Horns Book vs Movie for Ravenous Monster

As a very big fan of Joe Hill’s sophomore novel Horns, I was awaiting Alexandre Aja’s film adaptation with much anticipation. Piranha and Haute Tension are great movies, showing a diversity of ability.  Even his weaker efforts such asMirrors and The Hills Have Eyes remake are never dull, and his direction is always exciting and unique.

Horns follows Ignatius (Ig) Perrish after he wakes up hung over after desecrating the memorial placed where his ex-girlfriend, Merrin, was raped and murdered one year ago. He was never tried for her death, but nearly everyone in town believes Ig’s guilty of the crime.  The physical discomfort of his hangover is compounded by the horns now emerging from his forehead.  Ig soon makes a startling discovery, no one truly notices the horns, yet they now feel compelled to burden Ig with their most horrible thoughts when they see him...Click over to Ravenous Monster for the full piece.

Sin City A Dame to Kill For Review

Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez return to Basin City after nine years to bring summer audiences A Dame to Kill For.  This film is mostly a prequel to the last flick and contains  two original Sin City tales.  Stories fans will already know are  A Dame to Kill For and the short Silent Night.  Co-Directors Miller and Rodriguez get most of their original cast to return, with a few exceptions.  Dwight is now played by Josh Brolin. (though it had to be a different actor for the plot) Michael Clarke Duncan's replacement for Manute  however is the most noticeable.  While  Dennis Haysbert does an admirable job, he lacks the physical presence that Duncan brought, and this hurts his character's credibility.  Devon Akoi is replaced by Jamie Chung for Miho and Chung has the screen presence to pull of the role.

A Dame to Kill For is a worthy sequel, though it lacks the excitement of the first, simply because this has been done before.  Long time fans will be pleased with the translation of the Dame to Kill For story with both Brolin and Eva Green turning in perfect performances, expertly balancing the tongue in cheek elements with genuine emotion.  Mickey Rourke's second turn as Marv is just as good as the first and continues bringing this cult favorite to the screen.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt again proves he can handle a pretty tough  role well.  The film's standout is Powers Boothe as Senator Rourke.  His maniacal speeches are performed with inflections that bring the heavy villain to life.  He is the man you love to hate.  

Both of the new stories are strong, and the Joseph Gordon-Levitt yarn was the most surprising.  The continuation of Jessica Alba's Nancy was a let down from what I was hoping for.  First and foremost there are multiple dancing sequences that stop the plot dead and provide the director's a chance to have the camera zoom uncomfortably close to Alba's crotch.  They are also distracting as stripping sequences where she does not remove any of her clothing.  Alba obviously is uncomfortable with onscreen nudity, but the directors could have worked around this in many different ways.  It is even more noticeable as both Brolin and Green spend large chunks of their story completely nude.  The bulk of her tale is also merely voice-over and dancing sequences.  I was eagerly awaiting to the the physically scarred Nancy from the trailers, which makes up a minority of the film.  Having her haunted by Hartigan is both a cool way to bring the character back to the screen and handled well.  The sequences also add well the the surreal feel of the film.

If you liked the original Sin City flick, you'll probably enjoy this film.  It is stylistic perfection with strong performances from most of the cast.  While the excitement of the first has definitively worn off, I would recommend you returning to Sin City one last time.

Gritty Little Thriller...Basic Instinct

Paul Verhoeven is a much maligned director, in great part due to the train wreck that was Show Girls.  While that movie was utter shit, it shouldn't result in Verhoeven's body of work being discounted.  This is the man behind such undisputed classics as Robocop and Total Recall.  In my mind though Basic Instinct is his masterpiece and over 20 years later its easy to see why. 

Erotic Thrillers as a sub genre get more shit than they deserve.  And while there are scores of late night cable skin flicks that create this image, it shouldn't discount the solid entries the genre has produced.  If you look beyond the nudity, the essence of the erotic thriller is film noir.  The basic template of the genre comes from the nearly flawless 1950 Bogart flick in a Lonely Place.  I say nearly flawless because no film ever needed to adress the sexual relationship between the two leads more.  Instead their is a hokey scene and a subtle implication Bogart spent the night.

Catherine Tramell is the greatest femme fatal ever.  While some may look at Stone's performance as hoeky now, it only comes off that way because it has been imitated ad nauseam.  Tramell is sexy, smart and dangerous.  One of the greatest keys to this is that it is NEVER clear she is the killer.  While some see the infamous leg crossing scene as gratuitous nudity, it is a plot point, and a clever one at that.    Michael Douglas' Nick Curran is another great archetype from the pulp error.  Smart, reckless yet with a very clear personal code of conduct.   

Paul Verhoeven's direction is top notch, owing much to Hitchcok.  While some may whine about the sexuality on display, and as puriant as it is, the sex scenes in the film are also about suspense and character development.  Nick and Catherine's big scene was nearly shot for shot like the opening murder, and Nick's rape of Jeanne Tripplehorn's Beth Garner shows both his repressed darkness, and implies a great deal about who she is.  

When Paul Verhoeven submitted the film for a rating it was awarded an NC-17 and among a list of cuts, two major trims took place that I think bare a special look at.  The first was an orgasm from the female murder in the opening.  The second and most telling was the cunilingus between Nick and Catherine.  In the theatrical version she goes down on him with reciprocating.  Jerry Goldsmith's score also deserves a little extra recognition, with a great theme that haunts the images onscreen.  

Basic Instinct represents the pinnacle of big screen erotic thrillers, and the film had an incredible impact that can be felt to this day, think of nearly ever drama on Premium cable for starters.  

With a big screen version of 50 Shades of Gray on the way, I'd like to look back to 1992, when a blockbuster could have a sexually dominant woman in the lead.  

James Dorr reviews Dracula: Entre L’Amour et La Mort

Dracula in French?  And Canadian French to boot?  And with songs!  Yes, all that and more is available to those who enjoy a delightful shiver on seeing a bat’s silhouette on the moon, while nights are chill and days may bring more freezing rain or snow.  And it’s on DVD, “inspiré du roman de Bram Stoker, le spectacle musical Dracula:  Entre L’Amour et La Mort.”  Yes, the musical version of Dracula -- in French.  Actually produced in Quebec where it ran from January 13 to December 16 2006 (with the DVD version filmed in November that year according to the credits, although the DVD itself didn’t come out until 2008), it has since been performed as well in France and elsewhere.  Translated as “Dracula:  Between Love and Death,” it was created by Bruno Pelletier (who also plays the part of Dracula) with music by Simon Leclerc and lyrics by  Roger Tabra.

But there is a down side, it’s only available in French (and québécois to boot, as well as a few lines in Ukrainian) with -- at least in the only version of it I’ve been able to find -- no English subtitles, and as for me the title is about as far as my language skills are going take me.  So what I’ll offer here may be not so much a review as an outline of differences between it and the plot of Bram Stoker’s novel, so one can follow it just enjoying the stagecraft and music.  And I will say that, even without a translation, the music is great, the dancing and acting, the costumes and settings all great too.  For me at least -- but then I like things like les trois vampiresses (a.k.a., in the movies, the “Brides of Dracula”) done up BDSM style with Medusa-like headdresses!

Also the plot should be sufficiently familiar that it can be followed well enough without really knowing the words.  There are some variations from Stoker, though, to be aware of (the large puppet-creature that starts it off, by the way, is not a character per se but rather a sort of announcer-commentator).  It follows the conceit of, for example, Francis Ford Coppola’s movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula in seeing the vampire as a Vlad Tepes extension whose wife has been lost and who discovers, 500 years later, Mina Murray as a kind of soul-descendant, thus setting up a major conflict as being between Dracula and Mina’s husband-to-be Jonathan Harker; Lucy in this version is Van Helsing’s daughter (Van Helsing, seen as very religious, has tried to keep her from the evils of the world, but she rebels with results that are not good); Renfield as a drug addict plays a more modern sort of madman; other parts are thus eliminated but the three vampire women have their roles expanded to almost an equivalent of the three Fates, at some moments standing in in a way as a kind of Greek chorus.  So one part is literal, a telling of a variant of the original novel in music, but another level is allegorical taking in the larger themes of good and evil, weakness and strength, love and pain and death, and ultimately redemption.  And it is ultimately Mina who must choose, whereas the original “Elhemina,” as the warlord Dracula’s promised bride, is the one who was cursed from the beginning and so had “turned” him.

And then there’s one thing more.  While I haven’t been able yet to find a subtitled version, I have found a blog in which much of the libretto has been translated to English on a song by song basis, though not necessarily in production order.  So for die-hards like me, one can copy the songs out (with a warning that, even as of now, it may still not be entirely complete), re-shuffle them as needed into act and scene order, and watch the show with lyrics in hand to glance at as one will.  And so I’ve provided a link below. 

However I will recommend for a first look, especially as Valentine’s Day approaches with appropriate spirituous refreshments on hand (or even if not -- hot dark chocolate is nice with whipped cream and optional sprinkles on top, and mulled cider is excellent, spiked or otherwise), don’t worry about the actual words.  You know the story.  So just sit back with a special friend, relax, and enjoy.        

http://www.allthelyrics.com/forum/french-lyrics-translation/73573-dracula-entre-lamour-et-mort-all-tracks-and-tracklist.html

James Dorr is a short story writer and poet working largely in horror and dark fantasy with occasional forays into mystery and science fiction.  His latest collection, THE TEARS OF ISIS, was released by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing in May 2013, joining two earlier collections from Dark Regions Press, STRANGE MISTRESSES: TALES OF WONDER AND ROMANCE and DARKER LOVES: TALES OF MYSTERY AND REGRET, as well as his all-poetry, all-vampire VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE) from Sam’s Dot/White Cat. His own cat, Wednesday (for Wednesday Addams of the TV show THE ADDAMS FAMILY), is more a dark gray herself and spends her days (when she’s not asleep) slinking about Dorr’s fairly extensive DVD and VHS collection. 

More on Dorr can be found on his blog at http://jamesdorrwriter.wordpress.com .

Machete Maidens Unleashed!

Writer Director Mark Hartley is back after his debut of Not Quite Hollywood about the grindhouse flicks shot in Australia with one about the B features shot in The Philippines.

Edited with the same fast energy and filled with clip highlights from numerous films, Machete Maidens Unleashed is a fascinating and entertaining look at predominantly 70's grindhouse filmmaking, mostly for Roger Corman's New World Studios, covering the rise and fall of this particular shooting location.

Hartley has collected many interviews from directors, actors, producers and King Corman himself as they tell an interesting tale of low budget film production.  As a fan of B flicks I have to admit so many are crap except for a scene or two, and it is awesome to have essentially a highlight reel of 30 years worth of cheesy greatness.  Aside from the cool on-set stories from all those involved is an interesting concept that a few of the actresses bring up.  While they admit that the were used to titillate as their tops were constantly being torn off, they point out that these were the only pictures with tough female leads who rescued themselves at the time.  Taking it one step further some of these female leads were also racial minorities in roles that could have been played by an actress of any race.

I ask this as a follow up; When these women had their shirts ripped in fight scenes, should we not look at them like any other action hero Stallone, Arnold or Van Damme who constantly loose their shirts while killing truck loads of extras?

...But anyway , if you're a sucker for B Flicks like I am you can't go wrong with Machete Maidens Unleashed!

Currently Available on Netflix instant streaming.  

Never Sleep Again Review

Are you up for a four hour documentary on the entire Nightmare On Elm Street film and Television Franchise(but skips the new remake)?  I'm a luke warm fan of the franchise and found it riveting, though I did watch it over four separate days.

This is a warts and all documentary with a great number of players saying very negative things about  various installments, and even directors stating they out right failed in what they attempted.  One of the coolest pieces to me was that got Craig Spector to talk about his trashed Nightmare Five script, and it sounded awesome.

Every director and nearly every cast member and  was interviewed for this project, and each brought some cool insights to their respective projects, one tidbit I really appreciated, because it really bugged me was the screen play for Freddy vs Jason did not have Kelly Rowland calling Freddy a faggot(For me this turned it from a dumb fun movie into something else).  In fact that guy wrote a totally different monologue for her that tied the two franchises together, and was totally scrapped.  

This is without a doubt one of the most thorough but never dull franchise documentaries I have ever seen.

The Lords of Salem written and directed by Rob Zombie came and went from select theatres in the blink of an eye, never coming close to a major release.  I caught up with it after being dumped to DVD/Blu-Ray with little marketing and the sole feature being an audio commentary by Zombie.  I follow horror stuff pretty closely and even I missed it for a month.  Click either image for the Full Review at Ravenous Monster...

Wayne C. Rogers Reviews Bag of Bones

Bag of Bones

Sony Pictures

Based on the novel by Stephen King

Directed by Mick Garris

Starring Pierce Brosnan, Annabeth Gish and Melissa George

Review by Wayne C. Rogers

The mini-series, Bag of Bones, is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.  Surprisingly, it took the director, Mick Garris, five long years to get the financial backing needed to make this adaptation.  The project first started out with the intent of being a feature film, and then over time, the script was rewritten for the small screen.  Thank goodness A&E was willing to fund this project, or it wouldn’t have happened. 

Now, I’ve been a big fan of Pierce Brosnan since his Remington Steele days on television.  There’s no doubt in my mind he was the perfect choice for the role of Mike Noonan in Bag of Bones.  I’ve seen the strong, dramatic acting that this man is capable of doing in other films and knew he could handle the performance without any question.  The fact is Mr. Brosnan has simply gotten better with age. 

Was Mick Garris able to pull off the adaptation from novel to television?

Yes, he was.

Unlike the previous television networks, A&E gave the director pretty much all the freedom he needed to make this mini-series a success.  True he had a small budget and a tight shooting schedule, but he got the absolute most out of every dollar spent and each day on the set.  The quality of the cinematography and production design is certainly much better than in Desperation.  There’s also a touch of class with this production that clearly shines through.  Like Pierce with acting, Mr. Garris is simply getting better as a director with age.

Now, what viewers need to understand is that Bag of Bones is not a horror novel, though there are elements of the supernatural in the story.  Stephen King wanted to write one great book before he turned fifty and Bag of Bones was what he created.  It’s the same with the television movie.  Though there are strong elements of the supernatural in the mini-series, it’s not really a horror movie. 

The TV movie centers around successful Maine author, Mike Noonan (played by Pierce Brosnan), who experiences a mind-numbing tragedy when his wife, Jo, is unexpectedly struck by a bus while he’s autographing novels across the street in a bookstore.  Annabeth Gish (I remember her in the television series, Flash Forward) plays his lovely wife.  The movie has to establish rather quickly just how much the two of them are in love with each other, and I think it succeeds.  You could see these two people together, enjoying their lives with each other.  That makes the death of Jo more shocking and disturbing for those who haven’t read the novel.

 Pierce Brosnan performed a magnificent scene when he found his wife lying in the street dead.  Anyone who has ever lost a loved one will see the grief etched on his face as clearly as day.  I don’t think he was acting here, but rather displaying the actual grief he’d felt when losing his first wife to cancer.  I mean the scene made me cry.  I knew what he was going through, and I believe that’s when I truly bonded with the character.    

The plot point that propels the story forward, however, is when Mike Noonan discovers his dead wife was pregnant.  Since Mike couldn’t have children because of a low sperm count, he begins to suspect Jo of having had an affair with someone.  Jo had also been spending a lot of time at their summer house on Dark Score Lake.  Over a period of time, Mike begins to wonder if that’s where her lover lives and decides to visit the place for an extended period.  The time frame was much longer in the novel.  I think it was a couple of years.  It’s also important to note that since Mike was a fast writer, he had several novels stashed away in a safety deposit box in the novel version.  In the movie, however, he only had one old trunk novel that he gives to his agent and publisher to keep them happy while he’s unable to write.

Once Mike arrives at his house on a lake, he soon finds himself involved with a young lady and her daughter (Mattie & Kyra Devore played respectively by Melissa George and Caitlin Carmichael).  Mike manages to save Kyra’s life by pulling her out of the highway before she can be hit by a car.  After he does this, he quickly finds out that Kyra’s grandfather is Max Devore, the most powerful man in the region.  Max is attempting to get custody of Kyra by claiming Mattie is an unfit mother. 

Since Mike Noonan has problems of his own to deal with, he really doesn’t want to get involved in Mattie’s situation.  Things, unfortunately, don’t work out as he desires.  When old-man, Max Devore (played by William Schallert—no, not Captain Kirk) pressures him to testify in front of a paid-off court official about the traffic incident, Mike takes Mattie’s side to piss the man off.  Of course that makes an enemy of Mr. Devore and his female assistant, Rogette Whitmore (played by Deborah Grover).  The assistant seems to be even more evil than the old man.

While all of this outside stuff is going on, Mike is experiencing supernatural events at his house on the lake.  He knows his wife is there with him, but there’s also another spirit, Sarah Tidwell, who wants him to seek revenge for her death.

In time, Mike discovers that Tidwell (played by the lovely and talented Anika Noni Rose) was murdered in 1939.  That’s when all hell begins to break loose and Noonan finds out things about his own family’s past and how it ties into the singer’s death and Max Devore’s unusual family tree.

As I said earlier, Bag of Bones isn’t a scary novel and neither is the movie.  Director Mick Garris throws in some supernatural aspects regarding Mike Noonan’s dreams about his wife and Sarah Tidwell, the spirits in his summer house and how they often communicate with him by ringing a bell that’s hanging from a moose’s head over the fireplace.  There’s also a very strange looking tree near the lake that’s shaped like a woman’s body and offers a jolt or two in the show.  In many ways, the novel and mini-series are actually about Mike Noonan coming to grips with his own grief over the death of his wife, the past that catches up to him by the end of the movie, and how his family inadvertently brought on some of the tragedy he experiences.  In the book, he falls in love with Mattie Devore, but not so in the movie.  She’s simply a piece of the bizarre puzzle that deals with Sarah Tidwell.

I feel that Mick Garris did a fantastic job on condensing a long novel into a two part mini-series, not to mention the great cinematography and set decoration in Nova Scotia that makes it look like Maine.  I thought most of acting was top notch, especially with regards to Pierce Brosnan, who had to carry most of the film on his shoulders.  I have to admit that Deborah Grover as Rogette Whitman gets the trophy for the creepiest performance.  Whenever she was in a scene, she pretty much stole it from the rest of the actors with her strangeness.  She needs to play in more horror movies.

One last thing I enjoyed was Matt Frewer performing as Mike Noonan’s brother.  I kept thinking I knew Matt from somewhere.  It turns out he played the Trashcan Man in The Stand mini-series.  During that series, he shot a scene in the old Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas, where I was working at the time.  This is a very talented actor who needs more roles offered to him. 

There isn’t much in the way of extras, other than some deleted scenes.  Still, the DVD is perfect for the Stephen King collector who wants to have all of the author’s movies on disc.   

Wayne C. Rogers is a Las Vegas casino employee who has been writing professionally (with the intent to sell) for twenty-five years. It's only been within the past three years that Mr. Rogers (no, not the famous TV host of programs for children) made the decision to work towards being a full-time writer of horror, suspense, psychological, and erotic horror fiction.

He has written several novellas (three of which are posted on Amazon's Kindle), dozens of short stories (some of which are also on Amazon), an erotic/horror novel--The House of Blood--for the wild crowd that lives on the kinky side of reality, and five completed screenplays based on his stories The Encounter, The Tunnels, A Step in the Shadows, Trick or Treat, and The Garbage Disposal (the last three are short screenplays). He is currently at work on a sixth screenplay, The Code of Honor, as well as a seventh, Dolan. During the year of 2012, Mr. Rogers sold over twenty short stories with some of them appearing in the paperback anthologies: I'll Never Go Away, Grindhouse and Peep Show, Volume 2.

Being somewhat of a couch potato at his old age of sixty-two, Mr. Rogers enjoys the pastime of writing, reading (he has over a few hundred books stored in boxes a few feet from his writing table), great movies from any time period, and well-made television programs such as Justified, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Game of Thrones, Justified, and American Horror Story. Finally, Mr. Rogers is rather unusual in that he doesn't own a house or a car, A friend just recently bought him a cellphone, but he hasn't turned it on as of yet. He spends his free time at the computer writing his stories, and usually doesn't leave his apartment till it's time to head to work. Thank God for ham & cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup!!!

Embrace of the Vampire 2013 remake

Back in High School or Junior High I remember seeing Embrace of the Vampire.  It was beyond abysmal even to a young audience, though I did not feel totally slighted as the main reason for the rental was to see Alyssa Millano without a shirt on.  That did happen a great deal and I remember little else about it.

Trailers for the new one showed up everywhere to me, and looked like it had some potential so  relenting to the seemingly supernatural forces I added it to my netflix list.  I am very interested in finding a supernatural horror flick that is legitimately scary and sexy.  Alas this film is not the one and Animals the poorly cast and budged Skipp and Spector adaptation is still in the lead.  

The film follows Charlotte Hawthorne(Sharon Hinnendael), a naive college freshmen on a fencing scholarship and a dark secret relating to an unspecified medical condition.  Her team mates haze her and fuck with her head, her classmates tease her and her professors either creepily support her or are mean to her.  Her only support comes from her roommate Nicole (Kaniehtiio Horn), though Nicole's best friend is a vile un-redeemable character.

Charlotte begins to have nightmares and lustful dreams that soon begin while she is awake making it nearly impossible for her to tell reality from the illusions.  

Embrace the Vampire is a disappointing movie because it shows some real promise with the nightmare sequences.  There is even a very well shot vampire stalk and kill scene that has a few great moments of misdirection.  The plot however is cliched and horribly predictable.  Even the effort at a red herring is just wasted.  The dialogue emphasizes that it was male writers with probably few female friends behind the words, forcing me to wonder if Sharon Hinnendael is a poor actress or if nothing could save the shit she was instructed to say.

The attempts at eroticism fail worse than the horror elements.  With nearly no developed relationships between the couples it is just random nudity thrown in for no other reason.

The film's greatest accomplishment though was it's ability to offend me.  Equating virginity to a magical pureness (for women of course) is just wrong.  Also from a script/plot perspective getting laid will mean you are no longer in danger.  Oh yeah and sex with a woman doesn't count.  This shit is just offensive.  

I can't remember where I heard it but I will leave you with another's thoughts on this idea.

PARAPHRASED "If you believe touching a woman makes her un-pure, you probably shouldn't touch one"

Full Movie here

Halloween Bash...Alternative Halloween Viewing Material.

So you've been watching slasher tear through teenage fodder, old houses creak coyly and creatures jump from the darkness and the Halloween season is almost over but you want a final Halloween film that is a tad different from the others.  Here are two ideas.

Donnie Darko, taking place throughout October with an eerie intelligence, somber atmosphere and great soundtrack.  It even ends with a Halloween Party.

The Crow, Alex Proyas' masterpiece of goth-pop sensibility.  Halloween is a constant reference, you have trick or treaters and figure of the Crow is iconic and a go to for so many lazy costume goers.

The Unseen

This was an oddly watchable movie, that I never thought of turning off (I do that a great deal) yet it was unquestionable shit, derivative, predictable, with laughable melodrama and incredibly poor direction as well as acting.  But I kept watching, and I can't figure out why.

Riddick Review at Ravenous Monster

Vin Diesel returns to his cult favorite role as Richard B Riddick in a lean, gritty flick that returns to the franchise’s roots.  This movie is very much Diesel’s project and he reportedly worked for scale in order to get the project green lit. 

We first met the convict Richard B Riddick in Pitch Black a small sci-fi horror flick with a cool premise that came out of nowhere. Diesel’s performance as Riddick won audiences over if not in theatres but on DVD, paving the way for the inflated Chronicles of Riddick.  Though making in more money theatrically (though not enough to warrant a direct sequel), Chronicles of Riddick felt almost nothing like Pitch Black.  Riddick was no longer a cunning killer, but someone who lunged headfirst into danger while relying almost exclusively on his brutality to vanquish his foes.  Chronicles of Riddick ends with Riddick accidentally becoming the ruler of a violent alien race and beginning the search for his home planet of Furya.

Click either image to jump over to Ravenous Monster for the full review

No One Lives Review

Ryûhei Kitamura the director of the decent Midnight Meat Train and the incredible Versus directs the new flick No One Live from a script by David Cohen.  Kitamura’s direction is solid and he creates a dark tense, while still knowing how to shoot kick ass action sequences. The movie stares Luke Evans, Adelaide Clemens, America Olivo and Lee Tergesen.  The plot revolves around kidnapping, torture and survival, combining elements we’ve all seen in flicks such as Texas Chainsaw and Last House of the Left.

No One Lives is a difficult movie to review because there is a pretty cool plot twist about 20 minutes in that drastically changes the entire dynamic of the movie.  If you go with the twist the film is pretty enjoyable, however there are some serious detractors from this movie living up to its full potential. 

While the performances are solid across the board, none of the characters are likable in the least.  This would be fine if the plot was a bit tighter, but the script requires a few great moments of suspension of disbelief to work.  Again this would be fine if some of the twists were a bit more clever.  If any two of these complaints were addressed I would put the film at highly recommendable as opposed to an enjoyable B Movie that is never boring with some solid actions set pieces that you will probably forget about in a few days.   

Kiss Of The Damned Reviewed at Ravenous Monster

Writer director Xan Cassavetes's film Kiss of the Damned is a beautifully intriguing film guaranteed to divide its audience.  The vampire tale is equal part horror and romance, with a strong focus on internal conflict.  Each of the main characters is the greatest danger they face. ...click either image for the full review. 

The World's End Review

I didn't really enjoy Shaun of the Dead when I first saw it.  The tonal shifts between comedy, drama and action were too abrupt for me.  A friend (Hi Pat) talked me into re-watching it, and now its one of my most watched films.  Hot Fuzz is also a frequently viewed film in my life.

The World's End is more akin to Shaun of the Dead.  The humor is dark, combining slapstick and verbal fare.  Many of the characters we come to care for die horrible deaths.  Edgar Wright's direction is inspired and the action sequences are near perfection.  You can easily follow each and every blow, no jump cutting here. The story surrounds Simon Pegg's incredibly unlikable Gary King, manipulating his old pals into a pub crawl  to try and recapture past glory.  All does horribly and fantastically awry and the less you know the more you'll get out of it.

While I enjoyed The World's End I feel like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (and even Paul, there I said it) it will get better with each viewing.  Cheers mate.

Kick Ass 2 Review

I was intrigued by the original Kick Ass, but not quite a fan after seeing it initially.  After a second viewing I was better able to appreciate the odd sensibilities of the flick and the drastic tonal shifts.

 

If you enjoyed Kick Ass, I can't imagine you hating Kick Ass 2.  Like the original it is genuinely sincere in its emotional content.  It is still infused with a crazy energy and well shot, however where it is significantly worse than the original are a few plot elements used (rather lazily in my opinion) to connect the second and third acts.  

The movie also is a tad more reserved with the violent content, nothing that happens is close to as brutal as the original, hell The Wolverine has a much higher on screen body count.  That doesn't mean we're anywhere near gaining a PG-13, but it made the film a bit more fun for me.  A gang rape was among the content cut from Millar's original book.

The cast is stellar in all areas and perfectly cast, though be aware Jim Carey has little more than a cameo.  Donald Faison (Turk from Scrubs) also shows up as Doctor Gravity and is perfect with the little he has to do.  Aaron Taylor Johnson and Chloe Grace Mortez are as kick ass as last time, but John Leguizamo feels wasted with the very little he has to do.

So in the end you've got a damn fine little film that would have been great if the plot was just a bit tighter.

Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters Review

Meh, that's really all there is to say about Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters.  The movie is neither really bad or good.  It totters in mediocrity.  Renner and Arterton play essentially the same bad ass unshakable character. The screen play and direction never moves beyond adequate, until to tell if this is a serious or tongue in cheek ride. With such wild ideas and setups for this to be blase makes me appreciate the real cult classics so much more.   That shit can't be faked.