THE OPTIMIST - MOVIE REVIEWS

      Well, the summer movie season has slumped to its end, and as we roll into fall and award season, I thought it would be fitting to look back at some of the summer films that I saw but was unable to review fully. This is my wrap up of what the box office considers a mediocre summer. I, however didn't think it was all bad. I won't go into a lot of detail about story points or plot; this is mainly my way of summing up some of my thoughts on the movies I got to see. So, here we go! ------------------------------------------------------   Pixar has become synonymous with box office success. Even their worst films make money. Unfortunately, given their track record of producing high-quality, original stories, they have fallen into the pit of sequel madness. I can't think of a single sequel, save Toy Story 2 , that did better than its predecessor, not just in the amount of money it made but in the quality of the story. Finding Dory , a movie that Ell...

    Don't Breathe is the new thrilling, tension-filled horror film from the director who gave us the 2013 remake of Evil Dead . I was on the edge of my seat the entire time during this movie, unable to find a moment to relieve the clentched state my body was in for the entire 88 minute runtime. The premise follows a group of friends (played by Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, and Daniel Zovatto) who are fed up with living in their run-down dump of a neighborhood in Detroit, watching as their lives succumb to their environment. They decide to rob some houses in order to make enough money to get outta dodge, an endeavor that seemed to go off without a hitch until they break into the house of a wealthy blind man, thinking they'll get away with the perfect heist. Boy are they wrong.     The blind man is played brilliantly by Stephen Lang, who brings a level of intensity that is palpable and stressful to watch at times. As he hunts down the perpetrators who have brok...

    The summer movie season is winding down and as we move into the fall we're going to see less big blockbusters and more story-driven, smaller movies. This weekend marks the opening of 3 new films that will fight for the top spot in the box office, where I would venture that only one of which could possibly make the claim that it should be considered a "blockbuster". That movie would be the WHY-THE-HECK-DID-YOU-MAKE-THIS  reboot Ben-Hur .  The movie I'm reviewing here isn't that movie. Today I'm discussing the war drama/comedy War Dogs from The Hangover Trilogy's director Todd Phillips. The movie stars Miles Teller and Jonah Hill in what is probably going to end up being an underrated film of 2016. I didn't think much of this movie going in, only that I thought the pairing of Teller ad Hill seemed really intriguing. What I didn't expect was how good it actually would end up being.    Based on a true story, War Dogs is the story of two...

I CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT THIS MOVIE!!!!    The long anticipated DC film Suicide Squad has official been released and, in current DC comic book film fashion, it has done so while being critically panned. The DC Cinematic Universe has had a rough start, falling short in popularity with general audiences. This third film in the shared universe has been highly anticipated since its conception, and from the moment the first trailer dropped people have been anxious to finally see it. Suicide Squad is a unique film for me in particular because I had the opportunity to see this movie months ago during a test screening, of which I was sworn to not discuss the film until its release. I'll address that experience shortly, but what I'll say right off the bat is that the version of Suicide Squad the world will see isn't the one I saw back in May. It's definitely different. That being said, this movie is still a lot of stinkin' fun to watch.    Taking place not too lo...