Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2009 September.

Last month I heard about a forthcoming science fiction film by thumbing through one of my wife’s entertainment magazines. A little further research on the Internet led to a trailer, and after viewing it I was hooked. The movie became an instant part of my “must see” list for the last few months of 2009. [...]

BIG MAN JAPAN is built around a funny concept, vaguely akin to HANCOCK: its title character is a superhero who is a bit of a loser. Of course, being a Japanese superhero, he periodically grows to enormous size (courtesy of electricity applied to his nipples) and confronts monsters attacking urban areas around the country, often with [...]

This film offers further proof, as if any were needed, that Western filmmakers cannot do justice to their Easter counterparts when it comes to retooling anime and/or Fant-Asia for Occidental consumption. DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION is loaded with special effects and stunts that look good in the trailer, but when stitched together they do not add up [...]

Fourth in the franchise launched in 2000 by former X-FILES writers James Wong and Glen Morgan, THE FINAL DESTINATION (known during production as FINAL DESTINATION 4 and FINAL DESTINATION: DEATH TRIP) is the latest variation on the entertaining but formulaic story about a group of teens who seem to cheat death only to find that [...]

Just in time for Halloween, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing over twenty titles under the banner “Horror Unleashed.” Although most of the films have been previously available on DVD or Blu-ray, the new releases include $10 in “movie cash,” which you can use to offset the cost of a ticket to see ZOMBIELAND when [...]

It seems that makeup maestro Rick Baker – a six-time Oscar winner – will need to find room on his shelf for a Chiller-Eyegore Award; Baker will be a recipient at this year’s event, which will be broadcast later on NBC’s Chiller channel (devoted to horror, naturally). The annual awards presentation (formerly known simply as [...]

[ September 24, 2009 11:59 pm to September 26, 2009 11:59 pm. ] PARANORMAL ACTIVITY scared the proverbial unmentionable excremental waste material out of audiences when it screened at films festivals in 2007. The film made such a big impression that DreamWorks snatched up the rights early in 2008; unfortunately, their game plan was not to release the micro-budget horror movie but to remake it on a larger scale. [...]

It’s not often that I see a film, particularly a horror film, which is lit so well as Steve Barker’s OUTPOST. Stunning greys and shadows are used to great effect, bleaching out the brighter colours and leaving behind a bleak and atmospheric work of art. This stylish cinematography isn’t wasted on a bad film, either, [...]

[ October 8, 2009; 7:30 pm; ]
In case you missed Fathom Events’ nationwide presentation of RIFFTRAX: PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE last month (mentioned here), there will be an encore presentation in 285 theatres around the country on Thursday, October 8 at 7:30pm local time. The original live broadcast originated on August 20 from the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, Tennesse, with [...]

Zhang Yimou’s HERO (2002) is the centerpiece of Miramax’s new Ultimate Force of Four martial arts Blu-Ray box set (which also includes the American re-edit of DRUNKEN MASTER II, IRON MONKEY, and Takeshi Kitano’s remake of ZATOICHI) and is probably the best known of the films to Western audiences. The internationally acclaimed film was famously [...]

Here is a second television spot for PANDORUM, which opens on September 25. The mutants darting around in the darkness of the space ship suggest an interplanetary version of I AM LEGEND or THE DESCENT, but the film actually looks as if it might be a decent popcorn movie. Too bad it didn’t come out [...]

[ September 25, 2009; ] Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster star in this thriller about two astronauts whose awakening from hypersleep is complicated not only by amnesia (they cannot remember their identities or their mission) but also by the uncomfortable realization that they are not alone on their isolated spacecraft – and their other inhabitants are not human. What would a science fiction [...]

With a name like TRAILER PARK OF TERROR, I was certain Steven Goldmann’s 2008 horror was going to be a diabolical shambles. I figured I’d sit through it anyway, so I could warn you good people to use your precious time on other things, because, well, that’s the kind of selfless gal I am! The [...]