One Minute Review

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:52:40 PDT

J.J. Abrams rebooted Star Trek is back with Into Darkness. Star Trek fan Thomas McKenzie assess the Darkness and lets you know if it's worth stepping into.

One Minute Review: Star Trek: Into Darkness from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Iron Man 3

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:02:24 PDT

Robert Downey Jr. is back for his fourth go as Iron Man (including the Avengers movie). You'll probably see it no matter what Thomas says, but you might as well get an honest review.

One Minute Review: Iron Man 3 from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Mud

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:33:35 PDT

This is the One Minute Review of "Mud."

The phrase "Matthew McConaughey's latest film" doesn't always inspire confidence in me. This time I went to see it anyway. Here's what I found.

One Minute Review: Mud from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

The Great Gatsby

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Sun, 12 May 2013 19:50:14 PDT

Baz Luhrmann brings his unique sensibility to one of the Great American Novels. Does he bring Gatsby to life, or suck the life right out of it? The One Minute Review knows.

One Minute Review: The Great Gatsby from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

The Place Beyond the Pines

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:37:00 PDT

This is the One Minute Review of the Ryan Gosling / Bradley Cooper cop and robber flick The Place Beyond the Pines. Check it out.

One Minute Review: The Place Beyond the Pines from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Oblivion

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:23:05 PDT

Tom Cruise: 50 years old and still shooting at aliens. So how's the old man doing? Check out the OMR of Oblivion.

One Minute Review: Oblivion from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

42

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:37:26 PDT

The Jackie Robinson biopic "42" is out in theaters. Looks inspiring. Is it? Is it more?

One Minute Review: 42 from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Olympus has Fallen

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:08:59 PDT

Seriously, I saw this movie. And now I've reviewed it. Just watch the review.

One Minute Review: Olympus Has Fallen from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Side Effects

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:00:02 PDT

Soderbergh! This film was made by Steven Soderbergh! He's awesome! Awesome enough to overcome that Made-for-TV looking trailer? Find out.

One Minute Review: Side Effects from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Stoker

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:18:45 PDT

This is the One Minute Review of Stoker. Shot in Nashville, this is Chan Wook Park's first English language film. It looks odd and eerie. Is it worth sitting through?

One Minute Review: Stoker from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Oz, The Great and Powerful

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:00:46 PDT

It's March. Studios are only releasing crappy movies (witness: Die Hard 5). If you go to the theater, you have your choice of a) Oscar Winners or b) garbage. Having seen all the Oscar winners, I've been a sad man. But then: OZ! Disney starts 2013 off with a huge, amazing, wondrous official prequel to The Wizard of Oz. It has James Franco and three terrific leading ladies (OK, two terrific leading ladies and one girl named Mila something). I took the kids on opening day, and this is what I found:

One Minute Review: OZ The Great and Powerful from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Best Picture Round Up

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:26:13 PST

The Academy Awards will be given on February 24th. If you haven't seen all NINE movies nominated for Best Picture, it isn't likely you'll get a chance. That's around 25 hours of film, after all.

Instead of seeing nine films, why not watch nine One Minute Reviews? That way, you may not have seen a few of the movies on Oscar night, but at least you'll have a vague opinion about them! (But watch out, people who love Les Mis may not enjoy your company if you agree with me).

The films nominated for Best Picture are:

Amour - http://www.oneminutereview.com/2013/02/amour.html
Argo - http://www.oneminutereview.com/2012/10/argo.html
Beasts of the Southern Wild - http://www.oneminutereview.com/2012/08/beasts-of-southern-wild.html
Django Unchained - http://www.oneminutereview.com/2013/01/django-unchained.html
Les Misérables - http://www.oneminutereview.com/2012/12/les-miserables.html
Life of Pi - http://www.oneminutereview.com/2012/12/life-of-pi.html
Lincoln - http://www.oneminutereview.com/2012/11/lincoln.html
Silver Linings Playbook - http://www.oneminutereview.com/2013/01/silver-linings-playbook.html
Zero Dark Thirty - http://www.oneminutereview.com/2013/01/zero-dark-thirty.html

The Academy can nominate up to ten movies for Best Picture. You'll notice that there are only nine this year. The one movie that was most obviously NOT nominated was The Master. Even though the Master has three acting nominations and comes from the amazing P.T. Anderson, it's seen as an attack on Scientology. Scientology, as you probably know, has some influence in Hollywood. My review of The Master, certainly one of the best films of the year, can be found here: http://www.oneminutereview.com/2012/09/the-master.html

Amour

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:33:42 PST

This is my review of Amour. A French film about old people dying. Who wouldn't love that?

One Minute Review: Amour from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Warm Bodies

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:52:02 PST

This is Fr. Thomas McKenzie's review of Warm Bodies. Zombies and romance? Can that possibly work? The One Minute Review has the answer.

One Minute Review: Warm Bodies from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Gangster Squad

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:00:36 PST

Ryan Gosling and Tommy Guns? Who could ask for more? This is the One Minute Review of "Gangster Squad." Worth watching? Or worth gunning down from your Ford Fairlane as you drive-by?

One Minute Review: Gangster Squad from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Broken City

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:29:21 PST

A stellar cast and an unknown script writer come together in this "thriller" set in NYC. Should you see it? Maybe those quotation marks around "thriller" provide a clue. Watch the One Minute Review to know for sure.

One Minute Review: Broken City from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Zero Dark Thirty

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 17:56:43 PST

Because Django Unchained wasn't controversial enough, the One Minute Review is back with Zero Dark Thirty. You've probably heard of it, but should you bother to see it? Find out.

One Minute Review: Zero Dark Thirty from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Django Unchained

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:21:57 PST

Join the One Minute Review as we return to the Ante-bellum Old West in Tarantino's fable of a hero who will go through hell to rescue the woman he loves.

One Minute Review: Django Unchained from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

My Favorite Ten Films of 2012

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:28:56 PST

I saw a lot of movies in 2012, and reviewed most of them. Looking back at the films I saw in the theater over the past year, I've come up with my top ten. I am not claiming these are all Academy Award worthy masterpieces. I'm just saying that these are the ones I most enjoyed.

If you want to know what I thought of any of these films, you can search for my reviews at
www.OneMinuteReview.com, ThomasMcKenzie.com, or facebook.com/oneminutereview.

Two caveats. First, I Zero Dark Thirty has not been released in Nashville yet. Second, I did not include Blue Like Jazz because I am too personally invested in it. If you haven't seen it, you should.

My Top Ten

The Master
Life of Pi
Django Unchained
Moonrise Kingdom
Skyfall
Looper
The Grey
The Dark Knight Rises
Argo
Brave

The award for worst film of the year goes to Sacha Baron Cohen's profoundly stupid "The Dictator."

Silver Linings Playbook

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 21:46:14 PST

This is the One Minute Review of "Silver Linings Playbook, the psycho-drama-romantic-comedy-dance-off that may or may not have redeemed Bradley Cooper in my eyes. Have fun, and take your medication.

One Minute Review: Silver Linings Playbook from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Les Miserables

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:10:10 PST

This is the One Minute Review of Les Miserables. Do you hear the people sing? Do you hear them sing well? Two totally different questions. Fr. Thomas McKenzie, a self-proclaimed "theater person," has been to the movies and can answer all your questions. At least the basic questions about Jean Valjean & Co.

One Minute Review: Les Miserables from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:01:49 PST

This is extra-long One Minute Review of the extra-long Hobbit movie. Both are self-indulgent and filled with more content than you need. That's called being "meta."

One Minute Review: The Hobbit, an Unexpected Journey from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Life of Pi

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 12:01:13 PST

This is the One Minute Review of Ang Lee's "Life of Pi." A boy, a boat, a tiger, and a confused understanding of God. Does it make for good theology, a good story, both, or neither? Fr. Thomas McKenzie has an opinion, if not all the answers.

One Minute Review: Life of Pi from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Anna Karenina

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 16:43:19 PST

Joe Wright and Keira Knightley are back together for the 50,000th film version of Tolstoy's great novel of love, marriage and morality. The One Minute Review has been to the theater and has returned with three minutes of thoughts. Thinking of seeing this film, spend a few minutes with Fr. Thomas McKenzie first.

One Minute Review: Anna Karenina from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.

Lincoln

Thomas@ThomasMcKenzie.com (Thomas McKenzie) — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 05:09:57 PST

This is the One Minute Review of Lincoln. He's on the penny, he's got a monument, and now he's on the silver screen. Is this newest Abe made out of flesh and blood, or is he stone and metal?

One Minute Review: Lincoln from Thomas McKenzie on Vimeo.