When an actor transitions to directing, their films often hit or miss. Even if their ideas have serious potential, they might not fully understand what's necessary to bring them to life from behind the camera. This is the case with George Clooney's The Midnight Sky, which I'd almost sum up as a well-meaning student film with a full budget. It's clear there is an emotional story that Clooney is trying to mine from the script, but he isn't sure how. In trying to direct in a subtle and understated way, he gets too subtle and loses the emotional power behind most of the scenes. The saving grace is definitely the acting. Coming from an acting background, it's no surprise Clooney is able to pull sincere performances from (almost) the whole cast. Despite some of the shallow dialogue, he injects a lot of subtle, poignant emotion into everyone's delivery. Now as much as I think Clooney has room to grow as a director, the script did not do him any favours. This screen...

It's time again for me to take to the stars and fight the good fight.  Today, I get a little rogueish... The Empire's ultimate weapon is nearing completion- allowing the Emperor to rule unchallenged.  But there's a problem: an Imperial Pilot has defected with news about a weakness that had been secretly built into it.  This news drags the a small team into a battle that could be the end of the Rebel Alliance... or the start of a new era of hope... " Rogue One " is one of the best instalments in the Star Wars franchise.  The story is strong and well crafted.  It fills in one of the most pivotal moments in the story, while also fleshing out the Star Wars universe.  I loved that it diverged from the standard Star Wars fantasy genre, by beautifully blending in strong elements of the war movie genre in the vein of " Saving Private Ryan ", " The Great Escape ", etc.  One of the strengths was definitely the fact that it was very character based...

Something isn't real until we in The Basement say it is, and so be it the case with the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story teaser. Sure, it appeared online hours ago, but we're posting it now. And that makes it real.