Shaun of the Dead (2003) Movie Review

Who knew the Brits cared about making anything other than quirky romantic comedies, quirky gangster comedies, and quirky period comedies? Apparently there’s more to the British movie industry than yet another — and yet strangely familiar — romantic comedy starring sometime-john Hugh...

March 24th, 2004 | Read More

Ju-on: The Grudge (2003) Movie Review

Any adventurous moviegoer looking for a good scare will find exactly that in “Ju-on: The Grudge”. And those who say Japanese horror cinema is past its peak will find a harsh rebuke. Well-crafted, stylish, and scary, “Ju-on” manages to frighten with surprisingly little bloodshed....

March 24th, 2004 | Read More

The Wisher (aka Spliced, 2002) Movie Review

If you were going to write a horror movie I’d imagine the first thing is come up with a fairly sympathetic hero (or, as is often the case in today’s horror movies, a sympathetic heroine). Making your heroine an uncompromising irritant with freakish character traits and a propensity for antisocial...

March 22nd, 2004 | Read More

Ju-on: The Curse (2000) Movie Review

Asian horror films are becoming all the rage in the West, especially with the popularity of “The Ring”, “The Eye”, and the “Battle Royale” series. So it goes without saying that “Ju-On” has an awful lot to live up to in terms of audience expectations. The...

March 20th, 2004 | Read More

El Nominado (2003) Movie Review

I’m sorry to say that I can’t give the Chilean movie “El Nominado” (aka “The Nominee”) any points for originality. The “reality TV goes bad” gimmick has been done before, in films like “Series 7″ and “My Little Eye”, as well as showing...

March 19th, 2004 | Read More

Dawn of the Dead (2004) Movie Review

Zack Snyder’s remake of George Romero’s classic “Dawn of the Dead” is a decent piece of big-budget entertainment, and it certainly shows no ambitions of being more than just that. There are a number of things about the film, in particular the screenplay by James Gunn (”The...

March 19th, 2004 | Read More

Dead End (2001) Movie Review

“Dead End”, a French production by French filmmakers with an all-American cast, is all geared toward “getting” the audience with a slick Twist Ending. So, knowing that, your only recourse is to sit through the whole thing trying to piece together the evidence and outguess the...

March 17th, 2004 | Read More

The Uninvited (2003) Movie Review

“The Uninvited”, the latest horror film out of South Korea, opens strong, with interior designer Jung-won (Shin-yang Park) being inexplicably haunted by two dead girls he saw in the subway. Forty minutes later, it’s revealed that a troubled woman name Yun (Ji-hyun Jun) can see the dead...

March 15th, 2004 | Read More

Paradise Villa (2000) Movie Review

A penny pincher who looks like a porn star, a man whose wife may be cheating on him with a fund manager, a woman hawking a water purifier, a nosy old man, a demure piano teacher, and two teenagers filming the going-ons of their apartment building’s tenants to sell on the black market. All this,...

March 14th, 2004 | Read More

Near Death (2003) Movie Review

Sometimes there’s just no reason to make a movie. Consider Joe Castro’s “Near Death”, which despite the slick movie poster, is mostly a pointless endeavor. It’s nothing more than “filmmaking” based on the assumption that supercilious gore and hints of sex (but...

March 11th, 2004 | Read More

Monster Man (2004) Movie Review

The biggest obstacle to really enjoying “Monster Man” is the screenplay, which features two unsympathetic characters as leads. Granted, one shouldn’t expect too much realism in a movie called “Monster Man”, where the villain uses a soup up monster truck as his weapon of...

March 5th, 2004 | Read More

Halloween (1979) Movie Review

I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ve never seen John Carpenter’s “Halloween”. Yes, I admit it. Despite my affinity for Teen Slasher films of all stripes and budgets, I’m sorry to say that I’ve never sat down to watch what many consider to be the seminal work...

February 28th, 2004 | Read More

Acacia (2003) Movie Review

The most entertaining thing about “Acacia” isn’t the movie itself, which is mostly dull, plodding, and not very scary even though it’s billed as a horror film. It’s also not the movie’s Big Reveal, which is so obvious that when all the secrets are revealed, only the...

February 26th, 2004 | Read More

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) Movie Review

The “Tremors” franchise is an acquired taste. The cult following started with the 1990 original starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. The sequel brought back Ward in 1996, but by then Bacon’s star was already too high for a superfluous sequel, which went the route of Cameron’s “Aliens”...

February 20th, 2004 | Read More

Into the Mirror (2003) Movie Review

“Into the Mirror” isn’t very original, and despite all of its visual wizardry, the story is heavily influenced by the Slow Bore Horror conventions popularized by “The Ring”. Depending on how you feel about this particular subgenre, this may be a good or a bad thing. “Into...

February 18th, 2004 | Read More

High Tension (2003) Movie Review

The French Slasher movie “Haute Tension” has been re-titled “Switchblade Romance” for its North American release. Why? I don’t know. I suppose movie execs are talentless hacks rather they are in France or America. Certainly the thought of needlessly renaming a film is something...

February 16th, 2004 | Read More

Visitors (2003) Movie Review

I’ve never been particularly impressed with people who sail around the world on a boat, in a hot air balloon, or fly a plane, by themselves in an effort to set some record. The notion of such “greatness” escapes me, probably because I was raised in an environment that didn’t allow...

February 8th, 2004 | Read More

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004) Movie Review

“Abandon hope all who enters.” This should be the tagline for the “Ginger Snaps” franchise because it fits the films to a “T”. There is almost no hope, no ray of light, not even a sparkle of possibility in any of the two films. And that’s exactly what makes them...

February 7th, 2004 | Read More

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) Movie Review

Marcus Nispel’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was billed as a “re-imagining” (the new Hollywood buzzword for “remake”) of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 low-budget original. And since every reputable and disreputable movie critic has compared the two films side by side,...

February 1st, 2004 | Read More

American Psycho 2: All American Girl (2002) Movie Review

There’s something oddly entertaining about watching serial killer Mila Kunis stalking a college campus and leaving bodies lying nonchalantly everywhere, not unlike a rabid dog marking her passing. Maybe it’s because Kunis (”That 70’s Show”) has one of those squeaky voice...

January 11th, 2004 | Read More