Well, this is it for The Mammal. The time when writing reviews as an educational experience has ended. I’m going to concentrate on my studies in Film and Journalism here at NYU. This site will serve as a vault for all the work I’ve done in the last five years (meaning I’ll periodically be updating it to hold all the writing). Obviously, thank you to everyone who helped create the site and those of you who read it.

Sam Osborn

88 Minutes

reviewed by Sam Osborn

Well we’ve been duped, is all I can say. Don’t be fooled by the hooky plot, flashy trailers, and the silvery rasp of Al Pacino. This film is a sham. And they lied, dammit. They lied. The film is 108 minutes. Even the title is a sham.

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Hey everybody,

No review this weekend. It’s crunch time here at the ole’ university and I didn’t have the time to hit screenings last week. A review or two might trickle out during the week. Otherwise, see you next week.

The Mammal

The Ruins

reviewed by Sam Osborn

Attractive, American, and reasonably dumb, four upperclassmen college students are spending a week’s vacation hitting the sands and margaritas of Mexico. They’re a couple of couples, best friends Amy and Stacy (Jena Malone and Laura Ramsey) with their boyfriends, Jeff and Eric (Jonathan Tucker and Shawn Ashmore). The four decide to spend their last day wearing more than bikinis to follow their new German friend, Mathias (Joe Anderson), out to an archeological Mayan dig site. A bus, a taxi, and a four mile hike later, they emerge from the jungles whiny and amazed, standing before an enormous, ancient pyramid. But out from the jungle pounce the natives wielding bows and revolvers, chasing the Americans to the top of their pyramid and quarantining them to the evils that hide within their ruins.

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Stop-Loss

a review by Sam Osborn

In the Valley of Elah, Rendition, Redacted, Lions for Lambs, and now Stop-Loss. It’s been proven over the last year with the failures piling higher and higher: these films about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan just aren’t very good. None of them are particularly bad, which makes it all the more mystifying as to why we don’t care for them. It’s maybe a symbol of this generation’s bland annoyance with the government’s blunders. Previous generations would be enraged by America’s current foreign situation. We find it blandly obnoxious. Put a bumper sticker on our cars? Sure. But hold a sign at a rally? I’d rather just vote for somebody new when November rolls around.

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21

a little review by Sam Osborn

March is a fine time to dump off mini-blockbusters like 21. Last year saw Disturbia, brandishing a similarly rising star in Shia LaBeouf as 21 has with Jim Sturgess. Not likely to rake in as much coin as other Summertime tentpoles, these medium-sized studio pics serve up medium-sized entertainment. They’re mild and standard, passable and pleasing.

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