Monthly Archives: January 2017

The Superman, the Wonder Woman, the Golden Raspberries and the Batman — Just what’s going on in the DC Extended Universe?

31 Tuesday Jan 2017

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batman-affleck-oneIn these dark days of new Presidents, #fakenews, and #alternativefacts, we here at GOO Reviews thought it important that we all slow down for a minute, take a deep breath, and contemplate what’s really important: Batman.

Now we’re not sure exactly when it happened, whether it was a broader shift in society or if what Thom wrote about Batman in his review of Batman v Superman is true and it’s just a natural part of growing up, but at some point we the people got sick of Superman and took on Batman as our favourite superhero, and it’s a title the Dark Knight Detective’s been running away with ever since. Continue reading →

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Split review

28 Saturday Jan 2017

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They say this one has a surprise ending

by Thom Yee

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Split images courtesy of Universal Pictures

I’ve been a big fan of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan ever since his first movie. Well, actually, that’s not true, I’ve never seen Wide Awake, the Rosie-O’Donnel-led comedy he wrote and directed from 1998, nor did I even know about his 1992-released Praying with Anger until I bothered to look up his film credits. No, the M. Night Shyamalan I’m speaking of, the one we’re probably all thinking of when we dig into the rosier side of our movie memories, is the storyteller, the wunderkind, “The Next Spielberg”, the man who brought us The Sixth Sense. And… actually, I never saw The Sixth Sense either. ‘Cause somebody told me how it ends. I still look back on those early Shyamalan movies fondly, however, because even if I was never able to experience what it was like to sit in one of those theatres in 1999 — without any expectations as I beheld a gritty, suspenseful, unexpectedly well-told movie about seeing dead people with a monumental twist ending that would change everything — I had a pretty similar experience when I did see his follow-up, Unbreakable, the year after. Without anyone spoiling it. Continue reading →

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story review

14 Saturday Jan 2017

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There were Asian people a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? 

by Thom Yee

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

If there’s one thing that’s rarely been central to (or at least pre-eminent in) the Star Wars movies, it’s an actual war. Star Wars has always involved its fair amount of physical conflict, but mostly it’s been about things like an individual hero’s journey, lightsabers, the Force, Gestapo-like imagery, whiny little protagonists, the tougher and smarter princesses they love, smooth-talking scoundrels, and funny mascot-type characters, and even the fall of the Empire (spoiler alert?) wound up being a battle where a bunch of adorable little bears were running around in the middle of the conflict zone, adding questionable value to the Rebel forces’ efforts. In fact, the only time I ever felt like there was a genuinely large-scale battle shown to us in the movies was in the opening scene of Revenge of the Sith when Anakin and Obi-Wan rescued Palpatine, the theretofore unrevealed would-be Emperor of the eventual Empire (spoiler alert again?), and that took place when the galaxy still had the Jedi Order around to keep the peace, clouded by the dark side though they and their Council may have been. Continue reading →

GOO Reviews’ 2016 Year in Review

07 Saturday Jan 2017

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Look, we know you have a lot of places to go to get your “Top 10 Lists” on. Hell, there are entire publishing industries built on them. But we’re glad you’re here anyway, however many or few of you there may be, to share in our year at the movies.goo-reviews-2016-one

To be clear, what follows is only the movies we, after roundtable discussion and voting, liked best. We’re not claiming these are the best, there are probably at least a few 2016 movies that are technically better, and there are certainly many that are more acclaimed. You might even hate some of the movies in our Top 10. That’s great! That means you care! This is just what we liked, the 10 movies we liked best this year, the ones that gave us the highest highs and the lowest lows, the ones that made us feel and meant the most to us — the brightests of the bunch. Continue reading →