Andy Serkis

[4] Writer/director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) takes a stab at cinema’s most over-exposed superhero, casting Twilight‘s Robert Pattinson in the title role. Pattinson, totally fuckable in the cowl, plays detective with Commissioner Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) to determine the identity of a serial killer named ‘The Riddler’ (Paul Dano) who is offing political figures in an attempt to get Batman’s …

[6] Somewhere in Africa, there’s a secret society hidden away by fancy technology. They have, like, a really super-strong metal there that the rest of the world wants, but the secret African people know the rest of the world will just destroy itself if it ever gets their metal, so they don’t share it. But then one of their metal weapons is found in a …

[8] After finishing The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson tackled a remake of his favorite film, King Kong. Jackson’s remake is largely faithful to the 1933 original, while generously expanding the storyline and embellishing some of the characters. Jackson protracts the opening act more than necessary, but his interpretation of Skull Island is amazing. It’s this middle portion of the movie that delivers the …

[8] Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In) directs his second installment of the prequel trilogy to the famous sci-fi franchise. War isn’t as epic and enthralling as the spectacular Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but it’s still a damn fine conclusion to the story of Caesar (Andy Serkis). It’s also kinda neat to see how it dovetails into the original film series. The plot is stripped …

[7] J.J. Abrams (Lost, Super 8) takes the directing reigns from creator George Lucas and delivers a better film than any of the prequels. Original core cast members join new players in a script co-written by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, who penned The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi with Lucas. The story takes place thirty years after the events of Return of …

[9] In this sequel from director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In), the virus introduced in the previous film has obliterated more than 99% of the human population worldwide. In San Francisco, there is a small colony of humans focused on repairing a hydroelectric dam in the Red Woods so they can have electricity and possibly reconnect with other survivors. But its in the Red …

[7] The first two-thirds of this franchise reboot (a second after the 2001 Tim Burton clunker) are surprisingly good. I was expecting to see computer-generated monkeys go nuts for two hours (all of which is saved for the less interesting final act), but before then you get James Franco playing Dr Frankenstein and struggling with responsibility for his creation, a hyper-intelligent orphaned chimp named Caesar …

[10] Peter Jackson (Dead Alive, The Frighteners) embraces the Herculean task of bringing Tolkien’s supreme fantasy to the silver screen, and hits a home run. The Fellowship of the Ring gets the trilogy off to a strong start, as Frodo Baggins and his companions set off to destroy the One Ring.  Jackson is faithful to the source material while masterfully balancing action, horror, heart, and …