Lee Pace | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: The Book of Henry [2017]

2017/06/202017/06/21 Jared Mobarak

“I want to see the sky” There’s a lot of backlash against director Colin Trevorrow for reasons he didn’t necessarily earn. Most of the vitriol stems from his being scooped up by the Hollywood studio machine after helming just one indie film. That debut was the Sundance award-winning Safety Not Guaranteed, a small-scale sci-fi written by Derek Connolly. Suddenly Trevorrow was vaulted to A-list status—again something he didn’t quite earn—to helm Jurassic World and to takeover Star Wars: Episode IX from another festival darling turned tent-pole director Josh Trank (whose…

REVIEW: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies [2014]

2014/12/102014/12/16 Jared Mobarak

“One light, alone in the darkness” No matter how entertaining The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is—definitely the best of the trilogy—I still can’t shake the feeling that J.R.R. Tolkien‘s tale would have been better served as a two-parter. A lot of the added information director Peter Jackson and his stable of co-writers injected throughout the first two installments come to a head here amongst the end-to-end carnage and it does add more emotion and higher stakes albeit between characters who shouldn’t be included in this Lord of…

REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy [2014]

2014/07/242014/07/31 Jared Mobarak

“I don’t learn” It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the best Marvel film to date would be one without a single recognizable character to anyone not already a fan. Guardians of the Galaxy has been around since 1969, but it’s the 2008 iteration by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning which struck the studio’s fancy as far as opening their cinematic universe wide open. There’s still a tenuous connection to Earth with the group’s default leader being a human snatched as a child by a Ravager ship, yet this detail…

FANTASIA14 REVIEW: The Infinite Man [2014]

2014/07/202014/07/25 Jared Mobarak

“Sexual congress in five” There are some great science fiction films that deal with time travel in a way blockbusters like The Terminator simply cannot due to scale and want for mass appeal. To fans of that series a movie like Primer may be too technically oppressive and intellectual while Timecrimes too dark and finite. Well, Australian Hugh Sullivan looks to change these preconceptions by combining Shane Carruth‘s impeccable plotting and Nacho Vigalondo‘s expert visual repetition in a genre the casual moviegoer can embrace: romantic comedy. In fact the clichéd…

REVIEW: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 [2012]

2012/11/242014/04/08 Jared Mobarak

“Should I start calling you Dad?” **contains spoilers as far as its major difference from the book** I’m going to applaud The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 for two reasons. One, it signals what we can hope and pray will be the last adventure inside Stephenie Meyer‘s angst-ridden, melodramatic world of supernaturals—until the planned off-shoots/reboots being bandied about, of course. Two, it rather unsurprisingly proves to be the best of the series after three bloated, over-wrought filler films ruined the tiny bit of promise the original Twilight provided. But…

REVIEW: Lincoln [2012]

2012/11/082014/04/10 Jared Mobarak

“This isn’t usual, Mr. Pendleton. This is history.” Images of brother fighting brother, President Lincoln orating the Emancipation Proclamation, and his tragic demise at the end of John Wilkes Booth’s gun are conjured when most think about the Civil War. For many the abolition of slavery was merely one of the resulting terms of surrender on behalf of the Confederates, the goal of the Union and the Republican Party from the start finally becoming reality. But the details of this historic event are never really explained save a couple dates,…

Top Ten Films of 2008: The Year of World War II

2009/01/242020/03/31 Jared Mobarak

This list is accurate as of post-date. So many films and not enough time to see them all, the potential for future change is inevitable, but as of today here are the best … I don’t know what precipitated 2008 being the year of the World War II movie, but of the 100+ releases I saw, six of them concerned it in some regard. The year saw more than its share of war from all decades with Che, Stop-Loss, Waltz with Bashir, and even Tropic Thunder, however, the Holocaust spent…

REVIEW: The Fall [2008]

2008/06/142011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“Googly, googly, go away” The first true masterpiece of 2008 has arrived just as we cross the mid-point of the year. Yes, the film did see its first release in 2006, however, after traveling through festivals, Tarsem Singh’s first feature in over six years debuts stateside to local theatres. The trailer alone shows how spectacular the cinematography and visual style will be, my only question hinged on whether the story and emotional weight would equal the scenery. With a cast of people I have never seen or heard of, besides…

REVIEW: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day [2008]

2008/03/062011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“Money or love?” Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day indeed. And quite the day it was. Here is the “governess of last resort,” a daughter of a vicar, raised in a sheltered world of modesty. After butting heads with her previous employers due to their lack of courtesy, manners, and morals, Miss Pettigrew finds herself hungry, penniless, and very desperate. In a moment of need, she steals the address of a prospective client and pops over to pose as the woman sent for the job. Expecting a young boy to…