“CHiPs:” a crime of a movie
April 4, 2017
The police comedy, action movie Chips that came out on Mar. 24 was a modern comedy based off of an older TV show. Dax Shepard wrote, directed and starred in the movie as the main character Jon Baker. Michael Pena acted as the other main character, Frank "Ponch" Poncherello. The two characters played off of...
King Kong is back, and he’s definitely worth your money
By Mark Lu
March 13, 2017
The first film ever about a giant gorilla batting angrily at aircraft first came out in 1933. Since then, along with the Japanese monster Godzilla, King Kong has been an icon in film history, revolutionizing, if not setting off, the long string of giant monster films that would ultimately follow it. ...
“Logan,” an overrated, misguided Western, fails to make up for a flimsy plotline
By Mark Lu
March 13, 2017
Yes, that’s right. I did not enjoy “Logan.” It’s actually not that terrible of a movie. The action sequences are well executed and Hugh Jackman did an excellent job portraying a mentally-wounded warrior with many scars, as did Patrick Stewart with Professor X. Newcomer Dafne Keen impresses a...
Teenage story reveals hidden life messages
By Hana Baig
March 13, 2017
The face of a worried girl fills the big screen, and everyone is silent. The people’s heartbeats quicken as the audience grows tense. We see the face of this girl wake up to the same day over and over. Everyone waits on the edge of their seats, anxious to see what the girl will do. This was the eff...
The Reel: Tension
By Mark Lu
March 6, 2017
Any sort of on-screen entertainment must invoke emotion in the viewer. Sadness, happiness, anger, pity, laughter, the invocation of emotion is pretty much the definition of entertainment. In order to maximize the extent of this emotion, movies need to employ plot development or character developme...
The Bye Bye Man disappoints
February 28, 2017
R eleased on Jan. 13, 2017, The Bye Bye Man follows the story of three friends who discover the legend of a man to is capable of very malicious acts. Elliot (Douglas Smith), John (Lucien Laviscount) and Sasha (Cressida Bonas) are all college students and have recently moved into an old house off-campus. ...
The Reel: The five least-boring Best Picture winners of the 21st century
By Mark Lu
February 25, 2017
The Academy Awards is made up of 6,687 members who vote every year on the best movie of the year, through a weird voting style called “instant-runoff voting” in which voters rank the nominations in the order in which they enjoyed each one. This is a much more complicated process that seeks to choose a ...
The Reel: A beaut. And fin.
By Mark Lu, Columnist
February 10, 2017
You’ve probably seen a good film before. Did you enjoy it for its visuals or story? It probably depends, right? For example, “Fantasia” (2000) is purely based off of visual stimulation and how the narrative of the music correlates with the implications of what’s on the screen. Others like “T...
The Reel: 2017 Academy Awards Predictions
By Mark Lu, Columnist
January 30, 2017
On Monday night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed their nominations for the 2017 Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars. Oscars are more than just golden statues; they represent the culmination of hundreds of hours of hard work, creativity, ingenuity and talent. The ...
The Reel: ‘Seven,’ the greatest suspense thriller there ever was
By Mark Lu, Columnist
January 24, 2017
It’s difficult to create a thriller. To properly “thrill” an audience, film creators must structure a story that purposefully manipulates the attention of the watcher and keeps them in the dark while sheltering an underlying titillation, hidden in the shadows. Meanwhile, the director must paint an intima...
“Hidden Figures” shoots for the stars
By Katie Fung
January 12, 2017
In 2011, we watched “The Help,” a movie about a white author in the midst of the Civil Rights era who decides to write a book about the African American maids and their views on the families they work for. In 2013, “12 Years A Slave” hit theaters and shocked its viewers with its depictions of bla...
The Reel: screenwriting – the biggest snub at the 2017 Golden Globes
By Mark Lu, Columnist
January 9, 2017
AN UNHINGED FENCE -- Little squeezing through, doesn’t look back as the other boys attempt to shimmy and wiggle their way though, too big to glide through like Little. LITTLE hauling ass, chest heaving as he rounds the corner on this condemned building. On instinct, the stairs taken two at a time...