Month: July 2016

Black Fly (2014)

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I love it when a movie catches me off guard. Black Fly was made on a shoestring budget (in Hollywood terms, anyway: less than a million), and shot in 14 days. I noticed some glowing reviews on IMDB, but the lack of overall votes and the fact that the same guy (Jason Borque) wrote and directed is more often than not a sign of a low-quality film made on the cheap, and promoted by having people associated with the film post over the top reviews for it. That way, they can make a few bucks on it before word of mouth catches up with them. As it turns out, that is not this film. Not by a long shot. Continue reading →

Criminal (2016)

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In the cinema world, there’s one thing you can be sure of—any film that stars Kevin Costner, Ryan Reynolds, or Bruce Willis is going to take some (in my opinion) undeserved shots by the critics. I don’t know why, but they always seem to pick a few more nits or look a little harder to find something to harangue. Criminal has two of the three thespians, so you can just imagine the critics sharpening up their pens, ready to draw blood. It’s a good thing you guys have me around to set you straight. Continue reading →

Sing Street (2016)

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Conor: “We’re just starting. We need to learn how to play.”
Brendan: “Did the Sex Pistols know how to play? You don’t need to know how to play. Who are you, Steely Dan?”

Sing Street reminds me of what The Commitments would be if the band members were still in high school, and instead of being inspired by Motown soul, they were inspired by Eighties new wave bands like Duran Duran and The Cure. Continue reading →

Carnage Park (2016)

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This is the second film by writer/director Mickey Keating I’ve watched this summer. After watching Darling, which I liked very much (review pending), I had high hopes for this one. Where Darling was a tribute to the psychological horror films of the Sixties (think Hitchcock and Polanski, especially Repulsion), Carnage Park is meant to be an homage to the grindhouse survivor-horror films of the Seventies (think The Hills Have Eyes and Punishment Park, both of which have heavy influences here). Or it might be more nearly correct to say it’s meant to be an homage to Quentin Tarantino because unfortunately, the film comes across as less tribute and more rip-off. (And yes, I know one could make the argument that QT himself ripped off 70s’ grindhouse.) Continue reading →

Rage (aka Tokarev) (2014)

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I’ve been on a pretty good roll with my choices lately. But that ends here. Rage is not only the title of the film, it’s the predominant emotion I felt after realizing how much time I’d wasted watching it. I’ll admit that I’m not really sure about the point of the film, or a lot of the plot. Not that it was that hard to follow, mind you. I just a) didn’t care, and b) don’t think it really matters much anyway. Continue reading →

Tim’s Vermeer (2013)

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Wow. I sat down to watch this a little angry at my new neighbors (renters) for building a bonfire so close to the house, and with a nasty headache from the resultant smoke wafting its way through my windows (via the AC units). That’s always a bad time to watch a movie, especially if you want to give it a fair shot.  But I knew within 15 minutes that this was one of my favorite movies of the year, and after half an hour, I thought it might be one of my favorites, period. Continue reading →

Dead of Night (1945)

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This is a good, old-fashioned horror film. Or, perhaps more properly, a terror film. (Horror generally contains an element of disgust, which differentiates it from terror) It’s done, like a number of horror films (Creepshow, VHS), as a series of vignettes, bookended and held together by a larger (and often contrived) plot point. Here, the bookend is the story of an architect who is hired to come to a house, and who seems to have a familiarity not only with the house, but with the people gathered there. He explains that he has dreamt of this day, and that something terrible will happen before it is over. Continue reading →