A found footage slasher which doesn’t add anything to a highly variable subgenre sounds eminently skippable, but Altar is at least short and sharp, reasonably gripping, and has good characterization. A slightly unconvincing and unnecessary prologue presents a married couple spending their wedding night in a remote hotel. For some reason they choose to go…
The chasm between what parents want for their children and what kids want for themselves is rarely addressed in films, especially in romantic comedies where the focus is primarily on young couples falling in and out of love and then back in again. Of course, we know that parents are usually involved, especially immigrant families…
It’s a well-known fact that most third installments of film franchises do not rise to the level of the first (and often the second). Now, these examples are subjective, of course, but I present as evidence the following pictures: “Rocky III,” “Superman III,” “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the…
For more than a decade, Edgar Wright has risen to become one the world’s more interesting filmmakers by innovating the action-comedy genre through homage and sharp satire with films like “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz” and “The World’s End.” Now Wright returns to bring his unique spin on the action-thriller genre. His foray, Baby…
It’s hard to believe that Road to Hell is Albert Pyun’s 50th movie, and even harder to believe that he still can’t make a decent film. Originally shot in 2008, it’s surely a labor of love for the micro-budget auteur, although I’m not sure how much love it’s likely to receive beyond the initiated. Heavily…
That will do, super pig. That will do. Animals never have it easy in Bong Joon-ho’s world: “Barking Dogs Never Bite” paints those that yap as vermin that need terminating, “The Host” mutates a fish into a rampaging abomination and now Okja follows a hybrid fated for the abattoir. Yet, rather than rage at or…
Filmmaker Sofia Coppola is a mixed bag in terms of her big screen artistry as both an actress and movie-making siren. Specifically, Coppola’s auteur skills can run rather cold and dismissive (penning the flat and forgettable costume saga “Marie Antoinette”) or can inspire unexpected hypnotic greatness of roguish contemplation and isolation (as demonstrated in her…
