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Passionately fascinated with all things vampyric and particularly the historical facts and myth about Prince Vlad of Wallachia, House of Draculesti aka Vlad the Impaler, needless to say I have been beyond curious about DRACULA UNTOLD. Mesmerized from small on by Murnau's 1922 silent, "Nosferatu", many subsequent Dracula tellings, including Werner Herzog's 1979 "Nosferatu the Vampyre" and Coppola's more popular 1992 version starring Gary Oldman in the title role, although constructed with many...
Those magnificent artisans of Laika are back with their latest production, THE BOXTROLLS. Taking a sliver from the beloved book "Here Be Monsters!" by Alan Snow, Laika CEO and lead animator Travis Knight together with directors Anthony Stacchi and Graham Anable take stop-motion animation to new heights of visionary wonder as they bring the underground world of THE BOXTROLLS to life, achieving a film that is oh-so enchanting and charming thanks to eye-popping visuals, perfect voice casting and a...
A classically styled drama from writer Sabrina Gennarino and director Pieter Gaspersz, AFTER is thoughtfully absorbing and beautifully acted, focusing not only on the dynamics of "family" but the ties that bind and the lengths family goes for one and another. The Valentinos are your average middle class family. Patriarch Mitch has owned a stone-cutting business for decades. It has provided a comfortable life for his family. Spending more time at home with his emotionally fragile wife Nora,...
Some guys just have a thing for snakes and it seems that our favorite parseltongue speaking Daniel Radcliffe is no different. In his new film, the devilishly delicious HORNS from director Alexandre Aja, Radcliffe flexes his serpentine skills yet again, this time as the young Ig Perrish. A supernatural thriller that in almost genre-bending fashion melds the battle of good versus evil with tines of fantasy, romance, a noirish murder mystery and even a little gothic flair, this decadent delight is...
Madness and mayhem are the watchwords of the day when it comes to STONEHEARST ASYLUM. Directed by Brad Anderson from a script by Joe Gangemi based on the 1844 story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather " by Edgar Allan Poe, STONEHEARST ASYLUM abounds with twists and turns set against a richly textured and lush, stylized Victorian-era visual palette. Boasting a cast of Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Michael Caine, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Jim Sturgess and Kate Beckinsale, among others,...
Nicholas Sparks. At the mere mention of his name, images of love, romance, peaceful serenity, his beloved Carolina coastline, among others, all vividly spring to mind. So does the idea of second chances and purity of the heart and character. Nicholas Sparks is a storyteller who grabs the heart, touches the soul and evokes powerful emotions within each of us who read his books or see film adaptations of them. And Nicholas Sparks is synonymous with tears and tissues. Now, as the ninth adaptation...
Simon Bolivar is a name known throughout the world. A military leader, a statesman, a politician, Bolivar helped shape the face of the world - and particularly the Americas - as we now know it. Instrumental in leading Venezuela, Columbia (which at the time included Panama), Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia to their independence from Spain in the early 19th century, anti-colonialist Bolivar was the founding force behind the formation of Gran Columbia, the first republic of nations within Hispanic...
Directed by British filmmaker Clare Lewins, who readily admits “I knew nothing at all about boxing when I started this project”, I AM ALI gives us a more intimate look at the man behind the myth that is Muhammad Ali. Although much has been written, filmed, photographed and published about Ali with archival footage as nothing new to us, the context within which Lewins presents it is. Providing us with an up close and personal look at Muhammad Ali, thanks to interviews with his close friends, dec...
7. That's the number of games the De La Salle High School Spartan football team won - consecutively. That's right. In a row. Without a loss. A 12-year winning streak. It's a record that will stand for the ages. It's a record that no professional sports team, no college team, no other high school team, no Pop Warner or Little League team, no international team - in any sport - has even come close to touching. And it was all done under the leadership of De La Salle head coach Bob "Coach Lad" Lad...
I admit it. I had some doubts when it was announced James Gunn (whom I admire and am a fan of his work) would be directing GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Although I had no doubts about Gunn nailing the humor and action ideology of the film, I had to wonder, could he execute it on such a grand scale? Given the anticipated scope and magnitude of the film, the large cast, the ideologic concept as a whole, just the pure majesty of the Marvel universe and perhaps most importantly, the heart of the story...
Continuing with themes of old adages and films lensed within a single confined space, I turn your attention to NO GOOD DEED. As your mother always told you, no good deed goes unpunished and that's exactly what happens to Taraji P. Henson's "Terry" in NO GOOD DEED. Terry is a devoted wife and mother of a four-year old daughter and newborn son. From the looks of her plush, suburban wooded Atlanta neighborhood and her house, her husband provides well for the family. From the exterior of the house...
I have long been an admirer of Kevin Smith’s filmmaking ethic; although not always a fan of some of his films. He has taken the bull by the horns - in this case, the walrus by the tusks - and ignored the naysayers, to do what he wants to do - make movies. Inexpensive and cost effective by filmmaking standards, Smith’s films are all stories that he wants to tell and told the way he wants to tell them. As a result, he and his work have developed a core following that guarantees investment mon...
Long have we heard the old adage that "marriage is hell", but what about the honeymoon? Thanks to first time writer/director Leigh Janiak and HONEYMOON, couples may now want to start rethinking their own post-marital celebrations as Janiak gives new meaning to honeymoon hell and marital bliss. Deconstructing a relationship thanks to over-zealous paranoia and that omnipresent question, "How well do you know the person you married?", Janiak delivers an intriguing story fueled by doubt and uncertai...
With a beguiling adorable awkwardness, first time screenwriter/director Stuart Murdoch puts a song in your heart and a spring in your step with the oh-so-lovely, GOD HELP THE GIRL. Lead singer-songwriter of the Scottish pop/rock group Belle and Sebastian, Murdoch makes the jump to film with a musical that is truly a musical, with songs and their lyrics built into the story and dialogue, harkening to Hollywood's Golden Age or even the Peter Webb directed Paul McCartney vehicle, "Give My Regards t...
Tougher than Steele! Better than Bond. Brains over gadgets. It's Brosnan, Pierce Brosnan, as THE NOVEMBER MAN. At the top of his game, Brosnan engages and entices with a mature intelligent sexiness that will have you begging for a film franchise based on the book series. Bringing a seasoned meld of action and psychological intrigue that only comes with experience and maturity, THE NOVEMBER MAN is a riveting edge of your seat thriller! It's 2008. Montenegro. CIA operative Peter Devereaux and his...
Who doesn't love a good Elmore Leonard novel or film adaptation? Certainly writer/director Daniel Schechter does as with LIFE OF CRIME, an adaptation of Leonard's "The Switch", he delivers a film that is not only one of the most, if not the most, faithful to the source material of all the Leonard adaptations, but is true to the stylized dialogue and wit of the novel itself. LIFE OF A CRIME is as witty and wonderful on the big screen as on the page. Mickey Dawson is the epitome of a trophy wife....
A perfect blend of classic film noir and graphic novel, SIN CITY 2: A DAME TO KILL FOR is deliciously decadent. The sequel to the 2005 "Sin City" by Robert Rodriguez and graphic novelist Frank Miller, the pair reunite nine years later for this action-packed explosion of raw and visceral lust, corruption, vengeance and violence that dazzles, delights, intrigues, and celebrates the noir thrillers of the 30's, 40's and 50's on screen and on the pulp page. Once again based in Kadie's Club Pecos in...
You know them. You love them. You have a kick-ass time with them. And they're back! Bigger and badder than ever, THE EXPENDABLES 3 has you breathless within the first 10 minutes, setting the stage for the most explosive film of the year; after all, who else but Sylvester Stallone along with director Patrick Hughes and second unit directing guru Dan Bradley, would buy an entire train and blow it up "just to get it right and real". The third installment in this highly successful franchise finds th...
To paraphrase screenwriter Steven Knight, "Food is memories". Since the days of a feeble Oliver Twist innocently saying "Please sir, I want some more" to Scarlet O'Hara infamously avowing "I'll never go hungry again" to Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka to Ratatouille to the Food Network and all its esculent edibles of every type imaginable, we have had a love affair with food. Within just the past year, food and the culinary arts have become front and center on the big screen with films like Jon...
From a 1925 Alfa Romeo to Jacki Weaver draped in $2.9 million in diamonds to period perfect 1920's French couture to the ethereal elegance of Cap d'Antibes and Mouans Sartoux to the ever dashing Colin Firth (*sigh*), Woody Allen steeps us in old world beauty and classic glamour touched with a bit of whimsy and all bathed in the MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT. Sparkling and twinkling like the bubbles in a glass of pink champagne or dancing like points of light on a moonbeam, with subtext, humor and...
Be she known as the "evil fairy" who casts a spell on the infant princess Aurora dooming her to die when she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel in Charles Perrault's "La Belle au bois dormant" or in the Brothers Grimm " Dornröschen" (Little Briar Rose), or known as the mightiest and most beloved of all the Disney villains, MALEFICENT is a force to be reckoned with. And as beloved as Disney's 1959 animated classic "Sleeping Beauty" is, making MALEFICENT a household name for new generations and...
Dusty delivers! He dives, he swoops, he scoops, soaring into our hearts again! PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE may be the epitome of the Disney themes of "friendship first" and "lend a helping hand", not to mention second chances, as aerial racing legend Dusty Crophopper takes his place in history as a SEAT (Single Engine Air Tanker) joining the other brave members of the Piston Peak Air Attack Team in their battle of wildfires in the Southwest/West United States. With returning old friends and new...
It's a big weekend at the Los Angeles area box office with an eclectic group of indie gems shining brightly amidst some lingering tentpoles and expanding winners like "Snowpiercer" and "Deliver Us From Evil". Joining them is the dawn of a new era of "dirty apes", one of my "Must See" films of LAFF last month "Land Ho!" while glistening brightly is Jason Momoa's directorial debut in the beautifully filmed "Road to Paloma" and the adorably quirky "Audrey". But given this is summer vacation with...
With DELIVER US FROM EVIL, one thing is certain - no one should ever deliver us from the genius that is director Scott Derrickson. As he did with "Sinister", Derrickson again not only dives headfirst into a world of demonology, rooted in centuries of faith, fact, fiction, but blends it with true stories inspired by NYPD Sgt. Ralph Sarchie's crime laden world of the Bronx's 46th Precinct. Sarchie, a 26-year veteran of NYPD with over 300 arrests and 7 commendations to his credit, while on the...
Adapted for the screen by Kelly Masterson and Bong Joon-Ho from the French graphic novel "Le Transpercenegie" and directed by Bong Joon-Ho, SNOWPIERCER is a post-apocalyptic thriller. Earth is frozen beyond being capable of sustaining any life but thanks to the genius of one man, a rattling, clattering super-train now carries not only the last survivors of the human race, but life itself, endlessly circling the planet, just waiting for the day when the world will thaw and man can once again recl...
