The Zachtastic Movie Blog

Four years ago, Marvel attempted to give Wolverine the proper solo movie treatment with X-Men Origins: Wolverine , but to no particular avail. In fact, that film was so poorly received that the studio decided to give the character another try, except this time the story would take place after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand . Also taking inspiration from the critically-acclaimed story arc Wolverine from prolific comic writer Frank Miller, can The Wolverine finally give the character the solo treatment he deserves? Following the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and the disbanding of the X-Men, Logan (Hugh Jackman) exiles himself to the Canadian woodland. Every night he is tormented of memories from his many exploits, the death of his beloved Jean, along with the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. One day, a mutant named Yukio (Rila Fukushima) finds him in a bar, and she then asks him to come to Japan with her. She tells him that she is acting on behalf of her dying grandfa...

Sequels are a very common thing nowadays, but this is a year that has simply been full of them - especially during the summer. Sure, a number of these sequels have been eagerly anticipated, but otherwise there have been plenty of unnecessary sequels released this year. One of them is RED 2 , even though the original was a generally-liked film (I myself enjoyed RED ). Despite its obligatory production, can this older troupe of actors prove that they have some steam left to provide some entertaining action and laughs? Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), a retired black ops CIA agent, is now trying to live a quiet life with his timid girlfriend Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker). One day, he runs into his old friend Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) who warns him of a hunch that there are people following them, but Frank thinks otherwise. Soon enough, Frank is taken to be interrogated at a Yankee White Facility, but he later escapes and sets off on the road with Marvin and Sarah. Marvin inf...

When it comes to independently-produced comedic dramas, what is generally the go-to storyline for such a film? You guessed it, the coming-of-age tale. That is certainly the course Academy Award-winning screenwriters Jim Rash and Nat Faxon (for The Descendants , in which they share the win with Alexander Payne) took for their directorial debut, The Way, Way Back . However, with a terrific cast and their great writing, could this be a good change in pace for the coming-of-age film? It is finally summertime, but sadly 14-year-old Duncan (Liam James) is in a horrible position in life - he is being forced to spend the whole entire summer with his mother Pam (Toni Collette), her over-the-top boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) and stuck-up daughter Steph (Zoe Levin) at Trent’s beach house. Amidst all of the family awkwardness, Duncan seeks to get away from it all and simply find a place where he can be happy. At one point, Duncan finds the Water Wizz water park nearby, and soon the e...

While other summer blockbusters released this year have failed to live up to the hype, Guillermo del Toro has delivered with Pacific Rim . To some extent, most of the summer blockbusters released this year have been disappointing. I was completely entranced by Star Trek Into Darkness , but otherwise Iron Man 3 , Fast & Furious 6 , After Earth , Man of Steel , World War Z , White House Down and The Lone Ranger have all been letdowns to varying degrees. With the summer movie season now past its midpoint, the pressure is now on Guillermo del Toro to deliver where others have faltered. Is Pacific Rim the exact sort of summer blockbuster we deserve? Humanity has learned that they are not alone in the universe, but in an unexpected way - giant alien monsters, coined as Kaiju (Japenese for “giant monster”), have emerged from the sea. Their arrival soon results in a war that eventually costs millions of lives and depletion of much of the Earth’s natural resources. With ...

To spare you and I some time here, I am simply going to tell you all of the movies I have already seen this year rather than repost all of my previous reviews. In that sense, I am going to give you maybe a three-to-four sentence review for each. Also, I am going to present these movies in the order of their release, and I will also attach hyperlinks to full reviews I have written. Without further ado, here is the list of the movies I have seen this year so far! :) NOTE: You may notice that I have seen a few R-rated films. I watched all of those on Clearplay (a content filter) once they came out on DVD. 1. The Last Stand (R) - 7.0/10 2. Mama  (PG-13) - 6.0/10 3. Warm Bodies  (PG-13) - 8.0/10 4. Side Effects  (R) - 8.0/10 5. Escape from Planet Earth  (PG) - 3.0/10 6. A Good Day to Die Hard  (R) - 2.0/10 7. Dark Skies  (PG-13) - 4.0/10 8. Snitch  (PG-13) - 7.0/10 9. Jack the Giant Slayer  (PG-13) - 4.0/10 (score has changed since initia...

I am just going to keep this short and sweet, here. Hello, my name is Zachary Kircher! I recently graduated from high school, and I am now planning to attend ASU next month to study English (Creative Writing). If you want to get to know me a little bit, you should know that a lot of my life revolves around film, although I also focus a lot of my time around the LDS Church as well. First of all, I work at the Cinemark a mile away from my house, so that should already be enough to prove my love for film. That's not enough, though. Ever since I was in 4th grade, I have been tinkering with editing software and began to develop a desire to write, direct and produce movies. That desire has certainly grown in recent years, especially since I am mainly studying English to learn how to be a better screenwriter. Eventually I would like to get to that point after my mission, but for now I am working as a dedicated critic for Metal Arcade  and just preparing for said mission. A...