review

Reviews of the top geek movies, tv, and books in the industry.

Watching 'Your Name'
Your Name. is an anime film that came out in 2016, and it was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, who also took charge of the storyboard duties and the editing of the film. The film was produced by the production company he had spent a majority of his filmmaking career in, CoMix Wave Films. The film came out to universal acclaim from film critics, and at the time of this writing, is the highest grossing anime of all time, sitting at 358 million dollars worldwide. The film had multiple releases in the UK, both in 2016 and again in 2017 for a limited time. Prior to the film's release, Shinkai released a novelization of the film, and in the time since, a manga adaptation had also been released. There is also a live-action adaptation in development from Hollywood that is being produced by JJ Abrams (Star Trek and Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and his production company Bad Robot.
By BoblobV28 years ago in Geeks
Starstruck
If I may be brutally honest, I don’t like remakes. Having grown up during the 80s and 90s, I’m accustomed to wildly original ideas being made directly for the big screen. For the past 20 years, we’ve been fed a steady diet of remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, and adaptations of everything from comic strips to board games to amusement park rides. And 90 percent of the time, the remake is always inferior to the original. It’s all about taking the same plot points of the original movie and then sprinkling in modern day slang, technology, and fashion. It’s uninspiring, uncreative, and done for a quick and lazy payday. So when a remake is actually good, and I admit it’s good, then yeah, it must be damn good! Which brings us to this new version of A Star Is Born, the third remake of this story (fourth if you count the Bollywood movie Aashiqui 2).
By Fanpicked Media8 years ago in Geeks
'Ratatouille' - A Movie Review
Get ready for a trip to France! We’re going to see all the sights, eat at the best restaurants, and we’ll be served to by a rat! Wait, what was that last detail?
By Marielle Sabbag8 years ago in Geeks
Just Browsing
In this day and age of the internet and social media, the movie industry has been struggling to find a means of connecting to younger generations of moviegoers, and yet, these youngsters only end up looking at their cell phones and talking like they are in their living room (there’s a special place in hell for these people). The found footage boom happened after the success of Paranormal Activity, no doubt designed to emulate the look and feel of a YouTube video. Then there was Unfriended, a horror movie that took place entirely through a Facebook Live chat. And of course, there’s Black Mirror, a Twilight Zone-inspired show that is a series of technophobic tales of terror, trying to warn us all about how “technology is of the Devil and will be the downfall of humanity!” It’s all gimmicks, if you ask me. But what about the independent and arthouse wing of the filmmaking business? What offerings do they have that might take the concepts of the digital age and apply them to storytelling? The answer is Searching.
By Fanpicked Media8 years ago in Geeks
Round 8
Much like its namesake character, the Rocky franchise can’t be kept down. Just when you think it has come to a grand finale, a new sequel is made. To be honest, while I think the original Rocky is a masterpiece of significant cultural importance, everyone admits that the series became a parody of itself with each new addition. Rocky 5 is universally seen as the worst movie of the bunch, and Rocky Balboa was kinda pointless and is seen as a cash grab. Sorry, but I felt that movie should have ended with Rocky dying in the ring, as that would be the only fitting send off to his character. Thankfully, the only good thing that came from Rocky not dying is that we have this new spin-off series in Creed, which breathed new life into the four decade old franchise.
By Fanpicked Media8 years ago in Geeks
It Will Rock You
When it comes to musical acts, there are two kinds of people. There are those who swear up and down that the Beatles were the single greatest thing that happened to music, and those are do not believe that hype. I am of the latter. Yes, the Beatles made some nice music, but the greatest ever, I don’t think so. Am I saying that Queen was the greatest musical act of all time? No, but they made great songs. In my humble opinion, there isn’t any debate over who the greatest frontman to a band was, is, or ever will be; and the answer is Freddie Mercury.
By Fanpicked Media8 years ago in Geeks
My Review of the Second Half of Season Five of 'Arrested Development'
The last half of Arrested Development has finally come out on Netflix. It took them a long enough time to get this done. I know that there's been a lot of complaints about the seasons, after the show was taken off the air, and placed on Netflix. I didn't mind them that much, but there definitely was something weird about them.
By Brian Anonymous8 years ago in Geeks
Crazy, Cool, Fun
Romantic comedies are among the biggest hit or miss genres, of movies to make. They have to be finely crafted, in order to work. If all goes well, you get an instant classic, that is remembered, quoted, and made reference to decades later, like When Harry Met Sally… but if there’s any hiccups or missteps, you get an unfunny, and forgotten mess of a Golden Razzie Award winner, like All About Steve. I can safely say that, while Crazy Rich Asians may not be the instant classic that When Harry Met Sally... is, it sure is an entertaining movie, that might find a strong cult following.
By Fanpicked Media8 years ago in Geeks
My Review of the Movie 'Girl'
If there is any movie that I can kind of compare this movie to, I would have to say it follows a similar path to the movie 127 Hours. You know what's going to happen, and they go on in circles about it, and then when it actually happens, you feel nauseated anyway. I had this same sort of feel in the movie Girl.
By Brian Anonymous8 years ago in Geeks
Big Eyes, Little Payoff
I’ve been a fan of Japanese pop culture since before I knew what Japan was. I loved Voltron as a child of the 80s, but I didn’t know it was a heavily edited version of a Japanese anime, called Beast King GoLion. I figured the animators were just too lazy, or the animation studio was too cheap, to properly time the lips of the characters to match what they were saying. Thanks to anime watching blocks like Cartoon Network’s Toonami, anime found a fanbase here in America, including creating beloved followings for series like Cowboy BeBop, that were otherwise overlooked in Japan. And anime inspired movies like The Matrix, only cemented the format as something that can be highly profitable.
By Fanpicked Media8 years ago in Geeks
A Review of 'Secret City' Season 2 Episode 1 - "Run Little Rabbit"
This is a review of Secret City Season Two Episode One—"Run Little Rabbit," which contains major spoilers both for season 1 and for this episode.
By T. Stolinski8 years ago in Geeks
'Stan & Ollie' (2018)
I thought you’d retired.No, we’re-we’re...we’re getting older, but we’re not done yet. Simply nostalgia. Stan & Ollie is a trip to a bygone era when I was a little boy. When I returned from school on Friday afternoon, I threw my schoolbag somewhere in a corner and turned on the television. Then I changed the channel (in those days it meant getting up and pressing a button) to ARD (or ZDF? I can’t remember) to watch Schweinchen Dick. And after that, there were always black and white films with Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Laurel and Hardy. I can safely say that this was the highlight of the week—something I was looking forward to, after a whole week at school. And with about the legendary Stan & Ollie, I was once again that little kid who sat on the sofa, dangling his legs and staring enthusiastically at the TV.
By Peter P8 years ago in Geeks