Archive for January 2010
You are browsing the archives of 2010 January.
After Dark Horrorfest 4 – Jan 29 to Feb 4
[ January 29, 2010 to February 4, 2010. ] The fourth installment of the annual After Dark Horrorfest opens for a one-week run in a handful of theatres across the country. This year’s group of “8 Films to Die For” includes DREAD, HIDDEN, KILL THEORY, LAKE MUNGO, THE FINAL, THE GRAVES, THE REEDS, and ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION. The festival will be screening in [...]
Surrogates – Blu-ray Review
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If the notion of an $80 million B-picture sounds like a contradiction in terms, Jonathan Mostow’s SURROGATES will be a real eye-opener. An adaptation of a limited run comic series, the film takes place in a Boston roughly 20 years in a future, when the vast majority of mankind interacts with the world [...]
Laserblast: Picks & Pans of January’s DVD & Blu-ray Releases
Laserblast is trying to get itself onto a more regular schedule, in order to keep you abreast of what is happening in regards to horror, fantasy, and science fiction films on DVD and Blu-ray. Here is a roundup of noteworthy titles released in January.
JANUARY 12
8 ½ (BD) – For many, Italian film begins and ends with [...]
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
The Blu-ray disc offers a great transfer and some good extras, but even in unrated form, this allegedy horror-comedy is not particularly scary, sexy, or funny.
The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)
“ Love is a magic comfort food for the weak and uneducated.”—Connor Mead
Charles Dickens is surely rolling over in his grave over this non-romantic rip-off “comedy” of his hallowed holiday classic.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, a modern-day by-the-numbers serious-comedic spin on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, is such a smarmy, unfunny and hypocritical riff, that DVD-viewers will [...]
Antichrist (2009)
Lars Von Trier’s 2009 film ANTICHRIST is quite a work of art but after hearing so much about the film; I am surprised to say it isn’t at all what I’d expected. In fact I’m not sure this is a horror film at all – more a drama with some horror elements. Certainly a great [...]
Sense of Wonder: Conservative critics carp at Avatar, Part 2
Due to technical difficulties that have recently restricted access to the Internet, yesterday’s Sense of Wonder column – “Conservative critics carp at Avatar (surprise!)“ was written in some haste, omitting a couple of points I wanted to make. I came back to add an update at the bottom, but the length of the comments seemed worthy of [...]
Sense of Wonder: Conservative critics carp at Avatar (surprise!)
ABC News has a doozy of an “article” titled “The Politics of ‘Avatar:’ Conservatives Attack Film’s Political Message“. I use the quotations marks around the word article, because Huma Khan’s piece is not really a work of reporting; it’s a big megaphone to amplify conservative voices, whether or not they have anything to say. Their views [...]
Avatar’s ideal self
Over at Psychology Today, Ethan Gilsdorf (author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks) offers his take on James Cameron’s blockbuster in “Avatar’s Dream of the Ideal Self.” Gilsdorf’s thesis is that, in a world where many of us spend ours locked in front of our computers, playing videogames or surfing the Internet, AVATAR’s tale of [...]
Daybreakers reviewed
SeattlePi.Com offers a review of DAYBREAKERS, the follow-up from Michael and Peter Spierig, the twin-brother directing duo behind the amusing Aussie zombie flick UNDEAD. Their new effort is a futuristic horror story, set in a world where vampires have taken over. Unfortunately for them, as their numbers outstrip those of humanity, their food source diminishes. [...]
Laserblast: The Best 25 Blu-ray Discs of 2009
Without unnecessary preamble, here is a list of the best Blu-ray discs from 2009, featuring horror, fantasy and science fiction titles. With so many great releases, it is hard to pick favorites, so the films are presented in alphabetical, rather than numeric, order.
An American Werewolf in London. Though director John Landis bristles at the term “horror comedy”, it’s [...]
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (2009)
Despite assembling a number of very talented performers and production people, CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT is almost a study in how not to launch a successful film franchise. Based on the first three books in Darren Shan’s young adult vampire series, Paul Weitz’s film adaptation is a promising stew that never quite blends.
At the heart [...]
The Fourth Kind (2009)
Alien abudction film provides encounters of the weird kind
The enigma of alien abduction is one of the enduring mysteries of our time. Beginning with the famous case of Betty and Barney Hill in 1961, in which a couple were allegedly abducted while driving down a New Hampshire highway late one night, these reports of extraterrestrial [...]
