Category: Reviews – Blog Only

Though utilizing many of the aesthetic conventions that define J-horror thrillers, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films are, at heart, psychological meditations on dislocation and alienation in which the chasm between life and death narrows as modern man’s isolation increases. In Séance (loosely based on Mark McShane’s novel Séance on a Wet Afternoon, also the basis for a…

With reverential wink-wink allusions to its classic horror film predecessors and director Joe Dante’s trademark cartoony vibe coloring the ominous action’s edges, The Howling may not be as polished or effective as John Landis’ 1981 An American Werewolf in London, but it’s still a perverse, satirical contribution to the oft-maligned werewolf genre. Beginning with a…

Whereas the kids in Jeff Blitz’s Spellbound measured their self-worth via their final place in the National Spelling Bee’s standings, the dancing fifth-graders of Marilyn Agrelo’s Mad Hot Ballroom – while nonetheless fixated on an upcoming city-wide competition at the World Financial Center – primarily find a sense of collective community and inter-gender understanding through…

If The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars had an ugly baby, it would look a lot like Krull, a cheesy fantasy/sci-fi hybrid that, as a young kid, I wasn’t able to tolerate beyond the first excruciatingly lame fifteen minutes. Twenty years later, I wish I’d followed my younger self’s example. Helmed by Peter…

In Unleashed, Danny (Jet Li) is a literal human attack dog, trained by his mobster boss/father/master Bart (a maniacal Bob Hoskins) to remain obedient while wearing his collar, and to mercilessly maim and kill when his metal neck restraint is removed. It’s a pulpy premise of near-ludicrous proportions, and it gets even sillier when Danny,…

Jean-Pierre Melville introduces Alain Delon’s character in 1970’s Le Cercle Rouge just as he did in 1967’s Le Samouraï – with the actor slumbering on a bed. Such a gesture not only links Melville’s two Delon-embodied protagonists as kindred alienated antiheroes, but immediately marks the director’s second-to-last film as yet another of his cooler-than-cool existentialist…

“Cheap” is the most accurate way to describe Phantasm IV: Oblivion, a direct-to-video sequel that splits time between Mike (an old-looking Michael Baldwin) and Reggie’s (Reggie Bannister) time-traveling fight against The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) and lots of silly, pointless outtakes from the first Phantasm (here presented as “flashbacks”). I guess Don Coscarelli deserves some…

Having already exhausted all the horrific and action-adventure possibilities of his Phantasm series, writer/director Don Coscarelli falls back on mystery-sapping exposition for Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, a direct-to-video catastrophe that continues the story of Mike (Michael Baldwin, returning to the role after James LeGros’ turn in the first sequel) and Reggie’s (Reggie Bannister)…

For Phantasm II, writer/director Don Coscarelli piles on more gore, more tongue-in-cheek humor, and more elaborate set pieces in an attempt to enliven what turns out to be little more than a big-budget rehash of his 1979 cult hit. Seven years after the first film’s events, Mike (now played by a young James LeGros) is…

An example of ambiance making up for incoherence, Don Coscarelli’s dream-like Phantasm is a film that benefits from repeated viewings, as its surrealistic story about a supernatural grave-robber, his demonic hooded dwarfs, and his deadly flying spheres makes next to no sense the first time around. Young Mike (Michael Baldwin) and his super-cool older brother…