May 2013
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Star Trek Into Darkness

reviewed on May 16th, 2013 07:27PM

It's been a 4 year mission to wait for a sequel to J.J. Abrams' awesome Star Trek reboot but, finally Star Trek Into Darkness has arrived. And while it's not quite up to the 2009 blockbuster, it is still a really entertaining 2 hours at the movies...

Iron Man 3

reviewed on May 3rd, 2013 06:09AM

WARNING: SOME SPOILERS As a fan of the first two Iron Man films and all the Marvel phase 1 films so far, this second sequel to Iron Man was highly anticipated. And therefor that much more disappointing. Iron Man 3 picks up after the Avengers with...

Gangster Squad

reviewed on May 2nd, 2013 02:22AM

On a basic level, Gangster Squad is entertaining. There is plenty of action, a good cast and Sean Penn's over the top performance as infamous crime boss Mickey Cohen is fun to watch. But, despite all this, the film ultimately disappoints as it had...

The Lords of Salem

reviewed on April 19th, 2013 08:10PM

If Stanley Kubrick, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci got drunk and decided to make a horror movie together, Lords Of Salem would probably be close to what you'd get. Even back in the White Zombie days, rocker/director Rob Zombie has always shown a he...

Hitchcock

reviewed on April 11th, 2013 03:57AM

Despite a great (and underused) cast and good performances, Hitchcock is a dull affair that can't decide what kind of movie it wants to be. It is a whimsical look at the making of Psycho? Is it a drama about the troubled relationship between Hitch...

The Evil Dead (1983)

reviewed on April 6th, 2013 03:23AM

The original Evil Dead is one of my all time favorite horror movies, if not the all time favorite. I was fortunate enough to see it in a theater when it was released in 1981 and it changed how I looked at horror movies. This one was furiously pace...

Evil Dead

reviewed on April 5th, 2013 05:58AM

The original Evil Dead is one of my all time favorite fright flicks so, I was very apprehensive about a remake. With Sam Raimi, Robert G. Tapert and even Bruce Campbell on board as producers, I hoped the material would at least be treated with res...

Red Dawn

reviewed on March 25th, 2013 09:03PM

Red Dawn is a remake of a 1984 action fantasy that starred Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen and told of a group of high school kids who become guerilla resistance fighters when the Soviet Union invades the U.S. with South American allies. It was a...

Argo

reviewed on March 22nd, 2013 03:02AM

Ben Affleck is 3 for 3 as a director with this simply great film set during the Iran hostage crisis of the late 70s/ early 80s. Argo tells the story of 6 Americans who barely escaped the U.S. Embassy as it was being taken over by hostile Iranian c...

Zero Dark Thirty

reviewed on March 21st, 2013 01:14AM

Zero Dark Thirty is a good movie but, not a great one and doesn't quite live up to the hype in it's telling of the hunt and assassination of Osama bin Laden. The film is well made and well acted but, never really draws you in until the final act w...

Robot & Frank

reviewed on March 16th, 2013 01:52PM

Frank Langella proves once again that he is one of the most underrated actors in the business with a great performance in this touching and whimsical story from Director Jake Schreier and writer Christopher D. Ford. This story, set in the near fut...

Smashed

reviewed on March 14th, 2013 02:31AM

Pretty teacher Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and husband Charlie (Aaron Paul) are a young married couple who are also alcoholics. When Kate gets sick of waking up in strange places and peeing herself, she decides to quit drinking and get help. Bu...

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

reviewed on March 13th, 2013 01:24PM

I've never played the video game on which these films are based and am not big on the first film, despite being a fan of director Christophe Gans, so, I went in to this with very little expectations and still got even less then expected. Basically...

The Man With the Iron Fists

reviewed on March 13th, 2013 01:45AM

The RZA is a man with a lot on his resume' and with The Man With The Iron Fists, he adds writer, director and star. Fists is a Tarantino-esque mash up of 70s Shaw Brothers kung fu, 80s/90s Hong Kong martial arts epic, 70s blaxploitation and a touc...

Cabin Fever

reviewed on March 10th, 2013 02:55PM

Cabin Fever has some very effective moments especially when the gore starts flying but, writer Director Eli Roth's insistence on filling his influence drenched horror with sub par, frat boy humor that sinks his first film (and sunk Hostel too). Th...

The Bay

reviewed on March 6th, 2013 03:51AM

Barry Levinson directs this found footage horror about the small town of Claridge, Maryland that sits on Chesapeake Bay and comes under attack from a vicious flesh eating parasite. The first act of The Bay is quite effective as we follow a young r...

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 2)

reviewed on March 4th, 2013 01:53AM

Thoughts, questions and observations on the abysmal awfulness that is Breaking Dawn Part 2... 1) Is there actually a director on set or does the cast just wing it? 2) Did Bella just wrestle a mountain lion? 3) The CGI baby is creepier then any ...

The Prophecy

reviewed on February 28th, 2013 12:01AM

Gregory Widen writes and directs this clever and often very creepy horror flick concerning a second war in Heaven spilling out onto the Earth. Jealous over the attention God has given humankind, the Archangel Gabriel (Christopher Walken) has waged...

Excision

reviewed on February 27th, 2013 02:06AM

Richard Bates Jr. writes and directs this trippy and really disturbing horror/drama about an emotionally disturbed teen, Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) who escapes from her repressive mother (Traci Lords) by immersing herself in an interest in surgery...

Silver Linings Playbook

reviewed on February 26th, 2013 12:53AM

Pat (Bradley Cooper) is a bipolar man who has spent the past 8 months in a psychiatric hospital after beating his cheating wife's lover half to death. Upon release, Pat goes to live with his parents, Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) and Dolores (Jacki Wea...

Taken 2

reviewed on February 21st, 2013 01:50AM

Bland sequel has Neeson's Bryan Mills and family in Istanbul where he and his ex-wife are "taken" by the vengeful friends and family of the men he killed in the first installment. When he escapes, he and his daughter must now rescue mom. Routine a...

For A Good Time, Call...

reviewed on February 20th, 2013 03:04PM

When NYC Yuppie, Lauren (Lauren Anne Miller) is asked to move out by her boring boyfriend, she is forced to move in with wacky college nemesis Katie (Ari Graynor) as arranged by their mutual friend, Jesse (a hilarious Justin Long). The two have a ...

A Good Day to Die Hard

reviewed on February 15th, 2013 06:51PM

A Good Day To Die Hard has a lot of problems. The story is convoluted, the villains are weak and when the action stops there isn't enough strong drama to keep us interested but, thankfully, the action rarely stops and it is quite amusingly over th...

Seven Psychopaths

reviewed on February 13th, 2013 03:00PM

Marty (Colin Farrell) is a screenwriter with a drinking problem struggling with a movie idea called "Seven Psychopaths". But, Marty is also struggling with his own life, a life his best friend, dog kidnapper Billy (Sam Rockwell) is destined to com...

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

reviewed on February 1st, 2013 07:13PM

When you go to see a movie called Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters, obviously you don't go in expecting Shakespeare but, I did expect it to have a bit more of the giddy fun that Tommy Wirkola brought to his gory zombie blast, Dead Snow. And while ...

The Last Stand

reviewed on January 18th, 2013 10:28PM

I'll start off by saying it was fun seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger back in action and I liked the fact that he didn't try to hide that he is in his 60s and isn't quite John Matrix anymore. The film surrounds him with a likable cast such as his fello...

Mama

reviewed on January 18th, 2013 09:58PM

Mama isn't a bad horror film but, it just isn't a very scary one. The story is good, two little girls are taken by their off-the-edge dad (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) who's just shot their mother and some co-workers. They crash off the road during dad'...

Take This Waltz

reviewed on January 18th, 2013 02:43PM

One of my favorite things about this charming indie drama was that I really enjoyed was just how real the relationships in the film came across. Writer/director Sarah Polley creates a freshness and realness to this story of a happy young married c...

House at the End of the Street

reviewed on January 16th, 2013 04:17AM

While not quite as bad as word suggests it's still a routine, predictable and sometimes really dumb thriller... OK, maybe it is as bad as word suggests. How talented actresses like Lawrence and Shue got involved has to be on a strictly paycheck le...

The Possession

reviewed on January 16th, 2013 02:26AM

The Possession is a well made and, for the most part well directed horror film that is sadly weakened by being just too routine and filled with cliche's. The story concerns a divorced couple Clyde (Jeffery Dean Morgan) and Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick...

Compliance

reviewed on January 10th, 2013 12:31AM

A disturbing thriller based on supposedly true events about a mean spirited prank pulled on the employees of a fast food restaurant. A caller (Pat Healy) claiming to be a police officer tells manager Sandra (Ann Dowd) that one of her employees, Be...

Django Unchained

reviewed on January 7th, 2013 04:07PM

Quentin Tarantino has become one of America's most innovative filmmakers in that he takes his unapologetic love of movies, B movies in particular, and crafts original films out of bits and pieces that pay homage to the movies he loves. No more obv...

Texas Chainsaw 3D

reviewed on January 4th, 2013 07:36PM

Is Texas Chainsaw 3D a good movie?... well that depends. If you can't get past a stupid script, cardboard characters and the fact that by the implied timeline our plucky heroine (Alexandra Daddario) should be in her 40s not barely in her 20s, then...

Looper

reviewed on January 2nd, 2013 04:27AM

Looper is an interesting and engaging sci-fi thriller written and directed by Rian Johnson that uses some familiar conventions about time travel and takes them in a very interesting direction. Set in the near future of 2044, it involves hit men ca...

John Dies At The End

reviewed on December 27th, 2012 07:03PM

John Dies At The End is an adaptation of David Wong's book of the same name written and directed by Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep). While not familiar with the book, the bizarre and surreal story does seem like a perfect fit for Coscarell...

Resident Evil: Retribution

reviewed on December 27th, 2012 01:51AM

Dear MonsterZeroNJ, why do you keep watching the Resident Evil movies? You don't like them and Retribution was the worst one yet. Do you even remember the last time one of them had a plot?

Butter

reviewed on December 21st, 2012 01:46AM

Uneven but, at times, amusing offbeat comedy about the participants in a butter sculpture contest. When butter sculpture king, Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) is asked to step aside after 15 years in the spotlight, his vengeful, social climber wife, Laur...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

reviewed on December 14th, 2012 08:45PM

I will start off by saying that there is no reason to spread a single book into 3 movies (actually there is, greed.) and since you are doing so, there is no reason for any of those 3 movies to be almost 3 hours long. And this overindulgence and it...

Beasts of the Southern Wild

reviewed on December 13th, 2012 11:29PM

Art house movie is a drama with a touch of fantasy told through the eyes of a young girl, Hushpuppy (a wonderful Quvenzhane Wallis) who lives with her dad, Wink (Dwight Henry) in a poor and remote Bayou community. When a Katrina-like storm hits an...

Men in Black 3

reviewed on November 30th, 2012 11:34PM

MIB3 is a fun second sequel to Barry Sonnenfield's classic 1997 comedy about a secret government agency that handles all things extraterrestrial. In this installment one of Agent K's (Tommy Lee Jones) past enemies, Boris The Animal (Jemaine Clemen...

Lawless

reviewed on November 29th, 2012 03:12AM

Lawless is a good movie. It won't win any awards but, it is well made and acted enough to make it's fact based story of the moonshine bootlegging Bondurant family an entertaining watch. A good cast featuring Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, a slimy and sin...

Paranorman

reviewed on November 28th, 2012 02:38AM

Paranorman is a mildly entertaining and harmless animated adventure about Norman, a boy who can see dead people. Branded as a freak and an outcast by his classmates and misunderstood by his family, Norman has a chance to be a hero when an ancient ...

The Apparition

reviewed on November 28th, 2012 12:53AM

Put equal parts Paranormal Activity, The Ring and Poltergeist in a blender and the result would be The Apparition, a routine supernatural thriller about a young couple battling a supernatural entity. Kelly (Ashley Greene) and Ben (Sebastian Stan) ...

Dark Shadows

reviewed on November 22nd, 2012 03:25PM

Dark Shadows is yet another Burton/Depp collaboration that is based on the classic 60s-70s TV gothic soap opera. And you'd think that being based on a whole TV series it would give the writers (John August and Seth Grahame-Smith) plenty of story t...

Brave

reviewed on November 19th, 2012 03:11AM

Another delightful and entertaining animated film from the folks at Pixar. This one has feisty Scottish Princess Merida, rebelling against her parents wish to marry her to one of the nobles' sons and running off. Her sojourn in the woods brings he...

Safety Not Guaranteed

reviewed on November 15th, 2012 03:36AM

Safety Not Guaranteed is a really entertaining and offbeat romantic comedy from director Colin Trevorrow and writer Derek Connolly that tells the story of Darius (Aubrey Plaza) an intern at a high profile magazine whose first assignment is to assi...

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

reviewed on November 14th, 2012 02:45AM

I'm not a fan of Timur Bekmambetov's movies. He uses over-stylized CGI set pieces to the point of ridiculous to cover the fact that he is not a very good storyteller. If there was no such thing as CGI, I wonder if he could make a movie at all. Abr...

Rock of Ages

reviewed on November 14th, 2012 01:04AM

Rock Of Ages' biggest accomplishment is to take some of the 80s best and most classic metal songs and turn them into a bunch of tepid and badly choreographed musical numbers. Story of a small town girl (Julianne Hough) who travels to L.A. in 1987 ...

Skyfall

reviewed on November 9th, 2012 08:17PM

Skyfall is a very interesting and entertaining entry in this 50 year old series in that it gives us all the classic elements that we've come to expect from a Bond film and yet, takes it into new and unexpected territory. Not everyone is going to l...

The Descent

reviewed on October 20th, 2012 02:54AM

One of my favorite horrors. Neil Marshall creates a truely scary and suspenseful rollercoaster ride as 6 women on a cave exploring expedition get lost in an undiscovered system and find out they are not alone. Claustrophobic and tense even before ...

The Evil Dead (1983)

reviewed on October 20th, 2012 02:21AM

Another of what I consider to be one of the greatest horror movies ever made. Evil Dead is one of the original cabin in the woods horror flicks and director Sam Raimi's first film. This classic has five people going to a remote cabin and upon disc...

Jeepers Creepers

reviewed on October 19th, 2012 10:46PM

Wasn't too big on this when I first saw it but, subsequent viewings have caused it to grow on me quite a bit. Jeepers Creepers is a decent saturday night horror best enjoyed with a brew or two. There are some good scares and some nice FX work and ...

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

reviewed on October 19th, 2012 06:59PM

While Blair Witch sequel is not that good, it's not quite as bad as it's reputation suggests . Not quite. Sequel has some good ideas, such as being about the mania cause by the movie The Blair Witch Project and not a direct sequel to the film itse...

Paranormal Activity 4

reviewed on October 19th, 2012 05:07AM

I'm a fan of this series and I have to say I liked Paranormal Activity 4. It's not one of the strongest entries in the series but, I still had spooky fun with it and the last act delivered the goods. I think there still is enough of what fans like...

Sinister

reviewed on October 12th, 2012 08:05PM

"Sinister" is yet another horror flick that is well made but, is just too familiar to really be effective. The story opens as a true crime author (Ethan Hawke) moves his family into a house where a multiple homicide was committed (always a bad mov...

Drag Me To Hell

reviewed on October 11th, 2012 05:05PM

Drag Me To Hell is an entertaining return to horror from Sam Raimi about a pretty young bank employee who pisses off the wrong gypsy and gets a nasty demonic entity sent her way. Poor Christine (Alison Lohman) has just three days to find a way out...

The Barrens

reviewed on October 9th, 2012 11:43PM

The Barrens is a moody and atmospheric horror thriller set in New Jersey's famous Pine Barrens and dealing with it's legendary occupant. Stephen Moyer (whose heavy Australian accent is odd here since he is playing someone who has lived here since ...

Dredd 3D

reviewed on September 21st, 2012 08:24PM

Dredd is the second attempt at bringing the comic book character of Judge Dredd to the big screen, the first being the failed Sylvester Stallone vehicle from 1995. This time Dredd is played with appropriate growling by Karl Urban and there is than...

Katy Perry: Part of Me

reviewed on September 21st, 2012 03:28PM

Despite the fact that Katy Perry had enjoyed a huge amount of success in her short career as both performer and pin-up, she only has two albums out and a documentary about her path to stardom does seem a bit premature. But, Part Of Me is more a fa...

Hysteria

reviewed on September 21st, 2012 04:50AM

Romantic comedy centered around the invention of the vibrator is mildly amusing and well cast but, ultimately is only a charming and forgettable diversion as it makes little use of the potential given by it's plot. Film tells of modern thinking Dr...

The Loved Ones

reviewed on September 20th, 2012 03:32AM

Brent is a teen suffering emotional scars from the death of his father from 6 months earlier. School is almost over and the 'End Of School Dance' approaches. But, Brent's life is about to go from one horror to another as he is targeted by the der...

The Babymakers

reviewed on September 20th, 2012 01:03AM

Babymakers is yet another vulgar and crude comedy that forgets to include the comedy. Flick is an almost laugh less story of a young couple (Paul Schneider and Olivia Munn) trying to have a child but, when the husband's sperm count proves too low,...

Carrie

reviewed on September 15th, 2012 01:46AM

Carrie garnered a reputation of being a terrifying movie experience back in '76 when it was released and all I heard from my sister and her friends was how scary it was. Not old enough to go see it in a theater I had to wait to finally catch up to...

The Five-Year Engagement

reviewed on September 10th, 2012 02:46AM

Five-Year Engagement is not really a bad movie, it's just not the laugh fest it's sold as. In actuality it is more drama then comedy although there are plenty of light moments and some laughs but, for the most part it's more of an exploration of t...

Safe

reviewed on September 7th, 2012 03:03AM

Convoluted plot has Jason Statham as an ex-cop turned MMA fighter now on the run from the Russian mob for not taking a dive during a fight. He crosses paths with a little Chinese girl who is a mathematical genius (a genius Asian kid, how original!...

Piranha 3DD

reviewed on September 6th, 2012 04:08AM

Sequel to last year's Piranha 3D (Which in itself is a remake) is nowhere near as fun but, it is also not as bad as it's been made out to be. Problem is, director John Gulager seems to take the material a little too seriously despite a script that...

Battleship

reviewed on August 30th, 2012 04:24AM

Well, for starters, you know a movie is in trouble when it takes the first half hour to set up it’s story and characters and all we get are cardboard stereotypes (lovable screw-up, cool ‘ghetto’ ethnic, etc.) and a predictable and routine ‘screw u...

The Moth Diaries

reviewed on August 29th, 2012 04:44AM

Moth Diaries is a supernatural horror set at an all girl boarding school where young Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) is sent after the suicide of her writer father. She befriends the pretty Lucy (Sarah Gadon) and all seems well until the arrival of the str...

Solomon Kane

reviewed on August 26th, 2012 01:56AM

Solomon Kane is a 16th century fantasy adventure based on the works of Conan creator, Robert E. Howard. It is the story of bloodthirsty mercenary Captain Solomon Kane (a perfectly cast James Purefoy) who learns during an encounter with a demon tha...

The Hunger Games

reviewed on August 20th, 2012 02:45AM

I have not read the popular young adult book series that this film is based, which, to me, is a sort of mix of The Running Man and the cult Japanese classic Battle Royale although, writer Suzanne Collins states other inspirations. The story takes ...

The Expendables 2

reviewed on August 17th, 2012 08:26PM

Expendables 2 is a fun follow-up to the 2010 eighties action throwback hit that isn't quite as engaging in it's quieter moments as the previous flick but, thankfully there aren't too many of those. This installment finds the gang being sent by the...

Project X

reviewed on August 15th, 2012 03:59AM

Found footage teen party movie is loud, annoying, incredibly stupid and most of all, not funny. Adding the found footage angle brings nothing new to the table and neither does the writers or director credited for this obnoxious and thankfully shor...

The Raid: Redemption

reviewed on August 15th, 2012 02:28AM

The Raid is a vicious and energetic Indonesian action flick that tells the story of a squad of heavily armed cops who invade a tenement building run by a big time drug lord. When the raid does not go as planned, the surviving officers must fight t...

Hard Target

reviewed on August 12th, 2012 05:41PM

"Hard Target" was the American film premiere of Asian action director John Woo and while it's not one of his best movies, it is one of the best films of it's star Jean-Claude Van Damme. The plot is basically a retread of sorts of "The Most Dangero...

Lockout

reviewed on August 8th, 2012 03:59AM

Basically Escape From New York in space, Lockout tells the story of a federal agent (Guy Pearce) who is framed for murder but, offered a pardon if he rescues the president's daughter (Maggie Grace) from the midst of a prison riot on the very space...

Wrath of the Titans

reviewed on August 8th, 2012 01:50AM

Clash Of The Titans was a mildly entertaining but, ultimately forgettable remake of the 1981 film of the same name and story. It was a box office success so, of course we have a sequel. Wrath features most of the returning cast in a completely lif...

Total Recall

reviewed on August 3rd, 2012 07:10PM

Total Recall is a totally unnecessary remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger starrer that itself was based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". While the 90s version was directed by Paul Verhoeven with the same...

Detention

reviewed on August 2nd, 2012 04:29AM

Detention is a self aware spoof of self aware horror flicks that is far too ambitious for it's own good. There are some laughs and many bits work but, the movie wants to spoof too much and loses focus and just becomes a schizophrenic mash up spoof...

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

reviewed on August 2nd, 2012 12:45AM

Journey 2 is an absolutely harmless and silly adventure that should amuse the target audience of kids and tweens it's aimed at. To sit there and pick on this flick for it's predictable story, cheezy dialogue, enormous plot holes (if the island sin...

Wanderlust

reviewed on July 26th, 2012 03:31AM

First of all, I am officially sick of movies about upscale New York Yuppies. There have to be other kinds of people living in Manhattan. That being said, Wanderlust is an absolutely awful and completely unfunny story about an upscale Yuppie couple...

Silent House

reviewed on July 25th, 2012 03:59AM

Remake of Spanish chiller "La Casa Muda" is a fairly well crafted redo that stays faithful to the original for the most part... which is also it's biggest drawback and, when it does deviate, it's not for the better. If you have seen the original, ...

The Dark Knight Rises

reviewed on July 21st, 2012 04:22PM

Dark Knight Rises is the final film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and despite some flaws, it still delivers a spectacular and epic conclusion that should satisfy most fans of this series. The film opens 8 years after the events of The Dark...

We Need to Talk About Kevin

reviewed on July 12th, 2012 01:32AM

Dull, unpleasant and far too arty for it's own good, Director Lynne Ramsey seems to be more interested in showing you what she learned in film school then telling a cohesive story. Any drama or intensity this story about a reluctant mother (Tilda ...

Jaws 2

reviewed on July 11th, 2012 06:17PM

Jaws is a classic movie and rightly so. It was also a major success, the highest grossing movie of all time till Star Wars kicked it's ass 2 years later. So, the fact that a sequel was made is no surprise. The fact that it's mediocre at best is no...

Safe House

reviewed on July 11th, 2012 03:26AM

Safe house is another in a line of action films like Columbiana and Haywire, that is competently made yet, completely predictable and routine. Director Daniel Espinosa gives it his best Tony Scott in this story of a CIA safe house operative (Ryan ...

The Amazing Spider-Man

reviewed on July 3rd, 2012 07:35PM

I liked Raimi's Spider-man movies, especially the first two. So, I was a bit apprehensive about The Amazing Spider-Man but, went in to this reboot with an open mind. And while there are problems here and the film has flaws, it also has great poten...

The Crazies

reviewed on July 1st, 2012 01:43AM

The Crazies is, for once, actually a good film to remake as George Romero's original was far too low budget to really take advantage of the story's potential. The original was good but, not great, and Director Breck Eisner not only is able to up t...

21 Jump Street

reviewed on June 27th, 2012 03:43AM

21 Jump Street is one of those movies that succeeds because it knows how silly the idea of a movie based on the 80s TV show is and has a blast taking the basic plot and running with it. Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are two schle...

11-11-11

reviewed on June 21st, 2012 02:41AM

Darren Lynn Bousman writes and directs this story of a writer suffering from the death of his wife and child who keeps seeing the number 11-11 recurring all around him. When he travels to Spain to spend time with his ailing father and pastor broth...

This Means War

reviewed on June 21st, 2012 02:25AM

Silly but harmless tale of two CIA agents (Tom Hardy, Chris Pine) competing over the same woman (Reese Witherspoon) and using their special operative skills to try to gain an advantage. Flick is exactly the type of generic Romcom stuff that one ex...

Act of Valor

reviewed on June 13th, 2012 03:42AM

What starts out as a routine rescue of an intelligence operative from a ruthless smuggler, turns into a race against time as intel gathered during the mission signals of a bond between the smuggler and a terrorist with a terror attack against U.S....

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

reviewed on June 13th, 2012 01:21AM

If you told me that directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank) were on crack when they made this sequel, I would have no trouble believing you. It's less a dark superhero movie then an extravagant film school project from student filmmakers...

Logan's Run

reviewed on June 10th, 2012 01:15AM

Logan's Run is a story of a supposed 23rd century utopian society. The only problem is that you are only allowed to live till thirty then you are sent to "Carousel" where your body is destroyed and you are then reborn with "Renewal"... or are you?...

Prometheus

reviewed on June 8th, 2012 06:44PM

MINOR SPOILERS... Prometheus is not only Ridley Scott's long awaited return to sci-fi but, also to the same universe that his breakout classic Alien took place in. Prometheus is a prequel of sorts detailing events that may have set the story of A...

Cobra

reviewed on June 7th, 2012 08:54PM

As a piece of certified 80s cheese, Cobra can be a fun watch but, if you were to rate it strictly as a movie, then no, Cobra is not very good. Stallone's next movie after the smash successes of Rambo: First Blood part 2 and Rocky 4, has the Italia...

Mother's Day

reviewed on June 7th, 2012 02:09AM

Mother's Day is supposed to be a remake of the campy 80s backwoods horror flick but, it so barely resembles that film, that it hardly qualifies. What it is though, is a vicious home invasion flick that bludgeons you so much with brutality, so earl...

Excalibur

reviewed on June 2nd, 2012 01:52AM

One of my favorites, John Boorman's telling of the legend of King Arthur is an operatic and colorful fantasy filled with stunning imagery, spectacular and blood soaked battles, heroism, villainy, lustful sex and forbidden romance. What's not to li...

Snow White and the Huntsman

reviewed on June 1st, 2012 08:21PM

The first big surprise of the 2012 summer movie season is here as Snow White And The Huntsman proves to be a really entertaining and visual stunning version of the classic fairy tale. As the story is a retelling of Snow White, there is no reason t...

Gone

reviewed on May 31st, 2012 04:09AM

Amanda Seyfried plays Jill, a mentally troubled young woman who claims to have been abducted and gotten away but, the police can't find evidence that this ever occured. Now that her sister has mysteriously disappeared, Jill thinks her abductor is ...

Goon

reviewed on May 31st, 2012 02:30AM

Goon is a fairly routine sports comedy elevated by a really strong performance by Seann William Scott and a really entertaining last act. Goon is the story of Doug Glatt (Scott) a bar bouncer who is hired by a minor league hockey team as a "thug",...

Transformers

reviewed on May 30th, 2012 02:03AM

Dumb fun from Michael Bay based on the 80's cartoon and toy line. Transformers moves fast enough and has enough action to keep one entertained despite a silly script and a director who is obviously more interested in the toys then in the humans. T...

30 Days of Night

reviewed on May 27th, 2012 02:49AM

A refreshing alternative to romantic mamby pamby drek like Twilight. There are no effeminate vampires baring roses and chocolate here, these vampires are vicious hungry monsters and they'll kill you long before they kiss you. Ethan Hawke and Melis...

Chernobyl Diaries

reviewed on May 25th, 2012 08:14PM

Chernobyl Diaries tells the story of a group of 6 twenty-somethings who sign up for a shady tour of Pripyat, a city outside Russia's infamous Chernobyl reactor, where all the workers lived with their families. The city is still abandoned... or is ...

Contraband

reviewed on May 24th, 2012 02:56AM

Contraband is the story of ex-smuggler Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) who is forced back into action to save his family when his brother-in-law dumps a shipment of drugs during a job for a nasty drug dealer (Giovanni Ribisi). Contraband is a well ...

The Woman in Black

reviewed on May 23rd, 2012 04:31PM

There were two reasons to look forward to this. One was that I am not a Harry Potter fan but, do like Radcliffe so I was eager to see himself in something else. Second, a Hammer horror film is always something to look forward to. And now that I ha...

The Hidden

reviewed on May 20th, 2012 03:34AM

Another of my favorite 80s guilty pleasures, Hidden is basically The Thing, Lethal Weapon and The Terminator all rolled into one as a body stealing extraterrestrial criminal is pursued on earth by an alien lawman and an earth cop with most of L.A....

Shakedown

reviewed on May 20th, 2012 03:08AM

Shakedown is an 80s action guilty pleasure from Exterminator director James Glickenhaus that is not only his best film but, a darn entertaining cop thriller that is one of the last to take place in NYC before the 42nd street clean up and thus pres...

Piranha 3D

reviewed on May 19th, 2012 03:32AM

Director Alexandre Aja takes Roger Corman's classic original and totally cranks it up to 11 in this deliriously gory and delightfully horny remake. Aja takes Corman's blood and boobs formula to the extreme and creates a highly enertaining action/ ...

Ghost World

reviewed on May 19th, 2012 12:21AM

Quirky offbeat comedy tells of two friends (Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson) who walk to the beat of their own drum but need to find their direction after they graduate high school. Rebellious Enid (Birch) seems to be content to let things rema...

Shame

reviewed on May 18th, 2012 01:17AM

Michael Fassbender gives a strong performance in this drama about Brandon, a man with intimacy issues and a ravenous sex addiction whose life starts to crumble when his troubled sister (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay with him and he begins to lose ...

The Grey

reviewed on May 17th, 2012 04:14AM

The Grey is a taunt and fairly suspenseful survival drama about a group of roughneck workers from a remote Alaskan oil rig that crash land in the harsh wilderness and must fight to survive. But, the elements are not all they need to brave as they ...

The Devil Inside

reviewed on May 16th, 2012 03:38AM

The biggest problem with The Devil Inside is that it's supposed to make us believe it's a documentary but, at no time is it anywhere near convincing enough. Story tells of a young woman, Isabella, investigating exorcism to better understand what h...

One For the Money

reviewed on May 16th, 2012 02:08AM

Not much to recommend. It's not awful but, it's not very good either. Katherine Heigl plays Janet Evanovich's plucky bounty hunter, Stephanie Plumb in this flatly directed and woodenly acted adaptation of her first book. Script is very weak and no...

Avatar

reviewed on May 14th, 2012 02:47AM

Avatar is an amazing and spectacular visual and technological achievement. It is a sumptuous feast of design and color that creates a whole new world unlike anything seen on film so far. That alone is worth seeing it for. Story wise, it's an old s...

Blade: Trinity

reviewed on May 6th, 2012 02:03AM

Third in the Blade series gets a bum rap but I think, despite it's flaws, it still has enough of what makes this comic book based series fun. Snipes is cooler then cool as always and there are plenty of slick FX and action sequences as he takes on...

Blade 2

reviewed on May 6th, 2012 01:50AM

In my opinion the best of the Blade series. Blade must join forces with his mortal enemies in order to defeat a foe that makes even vampires afraid of the dark. As directed by Guillermo del Toro, Blade 2 has a great visual style, some fierce gory ...

Blade

reviewed on May 6th, 2012 01:39AM

First of the Blade series is more of an action film with horror elements but, there is nothing wrong with that. Snipes was born to play the role and does so with equal parts cool and bad ass. He takes the role just seriously enough but, with an oc...

The Avengers

reviewed on May 4th, 2012 08:39PM

One of the most anticipated movies in years, The Avengers blasts onto the screen and lives up to every bit of the hype and delivers more of the goods, then any fanboy/girl could hope for. The story picks up from the earlier Marvel films with Thor...

Haywire

reviewed on May 3rd, 2012 06:08PM

Aside from featuring MMA badgirl Gina Carano in the lead role, Haywire is a completely routine and actually quite dull action thriller from director Steven Soderbergh. Haywire is yet another 'secret operative betrayed and out for revenge' thriller...

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang

reviewed on April 25th, 2012 01:06AM

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a fun, oddball mystery/thriller written and directed by Lethal Weapon scribe Shane Black. Kiss finds aspiring actor, Harry (Robert Downey Jr.) studying being a detective for a role with P.I., Perry (Val Kilmer) and actually ...

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

reviewed on April 19th, 2012 04:12AM

I'm not a big fan of the Mission Impossible film series. Despite having a lot of the elements I like in a movie, they just never clicked with me. But, I did enjoy Ghost Protocol which pits agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team (Jeremy Renner,...

The Sitter

reviewed on April 19th, 2012 01:13AM

The babysitting gig gone wrong scenario has been done time and time again and The Sitter brings nothing new to this comedy sub-genre. The babysitter in question is jobless slacker, Noah (Jonah Hill) who is forced to take a babysitting job watching...

The Divide

reviewed on April 18th, 2012 04:27AM

Xavier Gens (Frontier(s), Hitman) weaves this grim and violent tale of a group of survivors who are trapped together in a bomb shelter after a nuclear attack on New York City. The longer they stay, the more civilized behavior collapses and the wor...

First Blood

reviewed on April 15th, 2012 03:24AM

Aside from Rocky, this is one of Stallone's all time best films and best roles. Based on David Morrell's book, First Blood tells the story of drifter and Vietnam vet John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) who wanders into a small town and is immediately ...

Rambo

reviewed on April 15th, 2012 02:13AM

Stallone not only returns to one of his most famous characters but, to the director's chair as well in this taunt, suspenseful and action packed thriller. Gone is the larger then life super soldier and instead, we get a pissed-off at the world war...

The Expendables

reviewed on April 15th, 2012 12:32AM

Expendables is a spectacularly entertaining, old fashioned, shoot 'em up action movie that not only brings back memories of the 80's action flicks but, shows that Stallone and company still got it when it comes to kicking ass. One of Stallone's be...

The Cabin in the Woods

reviewed on April 13th, 2012 06:58PM

If anyone knows how to have fun with pop culture horror conventions, it's Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Avengers) and he and Director Drew Goddard craft a funhouse of a horror movie by doing just that. And we are happily along for the...

The Darkest Hour

reviewed on April 13th, 2012 02:56PM

Not much to say here, sci-fi/action flick is awful on almost every level except for some decent SPFX. Story of two friends (Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella) on a failed business trip to Moscow who hook up with two foreign tourists (Olivia Thirlby a...

Code of Silence

reviewed on April 12th, 2012 12:05AM

In terms of overall quality, Code of Silence is probably the best movie Chuck Norris ever made. It may not be as fun as Lone Wolf McQuade or as over the top as Invasion U.S.A. but, it is the closest to a mainstream movie he was ever in till the up...

Immortals

reviewed on April 4th, 2012 02:00AM

Immortals is an incredibly boring mix of 300 and Clash of The Titans (remake) that follows Greek hero Theseus (an unimpressive Henry Cavill) as he seeks to avenge his murdered mother and stop evil King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) from taking over the...

Shaun of the Dead

reviewed on March 29th, 2012 07:05PM

Not the masterpiece most fanboys make it out to be but, Shaun is an amusing horror comedy with a twisted sense of humor and some some excellent gore effects. The film mixes the laughs and horror well enough (which isn't easy as most horror/comedie...

The Warriors

reviewed on March 25th, 2012 03:16AM

Classic 70s flick has a street gang from Coney Island framed for murdering the charismatic leader of the biggest gang in the city and fighting their way back home with every gang in New York out to get them. A violent and stylish action thriller w...

Escape from New York

reviewed on March 25th, 2012 02:25AM

One of my favorite all time B movies and a bonafide film classic. I instantly fell in love with this film upon seeing it opening night at the legendary Oritani Theater in Hackensack, N.J. An outrageously original idea, New York City turned into a ...

The Incredible Hulk

reviewed on March 24th, 2012 02:27AM

A major improvement over the overly talky and dull 2003 flick. This reboot has a better cast, better story and gives us plenty of action without forgetting about the characters or the plot. Ed Norton gives Bruce Banner a three dimensionality that ...

Clash of the Titans

reviewed on March 24th, 2012 12:09AM

Not a big fan of the mildly amusing original. I saw it in 1981 when it opened and despite being a huge Harryhausen fan, such an old fashioned fantasy seemed rather inferior after films like Star Wars, Empire Strikes back and Raiders of the Lost Ar...

My Week with Marilyn

reviewed on March 16th, 2012 07:49PM

I enjoyed My Week With Marilyn a lot more then I expected. It's a not a great movie, but, what makes it work is an absolutely amazing portrayal of legendary film icon, Marilyn Monroe by Michelle Willaims. Williams is enchanting and heartbreaking a...

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn

reviewed on March 15th, 2012 01:54AM

I was never a fan of the character of Tin Tin nor the comics he was in. Never interested me. I am also not a fan of this ultra-real motion capture animation. It's too realistic to have the charm of a cartoon and not real enough to have the warmth ...

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

reviewed on March 15th, 2012 12:45AM

I'm not a fan of the previous Harold and Kumar flicks but, I have to admit I did like this one. It's far from the funniest thing I have ever seen but, there is some wit and cleverness behind all the vulgar, dirty jokes and the non-PC drug humor re...

Young Adult

reviewed on March 14th, 2012 02:12PM

"Young Adult" is a so-called 'comedy' from the writing/directing team of the overrated "Juno" that is so rarely funny that it is far more of a drama...and not a very interesting one, either. Director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody tell the s...

The Three Musketeers

reviewed on March 14th, 2012 12:21AM

Director Paul W.S. Anderson has achieved quite an accomplishment, he has turned Alexandre Dumas' legendary tale into a completely forgettable movie. Awfully written, awfully directed and, for the most part, badly acted, Three Musketeers is an over...

Daybreakers

reviewed on March 11th, 2012 02:05AM

An interesting and original horror film noir about a world in the future where vampires rule and their blood supply, humans, is running out. Ethan Hawke plays Edward (The non-sparkling kind) a vampire scientist searching for a blood substitute bef...

John Carter

reviewed on March 9th, 2012 08:13PM

As a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian Chronicles, I have been waiting for someone to adapt these nearly 100 year old pulp sci-fi adventures to film since I was a boy. Now after years in development hell, Disney finally brings the adventures of...

Like Crazy

reviewed on March 9th, 2012 04:01AM

Like Crazy is a emotional and sometimes heartbreaking tale of two college grads in a long distance relationship. American Jacob (Anton Yelchin) and Brit Anna (Felicity Jones) fall in love when they meet in school in L.A. but when Anna violates her...

Puss in Boots

reviewed on March 9th, 2012 12:03AM

Shrek spin off is a fun enough, harmless way to spend 90 minutes but, it never reaches the level of the best of that series despite a good try. Story has Puss (Antonio Banderas), femme fetale Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and Humpty Dumpty (Zach Ga...

Piranha

reviewed on March 3rd, 2012 01:54AM

Classic Jaws rip-off from Roger Corman is a lot of fun mostly because it acknowledges it's inspiration yet, becomes it's own movie and is all the more entertaining for it. It's gory and campy but, not without some tense sequences too as when the c...

Hugo

reviewed on March 2nd, 2012 12:43AM

Hugo is a sumptuously designed and filmed tale of an orphaned young boy who lives in a Paris train station and, through a series of circumstances, encounters legendary filmmaker Georges Melies. Hugo has a great cast including Ben Kingsley (Melies)...

Martha Marcy May Marlene

reviewed on March 1st, 2012 10:32PM

Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) is a young woman who flees a cult-like commune and goes to live with her yuppie sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and her husband, Ted (Hugh Dancy). But, the more Martha attempts to escape the effects of her life with the commu...

Dream House

reviewed on March 1st, 2012 03:44AM

A successful business man (Daniel Craig), his wife (Rachel Weisz) and children move out of the city and into the New England countryside and no sooner then they do, then strange things start happening and they find out their home was the site of a...

The Big Year

reviewed on February 29th, 2012 12:46AM

Big Year is a comedy about three bird watchers or "birders" (Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson) competing for a "Big Year" record... to see as many different species of birds in one year as possible. Exciting, huh? There really isn't much to s...

London Boulevard

reviewed on February 23rd, 2012 11:46PM

London Boulevard is one of those movies that is trying so hard to be hip and cool, that it forgets to be interesting or entertaining. Colin Farrell is Mitchel, an ex-con who wants to go straight but, as in all cliche' stories like this, they keep ...

Take Shelter

reviewed on February 22nd, 2012 02:01AM

Michael Shannon gives a powerful performance in this intense and haunting drama about a man suddenly plagued by nightmarish hallucinations about some impending doom. As his visions increase, working man Curtis becomes obsessed with building a stor...

The Rum Diary

reviewed on February 17th, 2012 04:04AM

As a fan of Hunter S. Thompson, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard it's not hard for me to like Rum Diary though, I can understand while it may not be everyone's cup of rum. Diary is based on a book by Hunter S. Thompson telling the story of journalist P...

The Human Centipede 2

reviewed on February 15th, 2012 03:31PM

I am not a fan of Tom Six's overrated one gimmick horror flick Human Centipede but, gave him another shot with the sequel. Oh, well... 90 minutes of my life I won't get back. Bare minimum story has a deranged and perverted man named Martin (a dist...

In Time

reviewed on February 15th, 2012 01:58AM

In Time is a futuristic Robin Hood/ Bonnie and Clyde story where time is the substitute for money or gold. In the future, humans are genetically engineered to stop aging at 25, the catch being you only live one more year unless you acquire/earn mo...

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 1)

reviewed on February 13th, 2012 02:04PM

I'm not a fan of the Twilight series with it's whiny, sparkling vampires and horrendously fake CGI werewolves. It's a supernatural soap opera and not a very good one at that. I watch them to give them a fair chance and so far have yet to see what ...

Mesrine: Killer Instinct

reviewed on February 9th, 2012 01:27AM

First part in a 4 hour epic based on the life of notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine is a fairly entertaining crime flick made even more watchable by the talented and intense Vincent Cassel. Film is based on Mesrine's memoir which he wrote a...

Chronicle

reviewed on February 3rd, 2012 06:51PM

EXTREMELY MINOR SPOILERS... Chronicle is an interesting twist on both the found footage/pov and superhero genres that doesn't quite click like it should. Flick tells the story of abused and bullied Andrew (Dane DeHaan) who starts to "chronicle" ...

Drive

reviewed on February 2nd, 2012 04:24PM

"Drive" has a delightfully 80s vibe to it. It reminded me of Michael Mann's neon drenched crime thriller "Thief" but, with the out of nowhere blood-soaked violence of David Lynch. Even Cliff Martinez' soundtrack evokes Tangerine Dream who created ...

Shark Night 3D

reviewed on February 1st, 2012 03:54AM

Shark Night is one of those movies that despite being ridiculously silly, still seems to amuse you to a certain degree. Maybe it's the amazing collection of cliche's paraded out as a group of twenty-somethings go to a secluded island house to part...

50/50

reviewed on January 27th, 2012 03:42AM

As someone who had a minor bout with cancer myself, I can identify with some of the story presented here and was really surprised how well this film, about a twenty-something man who finds himself with a rare and potentially fatal type of cancer, ...

Real Steel

reviewed on January 26th, 2012 02:56AM

Real Steel is one of those movies that you hate to pick on since it's heart is in the right place but, so much else isn't. The script about an ex-boxer who now trains boxing robots and get's saddled with his young son is both corny and manipulativ...

The Woman

reviewed on January 25th, 2012 03:58AM

WARNING: SPOILERS... I've enjoyed director Lucky Mckee's previous films but, I have to say he lost me with his latest work, The Woman. Co-written with Jack ketchum who is renown for his extremely graphic and violent novels, Woman tells the twist...

Underworld: Awakening

reviewed on January 20th, 2012 07:17PM

As a fan of the Underworld series I was both eager and apprehensive about this 4th installment but, as the credits rolled I had a smile on my face and had a good time. For starters, Kate Beckinsale is back in black latex returning as Death Dealer ...

What's Your Number?

reviewed on January 18th, 2012 03:30AM

Painfully unfunny Anna Faris vehicle about a young woman who suddenly decides that one of her ex-boyfriends has to be her future husband because, she has already slept with too many men. I am not making this up. So she enlists the hunk next door t...

Killer Elite

reviewed on January 12th, 2012 12:47AM

Killer Elite is an OK action/thriller about a retired killer (Jason Statham) who is lured back into service to save a friend (Robert DeNiro) by avenging the death of an Arab sheik's sons. The targets are three British SAS operatives and a lethal e...

Kidnapped

reviewed on January 11th, 2012 02:40AM

Vicious home invasion flick wears out it's welcome fairly quickly as it's basically an hour and a half of a mother and daughter being tormented while the father is forced to drive to ATMs and withdraw all his money. The screaming and hitting becom...

Serenity

reviewed on January 8th, 2012 04:56PM

Joss Whedon's Firefly was a series that was sadly cancelled before it was given a chance to really shine. The show had great characters and great potential and those characters haven't changed in the translation to the big screen and the potential...

Kill List

reviewed on January 6th, 2012 07:57PM

WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS... Kill List is certainly an interesting film. The story tells of a down on his luck hitman recovering from a past failure who teams with his partner for a job that takes them on a collision course with a Wicker Man-like cu...

Kung Fu Panda 2

reviewed on January 6th, 2012 01:19AM

Drangon Master Po returns in this entertaining enough sequel to the delightfully fun Kung Fu Panda and is again voiced by Jack Black. But, this sequel doesn't quite reach the level of fun that made the first one such a treat. One of the reasons is...

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

reviewed on January 5th, 2012 03:56AM

The original Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark may be corny and a bit cheesy by today's standards but, it still had plenty of spooky atmosphere and chilling moments and I'll admit it scared the heck of me as a little boy when first aired in 1973. It tol...

Scream 4

reviewed on January 3rd, 2012 11:22PM

Not much to say, Scream 4 is basically a boring retread of the previous entries that contains very little of their cleverness. It also contains very little suspense and the few scares were all of the jump scare variety. 10 years since the mediocre...

The Innkeepers

reviewed on December 30th, 2011 11:11PM

Ti West's follow up to his spooky 80s throwback House of the Devil is a return to a more basic and CGI-less haunted house story and is all the more refreshing for it. Tale of the final days of a supposedly haunted New England hotel is a fun and so...

Apollo 18

reviewed on December 29th, 2011 03:13AM

Apollo 18 is a found footage horror with the interesting premise that there was a classified moon mission that was kept secret from the public... until now. Flick does have some creepy sequences and the idea of a secret mission to the moon is intr...

Bellflower

reviewed on December 22nd, 2011 02:21PM

WARNING! MINOR SPOILERS... Bellflower is one of those films that has "Sundance" written all over it. With it's oversaturated photography and it's flashbacks, flashforwards and offbeat story it's sure to be the darling of film festival goers and...

Colombiana

reviewed on December 22nd, 2011 01:57AM

Colombiana isn't a particularly bad film, it's just a very unremarkable one. Story of a young woman who becomes a skilled assassin to avenge the murder of her parents is competently made and the action is of the usual quick cut, shaky cam style th...

Warrior

reviewed on December 21st, 2011 01:39AM

Director and writer Gavin O'Connor takes an underdog story that could have been cliche' and turns it into a powerful and sometimes very exciting drama about a fragmented family who are forced to confront their demons and deep rooted emotional woun...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

reviewed on December 15th, 2011 01:35AM

(CAUTION : SOME MINOR SPOILERS)... Rise is an absolute rarity these days a clever and smart sci-fi action thriller that doesn't insult ones intelligence by dumbing things down and spelling everything out for you. Basically a reboot of the classic ...

Fright Night

reviewed on December 14th, 2011 02:50AM

Fright Night is another in a long line of unnecessary remakes of horror classics and while it's not the worst, it's far from the best. Problem with this redux is simply pedestrian directing and an unimaginative script that borrows not only from th...

30 Minutes or Less

reviewed on December 14th, 2011 01:03AM

Not much to say here. Jesse Eisenberg once again plays the same guy he plays in most every movie he's in. This time he's a slacker pizza guy who is forced to rob a bank for two lazy schleps who need the money to hire a killer to murder one's dad f...

Friends With Benefits

reviewed on December 7th, 2011 03:51AM

Friends with Benefits overcomes it's cliche' story and actually is an enjoyable romantic comedy thanks to the chemistry and performances of it's two leads and some clever touches in the script. Timberlake and Kunis bring a lot of fiesty energy to ...

The Help

reviewed on December 7th, 2011 01:48AM

The Help is basically a civil rights story sanitized and made crowd pleaser friendly with all the sterotypes on both sides present and accounted for as we are told the story of a young writer, Skeeter (Emma Stone) who's trying to expose the oppre...

Letters to Juliet

reviewed on December 2nd, 2011 08:33PM

Letters to Juliet is a predictable and formula romantic comedy but, it charms you and draws you in anyway even thought you know how it's going to turn out. Amanda Seyfried is Sophie, a young writer who, while on vacation in Italy with her fiance',...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

reviewed on December 1st, 2011 02:50AM

I'm not a fan of the Harry Potter movies. A couple of them were OK but, for the most part, I find them boring and repetitive. The series finally concludes with Deathly Hollows Part 2 and, sadly, also finally achieves the dramatic strength which ha...

Our Idiot Brother

reviewed on November 30th, 2011 03:49AM

Only Hollywood could put together such a talented cast and come up with something so painfully unfunny. Completely awful.

Kick-Ass

reviewed on November 28th, 2011 11:39PM

Kick-Ass starts out slowly at first but, after a bit of an underwelming start, the movie does kick into gear and deliver the goods. Director and co-scripter Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, X-Men: First Class) doesn't quite blend the mix of dark humor ...

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

reviewed on November 28th, 2011 09:58PM

Scott Pilgrim is one of those movies that tries to be so many things at once, that it ends up just being annoying and tedious and not accomplishing anything else. A film made for today's gamer/A.D.D. generation that even turns into a video game at...

The Change-Up

reviewed on November 18th, 2011 04:20AM

While I normally don't go for these vulgar sitcom level comedies, Change-up actually had enough genuine laughs and good performaces from it's charming cast to raise it above similar themed flicks. Sure the body switch plot has been done to death b...

Adventureland

reviewed on November 17th, 2011 11:35PM

More drama than comedy. Flick has grown on me a bit since first viewed but, overall, nothing we haven't seen before. The cast is fairly bland not given much to do but look bored or upset most of the time. Stewart is not nearly as awful as she was ...

Outlander

reviewed on November 17th, 2011 03:00AM

A very pleasant surprise as sci-fi/action flick is not only fun and entertaining but, creates strong likeable characters and a good sense of drama. Tale of an alien warrior (the underrated Jim Caviezel) who battles a monster on Earth during the ti...

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

reviewed on November 15th, 2011 10:13PM

While not quite as bad as some early reviews suggest, it's definitely not as good as it should be. Biggest problem is that Verbinski replacement director Rob Marshall brings nothing new to the franchise. Instead of freshening things up, he just ha...

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

reviewed on November 14th, 2011 10:37PM

Dark of the Moon ends with a spectacular final act set in Chicago that includes some astonishing SPFX and intense action, so, why does Michael Bay make us sit through almost two hours of mind-numbing stupidity to get there? Can't he find script wr...

The Crazies

reviewed on November 14th, 2011 03:00AM

The Crazies is, for once, actually a good film to remake as George Romero's original was far too low budget to really take advantage of the story's potential. The original was good but, not great, and Director Breck Eisner not only is able to up t...

Green Lantern

reviewed on November 14th, 2011 02:10AM

Where to start... first off I have never read the Green Lantern comic so, I can't say if the lore is translated properly or not. As a movie, Green Lantern is kinda all over the place and not surprising with 4 names attached to the script which is...

Horrible Bosses

reviewed on November 9th, 2011 02:44PM

What could have been a fun movie considering the concept and cast, is yet another extremely mediocre and rarely funny flick that has no idea what to do with it's story. 3 dorky friends plot to kill each other's bosses, each one representing the wo...

Crazy Stupid Love

reviewed on November 7th, 2011 01:35PM

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a hard film to rate as it has some really laugh out loud scenes, a great cast that give good performances, and some nice bittersweet moments too. But yet, despite some cleverness, the film also stoops to the usual tired rom-...

Centurion

reviewed on November 7th, 2011 12:11AM

Neil Marshall's Centurion is based on the legend of Rome's Ninth Legion, who marched 4,000 strong into the Scottish wilds to conquer the land from savage warriors known as the Picts. They allegedly disappeared without a trace. Marshall's story is ...

V for Vendetta

reviewed on November 5th, 2011 04:17PM

Adapted from a graphic novel, Vendetta is a cross between Phantom of the Opera and 1984 as a masked terrorist simply called V (Hugo Weaving)battles an Orwellian British government using British folk hero Guy Fawkes as both inspiration and the face...

Piranha

reviewed on October 30th, 2011 03:29AM

Classic Jaws rip-off from Roger Corman is a lot of fun mostly because it acknowledges it's inspiration yet becomes it's own movie and is all the more entertaining for it. It's gory and campy but, not without some tense sequences too as when the ca...

The Howling

reviewed on October 30th, 2011 02:39AM

A true horror classic and ranks among one of the best werewolf movies ever made. Joe Dante, fresh off of Roger Corman's " Piranha", reteams with writer John Sayles for a fun and spooky tale of lycanthrope loose in the California hills. After a tra...

Near Dark

reviewed on October 30th, 2011 01:36AM

Near Dark came out the same year as Lost Boys and presented the opposing view of vampires. Dark's clan of vamps aren't hip, cool, rock stars like Schumacher's gang, Kathryn (Point Break) Bigelow gives us a vile, nasty bunch of blood suckers who'd ...

Brotherhood of the Wolf

reviewed on October 27th, 2011 02:15AM

Director Christophe Gans takes a French legend and turns it into an exhilarating genre mash-up that only lacks a musical number to have all the genres covered. There's action, martial arts, intrigue, horror, romance and Monica Bellucci as a myster...

Attack the Block

reviewed on October 26th, 2011 01:21AM

British alien invasion flick has a few amusing moments but, overall is one of the most overrated flicks of the year. Story of some street punks in a London ghetto battling a bunch of alien creatures that resemble bad guys from a 70s Sid & Marty Cr...

Ed Wood

reviewed on October 24th, 2011 12:18AM

A twisted and funny film that delightfully tells the story of arguably the worst filmaker in history, Edward D. Wood Jr. The cast is perfect, Johnny Depp as Wood, Martin Landau as Lugosi, Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge, and the performances fro...

The Blair Witch Project

reviewed on October 22nd, 2011 12:17AM

Blair Witch is one of those movies that you either love or hate. I personally think it is a well crafted little movie that draws the viewer in with it's documentary style and then uses the viewer's imagination to produce the goose bumps. With just...

Paranormal Activity 3

reviewed on October 21st, 2011 05:22AM

I like the Paranormal Activity series. It's a minimalist smoke and mirrors approach that let's your imagination conjur up a good deal of the scares. But with a third installment,the question is can they keep the formula fresh and your imaginations...

Jeepers Creepers

reviewed on October 20th, 2011 02:31AM

Wasn't too big on this when I first saw it but, subsequent viewings have caused it to grow on me quite a bit. Jeepers Creepers is a decent saturday night horror best enjoyed with a brew or two. There are some good scares and some nice FX work and ...

Drive Angry

reviewed on October 19th, 2011 09:44PM

Drive Angry is another homage to the "Grindhouse" style movies of the 60s and 70s and for fans of this type of flick, it is an action packed, bloody good time. Nicholas Cage stars as a man who literally escapes from hell to avenge his daughter's m...

Red State

reviewed on October 19th, 2011 04:09AM

I'll start out by saying I'm not a big fan of Kevin Smith. He's made a few good flicks but, for the most part, is overrated. As a filmmaker he is sloppy and as a writer he is overindulgent. That being said Red State has some very disturbing and ev...

Bad Teacher

reviewed on October 19th, 2011 02:15AM

Bad teacher is a harmless enough underachiever of a movie. Much like it's anti-heroine, terrible teacher Elizabeth Halsey, it does the minimum it needs to to get by. The story makes no real sense as a teacher tries to con her way to enough money f...

Iron Man 2

reviewed on October 18th, 2011 12:12AM

Maybe not quite be up to the standards set by the first Iron Man but it's still an extremely entertaining and enjoyable sequel. Downey once again shines as Stark as does the returning cast members in their roles. And as for the newcomers, Rourke a...

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

reviewed on October 16th, 2011 02:23AM

The first in the recent remake trend that has struck the horror genre and probably one of the best. Marcus Nispel uses the basic framework of the Tobe Hooper's original and the Leatherface character but, basically makes his own movie. This Chainsa...

Piranha 3D

reviewed on October 16th, 2011 12:16AM

Director Alexandre Aja takes Roger Corman's classic and totally cranks it up to 11 in this deliriously gory and delightfully horny remake. Aja takes Corman's blood and boobs formula to the extreme and creates a highly enertaining action/ horror th...

The Thing (1982)

reviewed on October 15th, 2011 02:22AM

"I don't know what's in there but, it's weird and pissed off whatever it is!" John Carpenter's masterpiece of sci-fi/horror is still as effective today as it was when it first premiered and in the age of CGI, Rob Bottin's make up effects have s...

The Thing

reviewed on October 14th, 2011 08:01PM

John Carpenter's The Thing is one of my all time favorite movies. It's a classic and arguably Carpenter's masterpiece. So, I felt it was only fair to try and view this film on it's own merits as much as possible. But, ultimately, since it's trying...

[REC] 2

reviewed on October 14th, 2011 02:17AM

Sequel to the Spanish chiller [REC] picks up right where the original left off with a SWAT team escorting a health dept. official into the sealed tenement. This enables the intensity and chills to start almost immediately, where as, the original t...

[REC]

reviewed on October 14th, 2011 02:15AM

One of the best of the post Blair Witch camera POV horror movies. This Spanish fright flick starts out quietly and slowly builds the tension until a truly nerve racking final act. Using the first person camera style to draw you in, the viewer take...

Heavy Metal

reviewed on October 13th, 2011 11:13PM

Heavy Metal is a fun, naughty and bloody good time that will bring out the horny, nerdy teen in you if you let it. Based on the famous sci-fi and fantasy magazine of the same name, Heavy Metal presents an anthology of stories each from a different...

Slither

reviewed on October 13th, 2011 03:18AM

Slither is a fun and very entertaining sci-fi/horror that pays tribute to 80's flicks like Night of the Creeps. As with that film, a horde of slug like creatures from space invade a small rural town and start taking over it's townsfolk. A great ca...

The Monster Squad

reviewed on October 13th, 2011 01:55AM

Practically ignored when it first came out but, now this gem is finally recognized by many as a classic. I saw it when it was first released in 87 and loved it then, now I am very proud to be among those that championed this fun monster movie from...

Night of the Creeps

reviewed on October 13th, 2011 12:51AM

Fred Dekker directed 2 of my favorite 80's guilty pleasures, the underrated Monster Squad and this B-movie blast, Night of the Creeps. A fun sci-fi/ horror that is not only a homage to the drive-in flicks of the 50's but is nostalgically 80's too....

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

reviewed on October 12th, 2011 02:21AM

Much like a dream... or a nightmare... A Nightmare on Elm Street is many things at once. It's one of the quintessential 80s horror flicks, defining a decade where horror may have been at it's most prolific. It gave birth to the legendary icon that...

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

reviewed on October 12th, 2011 01:15AM

Tobe Hooper makes every frame of this classic fright flick give you the willies and saturates this tale of teens and cannibalistic rednecks with dread and tension from the first scene to the last. From the opening scene at the cemetary, to the fat...

Barney's Version

reviewed on October 12th, 2011 12:15AM

Paul Giamatti gives a great performance in this involving but, overlong drama about a man looking back over his life and the women in it. A great supporting cast helps surround Giammatti with three dimensional characters and the direction is solid...

Pumpkinhead

reviewed on October 10th, 2011 11:38PM

One of my favorite Halloween horrors. A spooky and atmospheric backwoods tale of the demon called Pumpkinhead, summoned to exact revenge on a group of cityfolk who accidentally kill a local man's son. Stan Winston's directorial debut has a very Ha...

Halloween 2

reviewed on October 10th, 2011 03:14AM

Once again Rob Zombie shows great potential but, also once again, his film is a mixed bag. First off, the slow methodical pace doesn't really help and the film never really gets scary. In fact, it never really feels like a "Halloween" film. There ...

Halloween

reviewed on October 10th, 2011 02:21AM

There are things I like about Rob Zombie's remake and things I don't. Zombie's biggest mistake is de-mystifying Michael Myers. Carpenter's original had an average little boy from an average family, savagely murdering his older sister for no appare...

Silent Rage

reviewed on October 9th, 2011 11:18PM

Silly sci-fier about an experiment performed on a dead mental patient that brings him back to life as an indestructible killer would be completely forgettable if not for one thing... Chuck Norris! Adding Norris to the mix as a small town sheriff w...

The Ward

reviewed on October 9th, 2011 04:32AM

As a fan of John Carpenter, it was exciting to hear he was making a new flick after a 10 year absence from feature films. And while the Ward isn't the major comeback and return to form fans hoped for, it's far from his worst work. Story of a young...

Doomsday

reviewed on October 9th, 2011 02:52AM

A fun homage to Escape from New York and the Road Warrior, that's like a time capsule trip back to the early 80's. And those who call it unoriginal and a rip-off don't get it, it's supposed to be reminiscent of those two 80's classics. Doomsday is...

Megaforce

reviewed on October 7th, 2011 06:08PM

1982's Megaforce had become a lost film and it's not certain whether that's a bad thing or not. Hal Needham the stuntman turned director who gave us comedy classics like Smokey and The Bandit, Cannonball Run and the stuntman opus Hooper, lost his...

The Human Centipede

reviewed on October 7th, 2011 03:21PM

While the first half of Centipede is well crafted and disturbing, the film loses it's grip by revealing it's medical monstrosity halfway through and then offering very little but repetitive gruesomeness till it's blood soaked climax. Like any vis...

Friday the 13th

reviewed on October 7th, 2011 03:16AM

Re-imagining is nothing more than another sequel with some slight improvements in production value but otherwise nothing new. Same unlikable, dumb mannequins being slaughtered by good ole Jason leading up to the surprise climax we can all see comi...

The Descent

reviewed on October 6th, 2011 02:35AM

One of my favorite horrors. Neil Marshall creates a truely scary and suspenseful rollercoaster ride as 6 women on a cave exploring expedition get lost in an undiscovered system and find out they are not alone. Claustrophobic and tense even before ...

Hatchet

reviewed on October 5th, 2011 03:17AM

Hatchet is both a homage and a spoof of the slasher films of the 80s and it's obvious Director Adam Green has a love for the films he playfully has fun with. Hatchet is a gory but silly story of Victor Crowley, a deformed boogie man legend claims ...

Fast Five

reviewed on October 5th, 2011 01:36AM

Fast Five is the first "Fast and Furious" flick that interested me enough to watch and I can't say I have any interest in seeing anymore after this. The script is really dumb (The guy picked to "blend in" in Brazil is Asian?), and knee deep in cli...

Drag Me To Hell

reviewed on October 4th, 2011 12:15AM

More fun then scary, Drag Me is like a carnival funhouse with it's jump scares, loud noises and CGI phantoms that leap out at you without warning. And much like a funhouse it's all phoney but, we play along anyway for the sake of entertaining ours...

Mimic

reviewed on September 30th, 2011 03:40AM

I've always liked monster movies and am a huge fan of Guillermo Del Toro so, it's no surprise I champion his giant bug movie set in the sewers of NYC. But I really do believe this is a good and very underrated movie. It's got a good story, has a t...

Evil Things

reviewed on September 29th, 2011 12:18AM

Another in the found footage horror genre, this one tells the story of a group of young friends headed to an isolated country house for a vacation getaway. Their troubles begin with a minor altercation with an ominous van on an icy road and escala...

Black Moon Rising

reviewed on September 22nd, 2011 12:35AM

Written by John Carpenter, Rising is a fun and sadly ovelooked 80s action thriller starring Tommy Lee Jones and Linda Hamilton. Jones plays a professional thief who's forced to hide a stolen cassette in a protoype for a revolutionary new car "The...

Bridesmaids

reviewed on September 21st, 2011 04:28AM

Maybe not quite as funny as it's reputation suggests but, Bridesmaids is still a fun time with far more laugh out loud sequences then the ridiculously overrated "The Hangover". Star and writer Kristen Wiig proves once again that not only is she a ...

Hanna

reviewed on September 18th, 2011 02:26AM

Hanna is the story of an ex-CIA agent and his teenage daughter whom he's taught to be an exceptionally skilled killer. When Hanna and her father emerge from hiding, his former handler will stop at nothing to kill him and take his daughter for her ...

X-Men: First Class

reviewed on September 10th, 2011 02:38AM

Not very familiar with the X-Men comics so, I am taking this origin film for what it is... and what it is, is one of the best movies of the summer and ranks with the best of the series so far. A great cast from leads McAvoy and Fassbender to the s...

Skateland

reviewed on September 7th, 2011 05:16PM

Drama of a young man coming of age in a rural town during the 80s is a well written and acted story of a teen coping with becoming a man while his parents divorce and his world changes around him. The movie smartly tackles the melodramatics and cl...

Ghost Rider

reviewed on August 22nd, 2011 02:39AM

I know absolutely nothing about the Ghost Rider character or comic so, I am forced to take this movie at skull face value. Ghost Rider is a silly and uneven supernatural/action flick about stunt rider Johnny Blaze who makes a deal with the Devil t...

Conan the Barbarian

reviewed on August 19th, 2011 08:00PM

The original Conan flick has a legendary aura and is now fondly remembered as a classic. This Conan is no classic but, to be honest, is actually an entertaining and action packed popcorn flick that is better then the trailers led one to believe. L...

Priest

reviewed on August 17th, 2011 04:05AM

Priest is set in an alternate reality where man has been at war with vampires since the beginning of time. Now in a Blade Runner meets the Vatican future, the church rules over the populace and the vampires' threat is overcome by holy super soldie...

Super

reviewed on August 10th, 2011 03:38AM

James Gunn who wrote and directed the clever and very funny horror/ comedy "Slither" returns with yet another 'schlep turns super hero' flick in the vein of the surprisingly good "Defendor" and the entertainingly over the top "Kick-Ass". So befor...

Your Highness

reviewed on August 10th, 2011 02:26AM

With the success of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter films, it was only a matter of time that someone decided to have a little fun with the sword and sorcery genre... too bad the audience doesn't often join in. Your Highness is not without l...

Splinter

reviewed on August 7th, 2011 05:04PM

A pleasant surprise! A creepy, gory little monster/horror movie that delivers some good suspense and thrills as well as effective performances from it's small cast. Splinter tells the story of a parasitic organism that takes over what it infects t...

13 Assassins

reviewed on August 3rd, 2011 08:57PM

Takashi Miike's films can be overbearing and extremely graphic at times (the horrifying Audition, the over the top Ichi the Killer) but with 13 Assassins he uses some nice restraint and falls back on a more traditional filmmaking style to tell thi...

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

reviewed on August 3rd, 2011 08:51PM

Dark of the Moon ends with a spectacular final act set in Chicago that includes some astonishing SPFX and intense action, so, why does Michael Bay make us sit through almost two hours of mindnumbing stupidity to get there? Can't he find script wri...

Stake Land

reviewed on August 3rd, 2011 08:32PM

Another interesing horror from Jim Mickle, director of the cool indie chiller Mulberry St. Stake Land is a bloody horror tale set in a world that has been overrun by vicious and blood thirsty vampires, not the glittering, poetry reading ponces tha...

Cowboys & Aliens

reviewed on July 29th, 2011 10:18PM

C&A has to be the disappointment of the summer. It had everything going for it. A really good cast, an amusing concept with lots of potential and Jon Favreau at the helm. So what happened? First off the story is just plain weak. From the aliens re...

Captain America: The First Avenger

reviewed on July 22nd, 2011 11:24PM

Captain America is a good flick and there definitely is some fun to be had but, It's far from the great popcorn flick it could have been. The biggest chink in Cap's shield is the pacing. The film takes a lot of time with his origin and while what ...

Super 8

reviewed on June 10th, 2011 08:34PM

Super 8 is J.J. Abrams' homage to the 80s coming of age genre flicks like E.T., Stand By Me, Monster Squad, etc. and while it is an entertaining homage, it isn't an overwhelming one. Like all copies, there is something lacking in Super 8 that keep...

Thor

reviewed on May 6th, 2011 07:30PM

I'm not familiar with the Marvel comics version of Thor, so, I have to take the movie at face value and as such, Thor is a lot of fun. The film takes place on Earth and in Thor's home realm of Asgard and Kenneth Branagh does a nice job of switchin...

Insidious

reviewed on April 2nd, 2011 03:19PM

Insidious is a fun, spooky and sometimes intensely scary flick but, does it live up to the internet hype that preceeded it's release? Not quite. The first hour of Insidious does deliver the goods. It's basically non-stop scares and chills as early...

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MonsterZeroNJ's Reviews (257)

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