High school literature teacher Germain (Fabrice Luchini, Ozon’s Potiche) is fed up with the student body at large, but impressed with the quality of writing by 16-year-old Claude (Ernst Umhauer, The Monk). For an early assignment, the student turns in a rather voyeuristic, true story about visiting the home of his awkward classmate, Rapha (newcomer […]
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The Kings of Summer
Socially awkward and undersized classmate Biaggio (Moises Arias, TV’s Hannah Montana) comes along just for something to do, but the machete he brings along sure does come in handy. Although he indulges in shots of super-slow-motion too often, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (TV’s Funny or Die Presents …) ably recaptures that feeling of when summer […]
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Redemption
The film is more crime drama than crime action, but relax: The Stath still gets to kick ass aplenty. He’s Joey, a former Special Forces soldier on the lam from a court martial. Homeless and haunted by the demons of Afghanistan, he becomes a muscle for Chinese mob and finds himself strangely attracted to a […]
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Prince of Darkness / Halloween: 35th Anniversary Edition
Well, in so many words. The important part is that the prof thinks that’s a swell idea. For the job, he selects Jameson Parker (TV’s Simon & Simon), Lisa Blount (An Officer and a Gentleman), Dennis Dun (also from Little China) and a host of random, more expendable character actors to monitor the evil force. […]
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Psycho II / Psycho III / Bates Motel
However, that doesn’t mean one can’t make a satisfying picture that continues to tell the tale. While they’re sacrilege to some, the Psycho sequels get a bad rap, yet they’re actually pretty good, considering the awfully intimidating shadow in which they exist. The first two, 1983’s Psycho II and 1986’s Psycho III, have made their […]
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V/H/S/2
With one fewer segment than the original, this stack of mo’ lo-fi tales of taped terror opens with no credits — just the wraparound story of two private investigators searching for a college student missing for a week. Their gig takes them to his house, where in front of a bank of TVs, littered VHS […]
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Scenic Route
The indie dramatic thriller casts Duhamel as Mitchell, a finance exec/family man on a road trip with Carter (Dan Fogler, Take Me Home Tonight), an old friend from whom he’s grown apart of late, due to the vastly different directions their lives have taken. Carter lacks everything that Mitchell has: a wife, a kid, a […]
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An American Hippie in Israel
The title refers to Mike (Asher Tzarfati, Double Team), a Vietnam vet who has spent the last two years traveling across Europe while barefoot, chased from country to country by two mute goons with snappy suits and silver-painted faces, because why not? “I think they want my life,” explains Mike, as if that explains anything. […]
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Targets
Fearing he’s an anachronism, aging horror star Byron Orlok (the legendary Boris Karloff in one of his final roles) announces his retirement, effective immediately. He doesn’t even want to make the next night’s scheduled promo appearance at the local drive-in theater. After all, “no one’s afraid of a painted monster” when the headlines scream of […]
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The Lords of Salem
The story is pretty slight. One third of a popular radio team in Salem, Mass., Heidi Hawthorne (Sheri Moon Zombie) becomes affected by strange visions and mysterious ailments after listening to a song that is delivered anonymously to her radio station by a group called the Lords. As these things turn out, the song is […]