Film Freak Central

Blu-ray review - The Fall

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:51:25 GMT

"Beware the film that positions itself as being told from the perspective of a child..." by Walter Chaw

SIFF '09 coverage - Deadgirl

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:50:49 GMT

"It must be a good horror movie: I've been thinking about it ever since." by Jefferson Robbins

Blu-ray review - True Blood: The Complete First Season

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:50:05 GMT

"In the romance aisles of your local bookstore, where "paranormal" is the preferred rubric for a burgeoning category of supernatural bodice-ripper, a reader may now find that vampires and werewolves really are that into you." by Bryant Frazer

Blu-ray review - Friday the 13th Part 2

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:49:12 GMT

"I can't say for sure whether or not I feel it's an improvement on the original film--it is simply something different in the same vein." by Alex Jackson (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

SIFF '09 coverage - Fifty Dead Men Walking

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:47:57 GMT

"We thought we'd lost you, Sir Ben. Well met. Nice hair." by Jefferson Robbins

Interview - Ed Helms, star of "The Hangover"

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:46:03 GMT

"Helms admits that he's not entirely comfortable with the subject of himself, but he's a good sport about it nonetheless..." by Ian Pugh

Theatrical release reviews - Land of the Lost + The Hangover

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:45:04 GMT

"Have you watched the series recently and cracked self-satisfied jokes about how drugs were its primary influence? If so, then this film is for you." by Ian Pugh

SIFF '09 coverage - Art & Copy

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:43:55 GMT

"Where it doesn't succeed is as a history lesson, save for opening nods to the era familiar to fans of "Mad Men"." by Jefferson Robbins

SIFF '09 coverage - Black Dynamite

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:42:49 GMT

"White turns out to be adept at kicking ass while cracking jokes; someone should have given him an action-comedy years ago." by Jefferson Robbins

SIFF '09 coverage - I Sell the Dead

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:29:24 GMT

"I was genetically engineered to like this movie--so I guess I have to blame the filmmakers for fumbling the experiment." by Jefferson Robbins

Blu-ray review - 2010: The Year We Make Contact

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:28:35 GMT

"A conservative Cold War 'message' flick, with its rebels punished with extreme prejudice (poor Cosmonaut Max, poor HAL) and the promise of World Peace held in the balance of a stentorian, omnipotent alien intelligence visiting with a payload of warnings and biblical-sounding bans." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Revolutionary Road

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:08:16 GMT

"Another point on the graph of director Sam Mendes' steeply-declining returns." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

SIFF '09 coverage - Cold Souls

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:07:19 GMT

"In her first feature, writer-director Sophie Barthes deploys an amazing cast in an effort that will, for better or worse, be invariably compared to Kaufman's Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." by Jefferson Robbins

Theatrical release review - Up

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:05:28 GMT

"There are one too many cutaways to a dead wife's portrait and one too many winsome sighs as a plan made in childhood looms tantalizingly near." by Walter Chaw

Theatrical release review - Drag Me to Hell

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:04:32 GMT

"When an honest-to-God anvil is utilized in the only way you'd expect it to be utilized by a man raised on Looney Tunes and the Three Stooges, you realize that, goddamnit, the old boy's still got it." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - Resident Evil: Degeneration

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:02:17 GMT

"Come back, Milla! All is forgiven." by Bryant Frazer

Blu-ray reviews - Paul Blart: Mall Cop + Bedtime Stories

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:01:09 GMT

"James is a likable enough actor, yet the movie is never funny." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - Anaconda

Sun, 31 May 2009 23:59:16 GMT

"Almost worth it just for Jon Voight's post-regurgitation wink..." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Blu-ray review - Yes Man

Sun, 31 May 2009 23:58:13 GMT

"Can this button-up, white-collar stiff (Carl's a loan officer) learn to embrace spontaneity and break free of the workaday while setting up his own quirky business and saving the world in the process? Yes, man." by Walter Chaw

SIFF '09 coverage - Nurse.Fighter.Boy

Sun, 31 May 2009 23:57:20 GMT

"Director Charles Officer and cinematographer Steve Cosens paint in reds, blues, and golds but seem to recognize that few textures are more beautiful than a black woman's skin." by Jefferson Robbins

Theatrical release review - Terminator: Salvation

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:56:49 GMT

"Whatever." by Walter Chaw

SIFF '09 coverage - The Hurt Locker

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:56:00 GMT

"Bigelow...maintains a grenade-pin tension in the bombwork scenes but, surprisingly, lets out too much slack as James tries to take the fight to the hidden triggermen who detonate their payloads from afar." by Jefferson Robbins

SIFF '09 coverage - Humpday

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:54:42 GMT

"The difference in intimacy between male friendship and married companionship gets laid bare..." by Jefferson Robbins

Blu-ray review - Being There

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:53:00 GMT

"It's an arrogant movie, a smug movie, and until this one it didn't seem like Ashby had made many of those." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Changing Lanes

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:52:06 GMT

"For most of its running time, it holds the promise of a bygone cinema invested in quality and a distinction of voice." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Theatrical release review - Angels & Demons

Thu, 14 May 2009 20:43:48 GMT

"I'm torn between thanking David Koepp for making this material semi-watchable and lamenting that he nonetheless proved incapable of transcending the problems inherent in the material itself." by Ian Pugh

SIFF '09 coverage - In the Loop

Thu, 14 May 2009 20:42:44 GMT

"It's the Downing Street Memo actualized as comedy." by Jefferson Robbins

Blu-ray review - Never Say Never Again: Collector's Edition

Mon, 11 May 2009 20:51:28 GMT

"Despite its maverick reputation, Never Say Never Again feels more like a product of the bourgeois Establishment than the official franchise itself ever did." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - A Bug's Life

Mon, 11 May 2009 20:50:06 GMT

"What hurts the picture is, surprisingly, the dullness of its ant heroes." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Interview - James Toback/Theatrical release review - Tyson

Mon, 11 May 2009 20:49:32 GMT

"From the way the conversation shifted in tone when I started talking about Tyson through the prism of his other films, I think Toback was pulling rank as a self-conscious auteur." by Ian Pugh

Theatrical release review - Star Trek

Thu, 07 May 2009 18:41:01 GMT

"My long-held suspicion of J.J. Abrams as a no-trick pony has thawed completely now." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Frank Miller's Sin City: 2 Discs

Thu, 07 May 2009 18:40:30 GMT

"It's all about sack-size and the lizard brain--and as a film, it's something like pure aggression and machismo, freebased on a filthy spoon and shunted into an open vein." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

DVD review - Nanking

Mon, 04 May 2009 21:39:02 GMT

"By trying to tell us everything about the Nanking Massacre, Nanking ultimately tells us very little." by Alex Jackson

Blu-ray review - Saturday Night Fever

Mon, 04 May 2009 21:38:13 GMT

"A nasty-feeling picture, the absolute pinnacle of the sixties hangover that burned off the idealism of that era in the crucible of a years-long disintegration of hope." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Theatrical release review - X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Fri, 01 May 2009 15:23:58 GMT

"The action sequences are bad, the plot is bad... Hugh Jackman? He's fine." by Walter Chaw

Theatrical release review - Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:35:05 GMT

"Excellent justification for the crib death of cynical, Eisner-hijacked, RKO-minted philosophies like Commerce over Genius." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Taking Lives

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:34:05 GMT

"Good schlocky suspense, thrifty distribution of grue, Angelina disrobed again, and a supporting cast mostly in on the gag..." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Blu-ray review - The Uninvited

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:37:35 GMT

"If it sounds like this is going to be the umpteenth iteration of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle tropes, or perhaps a rehash of What Lies Beneath, well, that's precisely what they want you to think." by Ian Pugh (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Interview - Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, writer-directors of "Sugar"

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:35:58 GMT

"I came away from meeting Ms. Boden and Mr. Fleck in the "Tokyo Room" of Denver's Hotel Monaco with a gratifying reminder that on occasion, it's still possible to divine the wellspring of the art through conversation with the artists." by Walter Chaw

Theatrical release review - The Soloist

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:15:55 GMT

"You can't dance about architecture, but it doesn't stop Wright from trying." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Event Horizon

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:36:11 GMT

"You look at Event Horizon as you would something that fell out of someone's nose." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Gigi

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:56:40 GMT

"Not surprisingly, it never made the AFI's Top 100 and is rarely sought out by anyone other than Minnelli completists and goofballs like myself committed to that adolescent cinephile task of seeing every Best Picture winner." by Alex Jackson (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Blu-ray review - The Wrestler

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:00:42 GMT

"The Wrestler bears out as the most haunting sports film, or rather the most haunting film about the margins of a sport, since Fat City." by Bill Chambers

Theatrical release review - State of Play

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:19:56 GMT

"A paranoid '70s throwback played fatally straight." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - No Country for Old Men: 2-Disc Collector's Edition

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:11:19 GMT

"Chigurh is one of the great screen bogeys." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

DVD/Blu-ray review - Dead Like Me: The Complete Collection + Pushing Daisies: The Complete First Season

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 22:17:46 GMT

"Place the blame for 'Dead Like Me' squarely in the back pocket of creator Bryan Fuller, so fond of his own cleverness that his characters are forced in thrall of his ventriloquism." by Walter Chaw

Theatrical release review - Observe and Report

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:01:18 GMT

"Suffice it to say, I had a difficult time scraping my jaw off the theatre floor." by Ian Pugh

Theatrical release reviews - Sugar (2009) + Tokyo Sonata

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:49:15 GMT

"There appears to be a race to the bottom: the first to total, Warholian inertia wins the booby prize." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Lakeview Terrace

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:48:10 GMT

"After seven years of examining the lines against which society coalesces when the world falls down, here's a film about the tenuous handshake that tenants of the new world order have with the re-gelling of society." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Chocolate (2008)

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:55:31 GMT

"Chocolate is always scrambling towards its next action sequence because, frankly, it hasn't got anywhere else to go." by Bryant Frazer

Interview - R.W. Goodwin, director of "Alien Trespass"

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:53:27 GMT

"Goodwin beams with pride over positive reactions to Alien Trespass, feeling particularly validated by the idea that this, his first film, is more of a communal experience than an intellectual one." by Ian Pugh

Theatrical release reviews - Adventureland + Alien Trespass

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:05:12 GMT

"A more honest, more personal, and, most importantly, more mature film than Superbad." by Ian Pugh

Theatrical release review - Monsters Vs Aliens

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:51:44 GMT

"On the bright side, it's short." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray reviews - The Pelican Brief; A Time to Kill; Primal Fear: Hard Evidence Edition

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:50:21 GMT

"Critics at the time observed that McConaughey in this role reminded them of Paul Newman and Marlon Brando; pretty much, he reminds me of McConaughey in a cheap suit." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Doubt

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:55:11 GMT

"Here, in Doubt, is the one opportunity for the broad discussion it desires about race, and religion, and progress versus stasis, and while it's unfair to say that it's wasted, safe to say that it's not deeply examined." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Theatrical release review - The Haunting in Connecticut

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:47:24 GMT

"Never mind all of this "true story" malarkey--what really makes The Haunting in Connecticut stand out from the pack is the sociopathic obnoxiousness with which it's been pitched to moviegoers." by Ian Pugh

Omnibus review: "Feed My Frankenheimer" - John Frankenheimer Collection (Ronin; The Manchurian Candidate; The Train; The Young Savages) + French Connection II [Blu-ray]

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:40:53 GMT

"The Popeye of this film is without charm, so that the extended middle-act's tortured stripping of his charm via a forced addiction to the archfiend Smack, courtesy archfiend Charnier, seems redundant. More than redundant, it seems just." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - I've Loved You So Long

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:46:16 GMT

"If there's a lot to look at along the way, I've Loved You So Long holds few genuine surprises." by Bryant Frazer

DVD/Blu-ray review - How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (DVD) + Beverly Hills Chihuahua (BD)

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:49:46 GMT

"Do give How to Lose Friends some credit for attempting to comment on the cultural divide without resorting to dogs granted the CGI gift of gab." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - Quantum of Solace

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:22:26 GMT

"The perfect film for its time, Quantum of Solace is a throwback in every bad way to the stagnant Bond." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Theatrical release review - Duplicity

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:37:02 GMT

"The picture is...some lonely spinster's idea of love on the run in travelogue locales, some middlebrow concept of wit and audacity." by Walter Chaw

Theatrical release reviews - I Love You, Man + The Great Buck Howard

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:35:33 GMT

"While the script is clever and quick-witted when it's not throwing up on people, truth be told I found its implications far more interesting than anything it spells out." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - The One: Special Edition

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:57:24 GMT

"Li has an excuse as his English is extremely poor, but screenwriting partners Wong and Morgan have a lot to answer for." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Blu-ray reviews - Dan in Real Life + Rachel Getting Married

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:26:34 GMT

"But Julie is exactly what widower Dan needs; oh God, why art thou such a whimsical asshole?" by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:46:35 GMT

"When the most memorable scene in your action/horror/sci-fi thriller is a brief ending shot of Natasha Henstridge in grey institutional underwear, you know you've got problems." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Theatrical release reviews - Sunshine Cleaning; The Last House on the Left (2009); Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:42:35 GMT

"In the grand scheme of things, The Last House on the Left does fare a great deal better than this week's other remake/reboot of a '70s cult classic, Race to Witch Mountain." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - Cadillac Records

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:52:55 GMT

"While the film suffers from kitchen-sink syndrome, at its best it's an engaging piece of advocacy for the bluesmen who transformed American music." by Bryant Frazer

Blu-ray review - The French Connection

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:20:40 GMT

"The dreaded 'c' word--'colorization'--comes to mind." by Bill Chambers

DVD reviews - Batbabe: The Dark Nightie + The Stewardesses (2-DVD Set)

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:37:59 GMT

"It may seem ridiculous to call a softcore porno spoof of The Dark Knight a disappointment, but I've been aching to see any sort of comedic critical response to Christopher Nolan's masterpiece since it stole my heart last summer." by Ian Pugh

Theatrical release review - Watchmen

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:15:52 GMT

"It knows the notes but doesn't hear the music." by Walter Chaw

DVD review - Miracle at St. Anna

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:44:59 GMT

"The picture is finally done a near-fatal disservice by Lee's often-painful (and, some might say, trademark) didacticism." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - Pretty Woman

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:53:14 GMT

"We might accurately describe Pretty Woman as a criss-cross of Bringing Up Baby and 'Pygmalion'." by Alex Jackson (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

DVD review - Meet Dave

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:54:01 GMT

"Funny, like pornography, is difficult to define--but I know it when I see it." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray reviews - High School Musical (Remix); High School Musical 2 (Extended Edition); High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Deluxe Extended Edition)

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:37:59 GMT

"Not exactly the cultural apocalypse its Disney Channel roots and preteen popularity would have you believe, High School Musical is no worse, really, than any other cookie-cutter musical in recent memory." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - Nights in Rodanthe

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:13:51 GMT

"The result is this bipolar Frankenstein abomination: one half in gleeful wallow, the other in heartfelt pap." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

DVD review - Poltergeist: Digitally Restored and Remastered

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:10:53 GMT

"If I were Hooper, I wouldn't even try to claim this one." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:10:02 GMT

"It's Argento's revelry in one part in the unrelieved nihilism and delicious confusion that would characterize the best of the '70s' paranoia cinema--and in the other part, in the joy of great genre filmmaking." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Theatrical release reviews - Gomorrah (Gomorra) + Slumdog Millionaire

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:35:30 GMT

"If Slumdog Millionaire isn't a racist melodrama that uses real misery and human degradation as the backdrop for a fairytale of how everything works out in the end (and it is), then it's a movie that says the key to escaping the hell of privation and a complete lack of hope for the future isn't betterment through education, but winning a goddamned Western game show." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Max Payne: Unrated

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:33:15 GMT

"Although Max Payne is fairly described as awful, it's not without interest, contemporariness, or ambition." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Theatrical release review - The International

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:15:26 GMT

"It doesn't matter that The International doesn't know what to be from one minute to the next--what matters is that it's an exact replica of The Interpreter in every way that counts and is, therefore, completely, immanently, blessedly forgettable." by Walter Chaw

DVD reviews - The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2-Disc Deluxe Edition); Wanted (2-Disc Special Edition); Mamma Mia! (2-Disc Special Edition)

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:02:55 GMT

"Fast becoming the post-Welles RKO without a commensurate Val Lewton to grease the transition from art to filthy lucre, today's Universal Pictures finds itself a long, long way from Psycho with a bumper crop of genuinely bad movies reverse-engineered from past box-office champions." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Quarantine

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:45:09 GMT

"The biggest problem with Quarantine is that, in a cinematic universe that already includes [REC], it has no reason to exist." by Bryant Frazer

Blu-ray review - Mirrors: Unrated

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:44:04 GMT

"You stay classy, Alexandre." by Ian Pugh (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Theatrical release review - Friday the 13th (2009)

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:17:57 GMT

"Yet it doesn't matter what contempt the film may have for its characters: the fact remains that it's a slave to our expectations." by Ian Pugh

Theatrical release review - Coraline

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:13:15 GMT

"Coraline is terrifying, of course, but less because Selick's artistry is wonderfully askew than because the material is watertight." by Walter Chaw

Theatrical release review - Push

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:11:50 GMT

"When crazy shit has no rules to govern its parameters, you get dangerously close to a Timur Bekmambetov joint: random frenzy and word salad." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Groundhog Day: Special 15th Anniversary Edition

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:16:35 GMT

"The film boasts one of the more successful 'What if?' scenarios because it keeps fishing for ideas that will enrich the central premise, and we take pleasure in co-screenwriters Ramis and Danny Rubin out-imagining us." by Bill Chambers

Blu-ray review - Amadeus: Director's Cut

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:15:17 GMT

"Restored now to a three-hour 'director's cut,' Amadeus unfortunately suffers from its additions." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Theatrical release review - He's Just Not That Into You

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:12:39 GMT

"My colleague Walter Chaw once wrote that you'll never refer to the characters in Crash by anything other than their broadest generalities, which is exactly how this movie would have it." by Ian Pugh

Blog Alert

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:11:10 GMT

Important information about our upcoming book, "The Film Freak Central 2009 Superannual".

DVD review - Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D: Deluxe Edition

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:25:59 GMT

"Why make plans, why look or think of love, when you exist for no other reason than to be gutted like an animal?" by Alex Jackson (DVD comments by Bill Chambers)

Sundance 09 coverage - Earth Days

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:22:16 GMT

"Subjugating one's individualism in the name of the Greater Good to this degree registers as a little insane." by Alex Jackson

Blu-ray review - Ghost Town

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:55:03 GMT

"Ghost Town mines the essential sadness of this high concept for a few well-earned laughs and a few more unexpected moments of sober, existential reflection." by Walter Chaw

Sundance 09 coverage - Moon

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:53:09 GMT

"The film in general is a strangely comforting experience." by Alex Jackson

Blu-ray review - Friday the 13th: Uncut

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:32:53 GMT

"The film betrays a type of nihilism you can only find in a vacuum--a real poetry or sense of hope isn't able to seep in." by Alex Jackson (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Sundance 09 coverage - Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:31:04 GMT

"If nothing else, Push is a welcome alternative to the useless, navel-gazing naturalism that so often characterizes socially conscientious cinema." by Alex Jackson

Theatrical release review - The Uninvited

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:06:50 GMT

Sundance 09 coverage - Kimjongilia

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:08:40 GMT

"As political filmmaking, it's pretty crude." by Alex Jackson

Blu-ray review - Blue Streak

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:36:50 GMT

"Slavish conformance to most conventions of the late-1990s PG-13 action farce keeps it from scaling the kind of heights that Lawrence's confident and wholly unpretentious comic presence occasionally suggests." by Bryant Frazer

Sundance 09 coverage - The Anarchist's Wife

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:35:31 GMT

"Valverde's classical beauty and the mere way she can model a certain shade of red lipstick appears to be the principal reason for the film's existence." by Alex Jackson

DVD review - Max Payne: Unrated

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:44:17 GMT

"Although Max Payne is fairly described as awful, it's not without interest, contemporariness, or ambition." by Walter Chaw

Sundance 09 coverage - Everything Strange and New

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:43:06 GMT

"The film is a deadening experience and it feels right." by Alex Jackson

Blu-ray review - Zodiac: 2-Disc Director's Cut

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:21:42 GMT

"The best film of its kind since All the President's Men." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

Sundance 09 coverage - Boy Interrupted

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:20:01 GMT

"Exactly the sort of thing that seems immune to criticism, the film is nonetheless admirably free of sentimentality." by Alex Jackson

Sundance 09 coverage - The Killing Room

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:19:46 GMT

"If torture porn wants to survive into the next decade, it's going to have to re-invent itself." by Alex Jackson

Blu-ray reviews - Dead & Buried + I Know What You Did Last Summer

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:30:02 GMT

"One is cruel, the other callous; one is about death, the other about killing; one is sexy, the other exploitive; and so on and so forth." by Bill Chambers

Sundance 09 coverage - Stay the Same Never Change

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:51:33 GMT

"Nakadate seems to have found a fresh and absurdly funny way of illustrating the Lolita problem, whereby sexuality provides young teenage girls more power than they know what to do with." by Alex Jackson

DVD review - Mirrors: Unrated

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:23:52 GMT

"You stay classy, Alexandre." by Ian Pugh

Blu-ray review - Swing Vote

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:53:17 GMT

"Swing Vote is the kind of lefty pinko wet blanket that can't take a stand without providing narration for it." by Walter Chaw

DVD reviews - Day of the Dead (2008) + Lost Boys: The Tribe (Uncut Version)

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:22:22 GMT

"It's no wonder this abortion went straight to video--the wonder is that it saw the light of day in any form." by Walter Chaw

Blu-ray review - Last Holiday (2006)

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:07:09 GMT

"The picture's self-righteous message concerning the evils of capitalism in its palm-crossed politicos [is] deflated utterly by its message that spending great amounts of cash on yourself is guaranteed happiness." by Walter Chaw (Blu-ray comments by Bill Chambers)

DVD review - Touch of Evil: 50th Anniversary Edition

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:02:53 GMT

"I look at Touch of Evil as a canonical part of every young (male?) cinephile's indoctrination." by Alex Jackson

Film reviews - Che + Milk

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:03:32 GMT

"From the self-awareness, artistry, and ballsiness of Che to the unfortunate watered-down quality of Gus Van Sant's Milk." by Walter Chaw

Staff page updated

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:58:19 GMT

It's nothing special, but it was long overdue.