Bob's 2013 Movie Journal

Year three of keeping a movie journal, following my 2011 and 2012 indexes. Five-star movies are masterpieces. One-star movies are abominations. Most of the films I see will fall somewhere in between.

5/3 Iron Man 3 (2013) ★★★★: Lethal Weapon screenwriter Shane Black's fingerprints are all over Iron Man 3, his second feature as director after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and I couldn't be happier. This is easily as entertaining as the original Iron Man, if not quite as rousing as The Avengers.

4/5 Evil Dead (2013) ★★★: While the new Evil Dead proves competent, it never evolves into anything more than an asterisk next to the original film. Read my full review at Cult Spark.

2/23 Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) ★★★: Unlike anything I've ever seen before, so bonus points for originality, but the rough-edged, occasionally chaotic story -- part fantasy, part allegory -- never gels into anything extraordinary.

2/16 A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) ★★: Yes, A Good Day to Die Hard is the worst of the series. Yes, it’s considerably worse than Live Free or Die Hard. At least that movie is entertaining in a dumb-generic-Bruce-Willis-action-movie kind of way for almost its entire run time. A Good Day is a failure in both concept and execution that waits until its final third before it starts resembling the movies that preceded it and, even then, doesn’t begin make a case that this is a sequel that deserved to get made. Read my full review at Cult Spark.

2/9 Goon (2011) ★★★★: A successful mix of vulgarity, sweetness, violence and humor. It's also the best hockey movie in forever.

2/3 Lincoln (2012) ★★★★: What we have here is basically the greatest supporting cast ever assembled all rotating around a hurricane named Daniel Day-Lewis. As always, Day-Lewis's ability to transform himself into someone else seems almost magical. Meanwhile, the rest of the players -- from the big guns like Tommy Lee Jones all the way down to personal faves like Walton Goggins and David Costabile (Gale!) -- all get moments to shine. I could watch James Spader and John Hawkes harass 19th-century politicians all day. Director Steven Spielberg was wise to pare the story down to the basics -- the movie's less a biopic and more a straight-forward history lesson in how Abraham Lincoln pushed through the 13th amendment -- and let his cast go to work. The end result is not one of his masterworks, but it is his best film since Munich.

1/26 The Hunger Games (2012) ★★★: Director Gary Ross puts together a few great sequences, most notably the quiet, cold and ruthless (but not too bloody) opening salvo of the games themselves. But time and again the movie asks us to care about supporting characters it spends no time developing. Rue's death has no impact because the film devotes so little time to her beforehand. And by the time the boy from her district avenges her, I'd forgotten he existed. Jennifer Lawrence is the goods, though. Watch her face as her platform is about to be raised onto the battlefield. You can see the fear make its way across her features, inch by inch.

1/21 Wreck-It Ralph (2012) ★★★★★: The finest CGI-animated movie you'll find that doesn't have the word "Pixar" in the credits. (Though Pixar chief John Lasseter's name does appear. Clearly some of that Pixar magic is rubbing off on the rest of Disney's animated offerings now that he oversees those as well.) Wreck-It Ralph features the obligatory eye-popping visuals, but that's standard issue with CGI animation these days. What really makes it soar is a clever, propulsive and heartfelt story populated with likable, motivated characters. And did I mention half the movie is a love letter to 1980s arcade games?!

1/19 The Grey (2012) ★★★★★: Well, my 2013 in movie watching couldn't have started off any better than this. A bleak but gorgeous rumination on the human spirit and why it's important to keep fighting in the face of hopelessness, The Grey succeeds on nearly every level. Liam Neeson and the rest of the actors are stellar. Joe Carnahan's direction is flashy when it needs to be, assured the rest of the time. And the film ends on a note that is as perfect as it is ambiguous. Bonus points for featuring, like, half the cast of Rubicon.

Justified season four reviews

In addition to covering Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, I'm now also on the Justified beat over at CHUD.com. I'll link to all of my season-four episode reviews right here.

Justified 4.13 -- "Ghosts"
Justified 4.12 -- "Peace of Mind"
Justified 4.11 -- "Decoy"
Justified 4.10 -- "Get Drew"
Justified 4.09 -- "The Hatchet Tour"
Justified 4.08 -- "Outlaw"
Justified 4.07 -- "Money Trap"
Justified 4.06 -- "Foot Chase"
Justified 4.05 -- "Kin"
Justified 4.04 -- "The Bird Has Flown"
Justified 4.03 -- "Truth and Consequences"
Justified 4.02 -- "Where's Waldo?"
Justified 4.01 -- "Hole in the Wall"

The Walking Dead season three reviews

My episode reviews of Breaking Bad seemed to go over well with the CHUD crowd this summer, so they've brought me back to cover season three of AMC's zombie drama, The Walking Dead. I'll be writing episode reviews for the whole season, which I will link to here.

The Walking Dead 3.16 -- "Welcome to the Tombs"
The Walking Dead 3.15 -- "This Sorrowful Life"
The Walking Dead 3.14 -- "Prey"
The Walking Dead 3.13 -- "Arrow on the Doorpost"
The Walking Dead 3.12 -- "Clear"
The Walking Dead 3.11 -- "I Ain't a Judas"
The Walking Dead 3.10 -- "Home"
The Walking Dead 3.09 -- "The Suicide King"
The Walking Dead 3.08 -- "Made to Suffer"
The Walking Dead 3.07 -- "When the Dead Come Knocking"
The Walking Dead 3.06 -- "Hounded"
The Walking Dead 3.05 -- "Say the Word"
The Walking Dead 3.04 -- "Killer Within"
The Walking Dead 3.03 -- "Walk With Me"
The Walking Dead 3.02 -- "Sick"
The Walking Dead 3.01 -- "Seed"

The Cult Spark Podcast is now live

The first episode of The Cult Spark Podcast -- an hour-long cast where I lead a group of the best online entertainment writers I know in a discussion about movies, TV, videogames, etc. -- is officially in the books and ready for you to listen to! The plan is to record at least one of these a month, and you'll be able to stay up to date on the latest episode in a number of ways, including subscribing to the podcast via iTunes or streaming episodes from Cult Spark proper via the Podcast menu. We need all the support we can get, so if you like what you hear please spread the word and give the podcast a positive rating at iTunes.

Heisenberg and me

Throughout the summer, I'll be writing Breaking Bad episode reviews over at CHUD.com. I'll post the links here as they go online.

Breaking Bad 5.08 -- "Gliding Over All"
Breaking Bad 5.07 -- "Say My Name"
Breaking Bad 5.06 -- "Buyout"
Breaking Bad 5.05 -- "Dead Freight"
Breaking Bad 5.04 -- "Fifty-One"
Breaking Bad 5.03 -- "Hazard Pay"
Breaking Bad 5.02 -- "Madrigal"
Breaking Bad 5.01 -- "Live Free or Die"

Announcing CultSpark.com

Back when I closed down Fantasy Hurler, my fantasy baseball blog, I had it in the back of my mind that another website would take its place, a pop-culture blog where I could write about movies, television, videogames, comics, etc. Good storytelling is really my number one passion, and while baseball ended up being something I had a hard time writing about year-round, I felt pretty certain I wouldn't have that problem if I decided to wade into the pop-cult pool. Plus, I knew it would tie in better with all the TV writing I've done elsewhere, as well as the essays I've written for BenBella's Smart Pop line. A pop-culture website could promote what I'm best at.

A year and a half later, that idea is finally a reality. Last weekend I launched Cult Spark, a new website dedicated to covering the best pop-culture has to offer in a variety of genres. Though the site is only a week old, I've got posts up about The Evil Dead, Breaking Bad, Mass Effect, RoboCop and Justified. So it's not hard to see where my interests lie -- in geek-friendly entertainments that may not always be mainstream but are wildly successful at sparking the imagination.

A couple things for you to know. One, I could use your help spreading the word. So if you know me or if you've enjoyed my past work, please like us at Cult Spark's Facebook page and become a follower of Cult Spark's twitter feed. Anything anyone can do to promote the new blog is immensely appreciated.

Two, though right now I'm the only one writing at Cult Spark, I'm hoping to pick up other contributors as the site grows. I don't want it to be my own personal pop-culture blog. I want it to be a welcoming home for smart film, TV and game writers looking for a place to get their work read. I've written at a number of places now -- sites I've started and sites where I was just hired help -- and the one thing I've learned is that good writers are always stronger together than they are apart. I can't make Cult Spark take off by myself, but with a few more unique voices, maybe it can grow into something special. (And, hey, if you're interested in contributing, please email me at bobtaylor52@yahoo.com.)

Additional writers aren't the only thing I've got planned. Though I've done some guesting, I've never had a podcast to call my own. That's in the works, so stay tuned.

Lastly, the launch of Cult Spark means that nearly all the pop-culture writing I do from now on will be there. I say "nearly" because I'll continue to update the movie journals I keep here at my personal blog, but the days where I would throw movie news or TV observations up at this site are now over. (Truthfully, those days have been over for a while, but this makes it official.) RobertBrianTaylor.com is now strictly a place for my family, friends and colleagues to find out what I'm up to. It can serve as a hub to my other work and as a home to those journals, but that'll be about it. If you've enjoyed the writing I've done here over the years, please come check out Cult Spark. You'll find more of the same. A lot more.

Bob's 2012 Movie Journal

I had a lot of fun keeping a movie journal last year, so I figure why not do it again for 2012? Every film I see for the first time this year will be logged, rated and written about. Sometimes I'll write a little; occasionally I'll write a lot. Depends on the movie. And I plan on seeing a lot of them this year. As always, ratings are based on a one-through-five-star scale with no halfsies.

Read my Spider-Man essay for free

Smart Pop is making "Raimi vs. Bendis," a Spider-Man essay I contributed to the book Webslinger, free to read up until Wednesday Nov. 9! I wrote this piece, which compares film director Sam Raimi's take on the wallcrawler to Brian Michael Bendis's version of the character, between Spider-Man 2 and 3. (Had it come after 3, it likely would have been weighed even more strongly in Bendis's favor.)

Reviewing what's new on TV

I've spent the last month tackling some of the fall's new shows over at Guy.com. So in case you missed them, go check out my reviews of Homeland, Terra Nova, Person of Interest and Ringer. Spoiler alert: Homeland is by far the best of the bunch.

Read my Batman essay for free

"Keeping It Real in Gotham," a Batman essay I wrote for BenBella Books' Smart Pop line, is now free to read online and will continue to be until Wednesday, August 3. Go check it out as you try to calculate how many days are left until The Dark Knight Rises opens.