The biggest fault I can find with horror films is that their premises all too often fail to sustain themselves. For instance, I felt Poltergeist was super scary until we learn that the haunted house was built on top of an […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Men in Black 3 (2012) ☆ ☆ ☆
I’ve enjoyed the two comedic Men in Black adventures, but I don’t love them. I think that the intrinsic “bigger picture” dramatic value of having a semi-secret government agency protecting Earth from crazy aliens is sacrificed in each movie by focusing […]
Continue reading »The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) ☆ ☆ ☆
Several elderly Britishers react to their unhappy circumstances with a life-changing decision to move to India once they see an ad for a pretty retirement home, known as the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful. When they […]
Continue reading »Battleship (2012) ☆ ☆
I’ll admit that I’ve not been a fan of bringing board games to cinematic life, but I was actually looking forward to seeing how Hasbro’s game “Battleship” would morph into an alien invasion movie. Sadly, the board game is still […]
Continue reading »The Lucky One (2012) ☆ ☆ 1/2
It isn’t easy to make a realistic movie about relationships that ventures from the battlefields of Iraq to the bayou country of Louisiana, tells a romantic story with powerful sexual tension and yet is only rated PG-13. The Lucky One suffers […]
Continue reading »Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Not to be confused with the classic British television series, or the abominable American movie re-imagining of the classic British television series, Marvel’s The Avengers is intended to be the greatest superhero movie of all, chiefly because it brings together no less […]
Continue reading »Monsieur Lazhar (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
This perceptive, engaging French Canadian film explores the ways in which a school tragedy affects its students and teachers (but not, interestingly, the parents). After a popular teacher hangs herself in an empty classroom, a small Montreal public school is […]
Continue reading »The Raven (2012) ✰ ✰
The premise for The Raven — that a madman utilizes the works of Edgar Allan Poe as inspiration to unleash a wave of murder in Baltimore, ultimately pulling Poe himself into the investigation — is clever and intriguing, especially for Poeists. […]
Continue reading »The Cabin in the Woods (2012) ✰ ✰ ✰
In the wake of Halloween and Friday the 13th, there have been a great many horror flicks that use secluded spots in the woods for their kill zones, from The Burning and Mother’s Day to Wrong Turn and Camp Slaughter. The woods are cheap […]
Continue reading »The Raid: Redemption (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
While I have never been a big fan of martial arts movies — especially after having watched a slew of them in the early 1980s — I have to admit that Gareth Evans’ Indonesian apartment slaughterhouse The Raid: Redemption is quite […]
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