Author Archives: Pseudoplasm
Little Girl Lost – Richard Aleas ♦♦♦♦♦ [five out of five]
“Little Girl Lost” might not be the most hard-edged, or the most original, or the most noir of all the HCC books. But it pursues its genre with enough respect to speak to it with a fresh voice, and keeps on the level with the reader for every page of the book – a difficult accomplishment in any genre…
Drive ••• [three out of five]
I was all set to love Drive. All the right people liked it, I dig Ryan Gosling, and the write-ups spoke of a blend of dark elements which normally make me purr. The opening scene had me convinced that I was about to be blown away by some moody awesomeness, but by film’s end I found myself almost completely unaffected…
Need i make a joke about being unaffected by clicking here… NEED I?
The Ten ••• [three out of five]
On the road to comedy, there are ups and downs. If it’s in the pursuit of the eventual ‘big laugh,’ I’ll let it pass. ‘The Ten’ is uneven in a new way, drumming up a formula that could’ve been a non-stop laugh fest but ends up a muddle, one of those movies for which I’m sure repeated viewings will expose the hidden hilariousness…
Black Swarm •• [two out of five]
Black Swarm is watchable. That sounds like a brush off, but many films are not watchable. Winning has also helmed several not-in-theater monster movie affairs, and Swarm shows a competence with the concept. But, much like a lot of 90s DTV that have CGI’d covers promising wackiness that never quite rears its head on film, Winning follows a tried and true lower budget formula of promising a lot and showing us little…
i only promise that everything you wish for will come true if you click here
Catch .44 • [one out of five]
Whoosh and bedazzle! Brucey made a couple bad movies recently. Hint: Catch .44 was one of them.
It’s not that Catch .44 is incompetent in presentation, it just lacks it’s own soul…
Top of the Heap – Erle Stanley Gardner ♦♦♦ [three out of five]
“Top of the Heap” is one of the more misleading HCC books, where the inability to pitch it directly means you gotta’ drum up a tag line and cover to match the genre. … But it’s still an enjoyable romp, one of the more lighthearted HCC books that doesn’t feel like you’re reading a dirty dimestore pulp, but rather something that, fifty years ago, would’ve flown into your collection as a sweet escape.
sometimes i am not happy with life, and i click here to feel fulfilled
Wake Wood •• [two out of five]
Wake Wood sets off okay, but as is common with *movies*, some elements present from our first few scenes creep up to cripple chunks of the movie later on. But what really kills it is that age old horror movie problem of “let’s ditch the logic as soon as the killin’ starts.”
Eden Lake ••••• [five out of five]
The success of (Eden Lake) is to prevent the movie from seeming like it exists just to terrorize you. It’s rarely exploitative in its violence, and the affair proceeds as though the film wants to be about a leisurely vacation but cannot avoid getting entangled in the horrible sequence of events it presents…
Re-Animator ••••• [five out of five]
Re-Animator is my first true love. I had my years with Rushmore and Eyes Wide Shut, but those were fleeting relations, before I truly understood the range of emotions available for film. While director Stuart Gordon would somewhat suffer from Tobe Hooper-esque one-hit-wonderness, Re-Animator nonetheless remains an amazing film, unique in its dedication to its tone and style, still capable of eliciting “holy crap” moments from a post Dead Alive-over-gored horror viewer…
vaguely-offensive 