Category: Reviews – Blog Only

Critically assessing Alien³ is inherently problematic, thanks to creative interference by Twentieth-Century Fox that so thoroughly frustrated director David Fincher, he continues to refuse to discuss (much less revisit) his feature debut. Yet while the theatrical cut is notable mainly for the abominable changes made to it by studio suits, the DVD “assembly cut” –…

“I ain’t got time to bleed,” Jesse “The Body” Ventura’s commando famously retorts in Predator, and likewise, John McTiernan’s 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle ain’t got time to waste on subtlety. The early, prolonged close-up of Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers’ steroidal biceps as the men clasp hands encapsulates this muscular sci-fi saga, about a special ops…

Given its superiority to countless modern horror trifles thrust into multiplexes, it would be difficult to fathom the straight-to-DVD route taken by The Midnight Meat Train (a token theatrical release in a few random markets doesn’t count) save for one considerable detail: its gore. Ryuhei Kitamura’s adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story is so thoroughly…

Countless imitators later, The Evil Dead remains a dizzying bloodbath in which gore proves both nasty and amusing. Setting the template for thousands of subsequent followers, Sam Raimi’s debut film charts the saga of two guys and three girls as they embark on a vacation in a remote forest cabin where, in a creepy dungeon…

Unsure of what it wants to be, The Eclipse winds up only being a mishmashed nothing. In a seaside Irish town, high school woodworking teacher Michael (Ciarán Hinds) still grieves over the death of his wife, a loss that’s left him to raise their two kids on his own and has also, it seems, caused…

Tantalizing at first and then increasingly tedious thereafter, Repo Men has a sci-fi set-up primed to deliver commentary on our callous, insufficient health care system, and then doesn’t do so. Lay the blame squarely at the feet of director Miguel Sapochnik and writers Eric Garcia and Garrett Lerner, who after establishing a near-future in which…

Alice in Wonderland is exactly what one would imagine a Tim-Burton directed adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s novel to be – tons of menacing, slightly grotesque creatures, an ethereal-yet-tough female protagonist, and Johnny Depp as a supposedly delightful weirdo. As such, Burton’s latest re-emphasizes the nagging impression that the director is stuck in a creative rut,…

A rebel yawn of a rock n’ roll biopic, The Runaways focuses on the rise and fall of the titular ‘70s all-girl group and, specifically, the twin paths taken by leather-and-growl lead guitarist/songwriter Joan Jett and Fawcett-glamorous singer Cheri Currie. In the hands of writer/director Floria Sigismondi, said stories were marked only by clichés about…

Bong Joon-ho nominally returns to the scene of Memories of Murder’s crime with Mother, re-immersing himself in a small-town community teeming with quirky lowlifes and deep dark secrets, and shaken by a sexually motivated murder. Yet if the setting – and, for that matter, the tone of inquisitive, slightly scornful detachment – remains the same,…

So-so material elevated by stirring direction, or formally impeccable craftsmanship wasted on a sluggish suspense yarn? No matter your glass-half-whatever perspective, The Ghost Writer functions largely as a showcase for its under-house-arrest helmsman Roman Polanski, whose latest is a subtle visual stunner awash in creeping paranoia and anxiety. Hired to ghost-pen the autobiography of a…