Remember that one gangster movie? You know the one. It’s the one where the main crook talks about loyalty, but proceeds to screw over everyone to save his own skin? Okay, you need more information. It’s the one where the gangster teaches his adorable child questionable life lessons. How about, it’s the one where the mobster embarks on a flamboyant act of vengeance in order to drive a point home? Pretty much every gangster movie ever made features those tropes. It’s a standard and immediately recognizable cliche. That’s okay, though, because often times cliches are... Read More

There’s a few things that kids know, deep down on a molecular level. Fart jokes are never not funny. When your parents are in a hurry, that’s your cue to go slower. Old people are creepy and weird. Coming from someone who hopes to live long enough to be old, creepy, and weird, I know it’s an unfair generalization. It’s also completely true. Fear of the elderly can be pretty standard with kids, and I can’t blame them. Look at it from their perspective. The elderly can smell funky. They don’t dress in a way that you’re used to. Their behavior, sometimes?... Read More

Screenwriter William Goldman famously said that, “Nobody knows anything,” when it comes to Hollywood. His quote has remained true for numerous reasons. For decades, the idea that a market existed for “faith based*” entertainment was mostly laughable. But two events in the entertainment field took place that proved audiences would come out big time for it. First, in 1995, the novel Left Behind was released. The initial book spawned a series of 16 novels, video games, and film adaptations that failed spectacularly at the box office, but were warmly received on home video.... Read More

Straight Outta Compton is really two movies stitched together. The first movie is intense, angry, joyful, and it’s about a group of friends trying to escape the madness of a racist society through art. There’s a couple of scenes in the beginning that encapsulates that perfectly. First, young Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) sits on a school bus, writing lyrics in a notebook. He’s in South Central Los Angeles, ground zero of America’s failed war on drugs. A few seats up, a group of kids are yelling playfully at a car driven by a gangbanger. The gangbanger does not like... Read More