Author: Kasey Butcher

I have really distinct memories of seeing the first Men in Black (1997) movie fifteen years ago. My aunt and uncle, who I considered the coolest grown-ups I knew, were watching my younger brother and I for the weekend and took us to the movies. Josh . . . 

I’ll admit that the only comic books I’ve ever read are a couple of Care Bears issues from the early 1990s. I know that there are a lot of passionate comic book fans out there, but also there’s a lot of us who just go to the movies . . . 

Any good student of American literature could probably tell you that Edgar Allan Poe died under mysterious circumstances. He was found on a park bench in Baltimore, Maryland, delirious, some say raving, even. A cause of death was never established . . . 

Perhaps in honor of the 200th anniversary of Grimm’s Fairytales, this movie season is offering two very different retellings of the Snow White story. At first, I thought that the different aesthetics and themes presented by Mirror Mirror and . . . 

More often than not, blockbuster franchises are light on content, heavy on special effects, and more escapist than thought-provoking. Easily my favorite part of The Hunger Games is the way the book and the film take up serious questions about exploitation, . . . 

I think The Lorax was my favorite Dr. Seuss book growing up. I loved when the Lorax jumped out of the stump and there was something hilarious and touching about how outraged and bossy he was. It looked to me that Danny DeVito would be a perfect person . . . 

I’m openly a big fan of both spy movies and romantic comedies, so it would stand to reason that I would enjoy a movie that combined those two, right? Well, that would assume that the filmmakers did something more creative than simply using the . . . 

Amid the horror and cliched romance movies that tend to come out in February, a feel-good family film seems like a natural fit, catering to those who want something sweet around Valentine’s Day, but wouldn’t be caught dead at a Nicholas . . . 

People always seem to say that the book is better than the movie, but sometimes what needs to be said is that the book probably shouldn’t have been a movie. I think that’s the case with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the new film . . . 

A few months ago, The Onion ran a headline declaring, “Court Rules Meryl Streep Unable to Be Tried By Jury As She Has No Peers.” In The Iron Lady, Streep delivered yet another incredible performance in what I thought was a compelling, artfully . . . 

It is a stressful time of year. The most wonderful time of the year, to be sure, but also full of things to do, places to be, people to see, gifts to buy, bills to pay, and the weather. For teachers and students, the first two weeks of December can . . . 

According to the box office and the previews, Breaking Dawn Part 1 is the number one movie in the world. Of course it’s no surprise, considering the mass appeal of the book series and the legions of teenage girls and their mothers who turn out . . . 

Interestingly, just after seeing Margin Call, which I reviewed in the last issue, I saw another movie in which the bad guy is a Wall Street broker. In Tower Heist, however, the story is more of a disorganized version of Robin Hood than an honest character . . . 

It seems like all anyone can talk about is Wall Street. Since the beginning of the financial crisis up through recent protests, it could be the Elm Street of our times. It should come as no surprise, then, that someone wrote a thriller about events . . . 

Last semester, I was driving to teach my class at Miami University when I saw a Mike Morris for President bus parked on campus. I was confused for a split second before I remembered that George Clooney was in town to film The Ides of March. For most . . . 

I grew up in a baseball house, so you’ll have to pardon the bad sports puns. My brother had a long and successful career as a catcher and summers meant seemingly countless days at the ballpark. Somewhere between reading young adult novels in . . . 

There’s something about the way the flu shot advertisements start going up earlier and earlier every year that I find a little unsettling. I’m close with many teachers, so I’m aware that the germs start spreading as soon as the first . . . 

With autumn usually comes an onslaught of horror movies and as much as I love Halloween, this poses a problem for me. I can only handle scary movies to a certain point. For some movies even the preview is too much for me. I enjoy the thrill of a scary . . . 

I’m getting a little weary of vampires’ popularity. I mean, Dracula is one of my favorite books, but there is such a thing as overexposure. I think I’m wearier of saccharine, supposedly-epic romances though, so given the choice between . . . 

I remember finishing the last book in the Harry Potter series and sitting on my bed for a long time afterward, unable to grasp that the books I had grown up loving and devouring in one sitting were now over. “At least there’s still the . . . 

As I mentioned in my review of Bad Teacher, there’s no shortage of inspiring movies about education. Usually, these movies center upon a teacher who, through hard work and dedication, makes a lasting difference in the lives of students and brings . . . 

In the midst of summer vacation, Bad Teacher promised to deliver some belly laughs for teachers on vacation. Instead, all the good parts were given away in the trailer and what remained was an unfunny comedy seriously detached from the classroom.

Bad . . . 

Can we all agree that writer/director J.J. Abrams has a gift for hype? When I saw the teaser trailer for Super 8 last summer—the one that only showed the pick-up truck derailing the train and something (but what!?) thundering around inside—I knew . . . 

It wouldn’t be summer without a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, or at least that’s what Disney would like us to think. Personally, I could have done without the fourth and latest installment, On Stranger Tides.

Pirates of the Caribbean: . . .