Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2007 April.

In the 1979 Vietnam War epic APOCALYPSE NOW, Frederic Forrest’s Chef warned us, “Never get out of the boat.” In 2007, VACANCY brings the warning closer to home: “Never get off the Interstate.” You see, you needn’t travel to the jungles of Vietnam to find hidden dangers waiting and even eager to kill you; they’re [...]

This is a serviceable mystery-thriller that relies on characterization and performances to ease viewers over the bumps created by the twists and turns of the plot. The result is contrived and artificial, but it works as a good genre piece that delivers the requisite elements while also serving up a decent personal story.
In the time [...]

HOT FUZZ – from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the team behind 2004’s wonderful zombie-comedy-romance SHAUN OF THE DEAD - at first resembles a spoof of cop movies. With Pegg as Nicholas Angel, an impossibly brilliant London police officer (not police “man”), who gets sent to a small village because his superiors are tired of the way [...]

As a thriller, this is mechanical and predictable – barely one-step away from cookie-cutter formulaic – and yet the film actually works up a decent amount of genuine feeling, thanks to the cast of characters. Fear may be in short supply, but you do want to know what happens next – well, you do know what [...]

This homage to exploitation cinema of decades past seeks is not so much a movie as a gimmick that links together two feature films, plus a handful of faux trailers and advertisements – all appropriately scratched and faded to recreate the experience of attending a second-rate “grindhouse” theatre playing beat-up old prints. As amusing as [...]

Although terrible, this film does raise a handful of interesting questions:

Why does Hollywood want to keep remaking/ripping off THE OMEN?
Why would anyone continue hiring Stephen Hopkins to direct a movie?
Why would two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank agree to be in this mess?

There are no answers, but puzzling over these behind-the-scenes mysteries will engage your intellect far [...]

Among fans and critics, this is generally considered the best Godzilla sequel from the original series of films, which ran from GOJIRA in 1954 to TERROR OF MECHA-GODZILLA IN 1975. (The monster was revived for two subsequent series, beginning in 1984 and 2000, respectively, plus the 1998 American film produced at TriStar.) MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA [...]