Not another X-Men spin-off, it’s the true story of Richard Kuklinski, a family man turned hit man who showed so little emotion doing his dirty deeds that not even his wife and kids knew what he really did for a living. Richie carried out his guise for around 20 years, finally getting caught in 1986. […]
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Q: The Winged Serpent
It also helps that it’s about a giant, dragon-like creature that snatches up New York City residents from rooftops for snacks. Running concurrently with a serial killer skinning his victims, the monster’s appearance has the Big Apple police force on edge. While running away from some of New York’s finest, Quinn mistakenly stumbles into the […]
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Ishtar
Derided before it even premiered in the spring of 1987, the last stand (directorial, at least) of Elaine May cast Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty against type: Hoffman is Chuck, the P-magnet; Beatty, Lyle the dolt. Both are struggling songwriters stuck in the New York City supper circuit. The joke is that they’re struggling because […]
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Street Trash
Debuting on Blu-ray in Synapse Films’ “Special Meltdown Edition,” the 1987 skid-row epic centers on an auto junkyard populated by homeless winos. One of them, who looks like famed Torgo from Manos: The Hands of Fate, finds that a decades-old bottle of Tenafly Viper purchased at the local liquor store causes those who drink it […]
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The Place Beyond the Pines
The opening minutes serve as a nifty precursor for the action, both physical and psychological, to follow. Stunt motorcycle driver Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling, Gangster Squad) emerges from a darkened trailer and into a traveling carnival. As the camera trails him over his shoulder, Luke gets on his cycle, enters the caged globe of death […]
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The Fog
The picture depicts a supernatural takeover of the sleepy California coastal town of Antonio Bay by a band of ghost pirates seeking revenge for their deaths 100 years prior. They menace the entire populace, but for the purposes of this story, Carpenter focuses primarily on the DJ of the lighthouse radio station (Adrienne Barbeau, Swamp […]
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Fill the Void
The film zeros in on a Haredi (which means “those who tremble before God”) Jewish population living in modern-day Tel Aviv, Israel. Amid celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim, a family mourns the death of Esther (Renana Raz, Munich), who dies giving birth to her first son, Mordecai. Esther’s death sends a shock wave of […]
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Would You Rather
In order to afford a bone marrow transplant for her ailing brother (Logan Miller, The Bling Ring), young, unemployed Iris (Brittany Snow, Pitch Perfect) accepts an exclusive invitation to a dinner party hosted by businessman Shepard Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs, the Re-Animator trilogy), at which his foundation will award a sizable sum of money to one […]
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Enter the Dragon: 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition
With this, director Robert Clouse made what is easily Bruce Lee’s finest film (and then proceeded to follow it up with a never-ending string of schlock). While Lee is technically one point of a heroic triangle — with A Nightmare on Elm Street’s John Saxon and blaxploitation icon Jim Kelly being the others — let’s […]
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The Call
Halle Berry (Cloud Atlas) leads the show as Jordan Turner, a veteran 911 operator in Los Angeles. (If anything, she should dial 911 for help with her distracting hairdo.) In the prologue, she’s giving questionable advice to a girl who calls about a prowler, resulting in the teen’s death. Six months later, Jordan is still […]