Category Archives: Reviews

Straight to Video Steve Presents: The Top 10 horror flicks you probably haven’t seen, but should

I don’t watch a lot of horror. It’s really nothing against the genre, it’s just that it is entirely impossible to watch horror movies and nothing else. There’s not enough time in the day. So I really only see horror movies if they cross over into the mainstream, like Cabin in the Woods, or if something about the movie distinguishes it, such as marking a new directorial talent (like Dead Snow, which appears on this list).

But it’s October, and with Halloween approaching there are horror movie marathons, DVD deals, and On Demand offers out the wazoo. So I asked my brother Steve—who is a horror aficionado—to come up with ten horror movies from the last decade that are worth watching, but that might have slid under the radar for general audiences (so no Let the Right One In or Cabin in the Woods or Paranormal Activity, because they made the mainstream. Also no Last Exorcism because that movie is ri-goddamn-diculous).

So here it is, from my resident horror expert, Steve, the ten little-seen horror flicks worth your time this Halloween.

10.  The Divide (2011)

Post-Apocalyptic Cabin Fever

As their city is being leveled by bombs from an unknown enemy, the tenants of an apartment building descend to their basement for shelter.  They represent a set of different (and conflicting) personality types that, through a slow progression to insanity, turn this basement into a nightmare on par with the destruction outside.  There is plenty of blood and intensity to keep the audience entertained and the acting (especially that of Michael Biehn of The Terminator and horror classic The Abyss) is stellar for this genre.  This is a good film for people who don’t necessarily like horror, but are intrigued by human drama.  It’s like The Real World with casualties.Continue reading “Straight to Video Steve Presents: The Top 10 horror flicks you probably haven’t seen, but should”

Argo is Ben Affleck’s best film yet

Ben Affleck’s career rejuvenation over the last five years, since he made his feature film debut as a director with Gone Baby Gone, is nothing short of remarkable. He went from a punchline, the should-be A-lister who blew all his good will on a cheesy too-public relationship with Jennifer Lopez and a string of shitty movies (although Reindeer Games did yield one of the best lines in The Avengers), to one of the most reliable and entertaining American filmmakers. Case in point: I HATED Affleck even just a couple years ago (I wasn’t convinced Baby wasn’t a fluke) and picked on him constantly. But now I can’t wait to see his movies and freely admit he’s totally won me over against my will. Now there’s a “how did he DO that” for you.Continue reading “Argo is Ben Affleck’s best film yet”

Looper is a striking film, flawless story

Rian Johnson is one of the emerging American filmmakers leading a not-particularly-quiet and yet still somehow wholly disregarded renaissance in American film. Every year, as the number of sequels and Kevin James movies produced grows and people lament that film is dead, dying, over, directors like Johnson turn out well crafted, attentive films peopled with interesting characters that walk and talk in ways that actual people walk and talk, and not like walking exposition dumps or the archetypical beings that fill the lesser, more populous films dominating the landscape. It’s happening on a big-budget studio scale, too, this creeping Kudzu takeover of storytelling, but it’s more easily spotted in the indie landscape. For now.Continue reading “Looper is a striking film, flawless story”

Sleepwalk with Me is a comedy about comedy about life

Do you know Mike Birbiglia? Fans of stand-up comedy should know him from his shows such as What I Should Have Said Was Nothing and Two Drink Mike. NPR listeners might recognize him from This American Life, where he contributes bits culled from his “Secret Public Journal” blog. And cinemaphiles ought to learn his name because Birbiglia is emerging as not only a top-notch writer and performer but he’s not half bad behind the camera, too. His first feature film, co-directed with Seth Barrish, also a first-timer, Sleepwalk with Me, has been a hit with audiences and critics at film festivals ever since Sundance back in January, and it’s now in theaters, cleaning up even amid otherwise dismal box office returns (we’re in for an indie renaissance not unlike what happened in the 1970’s, but that’s for later).Continue reading “Sleepwalk with Me is a comedy about comedy about life”

The Bourne Legacy: Introducing your new reptile junkie action hero

There seems to be a major disconnect between what The Bourne Legacy is and what people expect(ed) it to be. I was expecting it to be, at the very least, a decent action movie that would introduce a new secret operative with some level of fucked-up-ness into the world of Jason Bourne, and the movie did meet my basic expectations so I was pretty satisfied with what I saw. Apparently everyone else saw a different movie though, or were expecting something so different—a literal continuation of Bourne’s story, I think—that they were disappointed by what Legacy actually is. So I want to tell you what this movie is NOT, so that you can maybe get down with what it IS. Basically, this is what The Bourne Legacy is asking of you, the viewer:

Support a reptile junkie on a murder spree who kidnaps his dealer in order to ensure a steady fix to feed his drug habit.Continue reading “The Bourne Legacy: Introducing your new reptile junkie action hero”

The Dark Knight Rises, and delivers, kind of

SOME SPOILERS

The pressure cooker leading up to The Dark Knight Rises has been unbearable. The expectations, both fiscal and critical, are through the roof, and the question everyone wants answered is can writer/director Christopher Nolan top 2008’s The Dark Knight, a movie many consider to be the best superhero movie ever made. The answer: Kind of. Rises is, in many ways, an escalation from The Dark Knight, building on what’s come before and continuing to improve on an already nearly flawless concept. There is, though, one crucial area in which Rises sort of disappoints—it’s not terribly fun to watch.

Before you start yelling, consider that what makes it more than just your average superhero movie—indeed, I’ve never really thought of Nolan’s Batman series as just superhero movies—is also what puts a damper on the movie. It’s that hyper-realism, the grounding Nolan gives Batman in a world fraught with our own post-millennial fears and traumas that makes the Dark Knight trilogy unique, but it’s also kind of a bummer. The Dark Knight resonated with so many because it struck the perfect balance between the gritty real world problems and the jaw-dropping action of a superhero adventure. It was dark, yes, but even watching The Joker be villainy and evil was fun because of the spirited, almost gleefully abandoned, approach to the conflict. There’s a loss of verve in Rises and I found myself wondering—did Nolan really want to make this movie? Or did he just have to get through a contract?Continue reading “The Dark Knight Rises, and delivers, kind of”

Magic Mike and Ted: Two completely different movies

Obvious statement, I know. But true. Let’s start with Ted.

It’s way funnier than I was expecting. The thing that worried me about Ted was director and co-writer Seth MacFarlane. I’m not a huge MacFarlane fan. Not that he can’t be funny—he can be hilarious—it’s just that he tends to wear thin after a bit. Even one episode of Family Guy can feel like too much at times. So how would a ninety minute movie go down? Surprisingly well.

Ted is about a kid, John, who wishes his teddy bear would come to life, and it does. MacFarlane voices the bear, and Mark Wahlberg plays the grown-up John, with Mila Kunis (longtime MacFarlane collaborator and the voice of Meg on Family Guy) as his girlfriend, Laurie. Of course, Laurie ultimately insists John and Ted go their separate ways, tired of how Ted drags John down. It’s a standard plot, but the friendship between John and Ted is so well fleshed out that it never feels old or recycled.Continue reading “Magic Mike and Ted: Two completely different movies”