Thursday, March 15, 2012

'The FP' Movie Review


“The FP” is like watching the hyper active, sugar fueled bastard child of “The Warriors”, Japanese pop culture, and a hillbilly bounce all over the screen. Let me clarify that. “The FP” is one of the loudest, most ridiculous, entertaining movies I’ve seen in a long, long time. Because you know what movies like “The Warriors” always lacked, the only real thing they needed? Dance fighting, that’s what, clam chowder. The Trost Brothers, writers and directors of “The FP”, have rectified that situation.

'21 Jump Street' Movie Review


In the year of our lord two-thousand-and-twelve, did anyone expect there to be a
“21 Jump Street” movie? Were people clamoring for a “21 Jump Street” movie? Has some obscure cable network been playing re-runs of the 80s teen cop drama, stirring up a rabid underground network of fans chanting “Jump Street”, “Jump Street”, “Jump Street”? And what’s more, possibly the biggest of these questions, did anyone actually expect “21 Jump Street” to be really good? Because it is. I’m as surprised as anyone. I anticipated a complete and utter disaster, but it’s serious laughs from beginning to end.

'Being Flynn' Movie Review


Based on Nick Flynn’s acclaimed memoir “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City”, Paul Weitz’s (“American Pie”) latest film bears the uninteresting name “Being Flynn”. The necessity for the name change is obvious—after all, you can’t put swears up on a marquee—but they went from the a great, memorable title to something completely bland and generic. There’s no way a name like “Being Flynn” will offend anyone’s delicate sensibilities, but there is no way it will stick with anyone either. Luckily for you the watering down of the title doesn’t extend to the contents of the memoir.

Monday, March 5, 2012

DVD Review: 'The Burning Moon'


Do you like disemboweling? Do you like people being forced to eat their friend’s eyeballs? I knew you did. And because you have such discerning, gore-soaked taste, you’ll probably want to hurry out and pick up a copy of Olaf Ittenbach’s German blood-fest “The Burning Moon”. Seriously, there’s something horribly, and delightfully wrong with this dude. The film is a bit of a mythic figure, circulating on bootleg VHS tapes traded in seedy back rooms by an underground network of hardcore horror fanatics. At least that’s the way I imagine it going down. Given the cinematic mayhem that is now available on DVD, that would be an appropriately sketchy scenario.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

'Kill List' Movie Review


Ben Wheatley’s “Kill List” has been a difficult film to pin down. It’s been getting tons of play on horror sites, but at the same time the basic, couple sentence summary makes it sound like an action movie. There are definite elements of both genres, with a heaping helping of psychological thriller thrown in for good measure. If you cornered me and forced me to stuff it into a single pigeonhole, I’d have to go with that last one. “Kill List” fits into a similar space as movies like “The Shinning” and “Rosemary’s Baby”. I even had twinges of “A Serbian Film” at times. There is an element of the occult, of some sinister, unknown outside force encroaching on the narrative, driving characters closer and closer to the brink of madness.