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I finally got around to seeing Gravity, and it was one epic experience that certainly lived up to the hype. Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone (yes, she's a chick with a guy's name), a medical engineer on her first mission in outer space, accompanied by George Clooney's Matt Kowalsky, a veteran astronaut who's on the brink of retirement. Everything seems to be going smoothly until an accident involving space debris destroys their shuttle, leaving the two of them floating aimlessly in space, where no one can hear them and no one can find them. All they have is each other as they try to make it out of their terrifying predicament alive. Just imagining being in that situation is freaking me out right now as I'm writing this.

When I first saw the trailer, I thought the idea seemed original and it looked like it could be entertaining, but I wondered how much of a plot and how much character development could occur in a movie that seemed to be merely about two people stranded in space. It turns out that my skepticism was unjustified, as it offered more than just an amazing visual experience. The plot may be basic, but it's laid out extremely well. The two main characters, especially Ryan Stone, have interesting enough back stories to keep the audience interested and focused on more than just how tremendous everything looked.

Sandra Bullock gave an excellent performance. It's hard to believe that 20 years ago, she was driving a bus with Keanu Reeves breathing down her neck. She may even get a second Oscar nomination and stick the middle finger up to anyone who said her 2010 win for The Blind Side was an undeserved fluke. George Clooney did what he did best: he acted like George Clooney.

I have never truly felt like I was there when watching a movie until I saw this one. I imagine that this is the closest anyone could get to experiencing what it's like to be in space without actually being there. Everything looked so real, it was unreal. This is the first time I can say that seeing a film in 3D was worth the extra admission price. It would've been even more awesome to see it in IMAX, but I waited until over a month after its release, like a dumbass, so it had already been yanked out of IMAX theaters. The 3D alone was awesome nevertheless, and I can't even imagine seeing it in 2D.

By grossing over $500 million worldwide, Gravity has deservingly become one of the biggest films of the year, and looks to be a serious contender once awards season rolls around. If you haven't yet, I highly recommend checking it out in theaters while you still can.

You don't want to f*** with The Family. That's the message I took from the trailer when I watched it for the first time earlier in the summer. I instantly became excited to see it because it has an amazing cast, and it looked like it would be full of laughs and all kinds of mayhem. It turned out to be not quite what I was expecting. The trailer tried to sell it as an action/comedy, but some parts are actually very dark and violent, even for a mafia movie. Unfortunately, most of the funniest moments are in the trailer, as seems to be the case with a lot of films these days.

Robert DeNiro plays Giovanni Manzoni, a mafia head who gets stuck in the witness protection program after ratting out a fellow mob boss. Along with his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), daughter Belle (Dianna Agron), and son Warren (John D'Leo) they must move to Normandy, France and rename themselves the Blake family in order to blend in. They make CIA agent Robert Stansfield's (Tommy Lee Jones) job difficult, as they constantly draw attention to themselves by sticking to their no-nonsense, badass ways of living.

Martin Scorsese executive produced, but I have a feeling that his role involved little more than allowing the studio to slap his name on the poster to give it as much legit mafia cred as possible. Nothing must be said about DeNiro because, well, he's DeNiro. Michelle Pfeiffer, who was perfectly cast with her history in films such as Married to the Mob and Scarface, is still gorgeous, even at 55, and she puts in a stellar performance that will hopefully earn her a Golden Globe nomination. Dianna Agron is quite beautiful as well. I don't watch Glee, but I think I might start now. She proved that she can hold her own in a feature film. John D'Leo is great as well, and he appears to have the potential to have a long career ahead of him. Tommy Lee Jones is his usual emotionless self.

The way that the mafia clan eventually finds out where the family is hiding is pretty far-fetched, even for a film, and I feel they should've tried harder to come up with something more believable. It was also difficult to accept the fact that so many of the French people spoke such good English. I haven't read the book that this movie is based on, Malavita, aka Badfellas for the English translation, so if the filmmakers decided to stay true to the book, then it's not really the movie's fault and these things can be overlooked.

This flick certainly has its moments, however. One of the highlights of the film, which was shown in the trailer, is when Maggie sets fire to a supermarket after being insulted by the workers for being American. All the characters have their own ways of handling different situations, and they are fun to watch. There is also a reference to a classic gangster film that is too good to reveal here.

It could've been funnier. The script could've been stronger. But the performances and action compensate for it. Although The Family didn't kick quite as much ass as I had hoped it would, it's still worth your time if you're into mafia movies and/or you're a fan of any of the terrific actors who star in it.

The year is 2022 and America has evolved into a nation that has an unemployment rate of just one percent, and crime is at an unprecedented low. This is mainly due to the New Founding Fathers' implementation of the annual purge, a twelve-hour period in which all crime, including murder, is legal and emergency services are suspended. This chaos that is created once a year is the perfect outlet to get all of the citizens' anger and frustration out of their systems before it builds up, right? The mayhem that is caused during that one night is worth the near-utopian society that it produces for the other 364 days of the year, right? All the disruption and all the lives lost are justified, considering all of the good that the free-for-all causes…right? On this particular night of purging, wealthy salesman James Sandin, played by the unappreciated Ethan Hawke, plans on waiting the night of uncontrolled violence out with his wife Mary (Lena Headey) and their two kids Zoey and Charlie in their solidly sealed home. James made his fortune selling security systems that are specifically designed for protection during the purge. A good portion of James' sales have been to the members of their neighborhood, and one of their neighbors lets Mary know that they all have been gossiping about them.

All seems to be going as peacefully as planned until Charlie notices a "Bloody Stranger," as he's referred to in the credits, begging for someone to let him in. Charlie punches in the security code and allows the badly battered stranger to slide inside just in time before James and Mary can stop him. Soon after, a group of masked "purgers" show up and their "Polite Leader" (Rhys Wakefield) unmasks himself to reveal that if the Sandins don't release the stranger to them alive, they will bring their hardcore tools to break in and slaughter them all.

The interesting concept is what drew me in, as it was a relief to see an idea that had never been done before, at least not in a mainstream movie. I agree with many critics who have said that more could've been done to expand on the plot, and it fell victim to many clichés of a standard home invasion film, a la The Strangers. In some ways it reminded me of The Happening, where an original idea was wasted by not exploring the unique plot further. However, while the execution of The Happening was horrid, The Purge compensates for its clichés with solid performances, especially from Hawke and the creepy as hell Wakefield, as well as some plot twists you'd never see coming. I give the movie credit for having the balls to go places that other films wouldn't dare go.

Another plus is that aside from some of Charlie's gadgets and the extravagant security system, the filmmakers didn't try too hard to sell the setting as being in the future. I'm glad they decided not to go overboard with futuristic technology because, especially for a thriller like this, it would've been distracting and taken away from the terror that the family was enduring. Nine years from now is not too far into the future, and I can't imagine things will look significantly different by then, considering that things haven't changed much since 2004.

One aspect that the filmmakers should have dove deeper into was its political commentary on how our society thinks of poor people as being worthless and expendable. They suffer the most during the purge because they can't afford the high-tech security systems. It's hinted that the murders of poor and/or homeless people, such as the stranger in the film, are what caused the unemployment rate to plummet, and the purge was created for the purpose of improving the economy by eliminating those who are considered to be unworthy of taking jobs from the middle and upper classes.

Despite mixed reviews, The Purge made $16.8 million on its first day at the domestic box office, more than five times its $3 million budget, and landed at number one with $34 million for its opening weekend. Due to its financial success, a sequel is already in the works. I can honestly say that I'm looking forward to a sequel because it could potentially explore other aspects of the purge and show how other people deal with it, as well as address any unanswered questions and fill any plot holes that the otherwise well-made first film left.