Echeverria Reviews

So, this will be the first in a series of lists that I will be doing from time to time. It will generally consist of my rankings of certain films within certain genres or criteria. This list is my top 10 favorite movies of all time, which keep in mind, it changes periodically. Also, I have random taste. Anyway, here we go. 10. Prisoners Prisoners is a movie that after I saw it, I sat down again the next day and watched it again. It was such a dark mystery thriller that just engrosses you in with amazing cinematography by Roger Deakins and phenomenal directing by Denis Villenueve. That doesn’t even include the gut-wrenching performances by the entire cast, but mainly Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. Now, I love Jake Gyllenhaal. It is no secret that he is my favorite actor working today, and he just absolutely nails the role as Detective Loki, but he’s not even the best part of the film. I’m not the biggest Hugh Jackman fan, but dammit if he didn’t put on the greatest performa...

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is a fun, somewhat horror comedy directed by Ari Sandel, and it stars Jeremy Ray Taylor, Madison Iseman, and Caleel Harris as three kids who accidently get entangled in Slappy’s plans to unleash a permanent Halloween on the world, and must work together to save the city they live in. The film ends up being a fun fantasy tale that doesn’t exactly lean on the scary side, so kids will not be particularly spooked throughout this movie, unless they fear talking puppets (I do). Something I enjoyed about this film was the pacing and run time. It doesn’t take long for the movie to set itself in gear and it doesn’t overstay its welcome, so kids and parents alike will not become bored watching this. The young actors, while decent enough, come off wooden and uninspired. They don’t add much to the experience and don’t give you any real reason to care for them. They try to rope a college essay story to Iseman’s character to give you a sense of connection with her ...

Damien Chazelle is back and looking just as good as ever with First Man . Reuniting with Ryan Gosling, First Man is a wonderful, gritty, realistic look at the events that led to the moon landing in 1969. Let’s start with the absolute positives about this film, mainly, the effects. This is the most realistic a sci/fi film has nailed space travel in just about ever. The effects have such a sense of realism, and it shows the struggle that astronauts must endure to fulfill all the tasks that are asked of them. If you ever wanted to get a clear idea from a movie of how space travel works, this is it. Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy give great performances here, dealing with pain, loss, fear, frustration, and anger. I didn’t particularly think that they had the best chemistry, but they certainly worked well together. The screenplay that they worked with was solid, and they delivered it with such realism. Make no mistake, the acting in this is good on all fronts, but what everyone will be talk...

A star is born indeed. Close the “best picture” category at this year’s Oscars. It’s over. Done deal. We have ourselves a clear winner. A Star Is Born is not only the best film I’ve seen all year, it may just be one of the best films I’ve ever seen in my life. This might just be the emotion still pouring through, but this easily must go down as one of the best remakes of all time, and one where the remake completely blows all other incarnations out of the water. Let’s start off with the obvious, Lady Gaga is talented. Not just as an incredible musician, but she has clearly shown a talent for acting, and with this being her first leading role in a big movie, she absolutely knocks it out of the park. She approaches this role with such a fierce realism that it is hard to separate real from fiction. She is the absolute star in this role, but Bradley Cooper himself was no slouch. Pulling double duty as lead actor and introducing himself as a director in a triumphant way, Cooper is at his...