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The List
Here is a list of movies I've reviewed, with links to the original columns. For your convenience a mini review follows each title. I'll try to keep this up to date.
Alien: Resurrection (1997) French film crew does a better job with the xenomorphs than previous sequel does.
The Beast in the Cellar (1970) "So we did the only humane thing: we locked ( Read more... ) -
The Island (2005)
Its difficult to write a review of The Island without spoilers, since there's a Big Secret kept from the characters, but it falls away before the first act is over. The secret is revealed by Steve Buscemi, who plays the exposition fairy, magically appearing to explain to the main characters and audience exactly what is going on. This helps us all ( Read more... ) -
Inception (2010)
In the world of Inception, the military has developed group dreaming as a way of providing a safe space for soldiers to practice killing each other. (Apparently, video games were never invented in the Inception universe.) Group dreaming has led to corporate espionage, with spies doping VIPs and jumping into their brains to rummage around for ( Read more... ) -
Soylent Screen's first (and probably last) Oscar note!
As of this writing i have only seen two of this years' Academy Awards Best Picture nominations, one of which happens to be Roger Ebert's prediction. If Ebert says The Hurt Locker will win, well who am I to argue with the Cyborg King of Cinema Criticism? My Netflix note for that movie was "Decent war movie, probably deserves 4 out of 5 stars. But ( Read more... ) -
KAW (2007)
Between the unconvincing menace of bird attacks, the story stitched of plot holes, and the evil Mennonites, you'd think there would be a laugh somewhere in this movie. You'd be wrong. Humorlessness is the one sin I won't tolerate in a horror movie. I'll forgive the bad science (Diurnal birds flying at night? Birds contracting mad cow disease ( Read more... ) -
Timecrimes (Los cronocrímenes, 2007)
It may be time to accept that the low budget time travel movie is its own subgenre. Primer, The Sticky Fingers of Time, La Jette, and now the terribly titled Timecrimes, all explore the possibilities and paradoxes of time travel without benefit of Swartzeneggers or DeLoreans. Timecrimes, (Los cronocrímenes) from an award-winning young Spanish ( Read more... ) -
Centipede! (2004)
I like centipedes. Let me just get that out of the way. I know it's aberrant, perhaps even perverted, to have affection for a creature whose very existence makes people crazy with disgust. I think they are cool looking, and I appreciate their interesting place near the base of the arthropod family tree. So I was excited to learn of a horror ( Read more... ) -
Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in, 2008)
Vampires are campy. It's hard to escape, but impossible to argue with. It was probably about five minutes after Bela Lugosi played Dracula when some kid hid behind his sleeve and imitated a Romanian accent and no time at all before everyone around rolled their eyes.
It's the cape, the neck biting, the recoiling from the cross- it all lends itself ( Read more... ) -
Not done reviewing "Let the Right One In"
I'm having a hard time writing a review of "Let the Right One In" without simply insulting all the other vampire movies. Seriously I've devoted three paragraphs already decrying the campiness of hollywood vampire movies to date. I'm out of practice; it's been many weeks since trying to write a review, and I still have a lot of things going on in ( Read more... )
