The Lair of the Movie Man - Reviews, Previews, Blogs, and More

HE NAMED ME MALALA  Release Date: October 2, 2015 (Limited), October 9, 2015 (Wide) Starring: Malala Yousafzi Genre: Documentary Rating: PG-13 (for thematic elements involving disturbing images and threats) Running time: 87 minutes Malala Yousafzai, the young girl from the Pakastani Swat Valley area, is the primary focus of Davis Guggheim’s latest documentary. She was the girl that was shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to suggest that women should be allowed to go to school and have a chance at a descent education. She survived the assassination attempt, but suffered permanent damage to the left side of her face. The movie does work as a documentary, and it’s an important one that everyone should see, but it feels to me that it only scratches the surface of the context. The movie’s title “He Named Me Malala” has both a influential and political meaning: her father named her Malalai who, from Afghan folk lore, rallied the locals into fighting the B

Release Date: August 28, 2015 Starring: T.C. Stallings, Priscilla Shrier, Alana Pitts, Karen Abercrombie, Michael Jr., Alex Kendrick Rated: PG Running time: 120 minutes Released thru: TriStar Pictures The Kendrick Brothers are back….and hold on, they’re not done with their preachin’ message yet. There’s no denying that they’re an unstoppable force in the Christian film market right now. Their first film, “Flywheel” was made for a paltry $25,000. “Facing the Giants”, “Fireproof” and “Courageous” soon followed. Essentially one in the same message, their films deal with repairing the structure of broken homes. Now, they’re back with their fifth film “War Room” and the plot is about, you guessed it, repairing a broken home through the power of God and Jesus Christ. This film can be essentially “Fireproof 2”, however with a completely different cast and focusing on a different family. Their latest effort centers on the Jordan family, who have been married for 16

With the summer movie season over and the fall movie season beginning, I was thinking a survey was in order. It’s a great way to find out who’s been seeing what (and if anyone’s out there checking my blog posts). Answer this simple question and give me feedback. I’ll try and post more stuff on either a daily or weekly basis. Facebook poll: What was your best movie this summer.? Vote here

As my first student film nears the production phase, I’ve got much to celebrate. Hopefully, this short update will help out. First off, I’ve got the cast: the cast will be mostly made up of DVC students at this point. Without ado the cast are as follows: Robert Black will play the role of the male protagonist Trent, Cassie Moronez will be the female protagonist of Chloe, Alexander Patrick will play the role of Brad, Trent’s roommate, and Lindsay Nicole Perino will play the role of Jessica the waitress. Second, the script is LOCKED and has been approved and we are doing our first table read Monday. We might do the read-through twice just to have the actors get familiar to the characters they will be playing. Third: Locations. We currently have four of our five locations. We are waiting for one final one. Fourth: the date of filming. I shared the dates with my producer/production assistant and production will begin this Wednesday, April 29th and will continue until next

I’m making my first film. Well, it’s a student film, but you gotta start somewhere. For a while now, I’ve been in the works of writing a screenplay for a short film that I’m making for my film production class. When I wrote my first draft, I had a working title. I won’t tell you the title of it just yet because the title itself was generic. I knew it was a generic title. I even knew long before the teacher and a few friends gave me feedback with the first question being “Can you change the title?” Then I began writing my second draft over spring break. It got stronger, but it’s not 100% there yet. But then something hit me. I have found the perfect title of my short film. I wrote it down quick on a copy of my first draft so I wouldn’t forget it: my first draft still uses the old title while the current draft uses the new title. The title met its approval , and now I’m revealing it. The title of my first feature (albeit) short film is….drum roll please…. “Unexpected Det

The nominees were announced last Wednesday for the 2015 MTV Movie Awards. I commonly refer to these awards as the “unofficial” official end of the awards season IMO. First inducted in 1992, the MTV Movie Awards are geared toward a younger audience and nominate more mainstream films. Now for the Rundown: The list of best movies has been increased from the usual five this year to eight, just like the Oscars. Speaking of the Oscars, out of the eight pictures that were nominated for the Oscars four of them have been nominated for Best Movie for the MTV Movie Awards (In alphabetical order): “American Sniper”, “Boyhood”, “Selma”, and “Whiplash” The films with the most nominations were tied at seven apiece - “Guardians of the Galaxy”, “The Fault in our Stars”, and “Neighbors” The MTV Movie Awards are sometimes seen as recognizing those that SHOULD have been nominated for Oscars: Miles Teller got a nomination for Best Male Performance among others for “Whiplash” (and IMO, sh

As of Last Week, I have seen all the Best Picture Nominees for the 14th Consecutive Year. That’s a precariously weird title for my first blog post, but it’s true. My secret identity shall remain just that.  Call me….Movie Man (my friends know me by this). I love going to the movies, and as often as possible, then I review them. So much so that I gave myself the nickname of “Movie Man”. I am still trying to work on a website where I can post all my reviews, but this’ll do for the time being. I live close to three theaters. One of which closed down two years ago: the Century 5 Pleasant Hill theater, a.k.a. the Dome. The dome, like many other big-named theaters at that time (and still do), showcased Hollywood mainstream movies with rarely a few independent films. That all changed in 2002 when the dome switched from normal Hollywood fare to the independent route, showcasing nothing but indie films that were rarely seen at other theaters. Before this (and because I was