 The Skin I Live In, a twisted piece of modern film art that explores perception of beauty and madness, truly has many layers of its own metaphorical skin. We’re given a film that breaks itself into two chapters. The first chapter pulls you in with beauty, details and back-story of a gorgeous woman who appears to be locked in a single room that lies inside of a large Spanish mansion. You’re left intrigued and mesmerized by Kubrick like framing from a visual standpoint and the mysterious woman. The film concludes itself with a moving second chapter of madness, sexual identity and shocking realizations for characters in the film and you as the viewer. This unusual Spanish film is one of my favorites of 2011 and not to be missed.
 In Time comes from director-writer-producer extraordinaire Andrew Niccol, the master mind behind personal favorites; The Terminal, Lord of War, Gattaca & The Truman Show. Niccol’s solid repertoire shows he can make great films, but that’s not the case with In Time, a film that immediately falls flat in story, reconditioning itself with tacky romance between two characters you don’t care about and some truly laughable scrambled action sequences. Inspired by Michael Bay, the king of mediocrity, this all takes place in a world that lacks any visual significance, focusing on flashy futuristic vehicle concepts more than a believable living-breathing futuristic city setting where in the characters prosper from their surroundings. In Time entertains for the first fifteen minutes as a fun popcorn flick and is carried by Clillian Murphy, but remains stronger on paper as a one sentence concept, more so than a full fledged 109 minute feature for audiences to snooze through. In Time was a huge let down for me.
 Sherlock Holmes as a film is much like the character it portrays. Charming, fast paced, edgy and clever. The film meticulously pays attention to detail, giving us pleasing characters with great chemistry in Holmes and Watson. You remain intrigued with scenes of slow-motion-Holmes-projections, elaborate Victorian era sets and scenery, and the fascinating mind of Holmes the detective, the drug addict, the hopeless romantic and the master of disguise. Sure, parts of the film feel somewhat disjointed and at times forceful of an outcome, but you won’t care or notice.
 Apollo 18 manages to keep itself in the horror genre by putting two astronauts on the moon for a suspenseful Apollo mission that supposedly “never happened”. From a documentary perspective of Paranormal Activity, meets Aliens, meets Moon, meets something off the menu at Long John Silvers, Apollo 18 builds tension from a quiet eerie space setting and what unknown mysteries exist on the moon. The editing is superbly done in recreating a believable 1970’s space documentation. Despite the negative reviews surrounding Apollo 18, I found it to be a very enjoyable lunar landing Sci-Fi thriller with creative moon “creatures” and great cinematography-acting from mostly unknowns.
 Writer/Director Paul Haggis never disappoints in constructing realistic characters in thrilling situations that always feel genuine and keep you entertained. The Next Three Days, an action-thriller, pairs up Haggis’s knack for engaging story telling with Crowe’s well versed consistent acting, and we’re given a scenario where love conquers all, in what might be my favorite escape-plotting, fugitive-thriller that’s full of intense yet entertaining moments since, The Fugitive.
 Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, an unexpected, yet enjoyable hillbilly horror-comedy featuring two loveable red neck goons and the hilarious shenanigans that unfold around them. Despite having an ending that can’t live up to the first act of the film, you’re left with enough humor, college-themed horror deaths and buddy moments to make up for its few shortcomings. Not to mention, Wash from Firefly plays Tucker.
 Fancy CGI animation worked around real characters you enjoy, and the thrill of seeing intelligent super-apes kick human ass make this depthless plot-hole ridden, overhyped cheap-thrill of a popcorn film that lacks any structure whatsoever, truly entertaining and enjoyable from credits to credits!
Evolution goes ape shit in “The Rise of the Planet of the longest and most ridiculous” movie title ever. There are more District 9 references in this film than there are references to previous Planet of the Apes films, with most notably the appearance of a mysterious black substance being coughed up and the whole segregation- apartheid issue. Expect to witness mini-King-Kong’s taking down every cop in San Francisco, massive explosions, apes climbing up redwoods to build their own Ewok inspired tree villages, and genre-crossing into horror with a gratuitous scene featuring degenerate teens, their girlfriends and beer. Somehow the writers figured genre-crossing would fit perfectly into the progression and structure of their well developed plot.
Overall, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes starts out with a truly heartwarming premise, a scientist trying to cure his father’s illness with a vaccination procured from animal testing, but the film skips ahead a decade and loses itself in the character building process of a speechless, CGI ape, played by Gollum. Even so, he is still an enjoyable character you have sympathy for and want to see do well. From this point, the largest gathering of apes in one place takes over the city and we’re launched into a fun popcorn inspired action sequence of a Michael Bay ending. The ending promises a strand of sequels/remakes/reboots and with mixed feelings.
 “Planet of Ice” has an atmosphere of math rock, British pop-rock beats and progression, while remaining humble and true to the band’s relaxing sound-identity. At times it resembles a more electronic-reverberated take on Mars Volta’s, De-Loused in the Comatorium, which we all want more of. This being my first Minus the Bear album, I was eased with well-rounded soundscapes that make for excellent background noise on a relaxing day, while drawing together a collage of recognizable styles and sounds inspired by Floyd, Volta, and so on.
 Unlike its crafty precursor notable for fun death sequences and the introduction of a compelling new chrome-masked, blade wielding horror character, “ChromeSkull: Laid to Rest 2” puts itself to rest in a shallow hole of monotony. What could have been a standout sequel putting to use the likable Chrome-masked antagonist instead presents us with pretentious-overdone death sequences, artificial characters you don’t care about and a recycled plot-premise that leaves you falling asleep from boredom.
 Enter the Void is a drug induced thrill ride experience that literally puts you in the eyes of a kid living amid Tokyo’s neon lit, trendy underground drug culture mecca. Using obscure-unfixed camera motions to represent a wandering soul and some truly radical city shots, the film explores past-present-future perspectives of our psyche and explores subjects of reincarnation and soul exploration. While the film is certainly more of an experience than a viewing and not for everyone, by giving it a chance you can really open your mind to certain realities and nontraditional styles of film-making.
 Once you unearth Cedar Rapids from a mountain of average 2011 comedies, you’ll see that it’s quirky set of characters who work well together and truly warm hearted-satirical approach to the insurance
world works as one of the best comedies in years.
 Robber is a thought provoking existential thriller that centers on a runner running to keep himself alive. Through the eyes of someone treading onward, we’re given a look into the living interiors and exteriors of a man in modern Austria, struggling with his own existence outside of running and his inability to have a normal relationship with anyone. Despite being a quiet film told through character emotions, neutral toned environments and expressions, you’re left feeling connected to the main character even though his obsession with running has ruined practically everything in his life. Overall, Robber is an excellent film from start to finish with a believable romantic relationship left broken from life choices, and an exhilarating marathon ending that will leave you pondering your own existence and reasons for living.
 Bad Teacher is a 97 minute commercial seemingly made for FMP’s and shoe fetish enthusiasts combined with bad writing, bad humor, bad actor chemistry, and bad everything. While there are a few gag induced laughs from Officer Dangles character, and a high voiced Justin Timberlake, for the most part I could imagine most 13 year olds shaking their heads at how stupid the humor in this movie was.
 Catherine is another emotional game from Atlus that takes a funky approach to puzzle-relationship simulation cross-genre combinations and Persona-like design. In both thought provoking and hysterical manners, it deals with real concepts such as sex, infidelity and marriage, all of which are not normally addressed in “depth” in your everyday video game. With that said, Catherine balances itself with hectic puzzles that can be extremely challenging, but not impossible and fun dialogue driven situations that vary based on the decisions you make with each play through. Catherine is a great way to test your morals in a puzzle setting and put into question if the source material is straight from its unfaithful creators, or if you’ve created your own unfaithful universe.
 Resembling a kid exploring the open world that is college, Skyrim is full of interesting, sometimes questionable activities that will keep you busy for hours, but won’t actually require you to complete anything. In Skyrim, all of your open world-obsessive compulsive desires will be satisfied in Bethesda’s latest colossal masterpiece that is both thought provoking and humorous at times. Featuring cutting-edge interface design, endless amounts of open world interaction and replay value spanning for hundreds of hours, Skyrim raises the bar for mechanics and single-player gameplay to a level never before experienced in video games. Skyrim may suffer from lack of direction and paper thin story, but you’ll hardly notice these few shortcomings because you’ll be too busy wandering around for hours, and managing your collection of worldly items either stolen, or hand crafted. In the end, you’ll spend most of your time having fun doing absolutely nothing.
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The Skin I Live In, a twisted piece of modern film art that explores perception of beauty and madness, truly has many layers of its own metaphorical skin. We’re given a film that breaks itself into two chapters. The first chapter pulls you in with beauty, details and back-story of a gorgeous woman who appears to be locked in a single room that lies inside of a large Spanish mansion. You’re left intrigued and mesmerized by Kubrick like framing from a visual standpoint and the mysterious woman. The film concludes itself with a moving second chapter of madness, sexual identity and shocking realizations for characters in the film and you as the viewer. This unusual Spanish film is one of my favorites of 2011 and not to be missed.
