Just as slasher films were done to death in the ’80s and ’90s, the “found footage” subgenre (made popular by 1999’s The Blair Witch Project) is now being exploited to the point of becoming tired. After films like Cloverfield, [Rec], Quarantine, The Last Exorcism, Diary of the Dead and countless other films, it’s becoming increasingly…
Hunter S. Thompson was an acclaimed author and journalist, though as memorable as his literature is, he also has a legacy for his lifelong love of alcohol, mescaline, LSD, and cocaine. And on February 20, 2005, when the drugs stopped supplying happiness, he shot himself to death. The suicide note read: “No More Games. No…
Late last night Magnet Releasing (Magnolia Pictures) put out the trailer for their haunted hotel flick, The Innkeepers. It takes place in The Yankee Pedlar Hotel and poking its other-wordly inhabitants are two employees charged with boxing everything up and closing its doors forever. I’m not the biggest fan of Sara Paxton but the two…
4.3.2.1.. The title of this multi-threaded thriller gives the impression that a timer is counting down the seconds — maybe it is bomb methodically ticking down to Armageddon, maybe it is a rocket set to take flight to the moon. Or maybe, as in this case, it spells out the specifics of the film. There…
You will enjoy particular films even more if you do not know very much beforehand; think “The Sixth Sense” or “The Crying Game.” Previews of movies nowadays give away everything including the set up, the conflict, the climax, and sometimes even the ending all before you go and see it. The preview for The Skin…
Set in a fictional brokerage firm in 2008 just before the housing bust, Margin Call appears to be very loosely based on Lehman Brothers (hence the boldly printed words “Inspired by a True Story” on its poster). Opening strongly, Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) is ushered into a conference room to meet with people he has…
During my younger years, my mother would always tell me outlandish stories. Most of these tales involved animals spontaneously springing to life and adapting anthropomorphic qualities and inspired an overactive imagination, but one fable in particular would always scare me witless. As a superstitious woman, she’d look at me — her words marinated in conviction…
