April 2013
1 post
"Admission": A Movie Review from Someone Who's...
Once upon a time during the best summer I’ve had to date, not only was I fortunate enough to live with my Snippets co-blogger, but I also had the great pleasure of being chosen amongst over one-hundred applicants to represent Providence College as a “Summer Student Admissions Worker”. For me, it felt like I had somehow been randomly selected to hang out with eleven of PC’s...
October 2012
1 post
2 tags
"Perks of Being a Wallflower": Charming,...
A quiet, awkward teenager is the last student in the classroom. His favorite teacher is seated behind his desk. The man smiles and says a quick goodbye as the boy walks past. The boy stops, hesitating near the door with his mouth half open. It takes a bit of courage for him, but he manages to speak up.
“Mr. Anderson? Can I ask you a question?” he says quietly.
“Sure,...
July 2012
6 posts
6 tags
WatchI have the highest hopes for this one
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Three Hobbit Films?
My immediate thought after seeing The Return of the King for the first time was something along the lines of, “wow”. That thought was quickly followed by, “When is The Hobbit going to be made?” It seemed the logical thing to do. After three successful film adaptations of Tolkien’s masterpiece trilogy, The Hobbit just had to be made. It took several years, but eventually rumors started to solidify...
8 tags
The Dark Knight Rises Review
There was a game I played quite often as a child. I would don my very own cape and cowl and pull on a black shirt, emblazoned with a yellow oval surrounding the symbol of the bat. I would dash around the house, vanquishing invisible foes in a flurry of martial arts and imagined gadgets. Eventually one of these goons I was brawling with would turn their weapon on one of my family members in a...
7 tags
Not Much Love for Woody Allen's "To Rome With...
I adored Woody Allen’s last film, “Midnight In Paris”. You can read me ranting and raving about it a year ago on this very blog. It was a film rooted in a warm, romantic feeling of nostalgia that was only lightly tainted by cynicism. There were laughs, there was love, and the characters were likable even when they were mere caricatures of twentieth century American literary...
4 tags
Some Brief Thoughts on Pixar's "Brave"
Who doesn’t love Disney’s Pixar? Between the unbearably cute short films that introduce their larger stories and the delightfully peculiar yet heartwarmingly touching feature-length films, Pixar pretty much has the 3D animation game in a headlock. I’d almost go so far as to call it a monopoly if “How to Train Your Dragon” wasn’t so dang good too! What began...
6 tags
Andrew Garfield Delivers, Swinging into Action as...
You can only love Superman so much, because being a virtually all-powerful boy scout, he can get kind of boring. And Batman’s dark and brooding personality is a bit too grave for my taste. Aside from those two big names, I’d have to say that Spider-Man is easily the next most popular hero in comics to date, and with good reason. Having been a very shy nerd myself once upon a time (I...
June 2012
2 posts
2 tags
"Prometheus Unbound: What The Movie Was Actually... →
So I strongly considered writing a full-blown review of Ridley Scott’s brand new sci-fi flick “Prometheus” that just came out last weekend. While a little lacking on the drama and character development, I really enjoyed the provocative questions the film asked and it was really entertaining to watch too! I would definitely suggest seeing it, though squeamish viewers would do...
7 tags
Thoughts on "Breakfast At Tiffany's" - From...
“What I found does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go to Tiffany’s. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there.”
It was once easy for me, particularly as a guy, to just write off “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” as just another in a long line of chick flicks that I wanted nothing to do with....
May 2012
4 posts
Prometheus - What is Prometheus? - IGN Video →
The more I see about this movie, the more excited I get for it! In this IGN Video, they interview a number of cast and crew members about Prometheus (without giving much of the story away) all while reveling in the mastery of Ridley Scott and the intrigue that this new story brings with it. “Prometheus” is easily going to be one of the biggest hits this summer!
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Some Reactions to "The Great Gatsby" Trailer
The trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of the classic Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby went live mere minutes ago. Set to be released sometime this Christmas, the film has many literary folks skeptical and lower key fans of the novel buzzing. Gatsby will forever be one of my favorite novels. It was really the first book I ever connected with, the one that made me love literature and...
9 tags
"The Avengers" Hulk-Smashes Box Office Records,...
Superhero movies sure have come a long way since the day’s of Tim Burton’s odd Batman movies in a time when superheroes were still treated like they were taken right out of the comic strips; they were campy, goofy, and overly colorful. But in recent years, Hollywood has wizened up and realized that translating these superheroes to the silver screen can be an easy blockbuster win if...
3 tags
"The 5-Year Engagement" Is Decently Funny
I talk a lot about how much I love realism in movies. I also talk a lot about how much of a man crush I have on Jason Segel, but I never thought I’d think that either one could be too much in one sitting. And in a way, that’s sort of what I got from watching “The 5-Year Engagement.”
Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy Segel’s humor in all of its forms, whether it’s perfect nice guy Marshall Erikson on...
April 2012
4 posts
4 tags
"Cabin in the Woods" is Horror-Comedy Gold!
Sometimes I have a very twisted sense of humor, especially when something terrifyingly serious instantly turns ludicrous and hysterical. Case in point: genius sharks are out to get Samuel L. Jackson and some other unfortunates in “Deep Blue Sea” but once they start bickering Samuel L. Jackson delivers the following inspirational speech to rally the troops, seen here. He’s so...
3 tags
NetFox Rambles: Apparently "13 Assassins" is Just...
With NetFox Rambles, we give you an opportunity to hear our thoughts on some popular movies available on Netflix Instant. Are they worth your time to stick on your queue or should they be overlooked? This time around, we have the Japanese film “13 Assassins”!
I’ve always had a lot of respect for and interest in Japanese culture, whether it has to do with the excessively...
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NetFox Rambles: "Nice Guy Johnny" is Not So Nice!
NetFox Rambles is a new feature where we drop a few thoughts on films that are available to anyone with access to a Netflix Instant account. Because let’s be real, how hard is it to figure out what’s worth your time on there? So save your time, and hear what we have to say first!
“You ever slept on the beach?”
“I’m not really a sleep on the beach kind of...
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NetFox Rambles: Thoughts on "Brick"
Disclaimer: I (Corey, aka NetFox, for this feature) have decided to try out a new feature here on “Snippets at the Cinema”. I’ve had a growing list of movies on my Netflix Instant Queue (I pronounce it “qway” by the way). Recently, I’ve taken to plodding through them, and rather than doing a full, traditional review for each, I think it’ll be neat to just...
March 2012
2 posts
3 tags
"21 Jump Street": A Bromance for Bros
Isn’t it strangely tragic that only once high school is all over, you finally get it? You finally understand all of the social structures, clique politics, and the subtle nuances of teenage interaction. And part of you can’t help but think, “Man, with what I know now, if I went back to high school it would be so easy!” Right? Wrong! It’s that “hindsight is 20/20 effect”; we don’t...
11 tags
John Carter Review
It is sort of a shame that so few people are going to see John Carter, because it is actually pretty good in a fun, goofily earnest sort of way. Adapted from the 1917 novel A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter feels a lot like most sci-fi fare that we’ve already seen. That’s because Burroughs’ epic is widely regarded as a seminal work for the genre. In essence it laid the...
January 2012
3 posts
4 tags
"We Bought a Zoo": Charming, Heartfelt, and a...
Movies that try to be earnest but don’t do it with reckless abandon always fail. It comes off as tacky and unrealistic and even downright annoying. In your average romantic comedy of the twenty-first century, you’re dealing with a ridiculous premise and well-known stars with zero chemistry (i.e, “The Bounty Hunter”). They try to tell a “cute” story, but filmmakers worry too much...
9 tags
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Review
I feel guilty saying this as someone who considers himself to be a “true fan” of Sherlock Holmes, but A Game of Shadows is pretty great. While it still falls short of what a real adaptation of Conan Doyle’s stories should be, it is as excellent as can be for an action comedy romp. It is equal parts thrilling and hilarious while surpassing its predecessor in all aspects.
How do you take...
4 tags
Reflections on the "Girl With a Dragon Tattoo"...
By now, pretty much everyone has heard of the international phenomenon that is Girl With a Dragon Tattoo. It is the first in a trilogy of books entitled the Millennium Trilogy revolving around investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his bizarre research assistant, private investigator Lisbeth Salandar. Much of the plot towards the beginning is taken up detailing their present...
December 2011
2 posts
6 tags
Merry Christmas: Reflections on "It's a Wonderful...
“You see George; you’ve really had a wonderful life.”
Ugh. Gets me every time. Shamefully enough, I hadn’t even seen Frank Capra’s classic Christmas film about the life of George Bailey until the winter of 2007. My brother had watched it with his then girlfriend and raved about it. So, in hopes of a cozy Christmas bonding session with some dear friends, I had stolen his copy to...
6 tags
Corey's Reaction to the New Trailer for "The...
See the trailer for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” here at Snippets
“You’ll have a tale or two to tell when you come back.” “Can you promise that I will come back?” “No…and if you do, you will not be the same.”
You know how I know I’m a dork? Because when I heard those lines of dialogue in the recently released trailer of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected...
November 2011
1 post
7 tags
"Like Crazy": I Love This Movie Like Crazy - A...
“I thought I understood it, but I didn’t. I knew only the smudgeness of it, the eagerness of it, the idea of it: of you and me.” And with those words, I fell in love, not only with the fictitious aspiring journalist and poetic British girl that spoke them, but also with the movie in which she appeared: “Like Crazy”. It’s got everything I look for in a movie: realism, drama,...
October 2011
1 post
4 tags
A Review of "50/50"
“If you were a casino game, you would have the best odds.” Adam Lerner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is just another unassuming – and rather boring – twenty-something year old. He’s got a goofy best friend that he works with, a gorgeous artsy girlfriend who’s incredibly messy, and a mother that constantly worries about him. His typical day involves waking up in a sexless bed and getting...
September 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Drive Review
From the first beat of its pulsing electronic score, the first titles, emblazoned in hot pink script, the first images of Los Angeles in the night, Drive grabs you by the collar and shakes you up. It holds you there, grip unrelenting, for the next hour and forty minutes until it lets go and you get to breathe easy again. Drive is a hell of a film that is truly visceral and at times, exhausting.
...
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“Contagion” Infects America With Paranoia: Viral...
WARNING: Read this contagious review at your own risk. And it contains plot spoilers.
“The average person touches their face three to five times every waking minute. In between that we’re touching doorknobs, water fountains, and each other.” That’s easily the most recognizable piece of dialogue from the promotional footage for “Contagion”, a new global pandemic thriller directed by Steven...
August 2011
1 post
7 tags
Cowboys and Aliens Review
There are films and there are movies. There are flicks, motion pictures, features, and what have you. Generally this distinction between film and movie is not one worth making, although I believe David Fincher does, but I’m not a good enough journalist to cite that. This distinction nevertheless applies if you want it to. You wouldn’t group Transformers and Casablanca together as...
July 2011
4 posts
7 tags
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Review
The following review will appear in the September issue of Chronicles Magazine
When Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in 1998, it gained the ire of many parents and religious thinkers who thought they detected occult and satanic undertones in its story. In some locations, it was banned from bookstores and libraries and taken from children who already had obtained...
Some brief and non-thunder-nor-lime-light-stealing...
Woody Allen’s forty-sixth film, “Midnight in Paris” is bottled charm. Allen has expertly captured the essence of Paris, the beauty, the very feeling of what I imagine Paris evokes, and played it back for audiences everywhere.
“Midnight” works on a slightly silly premise, but is all the more endearing for it. The film is worth the price of admission for Corey Stoll’s performance as twenty-something...
8 tags
"Midnight In Paris" Review
We’ve all talked about it, hell, a number of us have even taken some of those annoying Facebook quizzes giving us the answers: would life be better if we lived some time in the past? We’ve all heard people say that they should have been born in Ancient Greece, the 1800’s, or even the 1920’s. We all wonder what life was really like. Woody Allen gives us that chance to see in his new...
6 tags
"The Tree of Life" Review
Filmmaker Terrence Malick has achieved a stellar reputation despite having a limited body of work. His work is highly stylized, dreamlike, and utilizes heavy symbols to contemplate even heavier questions regarding life, death, existence, and suffering. His most recent film after a six-year hiatus is “The Tree of Life”, a flick that tackles such questions and makes you wonder if Malick...
June 2011
2 posts
5 tags
"Green Lantern" Review
When I first started seeing promotional footage for the new “Green Lantern” movie, I’ll admit I wasn’t too excited. It seemed a little hokey, and as insolently charming as Ryan Reynolds is, he just didn’t strike me as a good fit for the super hero mold. But as later trailers were revealed, it actually started to look cool. At first they focused on the corny humor and the fancy...
Super 8 Review
J.J. Abrams has made a career out of making excellent films and television shows with memorable characters and complex plots that masquerade as science fiction stories. No that’s not right, they’re sci-fi narratives masquerading as character driven dramas. Whatever they are there is one thing that an Abrams production always has, emotional weight. Many modern films are about the explosion, the...
