Malcolm McDowell in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.

Practically omnipresent and infinitely versatile, Malcolm McDowell has played, among others, a rebellious private school student, a futuristic sociopath, a degenerate emperor, Michael Myer’s nemesis, and the killer of Captain Kirk. He has worked with directors that have included Stanley Kubrick, Paul Schrader and Rob Zombie. He’s pretty much done it all, including a brief appearance as a mastermind in corporate espionage in this weekend’s environmental biography, A GREEN STORY. And, oh, has he stories.

We were able to spend some time with Malcolm, delving into the full range of his career, including his work with the iconoclastic director Lindsay Anderson and how he faced the challenge of filming a high-speed orgy for A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Click on the player to hear the show.

Chris Pine (right) and Zachary Quinto (left) have nemesis Benedict Cumberbatch at their mercy (don't kid yourself) in STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS.

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 the tale of the Enterprise’s encounter with a diabolical mastermind (Benedict Cumberbatch), the film at once delivers the big-scale action (even better in IMAX 3D) that audiences have come to expect from a major studio tent pole release while honoring the ideals that made creator Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic vision of the future so compelling.

Come join Steve, Larry, and Dan as they delve deep into this top-notch entry to the TREK franchise, exploring what makes it both a superior entertainment and a worthy elaboration of Roddenberry’s humanistic vision. Plus: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Frank Conniff gets the Shepard Fairey treatment.

As MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000′S TV’s Frank, comedian and writer Frank Conniff became possibly the most cuddly mad scientist in history. From his debut television appearance that started with the show’s second season — for which he scripted and also pre-screened the “cheesy movies” that would torture host Joel Hodgson and crew — Conniff went on to gigs both behind and in front of the cameras for such diverse genre shows as SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH and INVADER ZIM.

I am, admittedly, an unabashed MSTie, and so when I got the greenlight to go ahead with CFQi, Frank was the first person I contacted and subsequently the first to be interviewed. The talk is wide-ranging, including an in-depth glimpse into to the work on MST3K and other shows, plus discussion of the aborted Joel Hodgson feature project STATICAL PLANETS and Frank’s creation of the satiric, audio musical, THE WONDERFUL PUNDITS OF OZ (which you can download here).

Click on the player to hear the show.

Ray Harryhausen & friends.

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 CLASH OF THE TITANS, Harryhausen’s collection of creatures — singlehandedly and painstakingly stop-motion animated by the man himself — exhibited a wondrous sense of life, and convinced many of us that, with dedication and love, almost anything that could be dreamed of could be realized on the screen.

Come join our special guest, theofantastique.com’s John W. Morehead, as he sits down with Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons to celebrate Ray Harryhausen’s achievements and evaluate his indelible contribution to the world of film. Plus: Dan gives his capsule reviews of SIGHTSEERS and THE PAINTING, and previews what’s coming to theaters next week.

Ben Wheatley takes a comedic trip to the dark side.

Welcome to the banality of evil, Ben Wheatley-style: In his horror comedy SIGHTSEERS, a couple (Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, who also scripted) decides to take a caravan trip across the British Isles. But, really, who could enjoy such marvels as an antique tramway or the pencil museum when such distractions as litterers, rowdy Wiccans, and people who are just better than you keep interfering? There’s only one solution, and it’s one that requires sponges and tons of bleach to clean up after.

Wheatley has a unique way of grounding horror with credible performances and an unassuming shooting style that only accentuates the graphic violence. His hit-man horror film, KILL LIST, made my top ten last year, and SIGHTSEERS continues his streak of riveting an audience with a naturalistic brand of dread. I was happy to meet up with him again to talk about this film — click on the player to hear the show.

Take another tour of horror, fantasy, and science fiction on home video with this week’s edition of the Cinefantastique Laserblast Podcast. Lawrence French, Dan Persons, and Steve Biodrowski explore the over-hyped “purge” of classic titles from Netflix; review the new Blu-ray releases of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, STAR TREK: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, and STAR TREK GENERATIONS; analyze THE FRANKENSTEIN THEORY; and explore the ghostly goodies on THE AWAKENING’s Blu-ray disc. And of course, there is the usual weekly rundown of all that is new on store shelves and on demand.

Tuesday, May 7 Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction Home Video Releases

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MAMA on DVD and on Blu-ray plus DVD plus UltraViolet from Universal Studios. Bonus features:

• In-depth look at effects – BD Exclusive
• Deleted scenes with commentary from Andy and Barbara Muschietti
• Original short subject with intro by Guillermo Del Toro
• Birth of Mama – featurette about expanding short subject
• Commentary by Andy and Barbara Muschietti

FRINGE: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON on DVD and Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.

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Hollywood Hits 4-Movie Collection on DVD from Mill Creek Entertianment, including four classic/cult titles from Columbia Pictures (that is, distributed by Columbia, not necessarily produced – resulting in an eclectic mix from the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s):

• RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE with Bela Lugosi
• REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN with Peter Cushing
• MR. SARDOICUS with Guy Rolfe
• THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN with Strother Martin

Blu-ray Steelbooks (new steel collectible casing for previously available discs):

• V FOR VENDETTA
• THE MATRIX 10TH ANNIVERSARY (obvious anachronism)
• LORDS OF THE RINGS trilogy
• BOOK OF ELI

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ROGER CORMAN CULT CLASSICS – SCI-FI CLASSICS TRIPLE FEATURE EMBOSSED SLIM TIN with these three titles:

• ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS
• WAR OF THE SATELLITES
• NOT OF THIS EARTH

All titles available in the Cinefantastique Online Store, powered by Amazon.

Robert Downey Jr. casts an acidic glance on superheroics in IRON MAN 3.

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, Don Cheadle, and Gwyneth Paltrow returning to their roles as, respectively, Tony Stark/Iron Man, James Rhodes/War Machine (here redubbed Iron Patriot), and Pepper Potts/Pepper Potts (somebody’s gotta stay in civvies), plus Ben Kingsley donning a bin Laden beard and a Hugo Weaving/Agent Smith drawl as the politically-incorrect terrorist the Mandarin, and with direction by pop-ironist Shane Black, can this third go for the power-assisted crime fighter break film’s most notorious curse? Turns out Cinefanatastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons form a decidedly mixed jury on that front, differing on whether IM3 is one of the best comic book films to come around in a while, is just solid if undistinguished entertainment, or is an affront to all right-thinking fans of Marvel’s steeliest superhero. The conflict will be resolved with a massive, twenty minute fight scene, heavily enhanced with CG. (No it won’t.)

Plus: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Matt Servitto is the Prince of Darkness and Spreadsheets in YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL.

Shooting a workplace comedy set in Hell may be challenging, tedious work, but at least you get to traumatize the hotel staff. That’s only one of the lessons to be gleaned from the cast of YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL, a new Adult Swim comedy that takes the white-collar satire of OFFICE SPACE and adds a piquant whiff of brimstone to the proceedings. Joining Cinefantastique Online’s Dan Persons for an interview that’s part INSIDE THE ACTOR’S STUDIO, part MMA cage match are comic actors Henry Zebrowski and Craig Rowin, and Satan himself, Matt Servitto. Pour yourself a nice, brimming mug of goat’s blood and click on the player to hear the show.

This week, the Cinefantastique Laserblast podcast – devoted to horror, fantasy, and science fiction on home video – offers reviews of HEMLOCK GROVE (a new Netflix original series from Eli Roth); KISS OF THE DAMNED (a vampire film from Magnet Releasing, available on VOD before hitting theatres on May 3); ROBOT AND FRANK (on DVD after a small theatrical release last year); and THE FOUR (a recent Fant-Asia film now available on home video). Dan Persons and Steve Biodrowski also take a look at the week’s new home video releases for Tuesday, April 30, and offer a couple of titles for suggested viewing.

For those too busy to listen, you will find a summary below:

HEMLOCK GROVE is set in a small town run by a big-wig family, whose matriarch (Famke Janssen) is probably up to not good. Be that as it may, the story is set into motion when a cheerleader is partially eaten by…something. Typical for the soap opera format, many characters and storylines are interwined, and often the narrative stategy (especially during the first four epsidodes, on review here) is to drag things out as much as possible, teasing viewers along with promises of what is to come.

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KISS OF THE DAMNED is a low-budget vampire film with a 1970s Euro-vibe, written and directed by Xan Cassavettes (daughter of the late, great John Cassavettes). Advance word has been possitive, but Dan Persons argues otherwise.

ROBOT AND FRANK offers few extras on DVD, but the excellent film is accompanied by a wonderful audio commentary from writer Cristopher D. Ford and director Jake Schreier.

THE FOUR is a fun-filled martial arts fantasy with a zombie army and gifted superheroes. It is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and instant view.

TUESDAY, APRIL 30 HOME VIDEO TITLES

This week’s video releases include:

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CLOUD ATLAS on instant viewing formats, a week before discs arrive in stores. Read our review of this excellent film here, or listen to our previous podcast discussion.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION – SEASON THREE on Blu-ray, from Paramount. Extras include: Mission Overview: Year Three (discusses the major changes that occurred in Season Three with both old and new interviews); Selected Crew Analysis: Year Three (an in-depth look at the growth of the continuing characters as well as a closer look at returning crew member Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden)); Departmental Briefing, Year Three: Production (a behind-the-scenes look at particular episodes from the production crew’s point of view); Departmental Briefing, Year Three: Memorable Missions (specific anecdotes about Year Three episodes).

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STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION – THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. If you do not want the entire third season on a multi-disc set, you can opt for this single disc, which offers the Enterprise’s memorable confrontation with the Borg, on Blu-ray and UltraViolet. Extras include:  Audio Commentary with Cliff Bole, Mike & Denise Okuda and Elizabeth Dennehy; Regeneration: Engaging the Borg; and a Gag Reel.

If that’s not enough STAR TREK for you, several of the features films are coming out on Blu-ray:

• STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE
• STAR TREK III THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK
• STAR TREK V THE FINAL FRONTIER
• STAR TREK IX INSURRECTION
• STAR TREK X: NEMESIS

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THE VAMPIRE LOVERS arrives on Blu-ray, courtesy of Shout Factory. The 1970 Hammer horror film, based on J. Sheridan LeFanu’s excellent novella CARMILLA, was previously released on DVD, with an audio commentary from actress Ingrid Pitt, director Roy Ward Baker, and screenwrtier Tudor Gates. That feature has been ported over to the new high-def disc, along with two new featurettes, including the making-of piece “Femme Fantastique: Resurrecting the Vampire Lovers.” (This film spawned two sequels, including TWINS OF EVIL, the subject of a previous podcast review.)

RECOMMENDATIONS

• SCOOBY-DOO: MYSTERY INCORPORATED – Dan Personsk, no fan of previous incarnations of the mystery-solving gang, gives the thumbs up for this new version.
• THE TOUCH: Michelle Yeoh, the great martial arts star, produced this 2002 adventure-romance, which edges into fantasy (a la RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK). It’s funny and engaging, though ultimately slightly disappointing (imagine if RAIDERS had ended with the heroes preventing the Nazis from getting their hands on the Ark!)

You can purchase these and other titles in the Cinefantastique Online Store.

Martin Landau (right) teams up with Johnny Depp and won an Oscar for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi in ED WOOD.

Every now and then, we pause in awe of the people we’ve had the opportunity to spend time with. Doug Trumbull, John Kricfalusi, and Paul Verhoeven in earlier years, Armin Shimerman and Frank Oz more recently — now it’s Martin Landau’s turn, and we couldn’t be happier.

In an extended and wide-ranging interview, we got a chance to discuss the length and breadth of Martin’s career. In the course of talking about his roles in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, and his Oscar-winning portrayal of Bela Lugois in ED WOOD — and much, much more — Martin provides insights on the art of acting, shares anecdotes from the set, and talks about the sometimes seamy politics that drive the film industry. It is, all told, a fascinating exploration of the life of an actor — click on the player to hear the show.

The going gets gutsy in RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY

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, really dumb. That’s the big take-away from RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY, an ultra-violent Hong Kong martial arts film that doesn’t so much tell a story as throw buckets of gore around and hope that viewers will, Rorschach-like, synthesize meaning from the incoherent mess.

Multimediumrare.com’s Orenthal Hawkins joins Temple of Bad’s Andrea Lipinski, Kevin Lauderdale, and Dan Persons to celebrate ToB’s first anniversary, curse Dan’s name for being the one to pick this episode’s feature, and engage in possibly the liveliest exploration of a bad movie since the Temple opened its doors with a discussion of BIRDEMIC: SHOCK AND TERROR.

Tom Cruise confronts the unknown in OBLIVION.

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 did for penguins), the film isn’t much more than an assemblage of well-established science fiction tropes shouldn’t be an impediment to enjoyment — at a time when studio films seem to have a problem getting a basic story across, coming across a corking-good adventure is not something to sneeze at. Come join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they debate the pluses and minuses of the film, and once again pledge their troth to Stanley Kubrick.

Also: Steve and Dan discuss Rob Zombie’s moody, new horror film, THE LORDS OF SALEM. Plus: Nothing coming to theaters next week.

Sheri Moon Zombie gets put through changes in Rob Zombie's THE LORDS OF SALEM.

Musician, moviemaker, iconoclastic fan, Rob Zombie has built a formidable rep for himself by taking the horror genre and turning it to his own, unique vision. Now, after such wild rides as THE DEVIL’S REJECTS and HALLOWEEN, he ventures into new territory, telling a more nuanced tale of a New England DJ facing a hellish future when an accursed record introduces her to THE LORDS OF SALEM.

Dan Persons sits down with Rob and wife/star Sheri Moon Zombie, and the result is an energetic, off-the-cuff conversation incorporating, but not limited to, Rob’s views about reaching back to the roots of horror for his own work, the challenges of steering a low-budget project to a successful conclusion, and why there can be very little difference between actors stepping onto a set and high noon in Dodge City.

This week’s Laserblast Home Video podcast features a review of ANTIVIRAL, the new science-fiction-horror film from Brandon Cronenberg (son of David), which made its Video on Demand debut simultaneously with its limited theatrical release on Friday, April 12. Also featured this week are reviews of THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2: GHOSTS OF GEORGIA (now for sale on Blu-ray and DVD, two months after its own simultaneous theatrical-VOD release) and of TWINS OF EVIL (available as a wonderful Blu-ray-DVD combo pack from Synapse Films).

We round out the week with a rundown of horror, fantasy, and science fiction titles coming to home video on Tuesday, April 16, plus a roundup of overlooked recent releases.

This week’s releases include:

• Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray of Alex Cox’s 1984 cult gem, REPO MAN
• A MONSTER IN PARIS: a French computer-animated 3D musical, from the director of A SHARK’S TALE, with a story loosely inspired by THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (a beast in love with a beautiful singer). The film is available on DVD and in a a multi-disc pack including 3D Blu-ray.

Previous releases include:

• THE LAST JAWS on April 9. This is a DVD-R, manufacture on demand by Amazon.com, which previously made the film available under the title THE LAST SHARK (L’Ultimo Squalo) back in 2011. The new DVD is $12.99 – $7.00 less than its predecessor – but the DVD-R format suggests the disc would be made from available materials, not a restored print. For that price, you would be better off watching the film through Amazon’s Instant Viewing service for $1.99. As you might have guessed, this is an Italian rip-off of JAWS, which was released in the U.S. as GREAT WHITE – before Universal Pictures sued and got the film yanked from release. Long unavailable, the film offers a few psychotronic joys (e.g., the ridiculously massive 35-foot shark pulling a helicopter out of the sky) that make it a hoot to watch.
• JOHN DIES AT THE END: now available on DVD and Blu-ray, having made a simultaneous theatrical-VOD debut a couple months ago.
• PHANTASM 2: Don Coscarelli’s 1988 follow-up to PHANTASM, in a new collector’s edition Blu-ray from Shout Factory
• FROM BEYOND: Stuart Gordon’s follow-up to REANIMATOR, in a new DVD-Blu-ray combo pack from Shout Factor.

You can find these and other home video release in the Cinefantastique Online Store. You can watch ANTIVIRAL here.

Ignore those shots of Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan. Simon Rex (left) and Ashley Tisdale (right) are the actual stars of SCARY MOVIE V. (That's Christopher "Critter" Antonucci in the center.)

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 Harryhausen’s epic fantasy (actually directed by Don Chaffey), JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. Featuring such wondrous creatures as winged harpies, a deadly hydra, and an armed troop of bloodthirsty skeletons, the film stands at the pinnacle of Harryhausen’s career, and well worth discovering if you’ve never seen it before. But if you’re still faltering: SCARY MOVIE V sets a baby on fire. So there’s that.

Plus: What’s coming to theaters this weekend.

Caleb Landry Jones and Sarah Gadon share a virulent form of fame in ANTIVIRAL.

ANTIVIRAL is set in an alternate-but-not-too-alternate universe where fame is everything, and the grand bulk of the economy seems built around markets in steaks cloned and viruses farmed from celebrities. The film marks the directing debut of Brandon Cronenberg — son of David Cronenberg — and while its biologic creepiness demonstrates a clear blood-line (we can’t keep away from these metaphors), its clinical ambiance and dark humor are all its own.

I got to sit down with Brandon to discuss the promises and dangers of being gifted a distinctive legacy, and how this first feature throws a stark light on our present-day cult of celebrity. Click on the player to hear the show.

Do you ever feel your Sense of Wonder being overwhelmed? We certainly did this past weekend (in terms of quantity if not quality) with no less than six horror, fantasy, and/or science fiction films opening in U.S. theatres – some nationwide, some in limited engagements. EVIL DEAD, THALE, and EDDIE: THE SLEEPWALKING CANNIBAL were covered in a previous Spotlight Podcast earlier this week. That leaves JURASSIC PARK, 6 SOULS, and THE BRASS TEAPOT for this follow-up edition.

Podcasters Lawrence French and Steve Biodrowski delve deeply into the prehistory of the Steven Spielberg classic, based on Michael Crichton’s novel, which has been re-released in a new 3D conversion, including IMAX engagements. Does depth add a new dimension of terror to the 1990s computer-generated imagery? And how does the film hold up two decades after its original release?

After that, Biodrowski offers capsule comments on 6 SOULS (a supernatural thriller starring Julianne Moore) and THE BRASS TEAPOT (a comic-fantasy about a couple who discover a teapot that gives them free money – when they hurt themselves). Lawrence French wraps up with an account of seeing producer Thom Mount (who was interviewing director Roman Polanski via Skype at the Roxy Theatre in San Francisco) and learning from Mount that there is director’s cut of Roger Corman’s neglected FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND (1990) lying in the Warner Brothers vaults. If only Warner Brothers could be persuaded to release that version on Blu-ray disc!

Jessica Lucas may not be making it out alive (ya think?) in EVIL DEAD.

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 knockoff being shoveled into theaters in lieu of, oh, something new and different, or a fitting follow-up that respects Raimi’s delirious, anything-for-a-scream aesthetic and then throws in an emotional grounding not exhibited in the previous entries.

Then, Steve and Dan discuss the nuanced, Norwegian horror film THALE, and Dan gives his opinion of the not-quite-as-nuanced horror comedy, EDDIE THE SLEEPWALKING CANNIBAL. Plus: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Rob Mayes (left), Chase Williamson (center) and Allison Weissman fight the intangible and slightly ridiculous in JOHN DIES AT THE END.

There’s something about a Don Coscarelli film, something that says, “We’re gonna mess with your brain, now.” But if power-drill-equipped flying orbs, interplanetary gateways stashed away in funeral homes, or Elvis battling soul-sucking mummies didn’t freak you out in such films as PHANTASM and BUBBA HO-TEP, maybe the director’s latest, JOHN DIES AT THE END, will do it, featuring as it does a couple of paranormal crime-fighters who have to contend with hallucinogenic soy sauce, trans-temporal cell phones, and sentient, cannibalistic sludge.

We got to talk with Coscarelli about the influences that led to the fevered insanity of his films, the shock of being hailed as one the godfathers of horror’s rebirth, and odds of the world ever seeing BUBBA NOSFERATU. Click on the player to hear the show.

Don't Get Excited, He's Not Around All That Much: Bruce Willis joins forces with Adrianne Palicki in G.I. JOE: RETALIATION.

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  facing off the baddies of Cobra in order to make the world safe for… Not sure. Other toys, possibly?

Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons discuss whether the film will leave audiences shouting “Yo, Joe!” or “Oh, no!” Then, reflecting the rather dizzying variety of new genre films released this past weekend, they discuss ROOM 237, a documentary that examines people’s surprisingly baroque relationships with Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING; WRONG, Quentin Dupieux’s latest dip into skewed reality; and Dan discusses the existential survival film, DETOUR.

Plus: What’s coming to theaters.

Left to Right: COME OUT AND PLAY, HORROR OF DRACULA, THE FURY

Cinefantastique’s Laserblast Podcast returns with a very special episode, featuring guest Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog, along with regulars Lawrence French, Dan Persons, and Steve Biodrowski. The podcast of horror, fantasy, and science fiction on home video unearths a crypt-full of recent releases: the new horror thriller COME OUT AND PLAY, in limited theatrical engagements and simultaneously available via Video on Demand; HORROR OF DRACULA (1958), now out in a restored Blu-ray disc from Britain, containing footage not seen in decades; THE FURY (1978) and CHRISTINE (1983), on limited edition Blu-ray discs from Twilight Time; and CHERRY TREE LANE and TOYS IN THE ATTIC, the latter a piece of feature-length stop-motion from the Czech Republic.

Neil Hopkins gets deep in DETOUR.

Okay, yet another reason not to move to Southern California. In DETOUR, an ambitious businessman gets trapped in his car when it’s knocked off the road and buried in a mudslide. Actor Neil Hopkins carries most of the weight of this existential nightmare, playing a man confronting a modern-day Premature Burial, trapped in a vehicle that could offer the tools for survival or very quickly become his coffin. We talked with Hopkins about the pressures accompanying the production of this small, intense film, as well as discuss his time playing Charlie Pace’s brother on LOST, his role as the first abductee in SKYLINE, and much more. Click on the player to hear the show.

Higglety Pigglety Pop!: Or There Must Be More to Life Than Living in a Cave: Emma Stone seeks broader horizons in THE CROODS.

We should be grateful that mainstream entertainment has evolved enough for an animated tale of a prehistoric family not to be solely defined by how many times the work “rock” is prefixed to other nouns. The new DreamWorks film, THE CROODS, is about a primitive clan — led by cautious father Nicolas Cage — facing their own evolutionary upheavals, including a rebellious teen daughter (Emma Stone), a brainy stranger — he’s got shoes! (Ryan Reynolds), and a little thing called the continental drift. Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons saw this fanciful tale of survival, and got together to discuss the awesome production design, the occasionally-serviceable, occasionally-better comedy, and when we’ll see it’s-all-about-family plotting finally collapse from total exhaustion.

Plus: Dan discusses the low-budget horror film, A RESURRECTION; what’s coming to theaters; and Steve vanishes into a temporal rift, only to emerge later in the week for a Laserblast episode.

I Said Pass the #@%*! Potatoes: Dee Wallace lets the witch show through the homey facade in HANSEL AND GRETEL.

It’s our first Spielberg veteran here at CFQi, and a good one, too. Dee Wallace probably reached her greatest audience as the progressive but put-upon suburban mom of E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, but she had previously developed her genre chops in two landmark horror titles: Wes Craven’s THE HILLS HAVE EYES and Joe Dante’s THE HOWLING, and most recently took her career in a darkly satirical direction with her work in the Asylum’s gory, fractured fairy tale, HANSEL AND GRETEL. Our conversation with Dee was frank and incisive, taking in a discussion of Spielberg’s personal investment in his films, the emotional complications of doing explicit sex scenes, and what it’s like breaking into the business on a low-budget horror film. Click on the player to hear the show.

STOKER (left); UPSIDE DOWN (right)

With no new nationwide release in the genres of horror, fantasy, and/or science fiction, this week’s episode of the Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast sets its sights on two films in limited engagements: STOKER and UPSIDE DOWN. The former is a thriller and alleged horror film (its title taken from Bram Stoker, author of DRACULA, although the film contains no vampires). The latter is a fantasy love story disguised as a science fiction film, about a boy and a girl from opposite worlds – in this case, opposite gravity, who learn to bridge the gap that divides them. Tune in as Lawrence French and Steve Biodrowski sift through gorgeous cinematography and stunning special effects, searching for signs of a good script.

Frank Oz at work.

It’s amazing some researchers haven’t figured out a way of determining personalities based on what aspect of Frank Oz’s career one is impressed with. Of course there’s Yoda — Frank voiced the beloved, and powerful, Jedi master, operated the puppet for most of the STAR WARS films, and for many helped form the heart and soul of the franchise. For me, it’s both the time he spent with Jim Henson — developing characters such as Miss Piggy and Grover and innovating puppetry in that surprisingly visionary company — and his work in the director’s chair for LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, taking the musical stage adaptation of the Roger Corman’s dark comedy and creating a rich and wondrous, albeit murderous, film world. I was able to talk with Oz on the occasion of the Blu-ray release of the film, which restores the original, apocalyptic Don’t Feed the Plants finale that was cut from the theatrical release. We also got to talk Muppets, STAR WARS, and the mysterious allure of sequel rumors. Click on the player to hear the show.

The Shamrock Shake is Back for a Limited Time? C'MON!: James Franco and Mila Kunis en route in OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL.

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 trio of witches good and wicked, and Zach Braff and Joey King voicing some of the kingdom’s more magical inhabitants: a flying monkey and a China girl. Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons bought a round-trip ticket to this fantasy world, and are back to discuss whether the newer actors live up to their original counterparts in 1939’s THE WIZARD OF OZ, if the CG-enhanced visuals add new grandeur to the predecessor’s production design, and if the entire experience is more like a wild ride into a tornado or a soporific stroll through a field of poppies.

Also: Steve gives his opinion of THE ABCS OF DEATH, and what’s coming to theaters next week.

Keith David (left) and Roddy Piper fight the power in THEY LIVE.

Quick, when I throw out the name Keith David, what’s your first thought? Him casting a suspicious glance towards Kurt Russell in THE THING? The fistfight with Rowdy Roddy Piper in THEY LIVE? Maybe it’s the noble and ferocious Goliath from GARGOYLES or the nefarious Dr. Facilier from THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG? Face it, the guy’s been around, including a notable performance in the various storylines of CLOUD ATLAS and, on the non-genre side, a recent turn as a dying and remorseful father in the drama THE LAST FALL. That kind of career requires a plus-sized CFQ Interview, and we’re delighted that Keith consented to spend the time with us to talk about a career that has spanned the length and breadth of stage and screens both big and little. Click on the player to hear the show.

CG giants threaten humanity in JACK THE GIANT SLAYER.

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 plucky princess, an enchanted crown, a sardonic soldier, a war between giants and humanity, and much, (maybe too) much more. But is the audience’s resounding apathy deserved? Come join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they discuss this 3D attempt to do bigger better and weigh whether this version distinguishes itself from the revisionist lot, or is just more fee-fi-fo-fum.

Plus: Steve gives his capsule review of THE LAST EXORCISM PART II, and what’s coming to theaters next week. [NOTE: the podcast capsule is spoiler free. For a more in-depth look at what's wrong - and almost right - about the ending, check out the review posted here.] ]]> http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2013/03/jack-the-giant-slayer-the-last-exorcism-part-ii-cfq-spotlight-podcast-409/feed/ 0 Ashley Bell,Bill Nighy,Bryan Singer,Christopher McQuarrie,Eleanor Tomlinson,Ewan McGregor,Ian McShane,JACK THE GIANT SLAYER,Nicholas Hoult,Stanley Tucci,THE LAST EXORCISM,THE LAST EXORCISM PART II - 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, 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 plucky princess, an enchanted crown, a sardonic soldier, a war between giants and humanity, and much, (maybe too) much more. But is the audience's resounding apathy deserved? Come join Cinefantastique Online's Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they discuss this 3D attempt to do bigger better and weigh whether this version distinguishes itself from the revisionist lot, or is just more fee-fi-fo-fum. Plus: Steve gives his capsule review of THE LAST EXORCISM PART II, and what's coming to theaters next week. [NOTE: the podcast capsule is spoiler free. For a more in-depth look at what's wrong - and almost right - about the ending, check out the review posted here (http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2013/03/the-last-exorcism-part-2-review/).] Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, Dan Persons yes 59:20 http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2013/02/hellraisers-ashley-laurence-the-cfq-interview-ep-104/ http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2013/02/hellraisers-ashley-laurence-the-cfq-interview-ep-104/#comments Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:03:56 +0000 Dan Persons http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/?p=35194

Ashley Laurence in the clutches of a Cenobite in HELLRAISER.

It’s not easy playing the ingénue in the psycho-sexual farrago that is Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER — one has to maintain one’s humanity while being pursued by your demonic, hell-bent-for-incest uncle (masquerading as your father!) and courted by the sadomasochistic nightmares that are the Cenobites. Ashley Laurence pulled it off, and established herself as a supreme scream queen, following up with appearances in the HELLRAISER sequels as well a numerous genre and non-genre productions.

We were able to speak with Ashley on the occasion of the release of make-up effects artist Robert Hall’s semi-autobiographical drama, LIGHTNING BUG, in which Ms. Laurence plays the damaged mother of the film’s teen protagonist, a boy who dreams only of escaping life in his dead-end Southern town to make monsters in Hollywood. Click on the player to hear the show.

Close Encounters of the Familiar Kind: Keri Russell (left), Josh Hamilton (second from right) and Kadan Rockett endure an alien attack in DARK SKIES.

If there’s one thing we know about a Blumhouse film, it’s that the producers of the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise are convinced the American family just isn’t safe at home. In the case of DARK SKIES, the entities bedeviling a married couple (Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton) and their two young sons (Dakota Goyo and Kadan Rockett) aren’t restless spirits, but malevolent aliens, determined to put the suburbanites through the wringer for reasons unclear, even to alien expert J.K. Simmons.

Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French and Dan Persons get together to see if spooky stuff is spookier with a science fiction twist, and how exactly a typically overextended, middle-class family manages to afford a comprehensive home security system and room-to-room video surveillance. (Possible explanation: selling the footage to Blumhouse Productions.) Plus: What’s coming to theaters this Friday.

An E.T. knock-off gives the audience the finger in MAC AND ME.

MAC AND ME is another one of those transcendental experiences — a film so awful, a film so wrongheaded in all its aspects, a film so cynically devised and ham-fistedly executed that it practically redefines the idea of the bad film. An obvious rip-off of the Steven Spielberg classic, E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, M&M (ironically one of the few products not plugged during the film) takes the scenario of a stranded alien adopted by a lonely boy and replaces stellar filmmaking with ill-advised “comedy,” and a sense of wonder with endless product placements. Plus: unmotivated chases, bad alien makeup, a dance sequence at a McDonald’s, a rampaging vacuum cleaner, reckless vandalism, and a boy in a wheelchair rolling down a hill to his imminent death. It’s fun!

So sit back, unwrap your Big Mac, pour a nice, hearty bowl of Skittles, open up a can of Coca-Cola, keep a roll of Brawny paper towels handy, shut off your Sears power tools (we could go on), and join Andrea Lipinski, Kevin Lauderdale, and Dan Persons as they tackle one of cinema’s true monuments of awfulness.

Did You Ever Consider that What's Destroying Your Family is that Cowardly Criminal, Spider-Man?: J.K. Simmons (left) counsels Keri Russell in DARK SKIES.

It takes some kind of actor to take the role of a Nazi sadist and make it more than just a broad caricature. And it’s no mean feat to then become the flesh-and-blood incarnation of one of comics’ most notorious egotists and turn him into a person you might consider hanging out with. J.K. Simmons has done both and — besides just defining the roles of OZ’s Vern Schillinger (scary) and SPIDER-MAN’s J. Jonah Jameson (even scarier) — has also played parts that include the adult son of a world savior in LEGEND OF KORRA, a skeptical police psychiatrist in the LAW AND ORDER franchise, and a reclusive hermit with the answers to a young clone’s vexing questions in THE VENTURE BROS. Now he’s appearing as the man who can bring some insight into the paranormal nightmare that has claimed an innocent family in the new thriller, DARK SKIES. We got a chance to speak with him about that role and many more — click on the player to hear the show.

Cast of casters: Jeremy Irons (left) and Alden Ehrenreich (right) try to save Alice Englert from a dark fate in BEAUTIFUL CREATURES.

The TWILIGHTing of romantic fantasy continues apace. In WARM BODIES a few weeks ago, director Jonathan Levine managed to take the human teen/inhuman teen (in this case, a zombie) romance and grace it with humor and  genuine emotion; in the upcoming THE HOST, Andrew Niccol tackles TWILIGHT mistress Stephanie Meyer’s take on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, ideally avoiding the anticipated liberation of the genre from anything that would make it scary or effective. But for this week, it’s BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, the tale of a young man (Alden Ehrenreich) dreaming of greater things who may find it in the courtship of a soulful “caster,” or witch (Alice Englert), if only she can free herself from a curse that may doom her to a life of evil. The writer and director here is Richard LaGravenese, raising the question: Can the man who was an Oscar nominee for THE FISHER KING and has garnered praise for his screenplays for A LITTLE PRINCESS and BELOVED, among others, bring a similar intelligence to a teen-oriented romance? beabetterbooktalker.com’s Andrea Lipinski joins Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons to find out.

Then, Steve gives his verdict on the CG-animated, science fiction comedy, ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH; plus: listener mail and what’s coming to theaters next week.

Casper Van Dien gets bug-bombed in STARSHIP TROOPERS

Check his IMDB listing, you’ll discover Casper Van Dien has a full, rich career, including key roles in SLEEPY HOLLOW and MONK. But if you’re a genre film fan of a certain demeanor, you see his name and you tag him as does a subtitle in the recent comedy NOOBZ: “That Guy from STARSHIP TROOPERS.” Van Dien has moved on, recently branching out into comedy with his appearance in the video-game-themed NOOBZ, and with a sharp take-down of ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER over at Funny or Die. For our conversation on CFQi, though, he was more than happy to revisit his career as Johnny Rico, talking about the legacy the character has created and confirming one ongoing legend about the notorious, coed shower scene. Click on the player to hear the show.

Audubon Shrugged: A town suffers an avian onslaught in Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS.

Next vacation, break away to beautiful Bodega Bay, CA, where the welcome is warm, the sun is shining, and the gulls want to peck your eyes out. Don’t order the fried chicken.

With no new genre release in the theaters, the Spotlight gang takes a fiftieth anniversary look at Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic of nature in revolt (and psycho-sexual tension), THE BIRDS. Having all undergone the same, formative (some would say traumatic) childhood experience when the film debuted on broadcast TV back in the sixties, Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French,  and Dan Persons return to one of Hitchcock’s most enigmatic works, placing the film into the context of his long and impressive career, discussing whether its impact still holds (short answer: Oh my God, yes), and trying to sort out its myriad puzzles. Board up the windows, block the fireplace, and click the player to hear the show.

Armin Shimerman as STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE's Quark, and himself (inset).

It’s not often an actor gets to redeem an entire species, but that’s what Armin Shimerman did when he took on the role of Quark, the amenable but eminently self-interested Ferengi barkeep of STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE. Having been present for the Ferengi’s ignominious debut on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, when a race posited as being the next Klingons eventually devolved into cartoon irrelevancy, Shimerman took the character meant to be DS9’s comic relief and added enough credibility to his motives and depth to his personality that for the first time, a race centered purely on profit seemed not only possible, but actually appealing.

As a demonstration of the depth with which we intend to explore the worlds of science fiction, fantasy, and horror film and TV on our brand-new podcast,THE CFQ INTERVIEW, we probably couldn’t find a better guest than Shimerman. In the span of this extended interview, we discuss not only DS9, but also his work on BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, and, in a surprising, eye-opening sidetrack, his guest stint on SEINFELD, plus so much more. It’s an hour-plus of insightful talk — click on the player to get it started.

Armin Shimerman will be directing Arthur Miller’s
THE CRUCIBLE
this May at The Antaeus Company

I Wanna Know, Did You Ever Eat the Braaaaaaains?: Zombie Nicholas Hoult (left), and humans Teresa Palmer (center) and Analeigh Tipton risk all to save humanity in WARM BODIES.

In the zombie apocalypse, you take what you can get, whether that’s scrounging for medicine in an abandoned pharmacy, sitting down to dinner with a can of year-old Spam (uh, could we reconsider getting bitten again?), or pinning the last hope for the world on the slim possibility that a chance meeting between a human girl (Teresa Palmer) and a zombie boy (Nicholas Hoult) might reignite a spark of humanity that will make those who are walking just a little less dead. WARM BODIES takes a good deal of its commercial instincts from THE TWILIGHT SAGA, but director Jonathan Levine instills the narrative with credible drama and lots of effective humor to make this a dark romantic fantasy suited for more than just the teen audience. Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons take a look at the film, and discuss how Levine took a project that could have gone wrong in so many ways, and managed to avoid the pitfalls.

Also: Dan previews the debut this Friday of our brand-new show, THE CFQ INTERVIEW, featuring STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE’s Armin Shimerman; plus what’s coming to theaters next week, which is nothing, but we touch that base anyway.

Welcome back to another edition of the Cinefantastique Laserblast Podcast, exploring the highways and byways of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction Films on Home Video – Blu-ray, DVD, Video on Demand, and Instant Streaming. In Volume 4, Episode 4.2, Steve Biodrowski reviews the Blu-ray discs of FRANKENWEENIE and JOHN CARTER; Dan Persons waxes over the Nazi-on-the-Moon spoof IRON SKY; and Lawrence French offers up William Castle’s HOMICIDAL (1961) as an effective pinch-hitter horror film in place of PSYCHO (1960).

Also on the agenda: a look at FrightPIX, the new free streaming channel of horror films available through Roku; and a rundown of home video releases for the weeks of Tuesday, January 22 & 29.

NOTE: If you prefer reading to listening, details of the week’s home video releases are listed below…

JANUARY 29 HOME VIDEO RELEASES

Click to purchase

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 sees the release of three titles that have actually been available on Video on Demand for two weeks through the magic of “Early Release.” This is a new strategy, in which films are available through downloading and streaming services before arriving on store shelves in hard copies. The early release price (for purchase only, not rental) is considerably higher; now that the films are on store shelves, the price for streaming and downloading has dropped, and rental options are available. The films in question are:

• HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, now on single disc DVD; on triple disc Blu-ray and DVD and UltraViolet Digital Copy; and quadruple disc with a 3D Blu-ray.
• PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4, which arrives in two packages: the first includes only DVD; the second includes both DVD and Blu-ray, plus a Digital Copy and Ultra-Violet. Both the Blu-and the DVD include the original theatrical cut and an unrated extended cut, which runs approximately ten minutes longer. The Blu-ray also offers a half-hour of “recovered files” – basically, deleted scenes – but there are no other bonus features. Amazon.com still has the unrated version available through their Instant Streaming service


click to purchase

• THE AWAKENING: This excellent British ghost story from 2011, which got a small U.S. release last year, is now available on DVD and on Blu-ray; the steaming version is still available here. The latter includes numerous behind-the-scenes bonus features: deleted scenes; behind-the-scenes featurettes; an interview with director Nick Murphy; a look at belief in the supernatural and in spiritualism.

And speaking of “Early Release,” SILENT HILL: REVELATION goes on sale via Video on Demand and download this week. Expect discs to hit store shelves in a couple weeks.

Also out this week:

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS arrives on Blu-ray combo pack and on DVD and on Video on Demand.

click to purchase

WHITE ZOMBIE: The 1932 black-and-white classic, starring Bela Lugosi, reappears in a newly remastered transfer, available on Blu-ray and on DVD. These discs port over some of the bonus features from the Roan Group’s 1999 DVD (including a re-release trailer and an “Intimate Interview” with Lugosi), but not the excellent audio commentary by Gary Don Roades. WHITE ZOMBIE is a public domain title, available in lots of cheap DVD versions, but this new version from Kino Classics has been digitally restored – which you will appreciate if you recall the Roan version, which was good but still had problems. Source material was a 35mm fine grain master; the raw and enhanced versions are included.

Midnight Movies Volume 9 offers a zombie double bill of HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD and NIGHTMARE CITY – two Italian gorefests from the 1980, following in the wake of DAWN OF THE DEAD (1979) and ZOMBIE (1980). The former is also known as VIRUS and as NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, and reuses music from DAWN OF THE DEAD. The later stars actor Hugo Stiglitz, after whom Quentin Tarantino named a character in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS.

JANUARY 22, 2013 HOME VIDEO RELEASES

click to purchase

Since we posted no Lasberblast – either column or podcast – for last week, we will make it up to you by listing the titles this week, but rest assured, you did not miss much. The only new titles wer DEATH RACE 3: INFERNO, which made its direct-to-video debut on DVD and Blu-ray, and UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING, which arrived on store shelves after a pre-theatrical VOD debut last year, followed by brief, limited exposure in theatres.

Older titles resurrected on disc include several 1980s titles and a bunch of 1990s obscurities from Charles Band’s now-defunct Full Moon Productions. The 1980s titles include:

• Wes Craven’s DEADLY BLESSING in a new Collector’s Edition on Blu-ray and DVD. This 1981 is from a few years before Craven hit big with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. You can also sense Craven inserting some NIGHTMARE style dream scenes toliven up the slasher-style scenario.
• CUJO, based on the Stephen King novel and starring Dee Wallace (E.T.) sees new life on DVD and on Blu-ray.
• THE INCUBUS (1982) with John Cassavetes flts into stores on DVD. The film was directed by John Hough, who has a couple of good titles to his name (TWINS OF EVIL and THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE), but this is nowhere near as good. There is some nice atmosphere, but the script is problematic at best, and one suspects that Cassavetes was earning a pay check to fund one of his own directorial efforts.

click to purchase

Meanwhile, the Full Moon titles arrive on DVD are: LURKING FEAR (1994), MONSTROID, SEED PEOPLE (1992), and DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT (1994). The last of these is a mildly amusing horror-comedy, featuring a female demon who ventures up from Hell and falls in love with a mortal man. The basic concept (the denizens of Hell are demonic, but they are doing God’s work by punishing sinners) is actually rather interesting.

That’s all for now. Since Captain Sparky has defeated the flying saucers, all is safe.

Or is it?

Purchase these and other videos in the Cinefantastique Online Store.

Yup, It's That Pretty: Jeremy Renner (left) in a characteristic action sequence from HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS

It’s a childhood classic, seen in a whole new light. For clarification’s sake, CFL bulbs are whole new lights, too, but you don’t see anyone buying tickets to watch them. Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton are the titular brother and sister team in HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS, all growed up and battling Famke Janssen as a super-witch with a plan to alter the balance of power between automatic crossbow-wielding siblings and the practitioners of dark magic. All-in-all, a fun idea, but unfortunately, in the hands of director Tommy Wirkola, execution does not rise up to what’s on the page. Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons take a look at this latest attempt to revise and update classic literature, and discuss what went wrong.

Also: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Either She's Confronting a Hostile Force from Beyond the Grave or She's Just Been Told She Can't Have McDonald's for Dinner: Isabelle Nélisse meets MAMA.

Screw the armed guards in the schools, let’s get some firepower into the home, ’cause there’s definitely some malignant stuff going on there. In MAMA, a young couple (Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) are saddled with a pair of literally feral children and have to contend with the challenges not only of raising a pair of kids accustomed to ambulating on all fours, but also of dealing with the malevolent, spectral force that’s followed them home. Mama don’t go for Fruit Roll-Ups.

Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons saw the latest in executive producer Guillermo del Toro’s attempts to resurrect the classic, moody horror films of the seventies, and come away with an appreciation for the film’s stylistic visuals and creepy atmosphere, but not so much that they can’t make generous sport of the film’s plot glitches. And boy, are there plot glitches.

Plus: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Interested in what new horror, fantasy, and science fiction films are available on home video this week? You have two ways to find out: listen in to this week’s podcast, or read on. In fact, why not do both?

In the Cinefantastique Laserblast Podcast 4.2.2, Dan Persons and Steve Biodrowski run down genre titles coming out on DVD, Blu-ray, and Video on Demand for the week of Tuesday, January 15. Biodrowski reviews THE SORCERER AND THE WHITE SNAKE – currently available as a “pre-theatrical rental” with a couple of big-screen engagements scheduled for February 8. Persons explores the potential of watching DREDD in 3D without a 3D television set, by way of the 3D Video Wizard Console, which translated the signal from your 3D Blu-ray or streaming service into a picture that can be viewed with blue-and-red 3D glasses.

After that, Biodrowski offers some home video recommendations for the late actor Jon Finch, who passed away last week. Finch starred in Alfred Hitcock’s FRENZY and Roman Polanski’s MACBETH, both of which are available on DVD and through Amazon Instant Viewing (click here for FRENZY and here for MACBETH). Finch also played the young male lead in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970), which is available on both DVD and through Netflix Instant Video. The DVD (which also contains COUNTESS DRACULA and which you can purchase here) features a nice audio commentary by Ingrid Pitt, who starred as the voracious, voluptuous, and yet vulnerable Countess Mircalla Karnstein. A Blu-ray release is scheduled for April 30; you can pre-order now. Sadly, Finch’s most eccentric and interesting science fiction film, THE FINAL PROGRAMME (a.k.a. THE LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH) is currently out of print, although old copies may be available for purchase at some outlets.

Next up: a new feature titled “Pinch-Hitter Films.” What are Pinch-Hitter Films? As the name implies (a baseball term), Pinch-Hitter Films substitute in a pinch for other films. If you have watched your favorite classic so many times that you never need to see it again, but you still feel a hunger for the sort of entertainment value it used to provide before you exhausted it through repeat viewings, you resort to a Pinch-Hitter Film.

• Biodrowski offers up MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935), directed by Tod Browing and starring Bela Lugosi as Count Mora, as a pinch-hitter for DRACULA (1931), directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. MARK OF THE VAMPIRE is no match for its predecessor, but it is a wonderfully atmospheric example of old-fashioned black-and-white Gothic horror, and it does surpass DRACULA in one or two ways (e.g., it actually shows the man-to-bat transformation only suggested in DRACULA).
• Persons suggests that SILENT RUNNING (1972) is an adequate substitute for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968). Although not of the same stature, SILENT RUNNING is a sort of unofficial successor to Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, directed by Douglas Trumbull, who provided special effects for SPACE ODYSSEY (in fact, SILENT RUNNING’s sequence of a spaceship passing through the rings of Saturn was originally intended for the earlier film).

EARLY RELEASE STEAMING AND DOWNLOADS

Not mentioned in the podcast but worth noting here, are a handful of “Early Release” home video titles. “Early Release” is the designation being given to films that are made available to be purchased via digital download or cloud streaming prior to arriving on Blu-ray and/or DVD. The general pattern seems to be a two-week window during which titles are priced to sell, followed by release in other home video formats, including rental options.

The most high-profile early release for Tuesday, January 15 is PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4, which is now available in two versions: the original theatrical cut and an unrated extended cut that adds ten minutes to the running time. (Note: the theatrical version is available through iTunes but not Amazon.com, which offers only the unrated version.) Blu-ray discs and DVDs of both cuts will arrive on January 29.

Also available for early online viewing and download is HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, the computer-animated comedy about the titular establishment where monsters gather to avoid humans, until one stumbles in by accident and falls in love with Dracula’s daughter. The film is currently available for purchase in both high-def and standard-def versions at iTunes; Amazon.com has only the standard-def version. Rental options, along with DVDs and Blu-ray discs, will arrive on January 29.

Lastly, THE AWAKENING – the excellent 2011 British ghost story that arrived in U.S. theatres last year – is also now available for early release purchase. Amazon.com has a standard-def version for $11.99; iTunes has the same offer for the same price, plus a high-def version for $19.99. Again, the DVD and Blu-ray release will occur on January 29, at which time you should also be able to rent the film film through your preferred VOD method, whether digital download or instant streaming.

Before There was the Clapper, There was the Screamer: Essence Atkins and Marlon Wayans do not get a good night's rest in A HAUNTED HOUSE.

In defiance of conventional wisdom, the second week of 2013 sees yet another film that doesn’t aspire to the bottom-of-the-barrel stature usually typified by early-in-the-year releases. Quite to the contrary, A HAUNTED HOUSE sets out to deflate found-footage horror in general, and the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise in specific, and more often than not hits its targets quite capably. It’s raunchy, yes, and willfully offensive to any number of special interest groups, but funny is funny, and Marlon Wayans as a boyfriend confronting weird goings-on — including a ghost with a taste for both weed and strange — when his girlfriend (Essence Atkins) moves in turns out to be pretty damn funny.

Come join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons as they sit down to discuss the hits and misses in this uninhibited satire, weighing the relative, comedic value of menacing household help, foul-mouthed exorcists, and the reintroduction of the word “Mandingo” to the popular lexicon. Plus: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Step right up for this year’s opening edition of the Cinefantastique Laserblast Podcast – focusing its sights on all there is to cheer and fear in the world of horror, fantasy, and science fiction home video. Laserblast Episode 4.1.2 (following hot on the heels of the CFQ Spotlight Podcast regarding the new theatrical release TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D) not only runs down the Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and Digital Downloads available on Tuesday, January 8; the podcast also shines a light on a trio of pre-theatrical rentals – films available via Video on Demand prior to appearing in limited engagements on the big screen. STRUCK BY LIGHTENING (from GLEE’s Chris Colfer) open on Friday, January 11. STORAGE 24 (from DOCTOR WHO’s Noel Clarke) opens on January 18. JOHN DIES AT THE END (from PHANTASM writer-director Don Coscarelli) opens on January 25.

Also under consideration are A CHRISTMAS CAROL, the recent Blu-ray release of the 1951 film version starring Alistair Sim; KURONEKO, the black-and-white ghost cat movie now available through Hulu; and PLANET OF THE APES, whose fine Blu-ray release from a few years back is now discount-priced, benefitting those DVD owners who had been reluctant to upgrade. Listen in as Lawrence French, Dan Persons and Steve Biodrowski tell you all you need to know.

Note: This post has been edited to revise the release date for STORAGE 24, which (based on information from IMDB) was originally listed as January 11.

The Long and Winding Road/That Leads to Your Slaughterhouse: Dan Yeager clocks in as the new Leatherface in TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D.

Blood runs thick in TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D, both in its usual, slaughterhouse context, but also in a more symbolic way. Yes, the venerable horror franchise has caught up with the rest of mainstream film, and now it’s all about family, as a surviving — and hitherto unknown — member of the murderous Sawyer clan (Alexandra Daddario) returns to Texas to claim an inheritance from a similarly previously unseen grandmother, and discovers that it includes a living legacy in the form of a certain, Leatherfaced, chainsaw-wielding relative.

Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons dipped into the bloodbath that is the first genre release of 2013 and come out, if not impressed, at least appreciative that the film isn’t quite the car wreck that usually gets shunted into the first weekend of January. Click on the player to hear our review.

Hello, Cleveland!: Tommy Kirk (second from left) rocks a spandex outfit with gaffer's tape accents in a dramatic moment from MARS NEEDS WOMEN.

Oh, the Sixties, was there a way in which you weren’t one of our most fraked-up decades? War, assassinations, riots in the streets, MY MOTHER THE CAR on TV — never was there a time when it more seemed that society was shredding at the seams. Fortunately, director Larry Buchanan, the mastermind behind such cinematic spectacles as ZONTAR: THE THING FROM VENUS and ATTACK OF THE THE EYE CREATURES (Wiki it), was willing to tackle the tumult head-on, countering the rise of women as a political force with a clutch of Martians, including Disney escapee Tommy Kirk, who are seeking out a small sampling of the fairer sex — a grouping that includes soon-to-be-Batgirl Yvonne Craig — purely for their function as prime breedin’ stock.

Yes, it’s the science fiction classic MARS NEEDS WOMEN, and new novitiate Steve Biodrowski joins seasoned celebrants Andrea Lipinski, Kevin Lauderdale, and Dan Persons in the Temple of Bad as they explore how leering double entendres, broken tape recorders, and many, many close-ups of P.A. systems could be rallied to create one of the most potent, cinematic documents of those troubled times. If you ignore SEVEN DAYS IN MAY. And WOODSTOCK. And DOCTOR STRANGELOVE. And pretty much everything else. (Yeah, MY MOTHER THE CAR included.)

The Faces and Feats of 2012.

The future is a bottomless well, its mysteries yet to be revealed. The past is the road that stretches behind us, a strange and twisted route littered with ghosts, demons, hobbits, hostile aliens, Dark Knights, the gods of myth, and far too many teenagers lugging amateur camcorders. 2012 is over, a year that, as with many before it, failed to keep all its promises but in compensation offered up enough surprises to remind us why we so love the films of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. So as the calendar rolls over, Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons offer up their lists of the top-ten genre releases of the year, with more than a few surprises in the discussion. Click on the player to hear the show.

Monster (voiced by John Goodman) and child (Mary Gibbs) form an unexpected bond in MONSTERS, INC.

And a happy holiday to you all! And once you’re done unwrapping the gifts and singing the carols and observing whatever expressions of faith you feel are appropriate for the time (if any), you may want to reinforce the communal feeling with a visit to the cinema for something the whole family can enjoy. In which case, nothing may be better than this past weekend’s re-release of MONSTERS, INC, the superb Pixar comedy — now enhanced, to a more-or-less nominal degree, with 3D — about a couple of skilled child scarers coming undone when a young target manages to sneak into their city.

Cinefantastique Online’s Lawrence French and Dan Persons get together for a reappreciation of the film, including a discussion of whether the addition of 3D hinders or helps the proceedings, and an examination the legendary MONSTERS, INC./FEED THE KITTY factor.

Give Him a Ring Sometime: Martin Freeman stumbles upon a serious tactical advantage in THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY.

The journey will be long, the challenges daunting, the popcorn very likely stale. But that doesn’t matter now — the grand epic that is the three-part, film adaptation of THE HOBBIT is upon us with the release of the first installment: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY. Having braved the onslaught of orcs, goblins, and restless eight-year-0lds, beabetterbooktalker.com’s Andrea Lipinski joins Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons to discuss whether director Peter Jackson has taken what started as a compact, nimble fantasy tale and managed to elaborate on it in a way that will make audiences eager to sign on for all three films. They also delve into the film’s introduction of High Frame Rate (HFR) projection technology, and explore what effect the process has on the viewing experience.

Also: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Donnie Yen confronts his past in DRAGON.

Some people’s pasts come back to haunt them; some come back to kill them. In Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s martial arts film, DRAGON, Donnie Yen plays a loving husband living with his wife and child in a small, Chinese village at the beginning of the twentieth century. But when he seemingly inadvertently foils a robbery attempt, the investigation by a dedicated detective (Tekeshi Kaneshiro) reveals that the humble villager may not be all he seems. As the truth comes out in layers of deception and revelation, it becomes more and more obvious that the village savior also has a family past, one that could doom him, his loved ones, and anyone who knows him.

Yen not only stars in the film, but also was responsible for the action sequences, and the combination of intriguing storyline with eye-dazzling martial arts sequences makes this one of the best entertainments to come out of Hong Kong in a while. We were delighted to talk to Yen about how it all came together.  Click on the player to hear my interview.

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Don't Let Him Near a Zales: Elijah Wood is helpless before the power of cursed ring in THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

Next week sees the last, major genre film debut of the year with the release of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY in glorious 3D and an innovative high frame-rate (HFR) projection system (advance word: bring Dramamine). The film marks the beginning of a new film franchise based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic tales of Middle Earth, but of course it isn’t the first time director Peter Jackson has visited the realm of elves, orcs, and humble, fun-loving hobbits. So while the film industry took this weekend to rally its strength by observing a moratorium in genre film debuts, Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons take a look back at the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, and weigh whether, a decade later, this is a world worth revisiting.

Plus: Dan gives his capsule verdict of BAD KIDS GO TO HELL, and what’s coming to theaters next week (can you guess?).

SPECIAL FUN TECHNICAL NOTE: Did you know listening to podcasts in which the audio occasionally, randomly skips makes you more popular? It’s true! Find out for yourself by listening to this show, and just see how many New Years parties you’re invited to. (TRANSLATION: Our audio software screwed up. It doesn’t really mess up the show, but we apologize and will be better next week.)

Ben Browder plays a janitor who knows when it's a good idea to mind his own business (or does he?) in BAD KIDS GO TO HELL.

In such series as FARSCAPE and STARGATE SG-1, Ben Browder traveled to distant universes filled with strange and fascinating creatures. But in all their adventures, neither FARSCAPE’s John Crichton nor SG-1′s Cameron Mitchell ever had to contend with an environment as daunting as high school, or a life form as enigmatic as teenagers. That’s just what happens in BAD KIDS GO TO HELL, the new horror comedy in which Browder plays Max, a janitor of the “quiet loner” breed, who tends to the corridors and classrooms of a tony private school as a clutch of the institution’s least-favorite students while away their time in detention, and find themselves being bumped off, one-by-one, by a resourceful killer with mysterious motives.

So in this episode, we talk to Browder via phone, our conversation ranging from his extended absence from the screen, to the difference between movie and TV shoots, to what it was like being a visitor to the world of DOCTOR WHO. Click on the player to hear the show.

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Did you see SILENT NIGHT this weekend? It's okay, you can be honest with us.

It’s a funny ol’ thing: Guess the studios figured that after the tension of all those family reunions last week, audiences would need to vent some of that sublimated hostility. So this week, depending on where you live, you could spend time with a sadistic murderer with a penchant for elaborate death traps in THE COLLECTION, or with a sadistic murderer with a penchant for weeding out who’s been naughty and who’s been nice in the Xmas-themed SILENT NIGHT.

And if neither of those openings quite fit your taste, well, you’re probably not alone. So after quickly giving their impressions of this week’s two (relatively) big openings, Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons round up some more-desirable, and some less-desirable, holiday-themed horror films to feed your winter-depression-fueled blood lust. Among the titles discussed: GREMLINS, JACK FROST, BLACK CHRISTMAS, and the off-kilter Finnish film, RARE EXPORTS.

Then, Larry gives his quick impression of HITCHCOCK, and Dan briefly reviews the fanciful new Hong Kong martial arts film, DRAGON. Plus: What’s coming to theaters next week. Oh, who are we kidding? Nothing’s coming to theaters next week. Save up that energy for THE HOBBIT.

UnForced Drama: Caroline Munro, Christopher Plummer and David Hasselhoff confront cheesy space adventure in STARCRASH.

Italy has brought us so many wonderful things: Fellini; lasagna; Silvio Berlusconi (that last is debatable). But among the many marvels borne of those shores, truly the most wondrous has to be the knock-off film, a genre that took groundbreaking, innovative American titles and replicated them with a low-budget zeal and enough questionable technical prowess to make them their own classics. Loved JAWS? Wait’ll you see TENTACLES, the Italian version that features a giant octopus (plus the all-star quadrifecta of John Huston, Henry Fonda, Shelley Winters, and Claude Akins!). Got nightmares from THE EXORCIST? You should check out THE RETURN OF THE EXORCIST, which, despite the title, has neither Jason Miller nor Max von Sydow in the lead, but does offer Richard Conte in his final performance.

And if you just couldn’t get enough of STAR WARS, then the ever-inventive Italian filmmakers were willing to feed your hunger with STARCRASH, a faithful replication of CHAPTER IV: A NEW HOPE — if by “faithful” one means cheesy special effects, hammy acting and a storyline so muddled that audiences couldn’t help but proclaim, “Y’know, THE PHANTOM MENACE wasn’t that bad.” Forsaking their Jedi code, Temple of Bad residents Andrea Lipinski, Kevin Lauderdale, and I allow ourselves a flirtation with the Dark Side, one that here also claimed the souls of Caroline Munro, Marjoe Gortner, Christopher Plummer and (swoon) David Hasselhoff. In this episode, we unburden ourselves of an experience so devastating that even Lord Darth Vader would have cried, “Padme! Noooooooo!!!” Oh, wait, he did. Never mind.

La Forza può salvarti da film scadente!

THEME SONG: I Wonder If God was Sleeping by scottaltham
Song covered under Creative Commons

An all-star cast (l to r: Isla Fisher, Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, and Hugh Jackman) protect childhood's most valuable resource in RISE OF THE GUARDIANS.

With THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, Disney succeeded in extending the holiday film season from the beginning of November to the end of the year. Now, DreamWorks has upped the ante with RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, a CG animated, 3D fantasy that not only has a burly, Slavic Santa (Alec Baldwin) heading up a team of dedicated fantasy icons charged with protecting the innocence and wonder of children, but also extends the market into spring by adding the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) to the corps, and then covers the gaps with Jack Frost (Chris Pine), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), and a mute, but adorable, Sandman.

The film has an impressive pedigree, with Guillermo del Toro as producer and a scenario loosely based on William Joyce’s Guardians of Childhood chapter books. To discover how loosely, we invited beabetterbooktalker.com’s Andrea Lipinski to give us background on the movie’s literary roots, and to join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons in determining if RISE rises (see what we did there?) to its self-imposed mission as champion of all that’s wonderful in genre film.

Then: Steve delivers his capsule review of the the-Commies-are-coming, domestic warfare fantasy RED DAWN; plus, what’s coming to theaters next week.

The Cinefantastique Laserblast Podcast returns, bringing you news and reviews of the latest horror, fantasy, and science fiction films on home video – DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, and instant streaming. Dan Persons and Steve Biodrowski take a look at new releases for Tuesday, November 20, including the Japanese anime title GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, now on Blu-ray for the first time, and the DOCTOR WHO LIMITED EDITION GIFT SET on DVD (featuring the three most recent doctors: Matt Smith, David Tennant, and Christopher Eccleston).

But wait, there’s more! Dan Persons reviews Season 10 of RED VS. BLUE. Steve Biodrowski reviews two films in limited theatrical release that are also currently available via Video on Demand: JACK & DIANE (a teen romance with weird, artsy horror elements spliced in) and UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (the film that asks whether the UNIVERSAL SOLDIER franchise can successfully incorporate elements of MEMENTO and APOCALYPSE NOW). And things wrap up with a look at some titles from the late Italian horror specialist Mario Bava, which have recently become available on Netflix Instant Viewing.

Terror gets real in Barry Levinson's THE BAY.

Found footage horror is usually the domain of entry-level directors and cheapjack producers who have no problem using smeary images and awkward ellipses to cover for incompetent filmmaking. So what was Barry Levinson — he of DINER and GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM — doing slapping consumer equipment into his cast’s hands and sending them out to shoot their own footage?  It turns out that Levinson — no stranger to breaking the rules of standard film production (after all, his political satire, WAG THE DOG, was shot on the quick-n-dirty during an involuntary hiatus from the filming of SPHERE) — was whipping up THE BAY, an effectively disturbing eco-terror tale in which a Maryland fishing town is decimated by a quite vicious parasite born from the rampant pollution of Chesapeake Bay. In the process, he also managed to teach everyone how effective the found-footage technique can be when it’s used as a tool and not a crutch. Somebody had to.

Our coverage of New York Comic Con 2012 concludes, belatedly, with the roundtable interview Levinson gave during the con in support of the film.

Vampy Family, Assemble!: Clockwise from center: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Mackenzie Foy await the repressive forces of vampiric tradition in THE TWILGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2.

So now Bella (Kristen Stewart) is not just vamp, but super-mega-ultra-vamp, the smartest, strongest, most beautiful, most morally pristine vamp there ever was. Meanwhile, her brand-new and rapidly growing daughter, Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy) is blessed with the psychic ability to melt even the coldest heart with the power of L-O-V-E, not that that matters to the Volturi, who still want her dead, because… well, because. And Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) are still just the big, buttery hunks of dreaminess they always were.

And you’d think with all of that we’d get a pretty rip-roaring wrap-up to the TWILIGHT SAGA franchise, but, nope, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2, is still the kind of moody, formless slog we’ve been through before, only slightly energized by a long-delayed bit of action that still manages to turn around and slap you in the face for even daring to hope that the film might be working itself up to a compelling moment. Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons unburden themselves of the experience with a cathartic, in-depth discussion of this final chapter. Then, Dan gives his capsule thoughts on the Russian satire GENERATION P; plus, what’s coming to theaters next week.

Vladimir Yepifantsev gazes into Russia's brave, consumerist future in GENERATION P.

Eve bit the apple, Pandora opened the box, and for a certain generation of young Russians, the first taste of a certain, ambrosial nectar that we in the West call Pepsi did close to the same thing: unleash a desire that, once freed, could not be contained. In the caustic, Russian satire GENERATION P, one of the anointed, Babylen Tatarsky (Vladimir Yepifantsev) is so transported by the experience that when the Iron Curtain falls, he becomes a god of advertising, privy to the impulses that stir the Russian heart and soon a much-sought-after asset of organized crime, secret societies, and the literal machinery of government.

Director Victor Ginzburg brings a deadpan, Strangelovian ambiance to his adaptation of Victor Pelevin’s cult novel, and the result is a film that irresistibly draws you into its increasingly delirious world. I got to sit down with Ginzburg earlier this year, when GENERATION P screened during Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films program to talk about the four-year effort to transfer Pelevin’s fevered scenario to the screen. Click on the player to hear the interview.

Cinefantastique podcasters Lawrence French, Dan Persons, and Steve Biodrowski discuss news and events related to horror, fantasy, and science fiction films, including the Stanley Kubrick exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the restoration of HORROR OF DRACULA, and their favorite (or least favorite) restorations.

J.G. Quintel and his REGULAR SHOW.

Give REGULAR SHOW creator J.G. Quintel credit for coming up with a title that works in ironic counterpoint to itself. On the one hand, the Cartoon Network series is an examination of young people entering the workforce in modern America, with all the friction, tension, and social and moral quandaries that might ensue. On the other, said young people include a giant blue jay, his best-friend raccoon, and their boss, a giant, walking gumball machine, and situations that start as prosaically as an argument over Internet access time and the desire to forge a cool identity for oneself soon acquire such irregular aspects as visits from interplanetary basketball gods and assaults by far-future Terminators. Yep, starting a career in this world is harder than you imagined.

I got to sit down with J.G. Quintel to talk about unusual challenges of being regular. Click on the player to hear the show.

That's a Gun in Your Hand and We're Happy to See You: Daniel Craig is Bond again in SKYFALL,

If box office numbers are to be believed, we’ve been suffering a severe case of Bond withdrawal. SKYFALL, the newest film featuring secret agent 007, had its best opening of any Bond film as the franchise celebrates its 50th anniversary. And critical consensus has so far fallen into line with that of ecstatic audiences, contending that the latest adventure — in which Bond, James Bond (Daniel Craig) battles a computer mastermind (Javier Bardem) determined to take down MI6’s M (Judi Dench) for painfully personal reasons – is among the franchise’s best.

But simple plaudits are not enough for the Spotlight gang, and so Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons delve deep into the details of this high-stakes attempt to revive and redefine the long-running series, debating where the film achieved its goals, where it exceeded expectations, and where it fell short. It’s one of our liveliest conversations, fitting for a film that demonstrates that it’s not too late for an old cold-warrior to undergo a rebirth.

Plus: What’s coming to theaters this Friday.

Related Articles:

• Skyfall review

With regular host Dan Persons sitting out this week, Lawrence French and Steve Biodrowski visit the videogame arcade to play a round of WRECK-IT RALPH; the 3-D computer-generated film from Walt Disney Animation Studios features a bad guy who is not likely to make it into any future editions of The Disney Villains, because poor Ralph just doesn’t want to be a bad guy anymore. Steve Biodrowski has already reviewed the film here, but Lawrence French may have an alternate opinion.

Also on the table for discussion: Lawrence French gives a preview assessment of SKYFALL, the new James Bond film starring Daniel Craig, which opens next week. And Steve Biodrowski offers capsule reviews of two films currently available in limited theatrical release and VOD: the horror-comedy VAMPS, starring Alicia Silverstone, written and directed by Amy Heckerling; and THE BAY, the found-footage horror science fiction flick from producer Oren Peli (PARANORMAL ACTIVITY) and director Barry Levinson (DINER).

Doona Bae (left) and Jim Sturgess confront a dehumanizing future as two participants of the vast canvas that is CLOUD ATLAS.

Who knew that a movie based on an “unfilmable” literary property with a complex story structure — even with an all-star cast — could be this dynamic, this moving, this, yes, fun? CLOUD ATLAS encompasses stories spanning five-hundred years — going all the way from the historical tale of a young traveler (Jim Sturgess) enduring treachery on a sailing vessel to the futuristic story of a clone (Doona Bae) awakening to her own existence and the even-further-future adventure of a member of an endangered elite (Halle Berry) reaching out to a humble farmer (Tom Hanks) to help in the survival of her kind — and the film is as nimble-footed and riveting as any produced by its three directors, Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer.

In this deluxe-sized episode (and, trust us, we could’ve gone on much longer), beabetterbooktalker.com’s Andrea Lipinski joins Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons to look deeply into the film, how it lives up to David Mitchell’s original book, how its daring structure explores the concept of narrative storytelling, and where, if anywhere, this experiment falters. Then, Steve and Dan take a capsule look at the new horror film SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D, and Dan gives his verdict on the Cronenbergian horror film, GUT. Plus: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Adelaide Clemens endures an unhappy reunion in SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D.

Turns out that Hell is a small, American mining town. Which is how you lose Ohio, but also how you build a video-game-based horror franchise that crosses creeping dread and surreal imagery. Continuing the storyline started in the 2006 original, SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D takes a young woman (Adelaide Clemens) back to her hometown, an abandoned mining town subsumed in evil. Working with 3D for the first time, director Michael J. Bassett loads the film with much what-is-reality? weirdness, including a spider made of mannequin limbs and homicidal clockwork operating room nurses (and how would you like to have seen the casting call for that role?).

I was able to net an exclusive sit-down with Bassett while he attended New York Comic Con. Click the player to hear the conversation.

The Bats is Back, and He's Got a Tank: The caped crusader arms up in BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.

Of the seminal works that helped rescue Batman from the depths of camp, none may be more influential, or controversial, than Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The tale of an aged, embittered Bruce Wayne putting the cape and cowl on once more to become the enemy of crime — and notably, most of law enforcement as well — the graphic novel reintroduced the public to a caped crusader more dark, determined, and scary than any seen in the years preceding, and set the stage for both the Batman that would make his way onto movie screens, and onto TV sets in the form of a landmark, animated series.

In support of the release of the two-part, animated adaptation, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, Warners brought to New York Comic Con two of the backbones of the DC animated universe, producer Bruce Timm and voice director Andrea Romano, for roundtables, and we were able to get their take on transitioning the darkest knight of all to the screen.

Stephen Amell is ARROW.

The shadows continue to spread over the DC Universe, most recently with ARROW, the new reimagining of The Green Arrow as a driven, bow-wielding vigilante for justice, determined to clean up the corruption of his home town of Starling City. With its dark ambiance, its intense, parkour-inspired action sequences, and its LOST-style central mysteries (what, exactly, happened on the island that millionaire playboy Oliver Queen was stranded on for five years?), the show’s made a memorable debut, chalking up healthy ratings for the CW network.

New York Comic Con hosted press roundtables for the show, and we were there to capture the conversation with all the participants. Featured, in order: Willa Holland, who plays Thea Queen, sister to wealthy scion Oliver Queen; Katie Cassidy, who’s crusading reporter Dinah “Laura” Lance in the show; executive producer Marc Guggenheim; and Stephen Amell, who plays Oliver Queen, the feckless playboy who spends five years stranded on a island and returns a much, much different man.

Click on the player to hear the interviews.

Pssst... Forget About Words with Friends and Take a Look Behind You: Kathryn Newton puts evil on the Web in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4.

From Paramount’s point-of-view, there’s a compelling reason to continue the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY series: It’s a cash-cow — a low-budget, high-earning (number one at the box-office this past weekend) crowd-pleaser.  The studio has some experience in this field, having previously cranked out the FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH films, a franchise that became so threadbare by the end that Jason wound up rampaging on a space station in the 25th century.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 hasn’t yet gotten that desperate — we’re still somewhat in the present day, rather than a future when the series’ found-footage concept would amount to people jacking in to virtual reality terminals — but the strain is beginning to show. Can bringing in a new family, throwing Skype and smart-phones into the voyeurish mix, and carrying forward on the series’ sinister cult story arc give the franchise some sense of forward momentum, or should we just be happy to once again be living through PA’s well-established assortment of ambient chills? Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French and Dan Persons discuss whether 4 makes them wish for no more.

Then, Dan gives his capsule thoughts on the home-video release of the transgressive amateur surgery horror film EXCISION, and we discuss what’s coming to theaters in the next week.

Moving outward (there's a novel approach): Me-Mow, Jake, and Finn from ADVENTURE TIME.

Television has managed to deliver up no shortage of animated shows ostensibly aimed at kids that also manage to build a justifiably enthusiastic adult fan base. Even with that, ADVENTURE TIME stands out. The tale of a human boy, Finn, and a shape-shifting dog, Jake (who’s also Finn’s brother — long story), making their way as heroes in a wide-ranging fantasy world that’s actually a post-apocalyptic Earth, the show manages a distinctively gentle kind of anarchy that owes as much to the sophisticated themes of its stories — a recent episode served as rumination on the nature of evil — as to its inventive character design and animation.

In connection with the release of a new box set of episodes headlined by the fan-instigated “Jake vs. Me-Mow,” in which the dog has to do battle with a miniature cat assassin hiding out in his nose, I got a chance to talk with the show’s creator, Pendleton Ward.

Not Quite the Next Bright and Shining Star of the Cinema Firmament We Had Hoped: Olivia Newton-John glows prettily and skates adequately in XANADU

Somewhere towards the end of the 1970′s, the entertainment industry got it into its head that the public not only wanted to spend their nights out rollerskating to driving, disco music, but that they wanted to watch people rollerskating to driving disco music — so much so that there’d be no need for such niggling details as plot, character, or even coherent filmmaking.

Thus, XANADU, a swirling maelstrom of bad ideas that somehow sucked Gene Kelly, Olivia Newton-John, The Electric Light Orchestra, The Tubes, and animator Don Bluth into its destructive vortex. (Oh, and Michael Beck is the lead, which, yeah, exactly.) Temple of Bad clerics Andrea Lipinsky, Kevin Lauderdale and Dan Persons shed their vestments and put on their widest lapels to celebrate this landmark of singing, skating, and really glowy people, a movie with a theme song so infectious that you will never be able to shake it from your memory.

Not even if you wanted to.

Not even with a radical lobotomy.

All together now: XANADUUU! XANADUUUUUUUU!!!

A young scientist (voiced by Charlie Tahan) defies the laws of God and man in FRANKENWEENIE.

FRANKENWEENIE is about resurrections in more ways than one. While the 3D, stop-motion animated tale, in glorious black and white, centers on a young Victor Frankenstein (here a (relatively) normal suburban kid rather than a deluded doctor) jolting his beloved dog Sparky back to life after a tragic car accident, with serious repercussions when his classmates get in on the revivification business themselves, for director Tim Burton, it’s also an opportunity to dip into his past, adapting the story from an early, live-action short, and bringing in many key players from earlier Burton films to contribute as voice performers. Whether the expansion to feature length and the addition of 3D goggles justify the nostalgia trip is something that Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons discuss at length in this week’s review (as well as pledging their eternal devotion to that most hallowed of cinema traditions, the monster rampage).

Then, Larry talks about a new, stop-motion exhibit at the Disney Museum, Steve surveys what’s new in L.A.’s  Halloween haunts this year, and Dan runs down what’s coming to theaters next week.

Click on the player to hear the show.

A Pair of Thugs Face a Paradox: Bruce Willis (left) confronts his younger self as Joseph Gordon-Levitt in LOOPER.

Is LOOPER a moving, existential examination of one man confronting the consequences of his actions? Is it a kick-ass, science-fiction thriller that gets considerable, mind-freak mileage from its time-travel scenario? Or is it an overhyped, poorly-plotted bit of pretentious cool? Surprise, it’s all three! At least it is if you ask Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons, whose opinions diverge widely over this tale of a hard-boiled temporal hit-man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who’s charged with taking out his future self (Bruce Willis) and has to deal with the consequences when he botches the job. Time paradoxes are not the only things batted about in this lively conversation.

Then, Dan weighs in on a couple of home video releases: MUNGER ROAD and THE TALL MAN, and Steve cues us in on the horrific delights coming to L.A. repertory in honor of the upcoming Halloween festivities. Click on the player to hear the show.

Strap yourselves in for another exciting episode of the Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast – the Podcast with A Sense of Wonder, exploring the best in horror, fantasy and science fiction cinema. This week, filling in for regular host Dan Persons, CFQ Managing Editor Steve Biodrowski joins forces with CFQ San Francisco Bureau Chief Lawrence French to explore the slo-mo 3-D carnage on display in DREDD, starring Karl Urban as the live-action incarnation of the comic book hero.

Is the new DREDD better than the Sylvester Stallone movie? Of course it is (it couldn’t possibly be any worse!) but is that enough to justify the price of a ticket purchase? Can Urban sustain a one-note performance for feature length and make it interesting? Can Dredd’s rookie sidekick (Olivia Thirlby) survive her assessment mission and become a Judge? Listen in and find out!. And after DREDD has cleaned all the scum off the streets, stay tuned while Lawrence French gives the rundown on the horror-thriller HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET.

It’s the return of the Cinefantastique Laserblast Podcast – featuring news and reviews of horror, fantasy & science fiction available on home video. In this installment, CFQ correspondents Dan Persons and Steve Biodrowski look at Tuesday, September 18’s current crop of releases, including INDIANA JONES: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES, CABIN IN THE WOODS, and the complete seventh season of SUPERNATURAL. Also, they offer reviews of recent releases, BAIT in 3D and the “Mind-Bending” Blu-ray edition of TOTAL RECALL (1990). Finally, they take a look at the 2001 Canadian documentary, THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY, a look at horror makeup effects in general and at makeup artist Greg Nicoter in particular; it’s not available on U.S. home video yet, but CFQ fans should eagerly await its arrival so that they can see Biodrowski’s 10 seconds of fame as one of the interview subjects.

Please Wipe Your Feet Before Entering the Detention Unit: Milla Jovovich winds up in the belly of a beastly corporation in RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION.

People have condemned the RESIDENT EVIL series, claiming it’s nothing more than a loose assemblage of action sequences wherein Milla Jovovich’s agile zombie-fighter Alice runs and shoots guns. Not satisfied with that, writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson has confounded expectations with RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION: He has Alice shoot guns, then run. Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons have differing opinions about whether Anderson has upped his game in this latest installment of the 3D-enhanced franchise, and weigh whether all the pyrotechnics amount to a witty deconstruction of the standard video game worldview, or just become a tiring string of — admittedly beautifully mounted and choreographed — flash-n-bang.

Then, Steve gives his quick observations on the 3D re-release of FINDING NEMO, and Dan brings you up-to-date on what’s coming to theaters next week.

Are You Eating the Bride's or the Groom's Side?: Leticia Dolera gets the most important day of her life hijacked in REC 3: GENESIS

[REC] 3: GENESIS, the third installment of the Spanish zombie franchise, distinguishes itself in several ways: It’s the first to move the location away from the building of the first two films, cleverly choosing a wedding reception as the site for its carnage; the narrative takes a decisively more humorous tone; and the director, Paco Plaza, has decided after the opening few minutes to abandon the found-footage format that was the primary calling-card for the series. It also distinguishes itself by being close to indistinguishable, an enjoyable-but-not-particularly-groundbreaking exercise in walking dead chills for fans of the genre. Which leads to a bit of a problem for the Cinefantastique Online crew, whose mandate to analyze what makes a film unique gets sorely tested.

So after Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons make quick work of [REC] 3, Dan weighs in on the definitely unique indie found-footage horror film, V/H/S, and Lawrence French gives his opinion of the upcoming documentary, RAY HARRYHAUSEN: SPECIAL EFFECTS TITAN. Plus: What’s coming to theaters and Southern California Halloween haunts.

Another Invasion Foiled by the RKO Logo: Aliens meet their match in INVISIBLE INVADERS.

This is an episode of Temple of Bad that includes several firsts. It’s our first discussion of a black-and-white film. It’s our first discussion of a film that has such a ridiculously short running time. It’s our first film starring John Carradine, and our first film starring the oh-so-dreamy John Agar. Sadly, it’s also our first episode without our fearless leader Dan Persons.

So this time around, INVISIBLE INVADERS is discussed by Andrea Lipinski, Kevin Lauderdale, and pop culture fiend / bad movie aficionado Orenthal Hawkins. Will this fearless trio be able to wrangle some sense out of this sci-fi classic? Will they be swayed by their love of Geiger counters, theremins, fishing-line invisible alien effects and the manliest, most square-jawed acting this side of THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA, or will they decide that this film is just a waste of time? Will they come up with a record number of rules for the Temple of Bad’s drinking game?

What do you think?

Little Girls Should Not Be Dipping into Daddy's Humidor: Natasha Calis regrets her curiosity in THE POSSESSION.

You were at the beach. You were visiting relatives. You had friends over for one, last barbecue. You were scrubbing down the altar for the midnight sacrifice to the Great Old Ones (special for Providence only). Whatever you were doing, it was something you felt was more important than being in the theater this past Labor Day weekend.

And why not? While nowhere near a transcendent filmgoing experience, director Ole Bornedal’s dip into THE EXORCIST well, THE POSSESSION, mustered up enough atmosphere, dramatic tension, and credible performances — including Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick as divorced parents trying to cope with a young daughter infested with an evil demon — to merit it more attention than is usually given to films shoveled into the traditional Labor Day dumping bin. Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons take a few minutes to explore the film’s assorted pleasures and discuss the elements that made it a candidate for summary dismissal. Then Dan gives his capsule opinion of Tsui Hark’s Imax 3D spectacular, FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE and runs down what’s coming the theaters next week.

Look, Can't We Just Exchange Insurance Info and Leave It at That?: Jet Li (right) faces off against Chen Kun in FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE.

FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE is the first Tsui Hark film to be shot in Imax 3D, starring Jet Li. Okay, stop salivating and sit back down, we’ve got work to do.

Granted, your enthusiasm is understandable. Hark — master of such deliriously epic action films as PEKING OPERA BLUES and ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA — came roaring back to prominence last year with DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME, and now returns with an ambitious adventure that’s actually a continuation of a film series that started in 1967, about a desert inn where both the noble and the infamous rub elbows and clash swords. In addition to all the expected Hark trappings, such as inventive battle scenes, sharp comedy, and women characters who can stand their own against their male counterparts — including a mysterious swordswoman, played by Zhou Xun, and a lusty barbarian princess, played by Lunmei Kwai (because would you want any other kind?) — the increased palette of China’s first Imax 3D film gives the director a whole new way to mess with your mind. Trust me, Hark takes generous advantage of the opportunity.

This is Hark’s return to MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST, and we’re glad to have him back; less glad that it had to be via a not-quite-Dolby-grade phone connection. We’ve done our best to smooth out the audio — hopefully you’ll find the discussion well-worth the effort.

I've Got a Radar Detector and I'm Not Afraid to Use It: Modern technology provides scant protection for Ashley Greene in THE APPARITION.

All these shades and poltergeists invading suburbia, moving the furniture and scaring the children and snatching souls from still-living bodies and otherwise causing all kinds of ruckus, sure, it’s inconvenient for the residents, but what about the real estate agents? Why doesn’t anybody think of them? What’s to come of their commissions, what about the property values? It’s not fair, I tells ya.

Nevertheless, one week after PARANORMAN took a more light-hearted, but still pretty scary, look at the situation, it’s back to the ‘burbs for THE APPARITION, in which a young couple (Ashley Greene and Sebastian Stan) find that their brand-new home comes with an unannounced, unwelcome, and quite ill-mannered guest. The Cinefantastique Online team of Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons get together to discuss the film and whether its pseudo-scientific trappings, wrapped in a narrative that borrows liberally from a variety of sources that range all the way from POLTERGEIST to RINGU, can whomp up some legitimate chills.

Then, Steve takes a look at THE AWAKENING, the recently released period tale of a psychic debunker, and finds some interesting contrasts to THE APPARITION. Plus: Steve delivers his capsule reviews of THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN and ROBOT and FRANK; Dan discusses a couple of worthwhile home video releases; and what’s coming to theaters in the next week.

Wrong thinking is punishable. Extremely right thinking will be as quickly rewarded: Kelsey Grammer (right) tries to show Kevin P. Farley the error of his ways in AN AMERICAN CAROL.

Could there be a movie so inanely scripted, so ineptly produced, so all-around awful that it confounds even the staunch acolytes of the Temple of Bad? Uh, yes. Yes there is, and it’s the topic of our latest episode.

AN AMERICAN CAROL was intended to serve as a counterbalance to the perceived liberal tilt of mainstream cinema, to provide the arguments that would swing the 2008 presidential election to the Republican side, and to do it all with the crowd-pleasing satirical sting of AIRPLANE and the NAKED GUN franchise. That it fails on all points is a singular example of a golden opportunity thoroughly botched, and ToB stalwarts Andrea Lipinsky, Kevin Lauderdale, and Dan Persons take it upon themselves to explore how far director David Zucker and stars Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, and Kevin P. Farley (among a dazzling roster of guest cameos, all of whom will be leaving this project off their resumes) can stray from their intentions.

SPECIAL BONUS DRINKING GAME: Every time Dan says something is fascinating. Management is not responsible for any resultant cases of alcohol poisoning.

Click the player to hear the show.

The dead get downright lively in PARANORMAN.

A young boy gifted with the ability to see ghosts has to rise to the challenge when his small New England town is cursed by the spirit of a vengeful witch in PARANORMAN, the latest 3D stop-motion animated effort from Oregon’s Laika Studios. With an onslaught of mouldering zombies, voluble spirits, and malevolent storm fronts, plus a production that pushes the artistic boundaries of stop-motion in terms of scope and character performance, the film has no shortage of ambition. But is that enough? Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Lawrence French differ wildly with Dan Persons on this point, and the group discuss their divergent impressions in this episode. Plus: Dan’s capsules of the energetic Hong Kong fantasy/actioner PAINTED SKIN: THE RESURRECTION, and the indie science fiction romantic comedy CODEPENDENT LESBIAN SPACE ALIEN SEEKS SAME.

Dolby Stereo is Just Lost on Some People: A boy contends with supernatural phenomena in PARANORMAN.

Oregon’s Laika stop-motion studio is kind-of making a name for itself as the go-to guys for family-friendly fantasies that mix the scary and the funny in perfect proportion. In their latest, PARANORMAN, a young boy with gift for seeing the various and sundry spirits that are haunting his small, New England town is saddled with the responsibility of saving his neighbors from a centuries-old witch’s curse. For the kid, that’ll mean confrontations with kibitzing ghosts, lumbering zombies, and a vast, ominous, and all-destroying cloud of malevolence. For the audience, it means a supremely stunning and innovative foray into 3D animation, and a fitting follow-up to the studio’s CORALINE.

At this point, it stands as my favorite animated film of the year, and I was excited to get a chance to talk with its directors, Sam Fell and Chris Butler. Click on the player button to hear the conversation.

Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz hit the road in THE BOURNE LEGACY.

The actual Bourne legacy is that what was always intended to be a trilogy was so successful that it compelled Universal to find some way to continue the franchise without star Matt Damon (clearly the DOCTOR WHO fix wouldn’t work here). Their solution for THE BOURNE LEGACY, the movie: Bring in Jeremy Renner as another genetically-altered super-spy, Aaron Cross, who, in the aftermath of Bourne’s antics and with Ed Norton’s high-ranking operative tracking him with the intent of ending his service with extreme prejudice, begins his own struggle for survival and legitimacy (parallels between the scenario presented and the franchise itself are purely coincidental).

Come join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they explore this follow up to a unique and entertaining series of spy films. Does it promise the same gripping action and intriguing world as the Damon BOURNES? How does Tony Gilroy — who scripted the previous films and here steps into the director’s chair — fare in taking over the franchise? And is Cross going to catch hell from PETA for his capricious treatment of wolves?

Also: What’s coming to theaters next week. Quite a lot, actually.

Production Note: A recording glitch caused some skipping in the audio for this episode. Noticeable, but not annoyingly so, and not an impediment to understanding the conversation. Our apologies.

We Can Remember It for You, But It's Gonna Cost Big Time: Colin Farrell's internal world gets rocked in TOTAL RECALL.

What is reality? What is identity? How long can a soul survive when one’s perceptions and one’s self are subject to electronic editing at a moment’s whim? These and many other fascinating questions are raised and almost immediately dropped in TOTAL RECALL, director Len Wiseman’s retelling of the Philip K. Dick tale of an ordinary working Joe discovering his own secret life courtesy of  a recreational brain reprogramming service. The story was previously brought to the screen by Paul Verhoeven, with Arnold Schwarzenegger starring, but does stripping the film of Verhoeven’s camp, satirical outlook and bringing in Colin Farrell as a more credible protagonist automatically mean the scenario regains the challenging, visionary paranoia of the Dick original?

Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons come together to explore thematic opportunities offered and missed in this latest remake, as well as dissecting the appeal of the film’s post-apocalyptic world and evaluating whether the core concept of the Rekall memory implant system makes any sense to begin with. Click on the player to hear the discussion.

The Toxic Father Returns: Some atmospheric presentation art from John Kricfalusi's CANS WITHOUT LABELS.

Okay, we’re breaking format here, but for what I think is a good reason. Famed cartoonist John Kricfalusi — aka John K — has started up a Kickstarter campaign for his new project, CANS WITHOUT LABELS, featuring that fireplug dynamo of really bad ideas, George Liquor (characteristic quote: “It’s discipline that begets love!”). John wanted to talk about it and I was up for finding out what he was up to, thus this special episode of MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST.

John was one of the guys responsible for the rebirth of truly anarchic, funny cartoons with REN AND STIMPY. His mix of gorgeous and grotesque set the stage for everything from SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS to ADVENTURE TIME, and one look at the presentation art for CANS makes me eager to see ol’ George back in action and imposing his manly will on us luckless mortals.

Click on the player to hear John and I discuss the upcoming cartoon, John’s campaign to get animation back to its chaotic roots, the strange genealogy of  cartoon nephews, and the dying tradition of animated spokespeople.

Watch Out! The neighborhood watch team gets its hands on alien weaponry

Also: INVASION OF THE STAR CREATURES and RAY HARRYHAUSEN’S FANTASY SCRAPBOOK.

Once again, the Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast takes a look at what’s new in the world of horror, fantasy, and science fiction films. This week, with regular host Dan Persons on hiatus, Lawrence French and Steve Biodrowski target THE WATCH, the new comedy starring Ben Stiller as a man who starts a neighborhood watch that uncovers an alien invasion. Co-stars Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and Richard Ayoade mug mercilessly amid the frat-boy antics, but if that’s the sort of thing you love, then you will love this.

Also on the menu: Steve offers a 50th-anniversary look back at INVASION OF THE STAR CREATURES (1962), an inept alien invasion comedy misfire that makes THE WATCH look positively Kubrickian in comparision; and Lawrence thumbs through Ray Harryhausen’s Fantasy Scrapbook.

Heading for a Fall: Bane (Tom Hardy, left) faces off against the Batman (Christian Bale) in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Homicidal maniac in a well-crafted movie: great entertainment. Homicidal maniac in an actual movie theater… Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons grapple with the horrific news out of Aurora, discussing whether and how it should relate to the film that was being screened, Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, and also how these events should affect Spotlight’s geekly mandate of discussing the film in-depth.

Then, they do go on to analyze Nolan’s final chapter to his universally celebrated Batman trilogy, evaluating how the decision to keep the Batman (Christian Bale) off-stage for long stretches of the film effect our expectations, whether the choice of Bane (Tom Hardy) and Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) as villains gave the masked crimefighter a suitable roster of adversaries, and whether this last tale provides a fitting summation to the themes established and explored from the very first film.

Comedy on Ice: Prehistoric creatures deal with vast, geological calamity in ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT.

By any logic, the prehistoric creatures of the ICE AGE franchise should be extinct by now, or at the very least have migrated to the direct-to-video market, like their colleagues over at THE LAND BEFORE TIME had the grace to do. But no, here we are with ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT, the 3D, CG-animated film in which we rejoin family mammoth Manny (voice by Ray Romano), irascible saber-tooth tiger Diego (Denis Leary), and wacky sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) as they deal with the break-up of Pangaea, an iceberg full of animal pirates and, for some reason, a teen mammoth (Keke Palmer) who just wants to belong to the cool gang (never mind the shifting of land masses that WILL VERY LIKELY KILL HER).

Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons went to see all the animal hijinks and weigh in on how the fourth installment of the ICE AGE franchise fares, whether the filmmakers are at all invested in these films at this point, and where the hell did all the humans go? Then, Steve takes a look at the genre elements in Woody Allen’s latest, TO ROME WITH LOVE, and Dan gives his thoughts on the paranormal thriller RED LIGHTS. Plus, what’s coming to theaters next week.

Respinning the Web: Andrew Garfiled dons the spandex for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

Nothing like using the patriotic holiday of the Fourth of July to re-introduce the U.S. to a beloved New York Commie liberal. Or THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, if you will: Big Apple native and irradiated-arachnid-bit crime fighter. Sony has decided to punch the reboot button for what is actually the fourth installment of the franchise (but should we start counting from one again?). Gone is the post-college, working-joe Peter Parker; the revenge-obsessed Harry Osborne; and romantic shuttlecock Mary Jane. Here instead is Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), humble high-school student; big bad villain, the Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and alt love-interest Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Plus the wrinkle of a whole new conspiracy theory added to the tragic death of Parker’s parents and his eventual transformation into the cocky web-slinger.

Come join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they determine whether going back to square one was worth the effort, how director Marc Webb’s approach to the legend varies from Sam Raimi’s, and whether there are limits to Chekov’s observations on introducing a gun in the first act. Then, Dan will give his takes on the indie horror comedy SOME GUY WHO KILLS PEOPLE, and the cult animated kids show, ADVENTURE TIME: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON. Plus: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Who Needs a Reboot?: Iconic image from Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN

Chalk Spotlight host & producer Dan Persons up for the crisis of faith: While he concedes that there are enough laughs in the animated works of  Seth McFarlane to dismiss the notion that the creator of such shows as FAMILY GUY and AMERICAN DAD is everything that’s wrong with televised comedy (an assertion that’s nowhere near true so long as HOT IN CLEVELAND remains on the air), he still had his concerns about TED, McFarlane’s live-action, feature film debut about a guy (Mark Wahlberg) and the rocky relationship he has with his affable, raunchy teddy bear (voiced and performed in mo-cap by McFarlane). So Cinefantastique Online’s managing editor Steve Biodrowski volunteered to check the film out on his own, and in his review at the top of the show gives some idea whether it merits its #1 box-office take.

Then, in anticipation of next week’s debut of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, Dan and Steve sit down to discuss the trilogy that kicked-off the franchise: Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN; SPIDER-MAN 2; and SPIDER-MAN 3. Among the topics covered: who, from Willem Dafoe and his Green Goblin to Alfred Molina and his Doc Ock to Thomas Haden Church and his Sandman to Topher Grace and his Venom, delivers the most credible villain; which film embraces its dramatic elements most convincingly; and is J.K. Simmons truly a gift from the gods?

Also: What’s coming to theaters next week. Actually tomorrow. Actually it’s THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, we said it just above, ya happy?

Have You Ever Seen a Lassie Go This Way and Slash?: A Scottish princess voiced by Kelly Macdonald seeks to forge her own fate in BRAVE.

Triumphant return of Pixar after the disappointment that was CARS 2? Another daring redefinition of the family film from the people who turned a near-dialogue-free tale about a love-struck robot, an adventure about a cantankerous, air-bound septuagenarian, and a fantasy about a culinary-obsessed rat into worldwide, critical and commercial hits?  Uh, no, not quite. But if BRAVE’s chronicling of a headstrong Irish lass (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) who struggles against her parents’ (Emma Thompson and Billy Connolly) plans to marry her off — to the point where an unfortunate magic spell is invoked — doesn’t restore the vanguard CG studio to its widely accepted position of dominance, it does offer many charms to accompany its few stumbles. Come join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons as they examine the film in depth and express relief that at least the storyline isn’t commandeered by an affable, country-bumpkin tow-truck.

Also, Dan weighs in briefly on the romantic apocalyptic comedy, SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD; plus, what’s coming to theaters June 29th.

Anthony Mackie as Will Johnson and Benjamin Walker as Abraham Lincoln - ready to confront vampires atop a train

History meets horror; slavery meets vampirism; and a great American president meets the undead in this episode of the Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast – the Podcast with a Sense of Wonder, bringing you the best in horror, fantasy, and science fiction films. Special guest Andrea Lipinski (of Be a Better Book Talker) joins CFQ managing editor Steve Biodrowski to discuss ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, the big-screen adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel, directed by Timur Bekmambetov (NIGHTWATCH) and produced by Tim Burton (DARK SHADOWS).

The title is high-concept with a vengeance, but what about the film that comes with it? Listen in, and find out whether a single, deliberately absurd idea can stretch to feature length, or should the whole project have been condensed to a fake trailer or a five-minute Saturday Night Live sketch? And does historical credibility matter in the midst of slo-mo vampire battles with CGI blood flying off the screen in 3D?

Try It Once More, But This Time by Consigning Your Soul to the Eternal Fires of Hell: Director Benjamin Christensen casts himself as ol' Scratch in HAXAN.

The director is Satan! (So what else is new?) A family member is nuts! (Happens in the best of ‘em.) Captain Kirk’s an a-hole! (Yeah, well, George Takei knew this way ahead of you.) That can only mean one thing: It’s “Public Domain Panic II,” the newest installment of our newest fill-in series, in which the Cinefantastique Online gang discuss films that have lapsed into (or in some case, have been deliberately placed in) the public domain, and are readily available via such outlets as low-priced DVD sets, Pub-d-Hub, and archive.org. This time around, Steve Biodrowski offers up the mind-blowing Danish silent horror documentary HAXAN; Lawrence French highlights Francis Ford Coppola’s visually stylish PSYCHO knock-off, DEMENTIA 13; and Dan Persons chips in with the ambitious Finnish STAR TREK fan send-up, STAR WRECK: IN THE PIRKINNING.

Then, Dan relates his experience trying to watch the new horror film THE TORTURED, and also gives a capsule review of the home-vid post-apocalyptic satire, THE FP. Also: What’s coming to theaters next week.

Pandora, Meet Box; Box, Pandora: from left, Logan Marshall-Green, Noomi Rapace, and Michael Fassbender have no idea what they're unleashing in PROMETHEUS.

Melding the spiritual and the graphic, the scientific and the horrific, that’s PROMETHEUS’ game. Ridley Scott’s return to the ALIEN universe, some thirty-three years after he turned genre film upside-down with the original film (but not a prequel; repeat: NOT A PREQUEL (but it is (sort of))), evidences no shortage of ambition — with a theme tagged to the search for the origins of humanity and a production that splashes every dollar of the budget across the screen in all its dark grandeur, this certainly puts THE PHANTOM MENACE to shame. The question is: With all of that, is it enough? Come join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they discuss this ambitious and undeniably beautiful film and whether its soul is equal to its looks.

Then: Steve and Dan quickly discuss MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED, the third installment in DreamWork’s popular animals-running-amok series. Plus: Dan gives his capsule impression of the THUNDERCATS: SEASON ONE, BOOK TWO DVD set; and what’s coming to theaters.

Captivated by the Magnificent Jungle Palms: Danny Lee enjoys the view in MIGHTY PEKING MAN.

Supplicants worshipping at the altar of the Temple of Bad know that there is no length they wouldn’t travel, no sacrifice they would spare, to seek out the most sublime of regrettable cinema. Thus, noble adventurers Andrea Lipinski, Kevin Lauderdale, and Dan Persons have packed up the knapsacks, folded their sleeping rolls, and held their pith (helmets) for a dangerous trip into the Himalayas. And what do they find there? A Chinese explorer named Johnny, a blonde jungle girl named Samantha a severely doped-up cheetah, and some schmuck in a monkey suit pretending he’s the MIGHTY PEKING MAN.

Yes, come join the ToB gang as they assail The Shaw Bros.’ attempt to ape (get it? GET IT?) Dino DeLaurentiis’ KING KONG. There’ll be elephant stampedes, there’ll be quicksand, there’ll be musical numbers, there’ll terrifying climbs up towering, fifty-story buildings (bring your oxygen tank), there’ll be lots of people panicking in front of rear-projection screens. What there won’t be is enough time to stop laughing as the film barrels its way from one goofy set-up to the next. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Click the player to hear the show.

Towards the End of His Life, Disney Admitted His Greatest Regret was Neglecting to Include a Giant Forest Troll in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS: Kristen Stewart faces down a wilder fairy tale in SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN.

Probably looked good on paper. A “grown-up” retelling of Snow White, featuring the stars of THE TWILIGHT SAGA and THOR, with additional star-power in the casting of the wicked queen and the seven dwarfs and a lush, stylish mounting courtesy of the director of many, visually innovative commercials, here making his feature film debut — what could go wrong? Well, forgetting to put the term “entertaining” into the precis for SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN may have been the first problem. Ripping off concepts from far better films such as NEVERENDING STORY and TIME BANDITS for no particular reason certainly didn’t help.

Come join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they discuss how one film manages to confound not only the talents of the easily susceptible, such as headliners Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth, but also such seasoned performers as Charlize Theron, Ian McShane, and Bob Hoskins. Then: Steve gives his capsule review of the satiric gore-fest PIRANHA 3DD, and Dan weighs in on the animated adventure A CAT IN PARIS. Plus: What’s coming to theaters.

The Time Line is a Trip: (l to r) Josh Brolin, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Will Smith fight the future in MEN IN BLACK III.

Such a garden of delights for this Memorial Day weekend! First, we pay tribute to horror icon Christopher Lee on his 90th birthday, as Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Lawrence French highlight their favorite Lee films and Dan chips in with a memorable TV moment.

Then we delve deeply into the weekend’s major release, MEN IN BLACK III, the return of the frenetic secret agents vs. aliens comedy that reunites actors Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones with director Barry Sonnenfeld and, courtesy of a time-travel plot, introduces Josh Brolin as a young Jones. The film was rumored to have no shortage of problems during the filming process (even discounting New Yorkers’ complaints about Will Smith’s Taj Mahal of a dressing trailer), but does the final project transcend the behind-the-scenes turmoil? Steve, Larry, and Dan discuss what’s good and bad in the film, and throw in a discussion of the logic behind building a prison on the Moon.

Plus: Steve and Larry give their capsule reviews of Oren Peli’s return to horror, CHERNOBYL DIARIES, and what’s coming in theaters.

Aloha, Stranger: Taylor Kitsch and Rihanna are somewhere down there beholding the might of an alien invasion force in BATTLESHIP.

The aliens have landed! Yes. Again. This time they’ve invaded off the coast of Hawaii, so it’s just like Pearl Harbor, if the attack on Pearl Harbor had included such devastating weaponry as Giant Exploding Pegs and Hot-Rodding Robot Fireballs. Can slacker sailor Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), finding himself in command of the lone, surviving ship and assisted by crewmate Rihanna and visiting captain Tadanobu  Asano (just to prove we’re all over Pearl Harbor), find a way of defeating the enemy? Can Hopper’s fiancee Brooklyn Decker, with the help of (actual) double amputee Greg Gadson, destroy the island-based satellite substation before the invading force can signal their cohorts, even as her father, the Admiral (Liam Neeson), stands on the sidelines, shaking his fist and screaming, “Hopperrrrrr!!!” (not really, but close enough)? C’mon, it’s a movie based on a board game — are these really questions?

Come join Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they debate whether director Peter Berg might have been better served doing a film called CROCODILE DENTIST. Also: Dan gives his capsule review of LOVELY MOLLY, the new exercise in ominous horror by BLAIR WITCH’s Eduardo Sanchez. Plus: What’s coming to theaters.