Est. 1998
Following the release of Sonny Chiba: Street Fighter, the hacks at Vintage Home Entertainment offer us this new three-flicks-squeezed-unto-a-single-DVD. I don’t mind the cheap cover and utter absence of special features, and even the full screen format and bad dubbing are to be expected with old kung fu movies, I guess. But this is some real hackwork, obviously transferred from old VHS, with ensuing buzzing sound,…
1981 THE EVIL DEAD 91 [ review ] 1985 CRIMEWAVE 10 [ review ] 1987 EVIL DEAD II 84 [ review ] 1990 DARKMAN 93 [ review ] 1992 ARMY OF DARKNESS 92 [ review ] 1995 THE QUICK AND THE DEAD 79 [ review ] 1998 A SIMPLE PLAN 92 [ review ] 1999 FOR LOVE OF THE GAME 40 [ Raimi apparently really, really loves baseball, but that still doesn’t explain his selling himself out to direct this Kevin Costner romantic comedy. It’s actually…
That’s Harry Potter? My, he’s so tall, low-voiced, strong… Dangerous. His getting back at his old bitchy aunt early in the film is played for laughs, but I found it creepy. The little wizard is becoming more and more powerful, and those that cross him have to watch out that he doesn’t explode on them – this kid’s a timebomb. Ron’s still Ron, walking a…
The name Achilles still echoes of heroism thousands of years after Homer celebrated him in “The Illiad”, so it’s no surprise to find Brad Pitt looking spectacular and pulling all kinds of astonishing feats. What’s more unexpected (and interesting) is to have the legendary warlord reveal his flaws. The Achilles we see here is rather selfish and vain, a “man born to end lives”, more…
I love girls. Really, I love them, which is a good thing because this movie is all about them, what makes them so lovable but also all those little things they do that threaten to turn that love into pure hatred. I don’t want to sound sexist, guys are assholes too, but at least with a dude you know where you stand. If a guy’s…
This is the 15th anniversary re-release of the 1989 action classic that starred respected Swedish thespian Dolph Lundgren, beloved by North American audiences for his soulful portrayal of He-Man in “Masters of the Universe” and Ivan Drago in Rocky IV… Oh wait, this is actually a new adaptation of the Marvel comic book. How unnecessary! Sure, the original “Punisher” flick was a cheapie B-movie, but it…
When you go back to the original film, you realize that “Rocky” was actually intelligent and involving before he became a caricature. The 1976 Best Picture Oscar Winner written by then unknown Sylvester Stallone can be seen as a companion piece to an earlier classic, Elia Kazan’s “On the Waterfront”, with which it shares a few themes. Both movies are about a working class slob who had…
Bud-dy! Aren’t bad movies cool sometimes? This film is so much of a dud, yet it’s enjoyable in a sneaky way. You know it’s gonna be stupid, and it is, but you still grin through it. Sean Astin stars as a boring, annoying, self-conscious loser. He’s finishing high school in Encino, California, and he’s saddened by the fact that he never achieved to become popular….
“No funny stuff! And by funny stuff I mean holding hands, googoo eyes, misdirected woo- which is pretty much any John Woo film.” Yeah, I know, I quoted that Homer Simpson quip already in my Windtalkers review, but it unfortunately still applies. Who would have thought, back when Woo’s Hong Kong classics found their way into American video stores, that he’d end up making nondescript overblown Hollywood…
Many of this film’s detractors, and even some of its fans, will take part in furious Cruise-bashing, making cracks about his perfect white teeth, his perfectly coifed hair, his limited acting abilities… This has happened with every single flick Tom Cruise’s ever appeared in and I must say that I once couldn’t stand the pretty-boy superstar either. Since “Jerry Maguire”, though, I’ve found Cruise to…