THE OPTIMIST - MOVIE REVIEWS

       When I was a kid, I remember my father teaching me the importance of working hard and putting in a maximum effort in order to reap a high quality result. As I grew older I found that when it comes to being productive, my kryptonite was procrastination. Enter my late grandmother. I remember her telling me one time that the best person for a job is a lazy one, because they're going to find the quickest way possible to get the job done. I laughed, knowing full-well the weight of that truth seeing as I was, indeed, that type of person she spoke of. I've since learned the values set forth early on by my father and have tried to implement them in my life, and would you know it, by doing so I seemed to gain a greater reward in the end.    Now you're probably thinking "What the heck is this guy talking about? I thought this was a movie review". Well, it is, and I have a point to this opening. Hopefully it's not too much of an out-of-the-way-comparis...

     I remember when I was eleven and my parents took me to see "Independence Day". It was a great day. My love for the cinema was cultivated at an early age and being a child of the 80s/90s, my childhood was chalked full of great films. "Independence Day" is, in every way, the perfect embodiment of 90s cinema. It was an action-packed thrill ride with cheesy dialogue, charismatic lead actors, a cool premise, and was loads of fun to watch. There's a reason why that image of a flying saucer over the White House has become a pinnacle movie pic. It's from a movie that helped shape the films we see today. So, when I heard that they were finally getting around to making a sequel (something that had been floating around the universe for forever), I was cautiously optimistic. It's no secret that my love for movies and cinema falls short of the top seat of things that I love (my wife will forever retain that spot #TokenSappyMoment). I'm all for whatever Ho...

       When it was announced that there was going to be a sequel to the 2013 horror classic "The Conjuring", I was pretty stoked. That film is by far one of my favorite horror films and arguable one of the best horror films in the last twenty years. The thing about "The Conjuring" is that it's not just a great 'horror' movie, but a 'great movie' all together. There's always the skepticism that comes when a scary movie is 'based on true events' and unlike other horror films who rely on this idea in order to solidify their scare value, "The Conjuring" didn't. It was the attention paid to the characters and the way the story was fleshed out that made the scary parts that much more scary. You cared about the family, you cared about the Warrens. The events that took place weren't central to the story, but secondary to the characters. You can tell director James Wan cared about the people involved in the story and wan...

   I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't excited to see "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows". I was. Why? The turtles and I go way back. I'm an 80s baby and a child of the 90s, my childhood consisted of Ninja Turtle action figures, pizza birthday parties, and quality Saturday morning cartoons. The old TMNT cartoon from the late 80s is my definitive version. Coupled with the cheesy movies from the 90s, my turtles will forever be cemented in that time period. That being said, I'm always open to new interpretations. There have been many, and the latest version - kicked off in 2014 with linebacker-sized CGI turtles and a new spin on their origin - was met with mixed emotions. For what it was worth, I really enjoyed the 2014 film. It played enough to my nostalgia while adding new things into the mix that I was able to just take the film for what it was and enjoy it.    "Out of the Shadows" is a step in the right direction and it made me...