Feb 6, 2021 | Matthewrozsa, Reviews
The late '90s and '00s were a weird forgotten golden age for crocodile and alligator horror flicks. The best were in two series: You had Steve Miner's "Lake Placid" in 1999, Tobe Hooper's "Crocodile" in 2000, Gary Johnson's follow up "Crocodile 2" in 2002 and the Todd...
Jan 24, 2021 | Matthewrozsa
There are two tragedies to "ParaNorman." First, it is a travesty that this film flopped at the box office and has faded into obscurity. Second, the film itself is a tragedy because it tells a story about the various ways that fear, mob mentality and prejudice create...
Jan 16, 2021 | Matthewrozsa, Reviews
There is a lot of controversy surrounding "Smiley," a 2012 horror film written and directed by a man named Michael Gallagher. I don't know much about Gallagher and don't want to know anything. The same goes for the various online groups who allegedly took offense over...
Jan 9, 2021 | Matthewrozsa
"Superman III" does not work as a movie about the character known as Superman. It works incredibly well, however, as two things that one would not normally find in a "Superman" film: One is a sweet Richard Pryor comedy about an archetype that will always have...
Jan 3, 2021 | Matthewrozsa
A word on Japanese director Takashi Shimizu, who directed the classic 2004 American horror movie "The Grudge." I have seen five of Shimizu's movies and loved every one of them. Four of those films are from his "Ju-On" franchise, including "Ju-On: The Grudge" in 2002,...
Jan 3, 2021 | Matthewrozsa
"The Grudge," a 2004 American film directed by Takashi Shimizu as an adaptation of his own 2002 masterpiece "Ju-On: The Grudge" (which is Japanese), is a very good horror movie. It has scary and iconic villains, a genuinely disturbing backstory, fine performances and...
Jan 2, 2021 | Matthewrozsa
I had an hour-and-a-half to kill before New Year's Day 2021 officially came to a close. That was just enough time to watch "The Grudge 3," a movie I once described as the worst in the American version of "The Grudge" series, and see if my initial impression was wrong....
Dec 24, 2020 | Matthewrozsa
I've written before that Steven Seagal the action film icon is quite different from Steven Seagal the real-life man. The actual Seagal has been accused of sexual misconduct and of being egomaniacal. He has, without question, cozied up with tyrants like Russian...
Dec 19, 2020 | Matthewrozsa
As I write this review, Sir Ian McKellen is making headlines for being one of the first celebrities to publicly get a COVID-19 vaccine. Clearly he realizes that we must inoculate ourselves against deadly diseases and is using his celebrity status to set a good...
Dec 18, 2020 | Matthewrozsa
Earlier this month I wrote an essay about the aesthetics of fascism, and at first glance "Coriolanus" seems like an easy story to turn to fascistic purposes. Indeed, many actual fascists have embraced William Shakespeare's early 17th century play as their own, and...