Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014) (Blu-ray)

by Sara Michelle Fetters - August 3rd, 2015 - Blu-ray and DVD

Wyrmwood is a hoot. It’s also remarkably easy to re-watch. I had a blast revisiting this one, and I imagine genre fans who lap this sort of stuff up greedily will likely end up feeling much the same. Simply terrific.

Wyrmwood is a hoot. It’s also remarkably easy to re-watch. I had a blast revisiting this one, and I imagine genre fans who lap this sort of stuff up greedily will likely end up feeling much the same. Simply terrific.

Ghost Town (1988)

by Sara Michelle Fetters - August 3rd, 2015 - Blu-ray and DVD

I’m not sure I’d tell anyone to pay full price for this Scream! Factory release, the lack of extras are definite downer. But the moment Ghost Town went on sale I’d snatch directors Mac Ahlberg and Richard Governor’s underrated little 1988 gem up as fast as I could, this horror/western hybrid far more entertaining than it arguably has any right to be.

I’m not sure I’d tell anyone to pay full price for this Scream! Factory release, the lack of extras are definite downer. But the moment Ghost Town went on sale I’d snatch directors Mac Ahlberg and Richard Governor’s underrated little 1988 gem up as fast as I could, this horror/western hybrid far more entertaining than it arguably has any right to be.

Kill Me Three Times (2015)

by Sara Michelle Fetters - August 3rd, 2015 - Blu-ray and DVD

Nope. Still don’t like it. Pegg’s terrific, and Stenders does stage a couple of amusing grotesque sequences of bleak black comedy that did get me to giggle a tiny bit, but overall this film is just too flatly unappealing and boringly obvious in its machinations to be worth much in the way of a viewer’s time.

Nope. Still don’t like it. Pegg’s terrific, and Stenders does stage a couple of amusing grotesque sequences of bleak black comedy that did get me to giggle a tiny bit, but overall this film is just too flatly unappealing and boringly obvious in its machinations to be worth much in the way of a viewer’s time.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

by Sara Michelle Fetters - July 31st, 2015 - Movie Reviews

The fifth entry in the popular spy vs. spy series of action spectaculars, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is a relentless thriller that ends up being marvelously entertaining even if many of its signature moments and beats feel in some way repeats of events from the preceding motion pictures.

The fifth entry in the popular spy vs. spy series of action spectaculars, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is a relentless thriller that ends up being marvelously entertaining even if many of its signature moments and beats feel in some way repeats of events from the preceding motion pictures.

“Burying the Ex” – Interview with director Joe Dante

by Sara Michelle Fetters - July 29th, 2015 - Interviews

“It’s a measure of a pretty good movie, isn’t it? If it’s a movie that you like and you go back and watch it again sometimes you’re a little disappointed because there isn’t much more there than what there was when you saw it the first time. But, sometimes, maybe a lot of times, it surprises you, and you see things in the movie that you didn’t notice the first time, you start seeing things that no one, not even the filmmakers, could have known were going to be a part of the zeitgeist at the time, that those elements would still ring true ten or twenty years later. I’ve been lucky enough to make a lot of those pictures.”

“It’s a measure of a pretty good movie, isn’t it? If it’s a movie that you like and you go back and watch it again sometimes you’re a little disappointed because there isn’t much more there than what there was when you saw it the first time. But, sometimes, maybe a lot of times, it surprises you, and you see things in the movie that you didn’t notice the first time, you start seeing things that no one, not even the filmmakers, could have known were going to be a part of the zeitgeist at the time, that those elements would still ring true ten or twenty years later. I’ve been lucky enough to make a lot of those pictures.”

Vacation (2015)

by Sara Michelle Fetters - July 29th, 2015 - Movie Reviews

But this [Vacation (2015)] fails on an even more calamitous level, forgetting the elements that made the Ramis/Hughes effort so memorable and long-lasting. It trades in platitudes instead of sincerity, elevating the gross-out antics to an even higher plateau yet leaving out the heart, soul and honesty that made all that icky silliness matter in a way it never could have otherwise.

But this [Vacation (2015)] fails on an even more calamitous level, forgetting the elements that made the Ramis/Hughes effort so memorable and long-lasting. It trades in platitudes instead of sincerity, elevating the gross-out antics to an even higher plateau yet leaving out the heart, soul and honesty that made all that icky silliness matter in a way it never could have otherwise.

The Look of Silence (2014)

by Sara Michelle Fetters - July 24th, 2015 - Film Festivals Movie Reviews

The Look of Silence is director Joshua Oppenheimer’s powerful companion piece to his Academy Award-nominated stunner The Act of Killing. If that latter film was a detached, clinical analysis of unimaginable evil put under the most devastatingly perceptive of microscopes, this latest endeavor is the cry to hold those killers responsible.

The Look of Silence is director Joshua Oppenheimer’s powerful companion piece to his Academy Award-nominated stunner The Act of Killing. If that latter film was a detached, clinical analysis of unimaginable evil put under the most devastatingly perceptive of microscopes, this latest endeavor is the cry to hold those killers responsible.

Pixels (2015)

by Sara Michelle Fetters - July 24th, 2015 - Movie Reviews

Sadly, this big budget special effects driven comedy exists more than it does anything else, achieving a form of bland, barely interesting mediocrity that’s not terrible enough to be risible yet nowhere near imaginative enough to make up for its readily apparent shortcomings.

Sadly, this big budget special effects driven comedy exists more than it does anything else, achieving a form of bland, barely interesting mediocrity that’s not terrible enough to be risible yet nowhere near imaginative enough to make up for its readily apparent shortcomings.

Southpaw (2015)

by Sara Michelle Fetters - July 24th, 2015 - Movie Reviews

Featuring a number of exemplary performances, not the least of which is Gyllenhaal’s haggard ferocity in the lead role, filled with a number of stripped-down, nakedly raw emotional beats that take the breath away, the film is nonetheless an over-stuffed muddle that embraces every cliché the genre has ever known. [Southpaw (2015)] throws in so much stuff that one can’t help but want to throw in the towel and end things halfway through, the body of the viewer nearly as battered, bruised and bloodied as Billy Hope’s is by the time the climactic fight has reached its conclusion.

Featuring a number of exemplary performances, not the least of which is Gyllenhaal’s haggard ferocity in the lead role, filled with a number of stripped-down, nakedly raw emotional beats that take the breath away, the film is nonetheless an over-stuffed muddle that embraces every cliché the genre has ever known. [Southpaw (2015)] throws in so much stuff that one can’t help but want to throw in the towel and end things halfway through, the body of the viewer nearly as battered, bruised and bloodied as Billy Hope’s is by the time the climactic fight has reached its conclusion.

 Prev 1 2 ... 179 180 181 182 183 ... 268 269 Next