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Ghost System (2002) Movie Review
Although it clocks in at just a shade over 70 minutes, writer/director Toshikazu Nagae’s “Ghost System” really has no business being a feature-length film. Or, in this case, a pseudo feature-length film. Aside from
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Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2004) Movie Review
The good news is that Quentin Tarantino is back after 7 years. And apparently he took the lengthy hiatus post-”Jackie Brown” to learn how to stage and shoot action scenes like a pro, and
Read More »Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2004) Movie Review
Billed as the final installment in writer/director Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi trilogy, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” takes guitar-slinging, gun-toting, drug dealer-killing musician El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) back to Mexico, where he has
Read More »Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers – Producer’s Cut (1996) Movie Review
“Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers” is an example of how even a film budgeted at $2 million can experience the same problem as a big budget feature. Title changes, frustrated cast members,
Read More »Whispering Corridors 3: Wishing Stairs (2003) Movie Review
I suppose the producers of the “Whispering Corridors” series figured it was too late to do anything different with the franchise now that they were at part 3. Which may explain why 2003′s ”
Read More »Wishcraft (2002) Movie Review
It used to be that I could watch 100 Direct-to-Video movies in a row and not find a single good one in the bunch. At least not good enough to ever get over the
Read More »Dragon Fighter (2002) Movie Review
You can’t really say that Dean Cain, the star of “Dragon Fighter”, has fallen on hard times by appearing in this Made-for-TV film because, in truth, he never achieved much beyond the status of
Read More »Whispering Corridors (1998) Movie Review
If South Korean movies set in high school have thought me anything, it’s not to go to high school in South Korea! If the teachers aren’t beating the living hell out of you on
Read More »Time Quest (2003) Movie Review
Robert Dyke’s “Time Quest” is one of those movies that really had the potential to be something special. But alas, the film’s second half is a combination of silly happenstance and, in the last
Read More »Underworld (2003) Movie Review
Post-”Blade” (and its even more influential sequel) vampire movies have gone the way of Asian horror films. Despite all the innovations of the genre up to this point, every film about vampires have been
Read More »Cube Zero (2004) Movie Review
Ah, the boot. A cube prisoner’s best friend. Aside from the vast usefulness of something so minor, “Cube Zero” offers up your usual crop of bickering characters, a strong female lead, a psycho waiting
Read More »Machines of Love and Hate (2003) Movie Review
A big problem with the current crop of low-budget filmmakers (and we’re not talking about those faux “low-budget” films ala Miramax here) is that they usually come in only two forms: fans of simplistic
Read More »Warriors of Heaven and Earth (2003) Movie Review
If John Wayne was still alive and making movies about the divine might of the U.S. of A., he would probably make something like Ping He’s “Warriors of Heaven and Earth”, which is, in
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Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King (2003) Movie Review
While Peter Jackson’s “The Return of the King” is certainly a marvel of moviemaking, it lacks the newness of “The Fellowship of the Rings” and the proper narrative structure (and flow) of “The Two
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Godzilla X MechaGodzilla aka Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (2002) Movie Review
Godzilla may have turned 49, but he shows no sign of slowing down. In the initial part of a planned trilogy, he battles an enemy very familiar to fans of the kaiju genre. An
Read More »Xanda (2003) Movie Review
“South Park” once did an episode where they made fun of Sports Movie cliché, including the biggest clich’ of the genre, the inevitable Big Game (or Big Fight or Big Race, etc.). The second
Read More »Cabin Fever (2003) Movie Review
As was the case with Rob Schmidt’s “Wrong Turn”, you must have an easy familiarity with Teen Slasher movies in order to fully appreciate what Eli Roth’s “Cabin Fever” does right, because the movie
Read More »Infernal Affairs 3 (2004) Movie Review
2002′s “Infernal Affairs” was, in many ways, a seminal work in Hong Kong cinema. Not only did the film come out during a period when the industry was mired in bubbly nonsensical comedies starring
Read More »Ghost Rock (2003) Movie Review
“Ghost Rock’s” biggest failing is that it never allows the audience to believe, for even a single second, that it’s an actual western. The music, the martial arts, the poor sound foley, and even
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Three Seasons (1999) Movie Review
It may shock most Americans to realize that, despite their insistence on holding onto the memories of the Vietnam War, that the Vietnamese people has since left that part of their past behind. Or
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