Popcornflix
Up for an 11-year-old R-rated indie thriller starring the late Dennis Hopper? How about a 2006 romantic comedy featuring an ensemble cast that includes Seinfeld‘s Jason Alexander and Sons of Anarchy‘s Ron Perlman? But wait, you say don’t want to…
How Microsoft Killed Halo
It was, almost literally, the video game industry invading Hollywood. Microsoft sent a legion of actors decked out in Spartan armor from the Halo series to top studio executives around Hollywood. They strode through security without saying a word, and…
The Essential Don
In the credits to his masterpiece “Unforgiven,” Clint Eastwood included a dedication: “for Don Siegel and Sergio Leone.” Leone was a no-brainer, one of the great filmmakers who worked with Clint on a trio of films (“The Good The Bad…
Die Hard in Space
The marketing department for this futuristic action flick would dearly love critics to describe it as Die Hard in space. Or, failing that, Escape From New York – in space. Producer Luc Besson has, after all, gone to the trouble…
Transit
Infused with a B-movie vibe, this fast-paced, choppily edited thriller doesn’t waste any time on character complexity or plot development, just putting an innocent, albeit troubled, family in harm’s way. But its increasingly preposterous narrative and hysterically over-violent action makes…
Inventors of Genre’s
Some people don’t just create new worlds and super-memorable characters — they give life to their own genres. There are some creators of fantastical stories whose work is so distinctive, you have a pretty good sense what’s going to happen…
Jersey Shore Shark Attack
If you like “Jersey Shore” and Syfy’s ridiculous, low-budget B-movies starring Z-listers, then prepare for your newest obsession: “Jersey Shore Shark Attack.” It’s the latest in Syfy’s pop culture-mining made-for-TV movies, and it features this line: “There are white-finned killer…
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
The sun was just about to set over Lake Pontchartrain on a humid Louisiana day last May when Abraham Lincoln was summoned into action in a grassy field to wrestle to the hard, unforgiving ground the murderous nemesis who took…
Chinese Ironman 3
It’s not surprising that Hollywood studios want a bigger presence in the Chinese movie market. Chinese audiences spent $2B going to the movies last year and have shown a hunger for US movies — the 3-D re-release of Titanic made…
New Maniac Cop
Nicolas Winding Refn made his name with stylish, arthouse-friendly spins on lurid B-movie material with films like Pusher, Bronson, and, of course, Drive. Now the Daily Grindhouse (via Badass Digest) reports that he may lend some of that same postmodern…
Ginger Snaps
It’s interesting to see when a horror movie gets labeled ” legitimate” by the press. In the case of Ginger Snaps, much ballyhoo was made by the alternative weeklies about how this kind of horror movie was “acceptable” because it…
Ghostkeeper
Shot in the picturesque winter wonderland of Lake Louise, Alberta, Ghostkeeper quite easily could have been one of the defining Canadian horror films of the 1980s. Taking its premise from the North American Indian legend of the Wendigo (or “Windigo,”…
One Smart Horror Flick
We know what you’re thinking: Based on its somewhat routine commercials and trailer, The Cabin in the Woods looks like your basic rehashing of everything from Evil Dead to Friday the 13th. Well, guess what? You’ve fallen directly into director/co-writer…
Battleship
Imagine how you would feel when you are treated to a movie where there is a lot of explosion, lots and lots of noise and a greater magnitude of bullets and cannon shots flying around the place but then you…
Cheese Whiz
ONE can always count on European movie magnate Luc Besson to inject an international flavour into action-filled screen projects. In Lockout, the French producer of Taken and Transporter gives us an Aussie leading man sent into space by a Swede…
James Cameron On and On
It’s tempting to say that James Cameron gives his fans that sinking feeling. After all, he recently descended to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, in a submarine of his own devising, to explore the ocean at its deepest point….
R.I.P. Robert Fuest
On 21 March 2012, the British horror cinema lost of one of its most interesting and distinctive talents, director Robert Fuest. Although his association with the genre was very brief, he achieved cult status for directing two very popular slices…
Springfield Is In Oregon
The Springfield that exists in the mind of Matt Groening is a kind of American everything — hick pit stop, rosy-cheeked Rockwellian font of family values, cesspool of corruption, ethnic melting pot, boomtown gone to rust. It’s what the creator…
Attack The Block
When Attack the Block hit American cinema screens last summer distributor Sony Pictures only gave it a limited release that, had it made lots and lots of money in its initial scant locations, probably would have been expanded. I have…
Loockout Delivers The Goods
The funniest moment in Lockout, especially in hindsight, is a credit that appears which states that the film is ‘based on an original idea by Luc Besson.’ Written and directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, the film is…