As happens with a lot of slow-burn films, once you turn the corner, there’s no going back. We get one creepy character captured by the locals around whom rules and stipulations are proposed. This is fun. Then we’re told “what’s really going on” and the rules and stipulations seem to disappear in favor of a low-budget attempt at a big-budget ending. It’s managed well enough, but the change in pacing makes the film’s sparseness at the beginning seem amateur instead of purposefully paced…
Monthly Archives: April 2012
Mr. Murder is Dead – Victor Quinaz ♦♦ [two out of five]
Archaia publishing is the king of painting a pretty picture. I don’t know exactly how they stay afloat putting out such professional editions of small press stuff, but I respect the dedication to quality and it keeps me picking up books like “Mr. Murder is Dead.”
…Though it doesn’t make the books very good, necessarily.
The Cabin in the Woods •••• [four out of five]
Nothing is really unexpected once the initial premise is explained, but the dedication to do it and do it right makes it wickedly admirable. I loved Cabin in the Woods. I can’t wait to watch it and re-watch it at home, musing over the possible intentions of various moments and then pausing frame by frame for nerdboy analyzation…
Wanderlust ••• [three out of five]
So I say this fully aware that he’s worked on some things that I’ve enjoyed – including this movie – and somethings that are wholly original and awesome – like Freaks and Geeks, but… Judd Apatow can kiss my ass. ‘Wanderlust’ has all sortsa great laughs and moments, but it also has a recognizable Apatow touch of sentimentality that keeps it from achieving the batshit hilarity of The State or Wet Hot American Summer or the out-of-order bizareness of The Ten or even the momentum of Role Models…
The Complete BoJeffries Saga – Alan Moore ♦♦♦♦ [four out of five]
Alan Moore does big picture tongue-in-cheek, literary-influenced comic fiction with his Lovecraft work, or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the positive and negative approaches to comic history with his classic Watchmen or the majority of the ABC line. But what else does Alan Moore do? Well he also does comedy. … This collection of the BoJeffries tales, which were published across several comic collections over the years, is my favorite version of the Moore wit, distilled into a short and sweet compendium of weirdo humor.
Some Netflix reviews
The Thing (2011) •••• [four out of five]
Carpenter’s original The Thing is an amazing movie, certainly one of his best and one of my favorite slow-burn horror movies, but it has its flaws. So does The Thing remake / prequel. However, as written by Eric Heisserer and shot by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., The Thing manages to do what so few remakes figure out – that a remake can only get so far on nostalgia, and needs to be able to stand as its own film…
Wrath of the Titans •• [two out of five]
In Wrath of the Titans, director Jonathan Liebesman seems to have a better grasp on action sequences than Clash’s director Louis Letterier – whose keep-moving pace worked well for his Hulk film but seemed like he didn’t use a sense of scale properly for making Clash feel like something epic – and yet I still fell asleep…
House of Voices •• [two out of five]
The production on this is pretty beautiful, and actually looks, in moments, more like Silent Hill than Silent Hill did, and yes, this was before Martyrs, and Laugier grew from the experience from film to film, but, well. Shucks. I just wanted this to be a gem and instead it’s a wandering, voiceless affair that’s not spooky or interesting enough to merit attentiveness…
This Film is Not Yet Rated •• [two out of five]
When I first saw “This Film…,” I loved it. I thought it made a valid point and pointed out incisive truths about the film industry. When I watched it again, I didn’t love it so much. Those two positives still exist, but once you know what’s coming you can focus on the execution, which is bias and almost ignorantly idiotic…
vaguely-offensive 