Cinefantastique Online

Criticism and analysis of horror, fantasy, and science film on film and television screens; plus books that examine the genres or novels that have been adapted into movies; also soundtracks and any other-cinema related works worthing examining.

STAR TREK is back, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) is still flouting the rules, director J.J. Abrams is still dividing the fan base, but amazingly, inconceivably, there’s no dissent within the Cinefantastique Online ranks this time: Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons all agree that STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is supreme, quintessential TREK adventure. Telling [...]

Director J.J. Abrams is back in the captain’s chair, piloting the U.S.S. Enterprise through more explosions, more lens flare – in fact, more of just about everything that disenchanted Trekkies with STAR TREK (2009) – and this time all of it is enhanced with enough eye-popping 3D to make these angry fans switch their phasers [...]

It is not an understatement to say that, for many who work within the industry of fantastic film and those who cover it, Ray Harryhausen was one of the key godfathers of the Sense of Wonder. In such films as EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, and [...]

It’s felled the likes of Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and the X-Men. It’s a more daunting foe than Lex Luthor, Bane, and Magneto combined. It is, of course, the third installment of a superhero franchise, and now it’s time for comicdom’s snarkiest hero to face the figurative music in IRON MAN 3. With Robert Downey Jr, [...]

Sorry, folks, but because there wasn’t any new genre release in theaters and some things got in the way of recording a fill-in show, we’re going skip THE CINEFANTASTIQUE SPOTLIGHT this week. Check later in the week when we’ll be discussing HEMLOCK GROVE, THE FOUR, and much, much more on a new LASERBLAST, and we’ll [...]

In the future — and by “future,” we mean 2001 — the Chinese prison system will be stupid. Also violent, sadistic, and quite, quite unsanitary — what with there not being a wall, fixture or floor that isn’t thoroughly coated with the viscera of its unfortunate inhabitants — but mostly really, [...]

OBLIVION is a fun, state-of-the-art, big-studio science fiction adventurer, action-packed and, under the direction of Joseph Kosinski, quite beautiful. That, in its telling the tale of post-apocalyptic caretaker Tom Cruise discovering his alien-war-ravaged Earth suffered its wounds for reasons other than he was told (with Morgan Freeman doing for the Morpheus role what he previously [...]

SCARY MOVIE V opened this week! Yeah, us neither. So instead of delving in depth into this weekend’s big release (takeaway: A HAUNTED HOUSE was much funnier), Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons deliver a quick capsule review, and then Lawrence French joins them for a fiftieth anniversary discussion of stop-motion animator Ray [...]

The new EVIL DEAD, directed by feature newcomer Fede Alvarez, may seem to be the latest chapter in Hollywood’s ongoing descent into creative bankruptcy. But is that actually so? Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons get together to debate whether this return to Sam Raimi’s prototypical cabin-in-the-woods bloodbath is yet another wan [...]

With its nuanced evaluation of modern warfare and the place of the soldier in today’s society, G.I. JOE: RETALIATION represents an innovative vision of armed conflict waged on a global scale. Oh, who are we kidding? G.I. JOE: RETALIATION is the second entry in the toy-based franchise, featuring Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, and Ray Stevenson  [...]

Another film that answers questions we didn’t ask, OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL is a prequel showing how the magical land over the rainbow got its formidable-but-all-too-fallible wizard. Director Sam Raimi makes his 3D debut in this big-budget project, recruiting James Franco as his soon-too-be Oz, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams as a [...]

Once again, America has taken a look at the latest revisionist fairy tale and sighed a collective, “Why?” JACK THE GIANT SLAYER flopped at the box-office in its opening weekend, despite a mammoth budget, attractive leads, and director Bryan Singer expanding the story of a humble peasant vs. a ravenous giant into something that incorporates a [...]

Sitting down to write a review of THE LAST EXORCISM PART II, I find myself somewhat in the position of the modern satirist, who finds the real world has become so ridiculous that there is little room to push the envelope even further for comic effect, rendering the concept of satire almost redundant. In my [...]