Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2008 June.

By Steve Biodrowski
This sequel to NIGHT WATCH - a Russian fantasy film about the eternal battle between Good and Evil - is a major disappointment that repeats all the mistakes of its predecessor and then some. The first film, with its intriguing premise and elaborate back story, suffered from the need to lay out the exposition [...]

Action-packed Russian fantasy from the director of “Wanted“
By Steve Biodrowski
This is a Russian film, the first of a “trilogy” about an eternal war between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness, which are perfectly balanced and have forged a truce dictating that neither side interfere with humans, unless humans freely choose to join [...]

“Let’s not get too serious about this film. It’s just supposed to be a fun movie, but the idea of assassinating one person to save thousands is very interesting…”—Angelina Jolie
 
By Lawrence French
As the summer movie-going season enters full swing, you sometimes feel a bit jaded by the plethora of action pictures that make [...]

By Dan Persons
You get the sense that this whole thing kicked off when somebody got a look at all the spikes, picks, hammers, crampons, grapples, etc. used by ice climbers and said, “Shit, this stuff’d be great for killing people!” They would, actually, so points to the producers for that. Unfortunately, instead of taking this [...]

The Weinstein Company has been slow to jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon, having recently released THE MIST to home video on DVD but not in the newer high-def format. Yesterday they announced that they would be rectifying that situation. Today we learn that 1408 (also inspired by a Stephen King story) will receive a similar [...]

Variety reports that Korea’s Chungeorahm productions and China’s Stone Man Films will join forces to sequelize THE HOST, Bong-Joon Ho’s excellent 2006 monster movie. The original film, a South Korean production with political undertones, earned over $60-million worldwide and received a limited art house release in the U.S. The new film, whose $12-million budget will [...]

Paramount, one of the major Hollywood Studios, with several blockbuster sci-fi films in development (including STAR TREK and TRANSFORMERS 2) will not be showcasing any of them at the San Diego Comic Book Convention this year. In 2007, Paramount launched IRON MAN at the con. Problem with the current lineup is: these films will not [...]

Hollywood Reporter critic Stehpen Farber gives a mixed response to the Will Smith superhero comedy HANCOCK, summed up as: “Great concept, shaky execution.” Farber writes:
Will Smith’s powers are even more extraordinary than those of a caped crusader who can leap way beyond the tallest buildings in a single bound. Smith has salvaged many vehicles more threadbare [...]

Hollywood Reporter opines that Oscar Season unofficially begins with the release of Pixar’s computer-generated animated sci-fi film WALL-E, which critics seem to be embracing with rabid enthusiasm:
The critics are just beginning to weigh in on “Wall-E” — the Village Voice’s Robert Wilonsky has already called it “both breathtakingly majestic and heartbreakingly intimate” — but the [...]

Yesterday’s installment of the weekly Laserblast column (courtesy of the redoubtable Peter McGarvey) focused on reviews of three upcoming DVD releases, crowding out mention of this week’s home video happenings. Hence, we offer this follow-up addendum, to give mention to the many titles now available on DVD and/or Blu-ray for your viewing pleasure. Prehistoric adventure 10,000 [...]