Just now getting a DVD release (through Synapse Films), 2008’s Reel Zombies is a feature mockumentary with a welcome twist: Its filmmakers are poking fun at themselves, acknowledging how terrible their previous two (real) movies were. The shot-on-video “epics” in question are 2003’s Zombie Night and its 2006 sequel. The concept behind Reel Zombies is […]
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The Postman Always Rings Twice
Most of the sordid story unfolds at the Twin Oaks Tavern, a sparsely attended roadside diner owned by a Greek man (John Colicos, The Changeling) whose prized possession is either the place, his record player or his much-younger wife, Cora (Lange, TV’s American Horror Story). Much bored, she perks up when Frank (Nicholson) drifts in. […]
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Banshee Chapter / You’re Next
Using the CIA’s real-life Project MKUltra as a jumping-off point, freshman writer/director Blair Erickson explores the fates and legacy of those who volunteered for the controversial mind-control experiments, which ran in secret for about 20 years beginning in the 1950s and often involved LSD. After a friend disappears from downing a 150-mg dose, an […]
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Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
The funniest movie of last year, Bad Grandpa is also the funniest movie of this year (thus far), thanks to its unrated cut on Blu-ray. It’s not that the extra 11 minutes prove essential (they don’t) but that the gags from the theatrical release hold up, even without the benefit of playing to a packed […]
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Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon
Therefore, no one blames Hark for wanting to mine Dee for franchise potential. Unfortunately, the result is the kind of unfocused, overindulgent mess that saw the shine wear off his reputation in the first place. With Mark Chao taking over the part, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon is a prequel concerning the […]
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Scorned
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar; here, it’s just one of many atrocities suffered by his rich-guy character when his girlfriend, Sadie (AnnaLynne McCord, TV’s rebooted 90210), discovers he has been cheating on her — and with her own BFF (Viva Bianca, TV’s Spartacus), no less! Over one rainy night and long off her […]
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The Conjuring / Insidious: Chapter 2
This summer, the smash of The Conjuring crowned him king. Based on a “true” case file of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (if you believe bunk to be true), the film begins with perhaps the most frightening doll in cinema history — or at least since Poltergeist — and things just grow creepier from […]
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Carrie / Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D
His split-screen treatment of the senior-prom carnage becomes her condensed Final Destination sequel; his shock ending becomes her anti-bullying message. Pay no mind that the entire story is already that, with outcast Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz, Kick-Ass 2) becoming even more of a social punching bag after she mistakes her first menstruation as bleeding […]
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Rewind This!
Josh Johnson’s documentary chronicles the VHS format from birth to death, and those for whom the words on its “Be Kind Rewind” sticker remain a way of life. In 94 minutes, he covers a ton of ground: the Beta vs. VHS showdown, the porn explosion (pun intended), the dawn of sell-through tapes, the lost art […]
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Die, Monster, Die!
That would be a sinister, humming force that can turn people — Witley’s wife included — into hideous mutant freaks. The special effects are not so special until you get a glimpse of the giant octopus or, better yet, when Witley turns into some sort of glowing metal man. (Again, don’t ask why — this […]