Apr
08
Tricky situation this week: Two genre releases, but one, while good, is getting a very limited release to start; the other, while making it to more venues, doesn’t quite merit the attention. So we’re dipping into our 50th Anniversary archives to bring out a goody from 1962: BURN, WITCH, BURN (a.k.a. NIGHT OF THE EAGLE). …
Apr
06
For some, it is Valhalla; for others, it is a seething, roiling, chaotic pit of humanity. For many, I suspect, it’s a phenomenon just slightly more indecipherable than Naked Lunch. It is San Diego Comic-Con, and documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, with the help of Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, and aintitcool’s Harry Knowles, has endeavored to …
Apr
01
It’s the rare film that comes along and totally redefines the medium, but such a film is BIRDEMIC: SHOCK AND TERROR. From its striking visual style to its Oscar-worthy performances to its dazzling special effects to its powerful, environmental subtext, this tale of a small, California town enduring the wrath of a vengeful Mother Nature …
Mar
31
This gangster is haunted, literally. KEYHOLE begins with an inversion — a group of criminals have to fight their way past a police barricade into a house — and only gets stranger from there. Turns out their boss Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric), isn’t after any kind of swag, but an exorcism of the past. The …
Mar
28
The newest episode of my short radio series THE INDIE ON DEMAND MOVIE REVIEW takes a look at 4:44 LAST DAY ON EARTH, in which Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh are cast as a New York couple awaiting the end of the world, and director Abel Ferrara — he of such nihilistic exercises as …
Mar
26
Hunger will compel people to some extreme acts: lie; kill; volunteer your child to appear on TODDLERS & TIARAS. Who knew it could also lead to one of the best movies of the year? The highly anticipated THE HUNGER GAMES takes the first book of the popular young adult series — about a dystopic future …
Mar
23
There’s hardly room in multiplexes these days for films about love, and most that do get in are b.s. (unless you’re really into romantic entanglements between moody teen girls and even moodier teen vampires). But even if we were in the middle of a romance glut, THE DEEP BLUE SEA would stand out as an …
Mar
20
Daring to go where no delicious, candy-coated fruit chew has gone before, Skittles is continuing its survey of the pernicious ecosystem that is modern adolescence. In the sponsored video below, they take a look at first infatuation, that inexplicable yet overwhelming desire to be near another, no matter what the cost. Who can blame these …
Mar
09
New Zealand couple Mike Wallis and Inge Rademeyer faced a choice: buy a house together, or use the money to make their first film. Rather than take a gamble on a dodgy proposition with, at best, 50/50 odds, they decided to do the sensible thing and plow their savings into GOOD FOR NOTHING (hey, have …
Feb
28
Sooooo many movies available now through on-demand, but what’s worth watching? Well, the mainstream stuff you know about… it’s crap (okay, not all, but the odds aren’t good). The independent releases that now pop up with increasing frequency on VOD, however, are a different story. Obscure titles with little-to-no media attention, how do you know …
