Sometimes, the best way to find love is to do it blind. In “Blended,” the newest Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore film, romantic comedy veers into the realm of feel-good family flick. Control-freak Lauren (Barrymore) and dim-witted Jim (Sandler) develop a hatred for one another on a terrible blind date but later unintentionally bring their […]
Category Archives: Film & TV
Student film “The Outlier” with Shorttakes audience
It is another typical day in Atascadero for Steve Harrison: He and his wife wake up at 6 a.m., perform daily barnyard tasks and go on a scenic hike, hand in hand. This seemingly everyday life is what Jack Harrison, a fourth-year international development studies student, focuses on in his documentary, “The Outlier.” At the […]
‘Attack of the Killer Trees’ wins best in show at Shorttakes
With a title like “Attack of the Killer Trees,” the viewer may expect a retro horror aesthetic and cheesy special effects. However, Valerie Giuili’s animated film instead offers a colorful, animated story of hapless Louie Lumberjack as he discovers the dramatic repercussions of his unsustainable job. Winner of the best in show category at the […]
Out of Focus: ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre’ an exceptional take on Dracula story
A fog-enshrouded Transylvania. A castle raised high in the sky in all of its menace and grandeur. A pale and ghastly vampire looming in the shadows. We’ve seen these images before. We know what we’re going to see and what’s going to happen. German auteur Werner Herzog crafts an excellent variation on the Dracula story […]
‘Small Talk’ wins best comedy at Shorttakes Student Film Festival
Determined to stake its claim over the perfect park bench that would become the film’s centerpiece, the student crew of “Small Talk” ventured out at the crack of dawn to begin a long but ultimately rewarding day of filming. Made with the UCLA chapter of the professional film fraternity Delta Kappa Alpha, “Small Talk” was […]
Movie Review: ‘Million Dollar Arm’
Jon Hamm has a terrific salesperson persona. Partially because he’s beautiful, and partially because of his experience as Don Draper on AMC’s “Mad Men,” which Disney executives obviously caught wind of at some point between his first and 10th Emmy nomination. Taking the chivalrous, though arrogant, Don and making him into a PG Disney character […]
Movie Review: ‘Godzilla’
In some ways, Godzilla is to Japan as Captain America is to the United States. He’s a symbol of hope and heroism at times most dire, such as when giant three-headed dragons arrive on meteorites from other planets. Other times, Godzilla is more like King Kong, destroying everything in his path for whatever reasonable or […]