seen some films that will probably be awards-show fodder, like “Wild,” “Selma,” “Unbroken,” “Foxcatcher,” “Theory of Everything,” “Imitation Game” and “American Sniper.” I probably won’t get to see those until the new year, so here’s my […]

Movie Review: ‘Fury’

As I tweeted a few days ago, I’m still not sure what to feel about “Fury,” David Ayer’s new entry into the WWII movie canon. It’s violent, but in such a way that it makes the viewer abhor that violence, much like “Wolf of Wall Street” made the audience abhor the trappings of wealth. It’s also very […]

Movie Review: ‘The Judge’

Watching “The Judge” is a bit like watching the Super Bowl when your favorite team isn’t playing- you don’t really care about the outcome, you just want to sit back and enjoy the entertainment as the two best teams in the league go head-to-head. At least, that was the feeling I got while watching Robert […]

Beer or Box Office: ‘Anchorman 2: Super Sized ‘R’ Rated Version’

This movie review was originally commissioned by and written for USA TODAY COLLEGE in the winter of 2014. It was never published there, so it lives on, in full, un-copyedited glory, here. Enjoy. Photo found here. Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell’s beloved news anchor, returned to the big screen for “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” in December, but […]

Beer or Box Office: ‘3 Days To Kill’

This movie review was originally commissioned by and written for USA TODAY COLLEGE in the winter of 2014. It was never published there, so it lives on, in full, un-copyedited glory, here. Enjoy. Photo found here. Ethan Renner’s got problems. He’s too old for his job as a CIA agent; he just botched his last job trying […]

Beer or Box Office: ‘The Lego Movie’

This movie review was originally published at USA TODAY COLLEGE on Feb. 21, 2014. Photo found here. At first glance, The Lego Movie is nothing more than a 90-minute advertisement for those lovable colorful bricks we all used to play with as kids. And that’s a partially correct assumption. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that […]