Monthly Archives: March 2016

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Review: There Be Monsters. Back in the old days of...2008, there was a little movie called 'Cloverfield'. 'Cloverfield' was a found footage film that told the giant monster movie from a much different perspective. It's heralded today as one of the best movies to use the found footage technique, and an example of how you can take something as familiar as a giant monster movie, and still find a way to make it feel fresh. Putting the audience on the ground with the characters and forsaking grand spectacle for gripping tension sounds so obvious in hindsight, but at the time, it really wasn't done for monster movies.So, let's say the world did end. Whether it be war, zombie uprising, alien invasion or the mole people (that last one is true), the ideal is to survive right? As human beings our instinct is to survive by any means necessary. This is true for some people more than others though, those who prepare for the end based on their own misplaced paranoia. That person may be prepared, but they're still the type of person to prepare for the world ending without any real reason. That's not a person who I want to be surviving with, that's a person who belongs in a mental institution.Essentially that's the idea behind 10 Cloverfield Lane. It's a catch 22 of, yes the world outside is dangerous, but now you're stuck with an insane person…

Zootopia (2016) Review:Animals Are Racist Too In my review for Godzilla, I mentioned how Science Fiction movies have a tendency to be allegorical. The bright lights and cool sounds of a sci-fi movie are like the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine of real world issues go down. The same principle applies to animated movies, except sci-fi tends has a broader audience. Sci-fi movies are treated like the kids movies for people who consider themselves too old for kids movies.Animated movies are typically made for kids. As such there's a much more delicate act in making a movie with an underlying message, since the people you're trying to reach are kids who unfortunately get bombarded with dreck like The Minions movie. Every once in awhile though, a movie like Zootopia comes along and reminds you that not only can animated movies do teach you something, but it's so important when they do.'Zootopia' is a movie that takes place in an alternate universe from our own. One devoid of humans but still containing human inventions like the iPhone. Imagine a world where animals evolved to have the intelligence necessary to develop a society in which lions, tigers and bears could coexist with creatures formerly known as their prey. Such a place would be something of a zoological utopia.The main character of the film is a bunny called Judy Hopps, played by Ginnifer Goodwin. Judy comes from a family of carrot farmers (get it?) who has big dreams of becoming the…