SIFF Review: 'Game of Werewolves'

 

Mixing horror and comedy is a tricky proposition. Leaning too heavily on one element over the other can lead to an imbalance, and too many attempts to synthesize the two genres result in movies that are neither scary nor funny. That’s what makes Juan Martinez Moreno’s “Game of Werewolves” (AKA “Wolves of Arga”) such a treat; it seamlessly blends legitimate laughs with earnest frights and gore.

'Battleship' Movie Review

“Battleship” is terrible by almost every standard used to measure the quality of a movie, but is it also ridiculously fucking entertaining. You can tell that this is director Peter Berg’s (“The Rundown”) chance to play with big boy toys—real life ships and giant robots from space—and you feel how giddy he is as he takes each and every opportunity to live out a child’s dream on a grand scale. That glee runs throughout “Battleship”, and even as you groan about every questionable action and every line they give Liam Neeson in the film, it is infectious.

'Sound of my Voice' Movie Review

Is “Sound of My Voice”, the latest film from indie princess Brit Marling, an undercover science fiction story masquerading as a cautionary tale about cults? Or is it a story about cults in the guise of sci-fi? A case can be made either way, but I lean towards the former—that “Sound of My Voice” is covert sci-fi. Whichever way you approach, however, this is a quiet, inventive, subtly enthralling little film. Marling, who co-wrote the script with first-time director Zal Batmanglij, delivers a standout performance in this film that does a lot with very little. You start watching only to realize, somewhere along the line, that you’re hooked.

'The Raven' Movie Review

 

“The Raven” imagines the mysterious final days of Edgar Allen Poe as an action-mystery straight from the pages of the gothic author’s most macabre stories. Director James McTeigue’s film takes this gimmicky bit of revisionist history weaves it into a bland, forgettable movie. There are a few instances of gore that might momentarily sate horror fans, like an early near-decapitation, but very little makes “The Raven” stand out. It is a thoroughly uninteresting film.

'The Five-Year Engagement' Movie Review

 

Well that was disappointing.

The final 20 or 25 minutes of “The Five-Year Engagement” is great, and finally lives up to the film’s potential. Too bad the first 100 or so (yes, it’s 124 minute long comedy we’re talking about) are a toothless, meandering waste of time. Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller—the creative team behind “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “The Muppets”— are simply going through the motions here, and by the time they finally get around to the good stuff, the kind of charm and humor that makes their other movies engaging and fun, you’ve lost interest and really just want it all to be over. After the end the let down is so much more severe because you’ve seen how good the movie could have been.

DVD Review: 'The Wicker Tree'

In 1973 Robin Hardy made a little film called “The Wicker Man”, which became a bonafied piece cult horror. A few years ago “The Wicker Man” was remade (remember Nicolas Cage yelling about “The Bees!”). For whatever reason, maybe to cash in, maybe because the remake left a bad taste in his mouth, Hardy made “The Wicker Tree”. Neither a sequel nor a remake of his original film, “Tree” is intended as a thematic companion to “Man”, and ultimately part of a planned “Wicker” trilogy. “The Wicker Tree” is now out on Blu-ray and DVD, and I’m going to go ahead and say, whatever his motivations, Hardy should have left well enough alone and not bothered.

'Cabin in the Woods' Movie Review

I’ll keep this nice and quick. GO SEE “CABIN IN THE WOODS” OR YOU WILL REGRET IT. There.

Here’s something a bit more in depth if you’re so inclined: