It's Time to Welcome the Muppets Back with Open Arms

Kermit, Miss Piggy and the rest of the Muppets return to the big screen after a decade-plus hiatus.

How many times have modern directors attempted to take something so iconic from pop culture, redress it for fresh audiences and the result just falls flat? The last couple of years have unfortunately been the epitome of revitalizing the 80s. Smurfs, fail. G.I. Joe, fail. Conan the Barbarian, fail. But where many studios have failed, Disney will try to pick up the pieces with a seventh Muppets film. 

As the first Muppets film since 1999, The Muppets rejuvenates the magic of the original three films, getting away from the gimmicky installments of the 90s. It has been years since the Muppets got together and finally do so when persuaded by their biggest fan, Walter, who’s also a Muppet, to save their old studio from a greedy oil baron (Chris Cooper). Pooling together to manage what seems to be the impossible, the Muppets put on a telethon to buy the oil baron off.

'Descendants' Easily Ascends to Golden Spotlight

George Clooney plays a prominent real estate agent with strong family ties to Hawaiian royalty.

You can’t always choose where you come from or who you’re related to, but at the very least, there’s that given option to make it work. In The Descendants, Matt King (George Clooney) is a prominent real estate agent, whose family life plays second fiddle to his work life. He refers to himself as the backup parent and lacks a strong relationship with either of his two daughters. 

But when his wife is comatose from a boating accident, King has to pull together with his children in order to survive the ordeal. And while coming to grips with his wife’s state, Clooney’s character additionally has to manage the status of the last virginal Hawaiian real estate. King’s ancestors married into Hawaiian royalty ages ago, connecting their legacies to that of King Kamehameha I, and as a result, inherited that hefty amount of paradise.

Scorsese Charms the Holidays with Magical Masterpiece

Hugo (Asa Buttefield) and Isabelle (Chloe Moretz) unlock the magical secrets of a metal man.

There are some sights too mesmerizing that us audiences aren’t even worthy of seeing. Iconic director, Martin Scorsese, has certainly gifted audiences such a fantastic sight in Hugo, based on the 2007 novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Hugo follows the tale of a titular orphan (Asa Butterfield) who runs the clocks at a Parisian train station, full of lively characters. The young boy finds himself on an adventure throughout Paris, when he attempts to uncover a message left in the gears of a broken automaton by his deceased father. Hugo teams up a toy booth operator’s granddaughter (Chloe Moretz) looking for the truth.

Despite being his first family-targeted project, Scorsese directs the film as if he has done this time and time again. Hugo is a flawless addition to an already legendary directorial resume, captivating audiences for a good two hours of masterfully shot sequences. Scorsese spends much time perfecting every frame, focusing on the sharply high and low angles to visually unfold the narrative. 

Fourth 'Twilight' Outing Spawns Maritial Angst

After four movies, Bella finally ends the heated Team Edward vs. Team Jacob debate.

What a relieving 16 months it’s been. No sign of teenage angst, sparkling vampires or shirtless werewolves or team this or that. That is…until now. Hormone raging teenage girls have no doubt been counting down the days until the supposed wedding of the year and the honeymoon off the coast of Rio they’re all envious of. Yes, the Twilight phenomenon returns for the beginning of the end with the first half of the series’ final book, Breaking Dawn hitting theaters. Now if you haven’t been keeping up with this teen drama, Bella and her sparkling vampire boyfriend, Edward, are finally, yes finally, getting married. She immediately gets knocked up by Edward, carrying around a hybrid that’s killing her from the inside. And if she’s to survive, Edward has to do the one thing he’s been procrastinating about for the last few movies and that’s making her like him, a vampire.

Breaking Dawn is unquestionably the least critically received and longest of Stephenie Meyer’s saga and the film is a prime example of why that is the case. The majority of the film is sappy and drawn out, despite being the short film of the series to date. Breaking Dawn opens with one of the most awkward weddings and receptions seen on screen. Sure teenage girls will be in awe over every miniscule detail, wishing for that happily ever after in Bella’s place, but everything is so lifeless. But being vampires, it’s not too surprising and Bella hasn’t even become a vampire yet.

Eastwood Slows Down with Hoover Bio-Pic

Beneath those layers of makeup, Leonardo DiCaprio emerges as a seasoned J. Edgar Hoover.

Something as simple as a name can trigger certain keywords about a person. Pioneer. Powerful. Controversial. Those three words can describe a number of people, yet one man who innovated untouched crime scenes, fingerprint identification and wiretapping is a perfect fit to that mold. 

Director Clint Eastwood’s J.  Edgar follows the rise and fall of the career and highly debated personal life of J. Edgar Hoover, embodied by the phenomenal presence of Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio is unquestionably the strongest asset of the production, maneuvering between Hoover in his heyday and in his twilight with his one of his most remarkable performances to date.

'Jack and Jill' Fails to Conjure Up Twin Magic

That's Adam Sandler...and Adam Sandler and that's more than one too many.

We all have relatives that get on our nerves, but there is a fine line between tolerating someone for their annoyances and having that sudden urge to lock oneself in the room when it’s time for that holiday get-together. Take Jack (Adam Sandler), a commercial director who knows that a peaceful Thanksgiving with his wife Katie Holmes and two children is out of the question.  

Dreading the arrival of his awkward, unattractive and needy twin sister, Jill (also played by Sandler), Jack manages every possible solution to ensure the holidays don’t go up in flames. But what was initially intended to be a quick Thanksgiving stay, extends longer than expected, through Hanukkah and New Years, aggravating Jack to no end.

Stiller, Murphy Recharge Careers in Comedic Heist

Comedy legends and newcomers devise a plan to steal from a Wall Street big wig.

If Ocean had his eleven and managed to steal from multiple Las Vegas casinos, Ben Stiller can certainly put a team together and wipe out one million dollar penthouse and its crooked resident.  

In Tower Heist, residents and employees of The Tower, a high-rise apartment complex in the heart of New York, put their financial faith in Wall Street big shot, Arthur Shaw, who lives in the top floor penthouse with a luxurious $100 bill-themed rooftop pool. When Shaw defrauds the other residents and workers, Ben Stiller, the building manager, organizes a multi-million dollar heist with payback in mind.

Retro-Futuristic 'In Time' Clocks Forward to Immortality

Will (Justin Timberlake) and Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried) steal from the rich and give to the poor.

The future is never as brighter as it today. Technology might create a simpler lifestyle and immortality may be closer in reach than before, but fate will deal that dystrophic future seen countless times before. Director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca), examines the near future from In Time where the rich live forever and the poor die young. 

Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) lives in that particular future where wealth segments society. People physically age until twenty-five and are branded with a time clock on the arm. The rich squander decades and centuries in casinos and other luxuries; the poor struggle to their final seconds in the ghetto before timing out. Time is everything. It can be earned, gifted or stolen. Whether it be a simple cup of coffee, a wager on the betting table or the monthly mortgage payment, everything has a mortal price worth a particular amount of time.