By Justin, on June 30th, 2010%
The Ten (imdb)
The Ten feels like a movie time forgot made by a pissed director to fill out his contract, wherein he spends the studio’s money freely to make a sloppy, pieced-together film full of sight gags and in-jokes that make him and his friends laugh but isn’t likely to ever achieve anything other than cult status. Of course, that isn’t the case here, but The State alums Ken Marino and David Wain (both of whom wrote and the latter of whom directed) have delivered a film packed with their friends and former co-stars whose main audience will be comedy nerds . . . → Read More: Movie Review: The Ten
By Justin, on January 10th, 2010%
Tyson (imdb)
I’ve wanted to see Tyson since a trailer first surfaced for it over a year ago, though now having seen it I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed. “Tyson” may seem like a minimal title in an age where it seems like everything needs a subtitle, but it’s very appropriate considering that everything in the documentary comes straight from Mike Tyson himself, with no friends, family, or acquaintances interviewed or even heard from outside of some stock footage. I’m a little confused as to why this was released by Sony Pictures Classics, which is Sony’s prestigious banner usually reserved . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 1/10: Tyson & Behind the Mask
By Justin, on August 17th, 2009%
Identity (imdb)
Identity is enjoyable enough, but you can’t help but feel that it’s the movie equivalent of a mass market paperback by some bestselling mystery/thriller author with a pinch of M. Night Shyamalan thrown in for spice. Perhaps the greatest strength of Identity is that they somehow made John Cusack a somewhat convincing badass, something that has never really happened before, and was made even more difficult after the mopey and vastly overrated High Fidelity. It’s not a great movie by any means, but it’s reasonably entertaining.
Crooks (imdb)
I couldn’t finish this one, but I did manage forty minutes, which is more . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 8/17: Identity, Crooks, Interview, The Deer Hunter, Hitch Hike, Double Game, Head Trauma, & Heavy Traffic
By Justin, on July 11th, 2009%
So I haven’t updated in a few months, and all of these reviews have just been sitting on my hard drive for a few months. Anyway, an update’s an update I guess…
Observe and Report (imdb)
I’ve been a fan of Jody Hill since I first saw The Foot Fist Way, and while TFFW was rough around the edges, it was refreshing to see a film focus on a character that was such a bastard, but a bastard who is just charming and falsely confident enough to remain sympathetic. With Observe and Report, Hill focuses on a head of mall security . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 7/11: Observe & Report, Timecrimes, Dancing Outlaw, Dancing Outlaw II, Gumby Dharma, Joe, Lady Vengeance, & Night of the Hunter
By Justin, on April 7th, 2009%
The Street Fighter (imdb)
First a bit of background on how I saw this: there’s a new screening room in Greenville called West End Movies, where they screen “classics” for $3 a pop, coupled with a cartoon and “topical newsreel”. I got there just as the show was about to start, meaning that unless the info concerning future screenings is what they consider a “topical newsreel”, I missed that part. The cartoon ended up being a machinima made with World of Warcraft characters dancing to the extremely-overdone “Numa Numa Dance”. I have yet to see anything considered machinima that . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 4/7: The Street Fighter, Who Can Kill a Child?, The Midnight Meat Train, Edmond, & Gumby: The Movie
By Justin, on March 29th, 2009%
Rambo: First Blood Part II (imdb)
As far as sequels go in action franchises, Rambo II (as I’ll refer to it for clarity’s sake) is a pretty damn good one. One of the greatest strengths of the First Blood/Rambo series, and all great action movies in general, is that they don’t fuck around with pacing by dragging out unnecessary subplots, love interests, or melodrama. There’s a split-second where you think a romance is about to bud, but a second later it’s cut down in a hail of bullets, serving as a fuel to John Rambo’s raging inferno of vengeance. . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 3/29: Rambo II, Rambo III, The Willies, Cocaine Cowboys, & Puzzlehead
By Justin, on March 21st, 2009%
Cool Air (imdb)
H.P. Lovecraft adaptations aren’t nearly as sparse or deserving of hype as a lot of Lovecraft fans might have you believe, but the good and worthy adaptations are few and far between. There has been quite a resurgence of interest lately thanks mostly to Lurker Films and the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, whose The Call of Cthulhu is both a worthy adaptation and an homage to the silent film era that Lovecraft himself would have been familiar with. Cool Air doesn’t seem to be one of Lovecraft’s better-known works, largely because it doesn’t contain much in the . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 3/21: Cool Air, The Castle of Cagliostro, First Blood, Super Inframan, & The Trials of Henry Kissinger
By Justin, on March 10th, 2009%
Dear Zachary (imdb)
A lot has been written about Dear Zachary, an independent documentary with a slightly unusual means of production, a shocking and heart-wrenching twist, and a bloodied but unbowed finale. Some have said it was snubbed for an Oscar while others claim it’s production values are amateurish and sloppy. I don’t care about Oscars, but even if it is arguably a little rough around the edges in terms of its presentation, the story it tells will hold your attention right to the credits and will probably elicit an emotional response. It’s hard to know what to say . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 3/10: Dear Zachary, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Don’t Go In the House, Baraka, The Road Warrior, Basket Case, The Planet of the Apes, & Beneath the Planet of the Apes
By Justin, on February 26th, 2009%
It’s been a while, so there are more reviews than usual this time around. I also rewatched High Noon and Akira (Blu-ray), but I didn’t write reviews for those. Anyway…
The Invincible Armour (imdb)
One of the better overlooked kung-fu films of the late 70′s, Invincible Armour stands out for several reasons, not the least of which is its inclusion of not one, but two of the stock evil white-haired baddies. The fights are frequent, over-the-top, and imaginative as fight scenes in a movie like this need to be. The movie’s main fault lies in a story that’s a . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 2/26: Invincible Armour, The One-Armed Swordsman, Opium & the Kung Fu Master, Deep Red, Religulous, & Visitor Q
By Justin, on February 7th, 2009%
Singapore Sling (imdb)
This is definitely the strangest movie I’ve seen so far this year. It reminded me a bit of Guy Maddin’s Tales From the Gimli Hospital, and while both are highly unique, seemingly-nonsensical surreal black and white allegories for something or other, neither makes for a very interesting film if narrative is what you’re after. A detective searching for a lost love ends up in the grasp of a very twisted mother and daughter who take him in, torture him, and subject him to a lot of gross shit and dry-humping. The mother and daughter often address . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 2/7: Singapore Sling & Dead & Buried
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