Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2009 February.

Reflecting back on 2008’s most interesting scores for science fiction, fantasy, and horror films, one can’t help noticing once again how few genre scores (and, in fact, genre films) are recognized when the Oscars come around. While Thomas Newman’s tune-pleasing WALL-E score and Alexandre Desplat’s sublime music for THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON received [...]

The new version of FRIDAY THE 13TH easily sliced and diced its way to the top of the box office. Making its debut in 3,105 North American theatres, the film earned an estimated $42.3-million. To put that number in perspective, in one weekend, FRIDAY THE 13TH has already matched the money earned by THE UNBORN [...]

As you can see, it’s Jason Mania here at Cinefantastique Online. By clicking on the tag for Friday the 13th, you can check out reviews of the old films and of the disappointing reboot that opened this weekend. One interesting aspect of the new film is that it brings into focus the human tendency to [...]

This film is a complete anomaly: the first film in the series not to be titled FRIDY THE 13TH, it radically reinvents the mythology of Jason Voorhees. After the diminishing box office returns since FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER, and especially after the disappointing FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN, it was no doubt [...]

This is easily the most disappointing of the original FRIDAY THE 13TH movies – which is quite an achievement when you consider that the overall quality of the franchise was hardly high enough to raise expectations to a level that would allow for disappointment. Paramount Pictures and company pulled off this neat feat by promising more [...]

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES had pushed the old slasher franchise into a new direction, resurrecting Jason Voorhees as a living dead zombie from hell. and take notice. Now, along comes PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD, and it really wants to do something different. “Different,” in this case, means gene-splicing elements from another [...]

This sixth installment in the all but interminable FRIDAY THE 13TH series seems deliberately designed to be the first one to make classic horror movie fans sit up and take notice. If you prefer the living dead to masked slashers, if you taste runs toward Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man rather than Michael Myers, [...]

For kaiju(i.e. Japanese Giant Monster movies) fans, this double-bill of two of the best non-Godzilla movies represents a must-have. Featuring both the original Japanese and the revised American versions, this double-disc DVD presents these kaiju classics with the respect they have never before received on U.S. shores.
While Rodan went on to become Godzilla’s sidekick in [...]

If FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 is the A SHOT IN THE DARK of the franchise, then this second sequel is the GOLDFINGER – the one that established the template for the rest of the series. Serial killer Jason transforms from furtive figure striking mostly from the shadows into an unstoppable killing machine unafraid to [...]

Less a remake than just another tired sequel, the new film puts Jason through the same old moves with all the finese of a blind choreographer directing an arthritic dancer.
Jason, what the hell happened to you? You seemed poised on the verge of a monumental comeback, a chance to step back into the ring and [...]

Although this is the second FRIDAY film, it is really the first in what became the franchise. In a weird way, it is the A SHOT IN THE DARK of horror films - a sequel that reinvents the basic set-up, creating a launching pad from which the remaining  sequels take off. The methods employed are not [...]

Despite the presence of movie stars Chris Evans (SUNSHINE), Dakota Fanning (CORALINE), and Djimon Hounsou (CONSTANTINE), this would be sci-fi action-thriller feels like a failed television pilot that introduces the back story, sets up the premise, and leaves the story wide open for future installments. Perhaps the distributor was hoping for a franchise, but after [...]

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This unexpectedly dull flick makes you realize how superior Hong Kong action cinema is, thanks to both is melodramatic emotionalism and its breath-taking physical action. The story of STREET FIGHTER is a mere trifle, but who cares? The real problem is that, for a film depending on excitement, the visceral impact is practically nil, [...]