This week’s Tubi picks: a moody atmospheric thriller that almost sticks the landing, a sleazy sword and sorcery classic that just launched a brand new countdown series here, and one of the best pure action films of the 1990s. All free, all worth your Tuesday night. Continue reading Tubi Tuesday #3: In A Dark Place, Deathstalker, and Speed
The never-ending countdown to the cheesiest, sleaziest sword and sorcery ever committed to film. Theia issues the Decree. Titan and Thalia bump the scores. The Dungeon is open. Continue reading Sword, Sorcery & Sin: The Never-Ending Countdown
The Dungeon opens with Deathstalker, the 1983 Roger Corman sword and sorcery film that defines the genre at its most unfiltered. Theia condemns it. Thalia has feelings about Lana Clarkson. The Never-Ending Countdown begins. Continue reading Deathstalker Review (1983) (Throwback Thursday #8) (Sword, Sorcery & Sin: The Never-Ending Countdown — Entry #1)
The Indian in the Cupboard had one of the best premises of any 90s kids movie. Toys coming to life as real people with real histories. It just never had the nerve to follow through on what it set up. Continue reading The Indian in the Cupboard Review (1995) (Throwback Thursday #6)
There may have been a very good reason this Dracula’s story was untold. It’s just a shame it didn’t remain that way. This movie should really have been titled Edward Untold as it is just an obvious attempt to take an established character and turn him into a swooning icon for the twenty-something audience who grew up with the Twilight series, with a slight attempt … Continue reading Dracula Untold Review
My wife is among the world’s biggest Tim Burton fans, and this of course, is one of her favorite movies. Growing up I recall loving it too. It’s strange looking back now how little actual screen time Michael Keaton gets in the title role here, but it’s telling how much that he manages to do with said screen time. Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin carry … Continue reading Beetlejuice Review
The Arrow on JoBlo.com had perhaps the best quote on Ex Machina I could find anywhere when he wrote about this movie “Ex Machina was Frankenstein meets The Island of Dr. Moreau by way of Basic Instinct.” which just about sums this flick up for me. Quirky introspective Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) is a twenty something intellectual who works as a coder for a big corporation … Continue reading Ex Machina Review
There’s a fine line between inspirational and cloying, and this movie teeters dangerously on the brink the entire film. I found that half the time I went along for the ride, while the other half I had to distance myself from the main character. Walter Mitty is a really old character updated here as a writer for Life Magazine during the period when they were … Continue reading The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Review
* BE WARNED: THERE ARE SPOILERS CONTAINED IN THIS REVIEW * I watched this movie the other night completely unaware that it was a musical. I’m not typically a fan of musicals, and Broadway really isn’t something that interest me all that much (there are some that I enjoy). All I knew was that this was a mixing of Brother Grimm’s fairy tale characters into … Continue reading Into The Woods Review
John Spartan (Stallone) is the “Demolition Man” a Dirty Harry styled bad ass cop in the late 20th century. When a mission goes awry and he is wrongly blamed for the deaths of several innocent civilians, he is sentenced to be cryogenically frozen (as this is the chief form of punishment in this movie’s timeline) along with the man who is actually responsible for those … Continue reading Demolition Man Review
Harold Crick breaks for the fourth wall of his own life when he discovers that he is in fact a character in a book being written in a parallel universe. He begins hearing strange voices that turn out to be the narrator of the movie and eventually discovers the half written manuscript and being mystified, shows it to a critic friend of his who informs … Continue reading Stranger Than Fiction
I first saw Bridge to Terabithia in 2008, a little over a year after it had released in theaters. It was on a movie channel, Starz I believe. I had never read the book, but I remembered the trailer for it and was excited to see it. I was expecting a fantasy Narnia style film, so I definitely got more than I bargained for. If … Continue reading Bridge to Terabithia Review
Based on Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” with a few poetic liberties, Sleepy Hollow puts a modern spin on the legendary tale of horror. Rather than his original role as a school teacher, Ichabod Crane (Depp) is now an investigator from New York sent to investigate murder in the farming community of Sleepy Hollow. There, he encounters several interesting characters, chief among them … Continue reading Sleepy Hollow Review
For a movie I had no intention of watching in the theater, this was a pretty good movie. The legendary monster hunter Van Helsing (Jackman) must go to Transylvania to fight Dracula and help Anna (Beckinsale), who’s family can not enter heaven until Dracula is dead (I suppose that would be the best word to use). Along with appearances by Mr. Hyde (of Dr. Jackyl … Continue reading Van Helsing Review
Tin Man is the epic miniseries from the SyFy Channel that took Oz to a new level; it’s a modernized retelling of the story and science fiction intended for teens and adults. When this originally aired on SyFy it was a three night event that was six hours long (and that’s including commercial breaks). There are no commercials on this Blu-ray release though, so the … Continue reading Tin Man Review
This doesn’t quite meet the criteria for the “Golden Age” of Hollywood, but I’m making an exception. This movie came out in 1925, which means two things: it’s a silent film, and it’s officially the oldest movie that I have ever seen. It also marks the first time I’ve ever reviewed a silent film. I first became aware of this movie a couple of months … Continue reading The Lost World Review
For the sake of being fair to this movie in this review, there’ll be no comparisons made between “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” or “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, because no one can play the role of Willy Wonka the way Gene Wilder did. With that said, Johnny Depp performed the role brilliantly, as he does pretty much every character. Poor kid Charlie Bucket … Continue reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Review
I enjoyed the original Underworld movie, and thought it was quite a good film. The second one was good, but I found it to be just a tad worse than the first one, which is usually what happens with sequels. Then came word of a prequel without the two main characters from the first two films, and I thought it would be wonderful based off … Continue reading Underworld Rise of the Lycans Review
Lair has an interesting story and some fun moments, but frustrating motion controls and uneven mission design keep it from taking flight. Two out of five stars. Continue reading Lair Review
