Month: January 2014

REVIEW: Ride Along [2014]

Jared Mobarak

“Congratulations. They know we have a dirty household.” Are you a fan of Kevin Hart? Saying yes means you’ll probably be satisfied with Ride Along if only to enjoy the antics he’s saturated Hollywood with these past couple years. It’s a run-of-the-mill buddy cop comedy that hits every note in the formula book thanks to two sets of rewrites over a four-year gestation, but none of it truly matters when Hart is there to amp up the funny each time he opens his mouth and ceases to shut it. The…

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DESIGN: xoxobflo

Jared Mobarak

The purchase of my Kelsey letterpress meant an opportunity to create a new brand with which to differentiate my design work from the printing. I’ll admit intentionally starting to brainstorm names that could have a more palatable accessibility with the social media generation we find ourselves in. I tried abbreviations, acronyms, and “internet speak” alternatives until I came up with a way to turn “Hugs & Kisses Buffalo” into effectively brief xoxobflo. Since the press ensures everything printed by me is Buffalo-made (and things that aren’t still by default come…

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REVIEW: Her [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“Hey, do you want to have a Sunday adventure with me?” The first thing I wondered upon hearing Spike Jonze‘s new film concerned a man who falls in love with his computer’s intuitive operating system was how he’d thematically comment on the lack of physical connectivity inherent to such a pairing. What didn’t cross my mind until watching Her, however, was how shortsighted and selfish that worldview was in context to an ever-evolving universe populated by myriad personalities and beings. To see this sort of science fiction relationship as absurd…

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REVIEW: You’re Next [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“Will you just die already? This is hard enough for me!” Disappointment that the hype surrounding director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett’s film You’re Next was proving impossible to achieve set in about halfway through. I expected what many called an entertainingly fresh horror thriller with comedic flourishes, but all I saw was the usual home invasion tropes and by-the-numbers carnage courtesy of animal-masked predators and their unsuspecting, family weekend attendee prey. Then something happens to change its tone completely as attractive Aussie plus-one Erin (Sharni Vinson) rolls away…

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REVIEW: Lee Daniel’s The Butler [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“To serving our country” I’d like to say it’s surprising how an Oscar nominated director like Lee Daniels can find trouble financing a film with the type of sprawling depiction of the civil rights movement The Butler (sorry Warner Bros., I’m ignoring your lawsuit) possesses, but one doesn’t have to look past the fact everything he’s done besides Precious was panned to understand why. The unfortunate death of original producer Laura Ziskin didn’t help matters either, but an innocuous tale that does history justice while not ruffling many feathers should…

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REVIEW: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“I always save your knick-knacks” What began as a 1939 short story by James Thurber debuting in The New Yorker, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty found its way to the big screen in 1947 led by Danny Kaye. The tale of a daydreamer losing himself in excitingly heroic fantasies while sleepwalking through a daytrip of chores in the city with his wife expanded into a magazine editor finding more interest in the pulp stories he reads than the drab life he leads. It’s a conceit mirrored today with Mitty…

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Top 100 Albums of 2013

Jared Mobarak

Honorable Mention The Joy Formidable – Wolf’s Law; Indians – Somewhere Else; Young Galaxy – Ultramarine; Cansei de Ser Sexy – Planta; Kodaline – In a Perfect World; Frank Turner – Tape Deck Heart; Black Blinds – Black Blinds; Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is Beauty; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away; The Jungle Giants – Learn To Exist; GRMLN – Empire; Holy Ghost! – Dynamics; Ours – Ballet The Boxer 1; KT Tunstall – Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon; Jim James – Regions of Light…

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REVIEW: Prince Avalanche [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“Sometimes I feel like I’m digging in my own ashes” The film Prince Avalanche proves to be the perfect segue for writer/director David Gordon Green to circle back to the independent scene after three studio comedies with varying degrees of success took him on a polar opposite route. I was glad to see his trademark dramatic edge remained intact while watching his latest Joe at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, but rediscovering it post-Your Highness and The Sitter couldn’t have been an easy transition despite taking a year off…

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REVIEW: Redlands [2014]

Jared Mobarak

“I want to push beyond reality and become immortal through art” As an art-house piece, AMOK Books founder/owner John Brian King‘s debut feature film Redlands is pretty much what you’d expect from someone who’s curated an exhibit of John Wayne Gacy‘s “clown” paintings, produced an S&M performance entitled “Nailed!”, and interviewed Charles Manson at San Quentin Prison. It’s a darkly serene drama focusing on an outgoing Ohio girl trying to jumpstart a nude modeling career in California by confidently showcasing its naïve starlet amongst a slew of misogynistic males within…

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REVIEW: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“You knocked him back to the fifth grade” When you couple my dislike of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy with my obvious indifference to the announcement of its long-awaited sequel, watching Harrison Ford on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in August proved a hilariously spot-on validation of my sheer inability to understand what everyone sees in Adam McKay and Will Ferrell‘s comedy classic. Brought on to shoot a yet-unknown cameo despite never having seen the original, Ford said, “I got down there; I had no idea who those guys were. And…

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REVIEW: The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box [2014]

Jared Mobarak

“Faithfulness will be your shield” There will never be a lack of literary fantasy adventures for ages 12 and up to transfer from page to screen. The question becomes whether the property is given access to a wealthy studio’s clout or one more reliant on word-of-mouth and existing fanbase to ease the transition. For Entertainment Motion Pictures, their grab at franchise caliber fiction comes courtesy of a trilogy written by British author G.P. Taylor that unfortunately secures little of those things. It appears the author’s first novel Shadowmancer is the…

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