My life at the movies.
Directed by Stuart Gordon. Starring Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel, and Ken Foree.
The Vinegar Syndrome 4k proffers a modest picture quality boost, but the HDR transforms the resonator scenes into a psychedelic phantasmagoria. A recommended upgrade.
Directed by James Ward Byrkit. Starring Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, and Elizabeth Gracen.
As a comet arcs across the night sky, a woman talks to her boyfriend on her cellular while parking her car outside a friend’s house. She’s arriving for a dinner party. Before she can finish the conversation, her phone’s glass screen cracks in her hand and the phone goes dead. She enters the party and relates the strange occurrence. Other guests arrive. Wine and stories flow. Then a blackout. The entire neighborhood sits dark save a house a few blocks up the street. Two guests venture out. Weirdness begets mystery, which begets existential horror. Spoilers follow. Continue reading...
Directed by Beth de Araújo. Starring Stefanie Estes, Olivia Luccardi, Dana Millican, and Melissa Paulo.
A woman chairs a meeting of like-minded women. Afterwards, some attendees stop at a local market for wine. A chance encounter escalates to confrontation and a series of dreadful choices. Continue reading...
Directed by Mark Mylod. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, and Hong Chau.
A young couple dine at Hawthorn, the restaurant of reclusive chef Julian Slowik. It sits on a private island, charges $1250 a head and serves twelve customers a night. But what begins as a traditional fine-dining experience grows more confrontational. Continue reading...
Directed by Andrzej Zulawski. Starring Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, and Heinz Bennent.
Possession is about the bitter dissolution of a marriage. There are… other elements, but we’ll get to them later. Continue reading...
Directed by Ronny Yu. Starring Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Kelly Rowland, and Monica Keena.
Following the events of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, Freddy Krueger languishes in hell, forgotten by the children of Springwood. To rekindle their fear, Freddy resurrects Jason Voorhees and unleashes him on Springwood. As the bodies pile up, the town’s older residents fear Freddy has returned. This fear feeds Freddy, returning him to full strength, but he finds reigning in Jason a challenge, leading to a battle of the monsters. Continue reading...
Directed by Irving Reis. Starring George Sanders, Lynn Bari, James Gleason, and Allen Jenkins.
The screen’s first Raymond Chandler adaptation. It takes the setup and principal characters of Chandler’s novel, Farewell, My Lovely, transplants the location to New York City, substitutes gentleman detective Gay Laurence (aka The Falcon), played by George Sanders, for Philip Marlowe, and grafts on a pair of sidekicks. The result underwhelms. Continue reading...
Directed by Ilya Naishuller. Starring Bob Odenkirk, Aleksey Serebryakov, Connie Nielsen, and Christopher Lloyd.
The deleted scenes reveal the sequence involving the National Archives employee began as a post-credits tag. Continue reading...
Directed by John McTiernan. Starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, and Reginald VelJohnson.
“It will blow you through the back wall of the theater!” Does anyone remember that tagline from the film’s trailers and print ads? It makes no sense, yet it’s my go-to description for folks new to Die Hard. Continue reading...
Directed by Jalmari Helander. Starring Jorma Tommila, Onni Tommila, Peeter Jakobi, and Tommi Korpela.
Bad title, good movie.
Okay, the title’s great once you’ve seen the movie, but as an attractor, it falls short. Might I suggest You Better Watch Out instead? Continue reading...
