Unlike the knock-offs that followed in “Blair Witch”‘s wake a decade ago (“The St. Francisville Experiment,” anyone?), the new crop realizes there’s more to the subgenre than merely tweaking the title. (Well, everyone but The Asylum and their “Paranormal Entity.”) In first-time writer/director Dominic Perez’s “Evil Things,” five college students (whose actors are largely as […]
DVD review
Posted inArts & Culture
24 Hours to Kill / Assignment to Kill
In 1965’s “24 Hours to Kill,” the title carries a winking dual meaning. Mickey Rooney is Jonesy, part of an airline crew en route to Athens, but forced to make an emergency landing in Beirut, of all locales. As soon as he’s on the ground and headed to the hotel, he notices he’s being followed. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Tekken
Turns out, the movie isn’t much more complex. Its near-future setting imagines a grim scenario following “the terror wars,” where the globe then is ruled by eight corporations. America has fallen to Tekken, where metal-helmeted warriors known as Jackhammers enforce the corrupt government, which has banned coffee, chocolate and oranges. But in the appropriately named […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Sweet Life
Purported to be a rom-com for those who dislike rom-coms, the 2003 work is unfortunately as generic and unremarkable as its title. That’s too bad, because I was an insta-fan of James Lorinz since his inspired turn in Frank Henenlotter’s notorious “Frankenhooker” of 1990. Here, now with a Pooh belly he hides beneath flame-embossed bowling […]