Film Criticism and Fiction Writing by Derek Jacobs
Derek Jacobs 
The best action movies succeed by crafting sequences with jaw-dropping visuals and physical stunts, hopefully with characters that we care about and in a way that advances the story. More and more often, action movies in this century lean hard on the crutch of CGI to dazzle us, and usually they are happy to dispense … Read more
There was never a reason to expect the sequel to Pitch Perfect to be very innovative. If you thought that the first movie was a tired exploitation of the popularity of Glee with a half-hearted attempt at comedy, then that’s what you’ll get with this rendition. Similarly, if you were amused by the a cappella … Read more
I try my best to limit the number of listicles that I post, which simply amount to some number of things ordered for people to bicker over the order or exclusion of particular things. But, this isn’t so much something like “Harrison Ford’s Top 10 Movies (You’ll Never Guess what #3 is!)”, but instead a … Read more
It looks like we’re actually getting a sequel to World War Z, which had exactly zero to do with the anthology of stories by Max Brooks (a similar phenomenon can be experienced by watching I, Robot after paging through Asimov’s collection of stories of the same name). This isn’t entirely unexpected, as the original grossed … Read more
Sometimes you just want to watch disease-ridden schoolchildren getting murdered by adults. For those times, there is the Cooties Trailer, released yesterday. I had heard absolutely zero about this movie before the trailer dropped online, so I was intrigued by the idea of small children contracting a zombie disease from questionable school cafeteria chicken nuggets. … Read more
I made sure to write this trailer reaction a good three hours after I first saw the trailer to Batkid Begins this morning, otherwise it would have basically been three paragraphs of teary-eyed blubbering. The story was vaguely familiar to me from various news articles, but I didn’t really know too much about it. Presented … Read more
Have you ever seen a Mexican standoff fist fight – with two of the combatants chained together? Mad Max: Fury Road treats us to this scene during a lull in the action, as a way for the audience to catch our breath. This film is an absolute assault on the senses in the very best … Read more
If you have very little knowledge of the upcoming Adam Sandler and Kevin James comedy Pixels, in which alien forces invade Earth in the guise of 80’s video game characters, the most recent trailer will certainly give you the aesthetic that the movie is attempting to capture. However, this trailer is likely very bad news, … Read more
Guys (and gals), I think Jurassic World might really suck. This isn’t so much a reaction to a new trailer or piece of movie news as it is a general opinion on the upcoming entry into the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World. I would guess that most people have seen at least one trailer for … Read more
The newest Disney and Pixar film, Inside Out, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier today to uproarious applause. Directed by Pete Docter, Inside Out is the first Pixar film to debut at Cannes since Up (also from Docter), and looks to be a worthy entry into the Pixar canon. In celebration of the successful … Read more