The best of the five boroughs is now represented. Brooklyn in the house! I'm a hardworking film writer, blogger, and former co-host of "It's No Timecop" podcast! Find me on Twitter @markzhur.
In a post “Bambi 2” world, the irony of titling a picture The Last Exorcism Part 2 is seemingly left unacknowledged in this dour, occasionally effective demon possession chiller. Director Ed Gass-Donnelly’s film seems to wrestle between delivering on cheap jump scares and delving into something considerably more unsettling, the tale of a fundamentally good…
A discourteous comedian takes the place of a king in Chang-min Choo’s elegant, languid Masquerade, a Korean costume drama starring the formidable Byung-hun Lee, sadly best known to American audiences as Storm Shadow, courtesy of the G.I. Joe franchise. Lee, who is a Korean star par excellence, is the film’s focus, portraying both the hardened,…
By now those chosen few who’ve sought out Ben Wheatley’s latest, Sightseers (his next film, the English Civil War-set “A Field in England“, opens in UK cineplexes in July), have gotten their fill and hopefully developed an opinion. The film, unleashed upon U.S. audiences in limited release, is one of the darkest I’ve experienced and…
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) can’t sleep in Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 and that should tell you plenty about where we’re headed as Marvel rounds the home plate in its triumphant wrap-up to Phase 1 of its universe. The self-described “genius billionaire playboy philanthropist” is beset by anxiety attacks and bad dreams, attempting to…
Screwed is a surprise; the monochromatic DVD cover masking a film that is simplistic yet intelligent, gritty but also emotionally in check, a scrappy little crime drama anchored by an above-the-grade performance from James D’Arcy (turning in equally strong work in “Cloud Atlas” this year). Based on the book by Ronnie Thompson, a former prison…
Stop me if you’ve heard the premise of Looper before. 2044. Time travel hasn’t been invented yet. Fast forward thirty years later, when time-travel is illegal and used by future gangsters to dispatch targets. The target is bound, hooded and sent back to a one-way encounter with a Looper — hired guns in 2044 making…
Joe Carnahan’s The Grey falls in line with an intimate, frequently grueling genre of films that serve as potent reminders of why humankind builds cities. Pitting eternally grizzled survivor Liam Neeson and a dwindling crew of compatriots against a vicious, unrelenting nature, the film gets off to a strong start before mooring itself in thinly…
