Movie Review: The Wolf of Wall Street

Image via Slate

"The Wolf of Wall Street" is the rare film in which its trailer is not misleading. If you came anticipating flying midgets and strippers with money taped to them, that is exactly what you will get.

Although he has dipped his toes into very different territory over the years ("The Aviator," "Hugo"), Martin Scorsese returns to the world of crime and money again and again. Each time, he seems to have something new to say about it, and gives us another rags to riches villain to engrain into our memories.

Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Image via The Guardian

Hollywood loves nothing more than itself. So I guess it's fitting that a movie about Walt Disney was made by Walt Disney Pictures. Walt Disney made a movie about Walt Disney whether you like it or not.

That sets the tone for "Saving Mr. Banks," a sometimes dark but mostly sugarcoated view of a Hollywood story that didn't necessarily need to be told, but here it is anyway.

In actuality, “Saving Mr. Banks” is not even that much about Walt Disney, even if it was one of the film’s major selling points. It is really about P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the eccentric author of “Mary Poppins.” Mrs. Travers (as she would want you to call her) is the farthest thing from a sellout, but she is strapped for cash. Disney, who is played here by a mustached Tom Hanks, wants to buy the rights to “Mary Poppins” from her for a film, but Travers won’t do it until she can approve of Disney’s vision. So he sends her from London to Hollywood to work on the script.

The Hits of the Holiday Season According to Your Grandparents

Land of Grandparents

It's the holiday season. Between Christmas and New Years, you will probably be spending a lot of time with relatives you don't normally see.

If you're spending time with your grandparents, prepare for a lot of talk about how everything was better in the past, and how you're part of the worst generation ever. It's annoying but it's family, so you love them. And there's no better way to connect with family than through a trip to the movies.

Movie titles are hard, and your grandparents might have trouble remembering some of those names. Luckily, they wisely find a way to get around this: by coming up with their own titles. Some of these make no sense, and some of them are much funnier and more creative than the original titles. In order to bridge the confusion of the generation gap, here is a key to the big movies of the holiday season, according to your grandparents:

A Second Viewing, A Second View: Inside Llewyn Davis

SPOILER ALERT: This review is filled with SPOILERS for "Inside Llewyn Davis." If you don't want SPOILERS for "Inside Llewyn Davis," do not read beyond this point. I put SPOILERS in bold/caps lock because you see, I'm trying to make a point. 

A Coen Brothers film can be great on one viewing, but no Coen Brothers film has been truly watched until it has been seen at least twice.

So far, I have gotten a mixed consensus from the few people I know who have seen "Inside Llewyn Davis." For every time it topped a bestof list or got an A+, it also got a negative review. But Joel and Ethan Coen never really get full acclaim across the board, except in the cases of "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men."

The legacy of "Inside Llewyn Davis" will take time to sort out, but I figured now was an appropriate time to sort out a few things about the film that you and me, but mostly me, might have been having trouble with. Here is my SPOILER heavy rundown of "Inside Llewyn Davis":

Trading Places: A Christmas Classic Worth Celebrating

Black Friday has passed, but Americans still need something to fight about. Christmas has arrived, so fighting over the best Christmas movie seems like the logical next step.

If you are fighting the War On Christmas Movies, you probably fall into one of five camps:

1. Your Favorite is "It's a Wonderful Life": That means you have probably watched all of the AFI List specials.

2. Your Favorite is "Home Alone": You grew up in the 90s. Also, you have a thing for setting up booby traps in your house.

3. Your Favorite is "A Christmas Story": You will watch it during the entire 24 hour block that runs on TBS on Christmas Day. Also, you're probably Jewish and couldn't convince anybody else to go see something in theaters that day.

4. Your Favorite is "Die Hard": You understand that "Die Hard" isn't a Christmas movie in a traditional sense. But you don't care, because you are way too cool for school.

5. Your Favorite is "Jingle All The Way": Haha we get it. You like being ironic and you probably own a pair of bacon socks from Urban Outfitters and also you're probably me.

However, I would like to stage a coup, and add a sixth film to the battle. Would anybody care to join me on Team "Trading Places"?

Movie Review: American Hustle

Here Comes the Sun(glasses). Image via TotalFilm

From the very beginning, "American Hustle" announces that it is only sort of based on true events.

Fitting, as this is an historical event so complex and bizarre that the whole truth simply could not do it justice. This is where movie truth steps in and offers a helping hand.

"American Hustle" constantly blurs the line between real and fake. In fact, the film opens with Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) giving himself the most passionate combover you'll ever see. Irv's life philosophy is to fake it until you make it. He kind of has to, as this is part of his job: Irv is a con man, and a very good one at that.

Movie Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

"You see Mr. Powers...I love gooold!" Image via WhatCulture

If insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again expecting different results, then it is the perfect word to describe my viewing of the "Hobbit" series.

"The Desolation of Smaug" is at least a little better than its predecessor "An Unexpected Journey." However, it still feels like a lot of filler space for a trilogy that did not need to be a trilogy.

"Smaug" begins with a prequel-to-a-prequel introduction where Gandalf (Ian McKellen) meets Thorin (Richard Armitage) at the Prancing Pony (a fun callback to "The Fellowship of the Ring"), and the two of them set the entire "Hobbit" adventure in motion. This little scene is there simply to declare that Thorin, and not Bilbo (Martin Freeman), is the main character of "Smaug."