The Suicide Manual (2003) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Erick Kwon) The origins of director Osamu Fukutani’s “The Suicide Manual” may be more compelling than the feature itself. It was derived from Wataru Tsurumui’s non-fiction book “The Complete Manual of Suicide,” a bestseller that’s moved over...

July 31st, 2005 | Read More

The Young Unknowns (2000) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Oshram ) If there’s one thing Hollywood loves, it’s when young filmmakers bitch on-screen about how horrible it is to work in Hollywood. My friend Steve had a phrase for this type of film — he called it “Hollywood crawling up its own asshole” — and...

July 26th, 2005 | Read More

Two Men Went to War (2002) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Oshram ) The premise of “Two Men Went to War” is something only the English could dream up: two men, Private Cuthbertson (Leo Bill) and Sergeant King (Kenneth Cranham, who looks disturbingly like Leo McKern on the box) are serving in a platoon of dentists in Britain’s...

July 22nd, 2005 | Read More

Womb Raider (2002) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Donnie Saxton) About halfway through “Womb Raider,” an unambitious, uber erotic spoof of 2001’s “Tomb Raider,” the star character (Cara Loft) summons a great deal of conviction and curtly says to her assistant, “Dillon, find the mud pit.” Anyone...

July 20th, 2005 | Read More

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Erick Kwon) The last five years have seen the “Godzilla” continuity “re-imagined” no less than four times. While this likely resulted in much hair pulling and teeth gnashing on the part of the more obsessive, “Trekkie”-ish Godzilla fans, it’s...

July 17th, 2005 | Read More

Shaye and Kiki (2005) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Donnie Saxton) Most of the time spent watching “Shaye and Kiki,” the first DVD release from Indican Pictures, will be spent with a furrowed brow. Writer/director Eric Fournier and co-conspirator Shaye Saint John have assembled a benchmark for the bizarre that will leave most...

July 9th, 2005 | Read More

Voices of a Distant Star (2003) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Erick Kwon) “Voices of a Distant Star” is a movie unique in a number of ways, starting with its creation. You don’t think of animation as a one-man operation, but writer/director Makoto Shinkai created his short film almost exclusively on a Mac G4 computer using mostly...

June 11th, 2005 | Read More

Steamboy (2004) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Erick Kwon) It’s Manchester, England, and the year is 1866, sometime during the Industrial Revolution. Our hero, mechanical whiz kid Ray Steam, toils as a mechanic at the local textile plant, when one day a package arrives from Ray’s grandfather, Lloyd. Inside is a mysterious...

June 2nd, 2005 | Read More

The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Shari ) Well, Earth is destroyed, but luckily guy-next-door Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) is best friends with an alien named Ford Prefect (Mos Def, “The Woodsman”), who saves Arthur’s life by thumbing a lift on the ginormous spaceship which has just played a rather...

May 23rd, 2005 | Read More

3 Steps to Heaven (1995) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Donnie Saxton) “3 Steps to Heaven” is a British crime drama about a female protagonist named Suzanne (Katrin Cartlidge) who takes it upon herself to solve the mysterious death of her boyfriend. Originally a TV movie, the story is derivative of many superior films where the...

May 20th, 2005 | Read More

Crash (2005) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Oshram ) I knew very little about “Crash” going in; actually, it wasn’t even my idea to go, but a friend talked about seeing it, and I was torn apathetically between the new tepid-looking Jet Li film and the new, fairly unappealing LL Cool J film. Since I couldn’t...

May 18th, 2005 | Read More

Close Your Eyes aka Doctor Sleep (2002) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Donnie Saxton) “Close Your Eyes” is a British paranormal thriller directed by Nick Willing and based on the novel “Dr. Sleep” by Madison Smartt Bell. Though unread by me, judging by the film, “Dr. Sleep” appears to be of the Dan Brown progeny (or perhaps...

April 27th, 2005 | Read More

Glenville: Hell’s Homecoming (2005) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Oshram ) Having worked on a few no-budget movies in my time, I’m keenly aware of how much effort goes into getting them made. For most filmmakers, this kind of film is a labor of love (and often a maxing out of one’s credit cards), and they know going in that they’re...

April 18th, 2005 | Read More

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (2003) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Donnie Saxton) Somewhat disturbingly, I can easily imagine Clive Owen (”Sin City”) in 1971 practicing his chilling stare in an English sandbox while taking some poor toddler’s lunch money. That same year, Mike Hodges released his benchmark revenge thriller “Get...

April 4th, 2005 | Read More

The Life aka Yo Puta aka Whore (2004) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Donnie Saxton) One of the most confusing things about “The Life,” a film fraught with confusion, is what to call it. Upon theatrical release it was called “Yo Puta,” presumably because the film is based on a novel of the same name. Between then and the recent...

March 9th, 2005 | Read More

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Oshram ) It’s always difficult to put a stamp on any film as being ‘the best,’ whether of all time, a certain genre, or what have you, but I believe a strong argument could be made that “Laputa: Castle in the Sky” is, in fact, the greatest animated film...

March 2nd, 2005 | Read More

Evil Dead Trap 2 (1991) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Erick Kwon) Shy and sullen Aki Otami (Shoko Nakajima) is a projectionist at a fleabag theatre in a rundown and seedy section of town, where she’s haunted by fleeting visions of a small boy whom she spots in various places around the building, though no one else seems to notice...

January 24th, 2005 | Read More

Black Christmas (1974) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Donnie Saxton) About 90 minutes into “Black Christmas”, my mind began to wander to Steve McQueen spinning his tires in the classic car chase scene from 1968’s “Bullitt.” In ‘68, that particular scene was virtuoso — a defining scene spawning hundreds...

January 13th, 2005 | Read More

Biohazardous (2001) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Jerry White) Make no mistake about it: “Biohazardous” is a bad movie. Luckily, it’s a good bad movie. Filmed entirely in my home state of New Jersey, “Biohazardous” is an old-fashioned, unpretentious, zero budget zombie flick. The acting is terrible, the...

January 9th, 2005 | Read More

Sideways (2004) Movie Review

(Movie Review by Donnie Saxton) “Sideways” is the fourth film from writer/director Alexander Payne, who made his feature-film debut with 1996’s “Citizen Ruth”, and followed it up with “Election” in 1999 and the Jack Nicholson starrer “About Schmidt”...

January 3rd, 2005 | Read More