>> Zack and Miri Make a Porno (7/10)

Kevin Smith, the filmmaker, brings out conflicting feelings in me.  Kevin Smith, the personality, I’m perfectly fine with.  He can talk all he wants, and I’ll listen; sometimes, I might even buy his merch,  But Kevin Smith, the writer/director?  Man, I just don’t know about that guy.  How many movies does this guy have to [...]

>> The Haunting of Molly Hartley (4/10)

Oh, The Haunting of Molly Hartley, you didn’t seem like a really bad movie, until you went and tried to be all twisty and turny.  You did seem like a made-for-TV thriller designed to appeal to young teen girls, but you didn’t really suck, until, well, you started sucking.  Then, when you did start sucking, [...]

>> My Name Is Bruce (5/10)

A month or so ago, I saw the film JCVD, a meta-fictonal crime drama starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as himself.  Van Damme, once a bonafide worldwide superstar, lays his soul bare in the film, causing me to re-evaluate Van Damme’s worth as a performer, and serving as a strong reminder of just exactly why he [...]

>> Trick or Treat? The Top 7 British Horror Anthology Films

Number Seven:  The Monster Club (1980)

Directed by Roy Ward Baker.  Starring Vincent Price, John Carradine, Donald Pleasance, Britt Ekland, Richard Johnson, Patrick Magee.
The Framing Device: Writer R. Chetwynd-Hayes (Carradine) is attacked by the vampire Eramus (Price, the only time he ever played a vampire on film) in a back alley, but it turns out Eramus [...]

>> W. (7.5/10)

I don’t think anyone expected W. to be a thematic companion piece to Oliver Stone’s Alexander, but, yeah, here it is–the story of one man’s struggle to escape his daddy’s shadow.  W. is a drama about what it means to be a Bush, not quite the severe political autopsy we were all expecting from someone [...]

>> Quarantine (6.5/10)

For some of you, Quarantine’s final half-hour is going to work so well that you’ll be telling your friends it’s one of the scariest movies you’ve seen in ages.  I wish I was you; I honestly do.  I just couldn’t really get into it; not in a way that put me on the edge of [...]

>> Eagle Eye (4/10)

It looks like a good movie.  It’s got the sheen of a polished, expensive Hollywood techno-thriller, complete with movie stars, and Steven Spielberg’s name up there in the opening credits.  Make no mistake, however, when I tell you that Eagle Eye is dumber than dumb; an exercise in the ludicrous that asks us to believe [...]

>> Fantastic Fest 2008: The Rest of the Fest

This is my last bit of writing about this year’s Fantastic Fest, I promise.  Just believe me when I say that the week of the fest is the best single week of the entire year, and, with the Alamo Drafthouse’s new ticketing policy, it was a more social fest than ever before.  Instead of waiting [...]

>> Fantastic Fest Closing Night Film: City of Ember

For roughly forty minutes of running time, City of Ember looks to be the film that succeeds where the other potential kids’ fantasy franchises have failed.  Right out of the gate, City of Ember shows a maturity of filmmaking not wholly evident in The Golden Compass, Eragon, The Seeker, or a host of other contenders [...]