Raider Reel Presents: Halloween Short Films

Throughout this semester, many Texas Tech University student filmmakers have been busy producing short films for the first Raider Reel Presents competition. The horror or thriller-themed short films had to be between two and five minutes in length and were judged by Texas Tech professors. Five of the submitted films will be sent to film festivals as one […]

"Hunger Games: Catching Fire’s” Fiery Grit Worth The Cost

Let me start off by saying, if you didn’t read Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (which you should because it’s great) – you won’t be lost while watching the movie. For those who did read the book – don’t take away from the experience of watching the movie by comparing it to the […]

Movie Review- Thor:The Dark World

Over the last five years, Marvel Studios has done the impossible: create four consistently successful comic book movie franchises that culminate into a gigantic team-up movie with “The Avengers”(2012). Considering the last blockbuster clash of separate franchises into a single event occurred in 1962 (“King Kong vs. Godzilla”), all odds were against this plan being […]

Movie Review: Captain Phillips

I get so tired of action movies sometimes. After so many instances endless car chases, gunfights, explosions, and cut-and-paste CGI effects, I tend to long for some good old-fashioned suspense.  I’ve always enjoyed scenes where you’re terrified of what will happen next, where any second could instantly change the course of the entire story with […]

Movie Review: Gravity

Every five years or so, that special ‘event movie’ comes along to completely absorb its audience with vastly immersive spectacles across time and space. James Cameron’s “Avatar” (2009) was the last film to capture the audience’s imagination in such a way. With state-of-the-art motion capture technology and 3D effects to create a beautifully believable world […]

Movie Review: Escape From Tomorrow

If one is to appreciate this bizarre little movie and why I decided to review it, one has to know how Escape From Tomorrow was made in the first place…and how it really should not have been released at all.  The film was made guerilla style, filmed entirely in secret at Disneyland and the Walt Disney World […]

Movie Review – Prisoners

The director, Denis Villeneuve, creates a thrilling mysterious movie that captivates the audience through every twist and turn, through every new discovery and failed attempt. He does a great job of transitioning each part of the movie smoothly and keeping viewers on their toes. While this film is engaging, it is too long. The entire […]

Movie Review- Insidious: Chapter 2

A family begins to notice strange occurrences throughout their house. At first the happenings are innocent, like furniture moving around or books getting knocked off of shelves, but soon the phenomena becomes more and more threatening. The danger culminates into one of the family’s children being dragged into another world with the spirits of the […]

Movie Review- Riddick

In 2000, the world was introduced to Vin Diesel in the cult sci-fi/horror film, “Pitch Black.” Diesel played a murderous convict by the name of Riddick, whose incredible skills and feral instincts allowed him to survive almost any situation.  It was a fun (if shallow) thriller that took a little too much inspiration from James Cameron’s 1986 […]

Moves Like Jackson