All posts by Brian Holcomb »
The Prestige (2006) Movie Review
There has been a kind of silent rule in classic mystery fiction, from Agatha Christie to John Dickson Carr, that an author must play fair with readers and resolve their stories without resorting to...
Read More »The Departed (2006) Movie Review #2
What makes a good cover song? Different, but not too different. We still need to recognize the melody. Transformed by the cover artist’s own personal style so that the style is illuminated in relief....
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The Grudge 2 (2006) Movie Review
There seems to be a grudge held by the media against director Takashi Shimizu for his “naked greed” in making the same damn film seven times over. It seems that it’s okay for a...
Read More »The Woods (2006) Movie Review
Lucky McKee thanks God for little girls, for without them he would have no muse, no “raison d’être” as Maurice Chevalier might have said. He would also have made no films at all since...
Read More »Spring Break Shark Attack (2005) Movie Review
Read that title aloud. Spring. Break. Shark. Attack. It has a nice alliterative sound, a sleek look, and a “Captain Obvious” clarity only topped by “Snakes on a Plane”. Most movie titles play coy...
Read More »The Black Dahlia (2006) Movie Review
Brian De Palma’s “The Black Dahlia” is quite simply the best movie to have been released so far this year. Ignore all of the cinematic philistines who have brought the collective ax down on...
Read More »Flyboys (2006) Movie Review
The First World War was fought with 20th century technology within a 19th century mindset, and the result of this Molotov cocktail was massive casualties on a scale never before seen or even imagined....
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Forbidden County (2005) Movie Review
“Jackson County Jail” gets a revival in “Forbidden County”, the latest offering from producer David Heavener and “star” Steven Bauer. Heavener is a filmmaker whose website features ecstatic blurbs by the likes of Isaac...
Read More »Bleeding Rose (2006) Movie Review
Producer Val Lewton was the driving force behind a series of innovative B-horror movies for the RKO Studios beginning with “Cat People” in 1942, and ending with “Bedlam” in 1946. He developed a new...
Read More »Lady in the Water (2006) Movie Review
The myth that M. Night Shyamalan is the new Alfred Hitchcock or even the old one is something that the director himself seems eager to cultivate. It reminds me of the publicity sponsored by...
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A Scanner Darkly (2006) Movie Review
It’s odd when you realize that the novels and short stories of Philip K. Dick have been adapted to the screen almost as frequently as that of Stephen King or John Grisham. Odd because,...
Read More »Abominable (2006) Movie Review
it used to be common knowledge that a first time filmmaker required a foolproof genre in order to make his first film, insuring investors on some kind of return on their gamble. The model...
Read More »Bubble (2005) Movie Review
Steven Soderbergh has hopes to eventually cut the studios out altogether through the emancipatory powers of digital technology. In a decidedly post post-modern way, he has remixed the electronic cinema mantra of Francis Ford...
Read More »The Omen (2006) Movie Review
Without going into any lengthy tirade over the whole issue of remakes, I think it’s safe to say that there should at least be an honest reason for remaking an earlier film. One such...
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