As a film critic, I try to have an open mind about the movies that I watch and rewatch. In the case of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” — not the 1974 classic directed by Tobe Hooper, but the 2003 cult classic directed by Marcus Nispel — I return to the flick again and again because it feels like a fable.... Read Original Article
“10,000 BC” does not deserve its bad rap.
It is not the worse reviewed film in director Roland Emmerich’s oeuvre (that distinction belongs to “Moon 44”), but it is perhaps his most infamous. “Boring” is a word that I often hear from casual moviegoers who have watched this flick. Indeed, I hear that adjective so frequently that “10,000 BC” has quickly become something even sadder than a guilty pleasure.... Read Original Article
The “Pulse” trilogy is to the Internet what certain episodes of “The Twilight Zone” are to space travel and computers. (I am going to focus on the second movie, “Pulse 2: Afterlife,” but also discuss the other two films.)
That anachronistic take on tech is one of the main things which draws me to the “Pulse” movies, again and again.... Read Original Article
I want an action figure of Robby the Robot… but with a metallic face under his translucent dome, as opposed to the tubes, wires, spheres and flashing lights seen in the 1956 sci-fi film “Forbidden Planet.” The reason for this is simple: Without that cold, cruel visage staring back at me, I wouldn’t know for sure that I was holding a plastic statuette of Uncle Simon II.... Read Original Article
The opening scene in “Paths of Glory” should appear in a dictionary next to the word “Machiavellian.” It is World War I and a French military official, Major General Georges Broulard (Adolphe Menjou), has been given an impossible assignment. His superiors, who are grossly out of touch with the realities of battle, have ordered him to retake a key hill to turn the tide against Germany, which currently holds it.... Read Original Article
Call it “Final Prayer,” as they do in the USA, or call it “The Borderlands,” as they do everywhere else. Just don’t forget to call it the best found footage horror ever!
The concept of found footage horror has, alas, usually been better than the execution. In theory, the found footage format — one in which a movie is created to seem like real-life that just happened to be taped by an observer — is ideally suited to the horror genre.... Read Original Article