THE OPTIMIST - MOVIE REVIEWS

   I prolonged the publishing of this review simply so that more people may have a chance to view the film prior to reading. With that said, this will be a spoiler-free look.     In this film, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner try to jump-start a dormant peacekeeping program, only to have things go awry. Trying to establish an artificial intelligence known as Ultron to essentially replace the Avengers as the first line of defense against another other-worldly force, Ultron becomes obsessed with the idea that the Avengers are actually the biggest threat and seeks to destroy them. It's up to the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans. As the 11th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, " Avengers: Age of Ultron " has a lot riding on in it. The first " Avengers " film was so fantastic that the immediate anticipation for the follow up film was nothing short of immense. There was an enormous amount of hype for this movie and the questio...

FURIOUS 7         In the wake of tragedy often we find a beautiful semblance of sanity. Not to undermined the death of Paul Walker , which was indeed tragic and ill-timed (he was so young...), but in the wake of his passing we gain a greater appreciation for family with the latest installment of the Fast and Furious franchise. In this film, the group is faced with dealing with the repercussions from the last movie, which connects to the events of the third movie (the timeline for this franchise is completely whack and I won't get into all of it here), but more importantly it explores the importance of family within the violent chaos that comes with their line of work. Furious 7 is by far the most emotionally centered cylinder in this mega-action engine that keeps on truckin'. Since the fourth installment, these films have progressively gotten better and better. The action is amped up from film to film, the stories get larger, adding heightened themes of fam...

     So, the Oscars have arrived! Less than 24 hours from now people all over America, maybe even the whole world, will gather around their televisions and watch as Hollywood's finest gather on the red carpet and celebrate each other's achievments over the past year. In other words, they wanna know just as bad as we do who wins, and more importantly, who loses!    My goal this year was to have watched all of the Best Picture nominated films prior to the awards show. As life would have it, The Optimist came just slightly short of that goal. At any rate, this will be a brief outline of six of the eight nominated films. Of those six I can say that all were truly amazing in their own right. I highly recommend each and every one. Seriously, they're awesome. Of the two I missed...they'll be out soon on DVD and Netflix, I'm sure. Anywho, with out further adieu, here's The Optimist's Oscar Run!    " Whiplash " is the intriguing tale of young, asp...