The Buzz: movie reviews

The scene is the mid-1980's. In a dark basement in a suburban house in middle Tennessee, I sat on a sofa in a room with woodgrain walls and shaggy orange carpet watching VHS tapes on a fat 80's television. It was here that my family and friends periodically rented each Star Wars movie in the original trilogy and a young boy (spoiler - me) fell in love with a galaxy far far away. Adventure, innocence, and imagination were the hallmarks of this legendary series. Now it's 2016, and we've just started the third Star Wars trilogy with the Force Awakens . With all the controversy of the prequels, the aging of the original trilogy, and the latest trilogy starting, where do the movies stand now? Well, I'll tell you! This is how I rank all the Star Wars movies from worst to best. 7. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones  - After the backlash of the Phantom Menace disaster, George Lucas and crew went back to the drawing board to slap together this mess. Reeling ...

We are well into 2016 now, and I've had time to look back on the whacky year that was 2015. The year was a solid mix of sublime and horrendous. Today I'm giving you my favorites of the year. Leave a comment and let me know if you agree or disagree. Now, here's the countdown: 7. Jurassic World    Barely making this year's countdown is the soft reboot of the classic dinosaur series. I don't think it's quite fair to call Jurassic World a "soft reboot", because it's a pure sequel. It picks up in the year 2015, in real time, as if the first Jurassic Park happened in the early 90's. I loved that aspect of it. I also loved Chris Pratt's semi-breakout performance (post Guardians of the Galaxy ) as a leading action star. Dallas Bryce Howard is also one of my favorite actresses.  Jurassic World is a tad cheesy. However, it's full of imagination, grand scale, and wonderfully ambitious special effects. I love the gyro-spheres and the monorail...