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Director: Chris Sivertson

Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Neal McDonough, Julia Ormand,

This mystery/horror is original, but far-fetched and punctuated with highly sexualized scenes with Lohan and a high level of brutal violence. The story starts out adequate, but slowly slips away. Lohan is a decent young actress, although she mostly seems to play the same highly sexualized teenager with a bad attitude. Still, she does have some talent which should help her to make a comeback once she has hit rock bottom in her personal life and tries to make her way back into the Hollywood limelight. This clearly a vehicle for the young star, and she could have chosen something stronger.

Lindsay Lohan plays a happy student named Aubrey Fleming whose idyllic existence is destroyed when she is captured by a sadistic serial killer (even by Hollywood standards).
The story’s takes a twist when she found alive, but claims to be a different girl named Dakota Moss. Her mother (Julia Ormand) and father (McDonough) struggle to be supportive, while Aubrey/Dakota tries to figure out what happened to her.

This one is pretty mediocre fare that I can only recommend for non-discriminating fans of violent mysteries, or one of Lindsay’s legion. I have seen worse, but there are better choices out there.

Director: Stephen Hopkins

Starring: Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb, Stephen Rea, William Ragsdale

Director Stephen Hopkins, best known for The Ghost and The Darkness and several episodes of 24, uses a lot of shock tactics for thriller effects here, but doesn‘t manage to build and hold the tension as top thrillers do. The film is relentlessly dark and does build an effective mood, but the script, by twin brothers, Carey and Chad Hayes, is unveiled in a formula, by-the-numbers fashion and is interspersed with psychedelic flashbacks and visions.

A tiny, bible belt town gets spooked when their local river turns red and blames the plague-like occurrence on a strange twelve-year old girl. Professor Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank), a lapsed Minister and an expert in de-bunking divine occurrences is convinced to investigate by the local science teacher, Doug Blackwell (David Morrissey), whose role seems to chiefly consist of blandly dispensing back story and information. Soon, Doug, Katherine and her colleague, Ben (Idris Elba) are witnessing more mysterious events, and some pretty gross scenes as tensions grow.

The Reaping is a biblical-based thriller in the tradition of films like Stigmata and, to a lesser extent, The Omen and The Exorcist, but it lacks the punch of the latter films, and is a mediocre choice for all but die-hard horror suspense fans.

Director: Peter Webber

Starring: Gaspard Ulliel, Li Gong, Aaron Thomas, Helena Lia Tachovska,

This has been a hit-or-miss series all along. This one is a miss. The story is weak and the characters are poorly developed. They try to set up Hannibal as a monster created by the actions of others, but if this is the case, then there has be a transition from innocent child to cold-blooded killer. We don’t have that here. All we have left is some innovative revenge murders, reminiscent of I Spit On Your Grave (anyone remember that one?) and a story that needed about seven more re-writes.

The film starts with a long section on eight-year-old Hannibal’s experiences in World War II. Aaron Thomas plays young Lecter, while Tachovska plays his younger sister. The rest of the unconvincing story begins when the young killer is sixteen-years-old and in an orphanage. Soon, our young connoisseur is out of there and into a bigger world, but is still haunted by dreams of his wartime experiences. All of this is surprisingly slow and boring, with a decided lack of tension and suspense. This film should be about building depth in the main character, but we are not let into his thinking, but kept outside as we merely witness his brutality. The ending does pick up and offer some action, but too little too late.

There is not much to recommend here. If you liked “Hannibal”, then this one might be to your taste, but you will need some patience to get there. If that one was not your kind of flick, then don’t bother with this one. Pull Red Dragon off the shelf and watch that one again, or check out Manhunter (the first Hannibal Lecter movie), if you haven’t seen it.

Director: Mark Steven Johnson

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Eva Mendes, Peter Fonda, Sam Elliott, Donal Logue, Wes Bentley

Marvel Comics has been a gold mine of material for the movie biz in the last few years. The trouble is that some of what they are pulling out is gold, and some is…. well, let’s just say its not gold. This one is not gold, but it is a little better than I expected. The CGI is excellent, once the Ghost Rider finally makes an appearance, but this takes about an hour. The story is ok, but is saddled with pretty sad dialogue in spots.

Matt Long plays a young Johnny Blaze, part of a motorcycle trick riding act along with his father. Young Blaze inadvertently makes a deal with Mephistopheles and eventually (and I do mean eventually) he comes to collect, which really complicates the mature Blaze’s (Cage) attempts to patch up a relationship with his teenage love, Roxanne, played by Eva Mendes who is hotter than the flaming rider. At one point, she asks a waiter if she is good-looking, which is the dumbest question since the last person who asked “Hot enough for ya?” Anyway, once Cage finally becomes the rider instead of a famous motorcycle performer, his job is to put Mephistopheles’ rebellious son back into Hell, but he doesn’t want to go and there is nothing peskier than a spoiled Demi-God.

The first hour is an overdeveloped back-story and the second half is an overblown, story-poor action orgy. The movie is too long, and needed the action more evenly distributed, but action fans will probably forgive its slow start and embrace its prolonged action scenes. It doesn’t have the super ability to win over the minds of others, however.

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman

Starring: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Lyriq Bent, Athena Perez.

When you make 3 successful, arguably entertaining films in a series and you have a fail proof marketing plan of releasing the most awaited scary movie of the year on Halloween eve, one thing is for sure in this world of enterprise and commerce…a fourth movie will be made. Especially when the first one was an artistic and creative opus as well as a commercial success, the second one maintained that air of originality and the third one was not God awful. That is exactly what this fourth feature is; God awful.

As with the the 2nd and 3rd installments of the saw series, this one picks up at the exact spot the last one left off. This one opens at the autopsy of Jigsaw played, as always, by Tobin Bell (although in this episode, he is far quieter and less clever with his witticisms, since he is dead). When they cut him open, they are welcomed by the latest message from John, that the games are not over, in fact they are just beginning. Sergeant Riggs, played by Lyriq Bent, the captain of the task force in the previous three movies is the lead character in this edition (since there is no one else left). Unlike the last three where John picks on people who generally deserve it, and have characteristics that really could use some, ummm… adjustments, Riggs’ tragic flaw according to the screenwriter (can you call someone who writes the fourth sequel a screenwriter, or are they simply a cookie cutter at this point?) is that he cares too much and tries to help too many people. Wow, what a world it would be if everyone was awful like that. In typical Saw fashion, Riggs sets off on a quest to stop the mad man and hopefully learn something about himself and not get his friends all killed.

This once refreshing franchise is starting to look like 10 day old lettuce and is finding its way into the pitfalls of all franchise chains, Police Academy, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, MacDonald’s and Jack in the Box. What made them great is what now makes them awful and Boring, same menu, same flavor and, ultimately, the same result; a long time in the bathroom. The true tragedy is that I think this movie made more money than the last one so we are sure to be sentenced to a Saw V. Hopefully Jigsaw will find me before next Halloween and make me pay for my years of making bad movie choices.

Starring: Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Traci Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Zoe Bell

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Well, Grindhouse has made it to video, sort of. Death Proof was released in an extended edition this week and upon a second viewing, my opinion has not changed. There is a simple story, great dialog and acting and outstanding, well-executed action scenes. As far I can tell the extended edtion added the ‘lost footage’ of Butterfly’s lap dance for Kurt Russell and a few more scenes to the beginning of the second group of women. The stunts here are amazing, which shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, I suppose since Tarantino cast Kiwi stuntwoman Zoe Bell to play stuntwoman, Zoe, who spends a good part of her screen time on the hood of a fast-moving Charger (or was it a challenger?).
Ahhh, the master of dialogue has re-entered the building and left his katana outside with Uma. This is a great mini-feature worthy of a Tarantino writing credit. This will satisfy the Kill Bill action junkies and the more cerebral word addicts. Its about time he left behind this ‘Tarantino presents…’, Oprah movie club kind of crap and did some work of his own.
The story revolves around a character named Stuntman Mike, played by Kurt Russell, who has a very unusual car and an even more unusual hobby involving that car. The dialogue is amazing and the action scenes are gripping. There hasn’t been a car chase like this one since…well, there has never really been a car chase scene quite like this one.
I don’t want to ruin this by saying too much. Tarantino fans, even picky ones like me are going to love this. But, as you watch and enjoy, ask yourself just one question. Why not just stop the car? It’s a small point, but one that bugged me. You’ll see what I mean. But let me just finish this by saying this…Tarantino is back, baby!

Director: Oxide and Danny Pang

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, John Corbett, Evan & Theodore Turner

Hollywood gives us a haunted house story, or two, every year. There are enough of them to fill an entire subdivision with tall, creaky, old mansions. This makes it difficult for new entries to find a way to distinguish themselves from the others. Still, I never mind a decent thriller to get those goose bumps popping up. The Messengers relies on pop-up thrills and a decent ending delivered by a strong cast, but still never manages to stand out from the pack

Jess is a teenage girl moving with her parents (McDermott and Miller) and little brother from Chicago to a rundown farmhouse in the country. At first the only real problem is some pretty aggressive local crows, but in no time at all, it becomes apparent that not all of the problems are outside. Jess soon suspects that the previous residents didn’t all leave, but can’t get anyone else to believe her (Wow, never heard of that before). The story progresses from there in a pretty familiar manner.

The Messengers is acceptable as a dark, Friday night couch-cuddling choice, or for people who loved movies like Cold Creek Manor, An American Haunting, the Amityville series, etc.. It is generally neither better nor worse than previous works in the area so if they were your kind of flicks, then fire this one up for more of the same.

Director: Paul Donovan

Starring: Joan Gregson, Stephen McHattie, Nancy Beattie, Joseph Rutten

This was a Canadian made for TV movie about a wife who starts the story by blasting her drunk, passed-out, husband to Hell with a shotgun. I guess that qualifies as the ‘till death do us part’ thing. The acting is adequate, but a little uneven, except Stephen McHattie who is convincing as the awful Billy Stafford. This is a true story about a horribly abused wife who kills her tormentor. It is emotionally disturbing, and has inconsistent production quality, but it is also undeniably compelling.

Billy Stafford is killed at the beginning of the movie and the true story of this family is told by flashing back to life in his house for his wife, and children. This is split with telling us about to the life, investigation, and trial, of his wife. There are very disturbing scenes of spousal, and child, abuse, but, thankfully, the horrific tales of sexual abuse are given at the trial and not shown. This guy got what he deserved (Hell, he got better than he deserved!), but will his wife get what she deserves? The mystery here is not who killed Billy, but what will happen to his killer.

Not a great piece of cinematic work, but a riveting and disturbing tale that might be worth catching on TV, if you can handle the unsettling scenes of domestic violence, which are at least not overly graphic. I started watching it, thinking I would go to bed an hour into it. I didn’t.

Director: Peter Jackson

Starring: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, Andy Serkis, Evan Parke, Jamie Bell

I guess the Lord Of The Rings trilogy left Peter Jackson a little out of practice at making a 2-hour movie. This mighty remake tips the time scales at just over 3 hours (and that is not even the extended edition). The characters are strong and the acting is solid, particularly by the three stars. The effects are impressive, but Jackson showcases them in actions scenes that often go on too long and strain credibility, even for a movie of this type. Predators only hunt the easiest prey to kill and only when they are hungry – you don’t see lions trying to catch bull rhinos, or every antelope on the Serengeti do you? Nature rule, Daniel-san, not mine. However, if it is action you love, and you don’t need every niggly, little detail to fit, then this movie serves it up; tons at a time.

For the first hour, this is the story of a down-on-her luck vaudeville performer named Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and a make-his-own luck movie producer named Carl Denham (Jack Black). Denham pulls together a hasty expedition/escape to a mysterious island where he wants to shoot his next picture. Once they bump into the island, the action flies fast and furious and larger (much larger) than life, as the story that we are all familiar with really begins. Jackson manages to tell the tale with some humour and tenderness and enriches the traditional tale by giving Kong a lot of personality.

Impressive effort but overdone with a story that is engrossing, but could have used sharper editting and action scenes that are amazing but could have had the same effect with less time and repetition. Oh yeah, and it really didn’t need all those damn creepy, crawly, giant bugs. That is just my squeamish, Nancy-boy opinion, but there it is. This is a strong movie that could have been much, much stronger with a little self-restraint. It is ok to watch once, but much tougher to sit through a second time. Try it. You’ll see.

Director: Mikael Hafstrom

Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McComack, Jasmine Jessica Anthony

Good horrors are like good women (or men depending, on your point of view). They are damn hard to find, but I hit pay dirt today with 1408. Its the John Cusack Actors’ Workshop, here. He still plays John Cusack, as he always does, but this is a challenging script to perform, not only because of the wide range of extreme emotions required, but also beause he is usually acting alone. To make this work, Cusack has to sell us with his performance. Wrap it, bag it and ship it C.O.D., because I bought it. I am a Cusack fan, but this is the most challenging role of his career. There is a strong, suspenseful story that manages to change gears whenever it is in danger of becoming mired down in repeat material. Finish it off with a pretty good ending (always the most challenging part of any screenplay, particularly suspense features) and the result is a tense, clever thriller.

John Cusack is Mike Enslin, a cynical, but determined horror writer who gets wind of a particularly haunted suite at an exclusive NYC hotel. Hotel manager, Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson), does his best to dissuade Enslin from staying in the room with tales of strange occurences and the countless guests who really did ‘check out’, but to no avail. Enslin is determined to stay the night and debunk the supernatural reputation of room 1408. Sounds simple enough.

Imagine Castaway crossed with The Shining and you will have some idea of what to expect from this film. Horror fans will like it’s shock-and-jump scenes and thriller fans will enjoy the persistent tension. Cusack fans will be glad to see him stretching himself. This is a quality feature that should please most of its genre fans.