Archive for March 2009
You are browsing the archives of 2009 March.
Moonraker (1979) – Blu-ray Review
For most people, their favorite Bond films (and Bond actor for that matter) depend largely on where (or more precisely, when) in a person’s life they happen to fall. MOONRAKER, released in 1979, was our first Bond film seen in a theater – an experience that burned both the film and its star, Roger Moore, into [...]
Stranger Than Fiction (2006) – Film & DVD Review
This amusing effort is one of the best films of 2006, a surreal comedy about the intersection between art and reality, fact and fiction. It takes on a rather thoughtful theme without drowning in the potential pretentiousness of its almost too precious premise. Instead, STRANGER THAN FICTION delivers as a wonderfully romantic comedy that manages [...]
Box Office: Knowing knows that way to #1
KNOWING is the new #1 film at the box office. The sci-fi fantasy – directed by Alex Proyas and starring Nicolas Cage – made its debut in 3,322 North American theatres, where it earned an estimated $24.8-million, easily surpassing the second place entry, I LOVE YOU MAN.
As for holdover sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films, last week’s [...]
Pieces (1982) – Film & DVD Review
This oddball artifact from the ’80s is so bizarre it almost demands to be seen, whether it is any good or not: it’s a Spanish production that combines elements of American slasher films and the Italian giallo genre while offering more than enough sleazy graphic violence to qualify as one of the world’s all-time outrageous [...]
Tokyo! – Film Review
This triptych of tales set in the titular city of Tokyo suggests an Eastern version of NEW YORK STORIES, but there is a significant difference: in this case, none of the three writer-directors (two French and one Korean) are natives; consequently, their short films emerge less as love letters to the city than as skewed [...]
Knowing – Science Fiction Film Review
After NEXT, Nicolas Cage fans must be wondering why the star opted to appear in another film about predicting the future. Presumably the actor was working on the theory that “if at first you don’t succeed, try again”; unfortunately, KNOWING shows little awareness of what went wrong before. Despite an intriguing premise and a handful of [...]
The Horror Vault – Direct-to-Video Review
This dismal direct-to-video anthology of nine short subjects is almost guaranteed to provoke howls of outrage from disappointed viewers demanding their money back. The low-budget production values show a certain technical competence, suggesting reasonably well-made student films, but the stories are so flimsy and the pay-offs so weak your reaction is less likely to be [...]
The Legend of Hell House – Retrospective Review
When Richard Matheson’s novel Hell House came out in 1971, its fusion of traditional haunted house elements with explicit sex and violence was quite shocking, as most horror novels prior to William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist avoided graphic material in favor of suggesting the shudders. While not up to the high standard of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting [...]
Princess Bride – Blu-ray Review
Rob Reiner’s career has been in a bit of a slump of late, with nearly every project following his 1994 mega-flop North being cursed with utter forgetability. We seriously doubt that anyone, including the actors and key production personnel, could recall anything from 1999’s The Story of Us or 2003’s Alex & Emma (leaving Reiner’s [...]
Laserblast DVD & Blu-ray: Punisher – War Zone, Twilight & Bolt
The sleeper hit of 2008 – which ought to be titled “I Fell in Love with a Teenage Vampire” – reaches store shelves this week, along with a classic fairy tale from the 1980s, a pair of spooky black-and-white classics from the 1920s, a Disney animated film about a dog that thinks it’s a superhero, [...]
Box Office: “Race” tops the mountain
It was a good weekend for science fiction, fantasy, and horror films at the box office, with genre titles taking the win, place, and show positions.
Disney’s RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN raced to the top of the box office during its debut weekend. Opening in 3,187 North American theatres, the film earned a cool $24.4-million, easily knocking [...]
Zift (2008) – Film Review
Zift
IFC teamed up with SXSW this year to simultaneously bring a clutch of festival features to VOD services. Currently running amongst all the mumblecore and realistic drama is a curdled little Bulgarian gem called ZIFT. Kind of like what happens when the idealism of Soviet realism comes crashing against the shoals of postwar deprivation, the [...]
Race to Witch Mountain – Science Fiction Film Review
A safe piece of family entertainment that manages to be entertaining instead of bland
This is an entertaining new millennium update of Disney’s ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN. That artifact from the 1970s is an early example of the studio’s attempt to remin true to their kid-friendly tradition while crafting a film that would appeal to a wider [...]
