Good heavens, and here was I thinking that The Infidel was on dangerous ground. Believe me, it’s got nothing on Four Lions, the new movie from controversial British writer Christopher Morris. This is a comedy concerning four British citizens -- three of Pakistani descent, one white -- whose ultimate goal is to become suicide bombers. Those easily offended should steer well clear.
The group is headed by Omar (Riz Ahmed), a happily married Northerner with a young boy for whom bedtime stories are adaptations of Disney tales with militant morals. Omar’s family, for reasons we are never explained, support him on his quest to bring terror to the masses. “Don’t worry, Dad,” his son encourages him as bombing plans are discussed, “you’ll be in heaven before your head hits the ceiling.” Next in our motley crew is Barry (Nigel Lindsay). His curse was to be born white and ...
Recent Movie Reviews
Movie Review: The Last Exorcism (2010) »
Critical Critic: Mariusz Zubrowski | Published on: August 28, 2010
Filed under: Horror, Thriller | 2 Comments
I’ve never been one to believe in the hocus-pocus, piece of schlock that is the Bible. I’m sorry if this offends any fanatics, but it’s just how I feel. Although I was raised as a Catholic, even as a child I found the stories of Jesus’ resurrection and God’s seven-day creation plan to be just plain absurd. Of course, this meant that I found church sermons to be boring, useless, and ultimately pathetic as priests preached about how one should love God more than their children -- it just sickened me. That being said, I’m not quite convinced that there is a Lucifer either. To me, the demon-lord and Hell were just meant to oppress/control a nation’s people when the law wasn’t enough to keep order. But as the non-believer that I am, I am proud to say that I proclaim my “allegiance” to God at least twice a day:
...Movie Review: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008) »
Critical Critic: pinkston | Published on: August 26, 2010
Filed under: Documentary | 1 Comment
I don't cry at movies. I mean, I’m not some unemotional or unattached person -- many movies have touched me profoundly. But I have trained myself not to cry at movies. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father made it real tough.
For anyone who has read or heard anything about this film, you’ve probably heard that it is emotionally devastating. After I posted on my Facebook account that I had just seen the film, people began responding almost immediately about how the movie is so incredibly sad. Likewise, if you search Tumblr blogs with the keywords “Dear Zachary,” 95% of the posts contain the sentence “this is the saddest movie I have ever seen” or something to the same effect. Documentary or not, however, being incredibly emotional doesn’t make you a good film, and in fact, being too emotional can often be a detractor. Dear Zachary: A ...Movie Review: The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) »
Critical Critic: Dan Schneider | Published on: August 26, 2010
Filed under: Science Fiction | 0 Comments
I just watched Werner Herzog’s 2005 science fiction fantasy film The Wild Blue Yonder, and am left in that rare position of not having much to say of the film that could really change the opinion of a viewer, pro or con, toward it. This is not because it is good nor bad, simply because it is one of those works of art that is not even on a good/bad scale. It is beyond such reckoning, a purely aural and visual experience for most of its 81 minutes, and thus has an effect similar to the phantasmagoric end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Yet, as appealing as that is, the film then has intercut documentary footage of a 1989 space shuttle mission, interviews with NASA scientists who speak all sorts of gobbledygook, and snippets of actor Brad Dourif as a psychotic alien (or kook ...Movie Review: Survival of the Dead (2009) »
Critical Critic: pinkston | Published on: August 25, 2010
Filed under: Horror | 3 Comments
George A. Romero not only created the modern zombie horror genre, but he is still considered by many as the master of genre -- even with mostly unsuccessful films like Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead. Personally, I can’t call myself a huge Romero fan, but I am a horror film connoisseur and consider Dawn of the Dead one of my favorite horror films of all time. Still, even though I had very little expectation for Survival of the Dead, I came out completely unsatisfied.
The major problems I have with the film are the zombies and their lack of any horror. Although I wouldn’t call any of Romero’s zombie films “scary” he completely pin-pointed what makes zombies frightening: There are millions of them and they will never stop until they eat you. Sure, they might move slowly and ...
