So we've started rolling out the new site format today. Overall the main home page is going to look quite similar, but as you'll see, there's a lot more stuff on the page. We now have a sidebar running all the way down the right side of the page, which will house a search bar, and a list of current and upcoming movies, as well as the latest movie buzz. The "Top Movie News" will be where we put our bigger news stories, while the "Latest Movie Buzz" column will cover everything else, even if it's something as simple as the announcement of a DVD release date. It should make the news more manageable and help to ensure you guys are getting a lot more news content to read about.

At the top right corner of the home page, you'll now find a search bar, which I'm sure many of you will appreciate. It works fairly well but it is admittedly pretty basic. Still, it should suffice well enough to help you find whatever you may be looking for. On top of the search bar you'll find a couple links that will serve as extra navigational tools. A-Z will be a page with links to all of the movie pages found on the site presented in alphabetical order. At present, Ryan and I are now up to 32 completed movie pages. I expect for us to be up to 45 movies within another week's time since we have several more that are nearly completed. We went back and covered any of the movies that I've reviewed or talked about, as well as dozens of upcoming films, so we've been playing a whole lot of catch up. Moving forward, we're going to make sure to quickly add pages for any new movies, which will make things much easier to build on and maintain in the long run. Also on the search bar, you'll see "Dates" which is not ready at the time of this blog posting but should be going up relatively soon. It will be a regularly updated page you can go to if you want to see what movies are coming out based on their release dates. So if you want to find out what movies are playing this August and beyond, this is the page you want to go to.

At the bottom of the page, you will now find the weekend's box office results. I always enjoy following the box office numbers so I'm delighted to be adding this component to the site. I may end up adding more information to it and extending it all the way to the right side of the page, or I may end up squeezing a weekly poll in the bottom right sidebar. I was having difficulty fitting a poll in that spot, so I tried to build a custom one to fit into that narrow space but it was creating some alignment issues within the poll. I decided that I'm a little too busy at the moment to continue investing time into getting it to work, but I'll take another shot at it when I can.

Another change you may have noticed is that I've redone Pick My Flick as well as all of the movie news pages. Instead of making a separate webpage every month for each Pick My Flick entry, and for every single news article, I'm now posting them all in blog format. I think there's a number of advantages to doing this. For one, it keeps things grouped together much more nicely, which makes things easier for you and for me. Take a look at the Pick My Flick page if you haven't already. You'll now be able  to just scroll down and see all of the previous months. I think it's great! Secondly, it makes everything more manageable. Maintaining one blog page is a whole lot less work than organizing and managing dozens of pages that I would have to manually connect through links and navigation tools. So the Movie Kombat page and news pages will each follow the same pattern, and I'll transition the Top 5 Lists to blog format too.

Oh, and if you're wondering, yes, I am a big Mortal Kombat fan, hence the name Movie Kombat. It's actually my favorite video game series, and I think their last game was the best one yet, which is really saying something! I was having second thoughts about using the name since it seems a little cheap to me to borrow from my beloved game series, but I like to think of it more as an homage than anything. I played around with several other names, but this one just felt right, and feedback has been quite positive so I'm gonna stick with it. At least until Ed Boon, co-creator of Mortal Kombat, tells me personally that I need to change it. Then I'd probably just die right in that moment from acute fanboy syndrome. Ed Boons wins! Fatality!

Well I meant for this to just be a quick little update on what's going on and of course, in typical 5 Minute Movie Guy fashion, I've turned it into an overly long, exhausting exposition. Hey, it's just like my reviews, right? ;) Haha, thanks for reading.  I appreciate your patience with the site's slow transition stage and with my extensively drawn-out dialogues. I hope you'll check out the many new movie pages the site has to offer.

Oh, and a quick aside... I saw Lucy last night. I'm gonna save the details for my review, but for the sake of your intelligence, please refrain from seeing this movie. I care about your brains and don't want them to be subjected to such catastrophic harm. Don't let the movie's amazing trailer fool you. Stay away at all costs!

My cousin, Ryan Moore, the creator of the website Always Vibin' has joined me here at 5 Minute Movie Guy! Here's been working with me on the site behind the scenes for almost two weeks now, and I'm truly grateful for all of his help and hard work. He's been an integral part in pushing this site forward and I think you'll all be pleased with the progress we've made. We were expecting to have the additions fully rolled out a few days ago, but it's taken a little longer than anticipated. Fortunately, I can report that the wait is almost over! I appreciate your patience during this time. The most inquisitive among you have probably already gotten a brief sneak peek at what's to come, since we've gradually been introducing new elements over the last week. I hope you're as excited about it as I am. I can't wait to see where all of it will lead, and I'm delighted to be able to share this experience with my new partner.

Ryan has a great love for movies, and he actually watches more of them than I do! He's a very passionate, dedicated, and caring person. He's already made a substantial investment into the site, and will continue to be involved in making 5 Minute Movie Guy the best it can be. Please, join me in giving Ryan a warm welcome!

Also, check out Ryan's awesome website at alwaysvibin.com.  It's a website dedicated to health and awareness, providing valuable health tips, nutritional facts, and recipes. It's full of inspiration and helpful information to motivate you to get your physical and mental health on the right track. There's even a free online health assessment! His website also touches on some of his other interests, like movies and sports. Be sure to check it out!

Hey guys. Just giving you all a quick little update about things related to the website. You're going to see some big changes to the site's format soon. That includes making some much needed changes to the site's home page. I think you'll all really like the finished result. It will make things look more professional and organized, so I'm really excited to reveal it to you soon. I'm in the process of planning and testing it all out now, and so far, so good. It's a lot of work but it should totally be worth it in the end.

I hope you guys are getting out to the movie theater as much as I am. I must say, so far I think it's been a phenomenal year for movies. I feel really fortunate that I started my website when I did, otherwise I would have likely missed out on a lot of these great films. It's exciting to realize that there's still so many big films on the way. It's a good time to be a movie-goer. I know I owe you guys some reviews. I'll keep them coming, slowly but surely. It's frustrating for me to have fallen behind like this, but I'm going to keep pushing forward and catch up as soon as I can. I sincerely appreciate your patience and support. Thanks for making 5 Minute Movie Guy into a worthwhile venture. It brings me great satisfaction to watch it grow, and I hope one day it will be your first choice for online movie news, reviews, and entertainment.

I also have a major announcement to make soon! Stay tuned! As always, thanks for reading!

Speaking of video games, is it just me, or does Edge of Tomorrow make you realize that Emily Blunt would be the perfect choice for playing galactic bounty hunter Samus Aran in a Metroid movie? While I certainly don't expect Nintendo to turn the Metroid franchise into a film, I still find myself enthralled by the possibility. Her character Rita has got to be the coolest female alien butt-kicker since Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in the Alien series. Blunt added such a great intensity and ferocity to her performance. She managed to be an intimidating and awe-inspiring force. I'm glad they didn't reduce her to being your typical Hollywood damsel in distress. She's one bad mamma jamma from the moment we meet her up until her death. I would have never expected such a performance from her and I applaud her efforts.

It's July 3rd! You all know what that means! It's Tom Cruise's birthday! Yay!

Okay, you probably didn't know that, but I knew. Here's an easy tip to guarantee that you'll always remember his birthday from now on. Tom was the star of the 1989 Vietnam War movie Born of the Fourth of July, based on the autobiography by real life war veteran Ron Kovic who was paralyzed in the war. Tom plays Kovic in the film, and his performance scored him his first ever Oscar nomination. While Kovic really was born on July 4th, Tom was actually born on July 3rd. Pretty close, right? Would have been a really cool coincidence if he was also born on the 4th, but eh, it's close enough. So you'll remember next year, right? It's the day before July 4th. It's not that hard. I trust that you'll never forget.

Good ol' Tom turns 52 years old today. Hard to believe, isn't it?  52 and still one of the biggest action stars on the planet. He's been acting for over 30 years now and still is at the top of his game. That's longevity anyone should be able to respect. His latest work, Edge of Tomorrow, is fantastic. Tom adds a lot of flair to his performance through his keen self-awareness. He delivers a lot of laughs and awesomeness. It's a little bit odd for him to be the star of this film given his age. He's surrounded by a lot of younger faces but he still certainly holds his own regardless. If you haven't already done so, check out my full review for Edge of Tomorrow.

Last year my brother's girlfriend was pregnant with my first nephew, and all along I jokingly told her that her son would be born on July 3rd, sharing a birthday with Tom Cruise. I also told her that if he was in fact born that day, she would have to name him Tom. (Of course, she didn't agree to that. What sane person would?) Well, it turned out she went into labor on July 3rd of last year, so it looked like my prediction was going to miraculously come true.  Unfortunately, she kept that little guy in until the 4th, probably just to spite me. Still, being born of the Fourth of July is pretty cool too. So while I'm a couple hours early, I'd like to use this opportunity to wish a Happy Birthday to my little nephew Mason. Let it be known that I'm gonna use every ounce of my uncle influence to turn that little guy into the next Tom Cruise! You better believe it!

So a  couple years ago I jumped on my couch 50 times in honor of Tom Cruise's 50th birthday. Last year my nephew Mason was almost born (his birth was meant to be the celebration). This year I'm keeping it pretty simple and just making this blog post in his honor. Tom Cruise, you're the coolest dude around. You'll always have a fan in me. Happy Birthday!

Sincerely,
5 Minute Movie Guy