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Director: Bill Paxton

Starring: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O’Leary, Jeremy Sumpter

Bill Paxton’s first directing effort is a compelling and haunting thriller that effectively challenges the viewers’ perceptions and expectations. The result is an underrated project that features impressive acting from the entire cast, particularly young O’Leary and Sumpter, and an excellent original and well-written story with believable, authentic characters.

The story here blasts off immediately as Fenton Meiks (McConaughey) walks into an FBI office late one evening and announces that he has information about a serial killer known as the God’s Hand Killer that he will only give to the lead investigator. When Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) arrives, Meiks begins a long, engrossing tale about his family history, which includes himself as a twelve year old(played by Matt O’Leary), his father (Bill Paxton) who believes that an angel has told him that God wants him to destroy demons, and a younger brother, Adam, played by Jeremy Sumpter, who embraces his father’s vision.

This is an imaginative and finely crafted story in the style of The Sixth Sense and Stir of Echoes that went largely unnoticed by the movie-going public. That’s a shame because this is an excellent choice for those who enjoy the psychological thriller genre.

Primeval (2007) *½
Director: Michael Katleman

Starring: Dominic Purcell, Brooke Langton, Orlando Jones, Jurgen Prochnow, Gideon Emery, Gabriel Malema,

Primeval starts out as a croc version of Jaws, but morphs into an African civil war, kinda crossing with Blood Diamond. The story is not good enough to hold my attention and the characters are not interesting. There is plenty of action, but it seems to go on and on and on and on and…. well, you get the idea.

Dominic Purcell is Tim Manfrey, the whiniest character in film since Bill Paxton in Aliens. He plays a reporter who really doesn’t want to go to Africa to do a story on a crocodile with a huge appetite for humans. The plan is to take a couple experts, a cameraman and pick up a Steven Irwin type in Africa and bring the man killer back alive. This is a shaky plan to begin with, but gets a shakier as the group lands in the middle of local skirmishing. There is an awful lot of missing with machine guns, rocket launchers, etc.

Hardened action junkies may not mind this one, but it really has nothing else to recommend it. It shamelessly rips off Jaws countless times, so in the end all it did was put me in the mood to watch Jaws again.

Director: Dave Meyers

Starring: Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, Zachery Knighton, Neal McDonough.

I have a theory that if I were a police officer, almost every movie that has a cop in it, (uummm, almost all of them?) would seem like a silly cartoon. Do cops watch this crap and resent how poorly they are portrayed in most films? Anyway, enough about most films, I’ll just talk about this one. It sucks. I expected it to suck, and it fooled me by starting out pretty decent and making me think that it wouldn’t suck, but of course it did. There are those who will think it doesn’t suck, naturally. They’re the horror film fans who have the Friday the 13th box set sitting on their shelf, and ‘Freddy For President’ badges. The acting by the three principals is good, and Bean is sinister enough. The direction is good quality and there are some good effects, not all of which are gruesome. Oh, by the way, this is a re-make of the 1986 horror hit of the same name for those of you who don’t know.

John and Grace (Knighton and Bush) are a couple of college students heading home for spring break. They are driving on a rainy night when they encounter a stranger who is not what he appears to be (of course) and getting rid of him is not as easy as picking him up was. The simple story starts out okay, being less predictable than the typical slice and dice feature and building solid suspense. This doesn’t last, however, and it soon gets far-fetched. Not long after that, it becomes ridiculous, followed by silly and even reaches unintentionally laughable, the pinnacle goal of any really bad movie.

This is for the gore group, whose idea of quality cinema is viewing a new way to murder someone in impressive detail. Some of these films rise above the others to be very good in their own right. This one starts to rise, before dropping gently but surely and settling in amongst its peers, just above mediocrity. Slasher fans will consider this to be worthy viewing. Others will consider it to be worthy of the bottom shelf of the special rental section.

Director: Joel Schumacher

Starring: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston, Rhona Mitra, Lynn Collins, Mark Pellegrino

Jim Carrey didn’t give us too many chuckles in this relentlessly dark and creepy thriller. The story is plodding, but engaging and the performances are fine. The first half has extensive narration and is reminiscent of American Psycho in that regard. The comparison ends there, however, since this feature has none of the dark, over-the-top humor of the latter. The look is often surreal, and there is no color used that is brighter than blood red.

Jim Carrey is Walter Sparrow, an animal control officer who is given a used gift as a birthday gift by his wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen). The name of the book is 23 and the writer, whose story we see acted out through Walter’s eyes, is obsessed with coincidences around the number 23. This leads to some horrifying moments for the book’s hero and soon Walter is also seeing the number 23 everywhere. I glanced at the digital clock nearby and luckily the digits didn’t add up to 23 in any way that my little brain could come up with before my ADD kicked in and sent me to the kitchen for a snack. Whew, that was close. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the movie! So, from here, Walter becomes equally obsessed with the number 23 and the author of the book and begins investigations, as his wife and son look on with some concern.

I enjoy thrillers that are well thought out and executed, so this is right up my alley. If you enjoyed features like Frailty and Stir of Echoes, then this will be to your taste. Some will find it too slow and dark and will lose interest before the overly long ending begins. The movie was out of the theater before ticket buyers could get to their seats with popcorn and it didn’t deserve a fate like that. It is a well-done thriller and if you enjoy the genre, then this should make good viewing, but if you are more discriminating, there are better choices out there.

Planet Terror ****

Starring: Freddy Rodriguez, Rose McGowan, Marley Shelton, Josh Brolin, Michael
Biehn

Director: Robert Rodriguez

The dictionary defines yearn as ‘to have an earnest or strong desire’. I have yearned. I have yearned for the natural, yet edgy, dialogue that used to be found in Tarantino features; back before the Kill Bill days, when he traded in dialogue for 150 ways to chop someone up with a sword. I thought Grindhouse might bring back the heady days of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. It was during the Rodriguez feature that I felt this yearning most acutely.
This feature is about a group of townspeople having to defend themselves from the attacks of friends and family infected with the dreaded zombie disease found (so far) only in movies. This film is a cliché. It’s a cliché hyped up with sugar, then pumped on steroids, but it is still a cliché. Anyways, these stalwart survivors, who naturally include buxom strippers, and the requisite mysterious stranger, have to kill and be killed in a variety of gruesome ways while a mysterious group of soldiers wait in the background.
This is an overblown, over-the-top zombie movie that gets laughs by being completely outrageous. Picture one of the above mentioned beaver ballet company members having her leg gnawed off and having it replaced with a machine gun; that kind of outrageous. Its imaginative, and hilarious in spots, but I am not really a zombie guy. Don’t eat my brain, but it just ain’t me, babe. The Dawn of Dead legions will love this one, and but I was left with this damned yearning thing, and that yearning remained as we made our way into…

Death Proof ****½

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

Director: Quentin Tarantino

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: Paul Verhoeven

Starring: Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens, Greg Grunberg, Mary Randle, Joey Slotnick, William Devane

Hollow Man is a love-it-or-hate-it scientific drama/horror, and though most didn’t like it, I find it to be decent piece of work. The effects here are amazing and, at times, slightly reminiscent of the that human body exhibit that is touring around big museums these days, but they work. The acting is very good, and the story features authentic and natural dialog, but is highly sexualized, even exploitive at times, that probably offends some viewers. The story starts out pretty good, but gets weaker and more unbelievable as it goes on.

Now you see him, now you don’t. Dr. Caine is his name and the science of invisibility is his game. Caine (Kevin Bacon) heads up a scientific team researching invisibility in animals for the pentagon. The team is elated when they succeed, but Linda McKay and Matt Kensington(Elisabeth Shue and James Brolin) are shocked when he tells the brass that they haven’t succeeded yet, so that they have time to move to human testing without bothering with all those time-consuming rules, procedures and safety requirements.

Some love it. Many hate it, but there are great effects, strong performances and some good writing. If only they could have found another direction to go in that third act, because the one they chose, usually has me tidying up the living room, before its over. I still think this is worth seeing, but many do not agree with me. The film does speculate on one interesting question, though. What would some people do if they could become invisible? Is this a question that we want to honestly answer?

Starring: Robert Carlyle, Catherine McCormack, Imogen Poots,

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Every job has its bad side. Bartenders deal with drunk jackasses. Taxi drivers endure gridlock traffic and quarterbacks have 250 lb genetically-modified monsters trying to make the sports highlight reel by turning them into a greasy spot. I have to see crappy movies. Its better than the genetically-modified monster thing, so I shouldn’t complain (but you know I’m going to). I didn’t like 28 Days Later, so I sure as shit wasn’t looking forward to a sequel. I am a consummate, unpaid professional, though, so I took the hit for you people and saw it, thinking it might be okay. It wasn’t. The story is simple and full of logic holes big enough to fly a helicopter, through. The camera work tries to be stylish with jerky, hand-held extreme action close-ups that simultaneously made me nauseous and didn’t let me see what the hell was going on (soon, I wouldn’t care anyway). For the shock jocks out there, you’ll find plenty of action and in-your-face scares (kinda like someone jumping out and yelling ‘BOO’ a lot). The gore is state of the art and they probably used more blood in this picture than the Red Cross collects in a year. Horror fans, and viewers whose brain has already been eaten by zombies, will find plenty to like here. I didn’t.
This story starts out with a survival tale of a group (well, they don’t all survive) including Don (Robert Carlyle) and then jumps forward to 28 weeks after the London outbreak of the Rage Virus. At this point, a safe zone has been established and clean up is well under way as people begin to move back in. Obviously, something goes wrong (with both the plan, and the lame ass story) and soon both crazed zombie-like automatons and humans are running around gruesomely killing, and being killed. A few intrepid souls (who we are supposed to care about, but I didn’t, except for the kids) are trying to avoid their rabid friends and relatives, and the rampaging, trigger-happy military. I think I wanted out about as badly as they did. I found a way. I took a nap.
This is not my thing. Can you tell? Not enough story and what story there is requires your logic lever to put into the ‘off’ position. It’s not for everyone. Those who like this kind of film, and you know who you are, will flock to it, probably meaning that there will be a third one that I will have to see, too. I think I know how that quarterback feels knowing he is going to get hit to make the play.

Director: Katja von Garnier

Starring: Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Oliver Martinez,

Was it time for another werewolf movie? I guess it was, because here it is. This is a slightly shoddy addition to the canine family of fanged flicks, and be warned I am going to say a little more about the story than usual, but still not too much and I promise that I won’t blow the ending. The story is the usual formula fare, but with an Anne Rice kinda flavor to it. The acting breaks down in spots and isn’t helped by some really crappy dialogue. The action is slick and okay, but the ‘werewolves’ are just dogs (or wolves or something), and just are not that scary. It looks like a rolled up newspaper is all that’s needed to straighten everything out.

Blood and Chocolate is about a bunch of young hip-looking folks who also happen to be a group of werewolves lead by a slightly older leader named Gabriel (Martinez). I guess you could say that he IS the leader of the pack (Sorry, couldn’t resist). Vivian (Bruckner) is the young, pretty werewolf, dripping with teenage attitude, who is supposed to be destined to rule beside him. The problem comes about when she falls for a human, which sets the pair of them against the pack. You can guess where this all leads.

Action and horror fans might be ok with this feature, but I suspect that even they will feel a little ripped off by the end of this one. Blood and Chocolate has some style to it, but it offers nothing new, or particularly clever, in the story, or action departments, and gyps us out of the cool changing scenes that I really like in werewolf movies. It didn’t even give us a bunch of cool CGI wolf men, and women. In this day and age, this is expected. I mean Michael Jackson gave us a better werewolf than this 25 years ago. There has to have been some significant advances in the werewolf creation industry in all that time! Tell me that the Thriller video is not still the epitome of werewolf excellence. Let’s hope that the next werewolf movie sets the bone just a little higher.

Director: William Friedkin

Starring: Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Harry Connick Jr., Lynn Collins, Brian F. O’Byrne

Bug is a hauntingly mesmerizing little film from the forgotten director of The Exorcist and The French Connection. William Friedkin shows consummate skill in turning Tracy Lett’s screenplay (based upon his stage play) into a freaky thriller that boasts a haunting atmosphere and strong performances from Judd and Shannon. It is hard to watch at times, but even harder to turn off, despite taking a hard left from creepy anticipation into weird, and occasionally gross.

Ashley Judd is Aggie White, a charismatic, bar waitress whose coke-addicted life is going nowhere good, especially since her abusive ex-husband has been released from prison. One night her friend, R.C. (Lynn Collins) comes over and brings a nice quiet fellow that she just met named Peter (Shannon). Aggie and Peter form a quick friendship, despite Peter’s mysterious past and oddball personality. Soon, Peter discovers bugs in Aggie’s dingy little apartment and sets out to get rid of them. Things get weirder and weirder from there, as the question becomes; are there bugs? Or aren’t there bugs?

This is an uncomfortable kind of thriller with a slow, but engrossing story. It might be too slow for some and too gross for others so I’m not sure who to recommend it to, other than those who enjoy psychological thrillers where things may, or may not, be as they seem. I did kind of like it, but will likely never watch it again.