Reviews

This is a pretty entertaining film that answers the question of "What if you took Men in Black and mixed it with Beetlejuice + Ghostbusters?"

Given how closely it follows the MiB formula, I'm surprised that it came out nearly 16 years after that galactic hit.

Reynolds and Bridges, as well as the rest of the cast, are serviceable and keep the audience engaged throughout the well-trodden plot.

Over reliance on CGI for the creatures brought me out of the story and could've been more engaging with a sprinkling of practical effects.

What a terrific little gem of a comedy. Growing up, I was fortunate enough to have access to all the HBO channels, a benefit of being an only child I suppose. This film would play on HBO Comedy frequently enough for me to fall in love with it. As I grew older and more mature, I began to truly understand the jokes that are spread throughout it and how fear of getting hurt leads up to live a careful life, a life that doesn't achieve its full potential. This theme is layered throughout hilarious clips that are used to review the life of our protagonist, Daniel. Meryl Streep doesn't have much to work with in this, to be honest, but she still manages to shine in a rather simple role.

"Did I mention that you can eat ALL you want?"

This film should serve as proof that PTA not only knows how to tell a small story but also knows how to write for specific people, creating characters that they were destined to play. Their lives had led to the moment in which they will be in a PTA film, in this particular case it was Adam Sandler. What a performance! Seriously. Many of those who have analyzed this film have stated that he's essentially taken the man- child he's typecast himself into and brought it into the real world. The world that has consequences and brings profound loneliness. Recommended to those who enjoy Sandler but want to see more range and also to anyone looking for a super weird rom-com.

I forgot who said it originally but I remember the categories of horror and science fiction being two sides of the same coin. Horror is a fear of the past and Sci-Fi is a fear of the future. Normally when we think of stories of aliens and spaceships, it usually leads us to the think about invasions, fear of the foreigners, and destruction of humanity. In 1977, a young Steven Spielberg turned our ideas of what an encounter with an extraterrestrial from one of anxiety to one of awe. It centers around one man's quest to find the truth about not only their existence but his quest to rediscover who he truly is and is supposed to be. He starts of as a family man, a blue-collar worker but one 'Close Encounter' shines a light on his mortality and sparks something inside of him that makes him appear to his family and most from his average life to think he's gone insane. Spielberg is able to use these events to explore the concept of being a chaser of dreams, which is all too familiar to those who seek to become the next great Filmmaker. Fortunately for him, he succeeded with this tale.

In the year of America's 200th birthday, Richard Linklater drops us smack dab at the end of the school year but the beginning of the summer in a small town of Texas. My friends and I grew up with this film and would often watch either this or Pink Floyd's The Wall, the Alan Parker rendition.

Years later, I have grown out of the latter film but Dazed & Confused still sticks with me. I believe this is due to the fact that it explores more than just a day in the life of hanging around teenagers but explores a theme that Linklater would continue throughout his career: the passing of time.

This is a terrific film to watch at anytime. Whether you're hanging out with friends or all alone.

What could be said about this film that hasn't been poured over by film geeks already? The absurdist humor that fills each scene serves as a double for the exploration of life as a whole. After an interesting, albeit unrelated prologue we are introduced to a protagonist whose life is soon to be turned upside down when his wife asks for a divorce, both legally and religiously, so that she may marry a man whom with she may or may not be having an affair. He's up for tenure and the review board is receiving obscene letters in an attempt to damage his character. There's many factors at play, slowly working on him that act as cathartic humor to release the tensions of our own existential angst by seeing someone else go through all of the worst first world problems that a middle aged white man could go through in a lifetime. Definitely a must see for anyone that enjoys laughing at uncomfortable situations.

This film, anticipated as a "sequel" to Garden State(it's not at all, stop calling it that) only shares some similar elements to it's predecessor yet doesn't really maintain any of the charm.

On a technical level, it's really well put together and amazing for being a Kickstarter project.

The biggest issue with this film is that they simply did not put enough effort into actually writing something that was coherent nor providing any artistic merit.

It's all style and virtually no substance which causes it to eventually lag throughout, what seemed to be, the second act. This style easily worked with Garden State given that it was a film about feeling aimless in life, however it doesn't work the second time around. There seems to be a lot of story lines that don't really go anywhere or provide anything to the main plot and the fantasy sequences serve NO purpose whatsoever. It's a lot like an artificial sweetener in that it tastes good at the beginning but ends up leaving a weird taste in your mouth.