Author Archive
By MovieGoddess on Feb 21, 2010 in Drama, Mystery, Thriller | 0 Comments
The opening shot of a Boston ferry emerging from an impenetrable veil of fog as it makes it way toward a hostile, gothic-looking island proves to be an apt visual metaphor for what transpires in Shutter Island. From the moment the ferry appears and we hear the first strains of music, the audience is cued [...]
By MovieGoddess on Jan 15, 2010 in Action/Adventure, Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller | 0 Comments
Ethical vampires practicing abstinence from human blood isn’t a premise I easily buy into. My attitude may be an unfortunate side effect from the entertaining, if silly Twilight films. But I can put aside my skepticism for a story with intriguing ideas and parallels to our own real-world challenges. On first impression, Daybreakers appears to [...]
By MovieGoddess on Nov 26, 2009 in Drama | 3 Comments
At the start, the title character of Lee Daniel’s Precious: Based on a Novel by Sapphireintroduces herself to the audience: “My name is Clareece Precious Jones. I want to be on the cover of a magazine. I wish I had a light-skinned boyfriend with good hair. But first I want to be in one of [...]
By MovieGoddess on Nov 24, 2009 in Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller | 1 Comment
Blood. Sex. Demons. Director / writer Christopher Di Nunzio mixes these ingredients together and cooks up a curious blend of gangster film and supernatural horror in his first feature-length film, Livestock. If you are a horror fan with a healthy appetite for blood and gore, you just might enjoy Di Nunzio’s effort.
It’s chicks’ night out [...]
By MovieGoddess on Oct 22, 2009 in Horror, Mystery, Thriller | 5 Comments
Somebody up there likes me, and so I light a candle at the altar of the movie gods in thanks for delivering to this scare-starved horror buff a horror film worthy of the name. Written, produced, and directed by Oren Peli on a micro budget of $15,000, Paranormal Activity reinforces what The Blair Witch Project [...]
By MovieGoddess on Sep 16, 2009 in Horror, Thriller | 1 Comment
2009 may well be remembered as the year of the remake or reinterpretation of classic B-film slasher movies. Sorority Row — an update of The House on Sorority Row — continues this trend. Regrettably, it appears new ideas may be a little thin on the ground. It’s disappointing because the genre is [...]
By MovieGoddess on Apr 24, 2009 in Drama, Thriller | 5 Comments
Recycling, regretfully, seems to be the name of the game in Hollywood these days. On the horror front, we’ve been treated to remakes of The Last House on the Left, My Bloody Valentine, and Friday the 13th. In the musical realm, Fame will soon be released. And in the drama/thriller department, we now [...]
By MovieGoddess on Mar 21, 2009 in Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thriller | 2 Comments
In Zack Snyder’s brilliant film version of Watchmen, it isn’t business as usual for a group of rag-tag costumed do-gooders living, working, and laying low in the alternate world of a Nixon-era 1985, a time when masked crime fighters have been outlawed. In much the same way as Chris Nolan did for Batman in the [...]
By MovieGoddess on Feb 21, 2009 in Comedy, Crime, Drama | 9 Comments
Watching a Tyler Perry movie is like wandering around in a fog of cinematic confusion. Invariably the question arises, “Just what kind of movie am I watching?” A melodrama? A comedy? A morality tale? A message movie? A Sunday morning sermon? All five in one? Radical shifts in genre, tone and mood incline me to [...]
By MovieGoddess on Jan 26, 2009 in Horror, Thriller | 1 Comment
It’s a bad sign when the predominant reactions to a horror movie are sarcastic shout outs and hysterical laughter. Contrary to expectations, The Unborn delivers the unintentional laughs but not the scares. It’s beginning to look like horror movies aren’t supposed to be scary anymore.
Strange things are happening to teenager Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman). [...]
By MovieGoddess on Dec 26, 2008 in Biography, Drama | 7 Comments
I realize I’m aging myself here, but I was a teenager in the late 1970’s and as such I wasn’t paying too close attention to what was happening on the political scene at the time. I was much too caught up with the illicit thrill of cutting classes, shopping, and disco dancing. So when David [...]
By MovieGoddess on Nov 30, 2008 in Comedy, Crime, Drama | 4 Comments
What do you do for a popular, once bankable action hero whose star has plummeted and whose current films bypass theatrical release and go straight to video? Why, you resurrect him of course. And thankfully that’s just what director Mabrouk El Mechri has done in his new film, JCVD. Fans of “The “Muscles from [...]
By MovieGoddess on Nov 11, 2008 in Drama, Horror, Thriller | 1 Comment
If a “Ten Commandments” existed for horror films, then the first commandment would no doubt be, “Thou Shalt Be Scary”. It becomes clear from what transpires in the 15 minutes-or-so opening sequence that The Haunting of Molly Hartley breaks that commandment. From that point on, it’s downhill all the way.
This movie is the latest in [...]
By MovieGoddess on Nov 2, 2008 in Horror, Thriller | 7 Comments
Hope. Survival. Retribution. Happy endings. Years ago, these were the standard outcomes in the horror genre. Nowadays, we jaded human beings like things a bit edgier — and more unpredictable. James Watkins’ new movie, Eden Lake keeps to this new tradition. A movie about a romantic weekend gone horribly awry, the film’s title is [...]
By MovieGoddess on Oct 23, 2008 in Drama, Mystery, Thriller | 2 Comments
The prospect of suddenly going blind is enough to fill most people with dread. And going blind is exactly what happens to the people of an unnamed city, perhaps even the entire world, in Blindness, the new film by Fernando Meirelles based on Jose Saramago’s excellent novel of the same name. Blindness is a powerful [...]
By MovieGoddess on Oct 18, 2008 in Comedy, Fantasy | 4 Comments
The conservatives in Hollywood have risen to take a comedic swipe at liberal sentiments in general and the redoubtable, fault-finding, über -liberal Michael Moore in particular in the An American Carol, starring Kevin P. Farley, brother of the late comedic actor Chris Farley, as documentary filmmaker Michael Malone, Moore’s fictional counterpart. An American Carol is [...]