THE OPTIMIST - MOVIE REVIEWS

TIME TO NERD OUT!!    DC Films did a wonderful thing Tuesday night after the premiere of the first episode of The Flash after the winter break. They put out a special hosted by movie director/comic book nerd Kevin Smith to discuss the lineup of awesome stuff coming our way on the big screen over the next couple of years. So, I thought I'd take a moment to share what got me excited! There was a plethora of new footage from a couple of projects as well as some inside scoop on the future of the DC Cinematic Universe (DCCU). In one half hour, they gave us enough to really get the juices flowin'! So, if you happened to have missed this wonderful nugget of nerdy movie awesomeness--thanks to DC and the CW--allow me to enlighten you on the highlights! 1. Batman V. Superman and the Justice League    Let's face it, Marvel OWNS the comic book movie world. They've succeeded in building up a brand of superhero awesomeness that is exciting and entertain...

     Michael Bay has been a name that has lately tended to leave an explosion of bad taste in one's mouth. His tendency to bloat certain projects has become as synonymous as peanut butter and jelly. However, when his overly-bloated movies make millions upon millions of dollars, can we really blame him for doing a job that ultimately pays? I mean lets face it, the last Transformers movie wasn't the greatest, but is still managed to make a ton of money. And when the news broke that his name was connected to the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles project, fan boys wept as they saw their childhood explode before their eyes...yet it was successful. I got to hand it to the guy, he puts out Big Macs when all we want is steak, and yet we keep stuffin' our faces with those blasted Big Macs. So how much blame can we really throw his way?    That being said, the guy is a filmmaker with an extensive resume of mostly dollar menu goodies with a few delicious steaks in b...

     It's a new year full of new movies to see and this year I'm starting off with a bang! This weekend marks the opening of "The Revenant". the new film by Academy Award winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu, one of my new favorite directors! It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy and it's a fantastic film, a true piece of art. I've talked a lot on this blog about the lack of originality in Hollywood, and I wouldn't be alone in that argument. Though the true story of "The Revenant" isn't necessarily original, the execution and production of this film surely is. Iñárritu blew me away with his last film "Birdman", shooting as if in one long take. "The Revenant" is a relentless, intense, emotional, and stunning film to behold.    Leonardo DiCaprio plays a frontiersman named Hugh Glass on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s. The film chronicles his quest for survival after being brutally mauled by a bear and...

   2015 has come and gone and just like that, a new year is born! First and foremost, Happy New Year to you all! 2015 has been a great year for movies and I've enjoyed watching and writing about them. When I first started this blog a year and a half ago, it was mainly a way for me to express my overly-optimistic viewpoints on movies while doing what I love, which is writing. Movies to me are much more than commercialized escapism. It's hard for me not to really connect to a movie while watching it. I tend to get super attached and therefore imprint myself on the various characters and stories. I think that's one of the more fascinating points about film. If you can sit in a movie theater and see yourself in one of the characters and say "Hey, I totally get what they're going through. I can relate to that"; when this happens, the movie transcends its monetary value.    Mainstream audiences today believe that the movie industry lends itself more towards mak...