Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2008 September.

Set to open on October 3, this Disney film tells the fantasy story of a pampered Beverly Hills pet (voiced by Drew Barrymore) who gets lost on vacation in Mexico. Fortunately, she finds assistance in the form of a macho Chihuahua named Papi (George Lopez) and a spirited guide (Salma Hayek). The ad campaign is [...]

The very title of the new computer-animated IGOR represents a sort of final proof - as if any were needed - that the most mysterious example of mistaken identity in the history of horror cinema is firmly embedded in the public consciousness beyond any hope of repair. The mystery: How did the name “Igor” come to [...]

Like Rodney Dangerfield, evil scientists’ minions get no respect, and IGOR, the MGM-released animated film from ’s Sparx Animation Studios (staffed mainly by Vietnamese artists), addresses the concept while suffering from it at the same time. Lacking a strong family hook to entice an audience to a non-Disney cartoon, IGOR has been unceremoniously dumped onto [...]

 SHIVER is a new Spanish horror film from producer Alvaro Augustin (THE ORPHANAGE). PLEASE NOTE: the widescreen trailer does not fit well in our layout. Right-click and select “Show All” to shrink the image and reveal Pause and Play controls. Then right-click and select “Zoom In” or “Zoom Out” to get the size right.
Prior to its [...]

This week sees a ton of titles arriving on home video. Many of them are retreads and re-releases, but there are at least two fascinating foreign films arriving after some minimal theatrical exposure earlier in the year: MOTHER OF TEARS and RE-CYCLE. The first is Dario Argento’s long-awaited conclusion of his “Three Mothers” trilogy; the [...]

Well, if nothing else, you have to give J.J. Abrams and company credit for using a title that sounds intentionally designed to invite reviewer ridicule. In fact, it seems almost too obvious - like a head feint designed to get you to drop your guard so you don’t see the left hook coming to knock [...]

If there were any doubt that Fall had arrived, this weekend’s box office results confirm it: there are no more summer blockbusters burning up the screens. Two new genre titles made their debut - IGOR and GHOST TOWN - but neither one scared up much business. IGOR opened in 2,339 theatres, where it earned $8-million [...]

This misleadingly titled tale of a dentist who sees dead people attempts to be a supernatural romantic-comedy in the manner of the old TOPPER movies from the ’30s. For most of its length, GHOST TOWN succeeds adequately but not exceptionally, offering up mild-mannered laughs and playing the heartstrings like a string quartet in a vast orchestral hall - [...]

 
Now that THE DARK KNIGHT has slowly slipped from the #1 slot in the weekly box office race, perhaps time has come to discuss the film as a cultural phenomenon rather than as a box office phenomenon. In truth, the discussion has already begun, but the level of discourse has been sophomoric, even juvenile. Some observers [...]

In the grand old tradition of Cinefantastique retrospectives (like the time our founder Frederick S. Clarke ran a cover story on Hans J. Salter, composer of music for ’40s horror films, while ignoring the current summer blockbusters), we thought we would dig through our files and offer up a slew of stuff relating to the [...]