The Rozen is en route to Mumbai when the weapons-toting Somalis overtake the ship and its seven-man crew. Writer/director Tobias Lindholm doesn’t utilize the captain as our viewpoint, but the cook, Mikkel (Pilou Asbæk, TV’s The Borgias), a nice man who makes a mean omelet. The other half of A Hijacking gets inside the head of […]
film
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Grave secrets
Without the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement, Calgon detergent and Fred Rogers’ tonsils, Night of the Living Dead would not exist. And without Night of the Living Dead, there would be no The Walking Dead, no World War Z, no entire cottage industry centered around those “all messed-up” ghouls who crave and dine […]
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Abducted
But crap happens, and while being all cute and cuddly in L.A.’s famed Griffith Park, the happy couple is darted from afar and drugged into a state of unconsciousness. They awake in a dingy cell looking not unlike the basement from the original Saw. Something’s up and yet, something else is up, because whoever their […]
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Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Unlike its predecessors, Bad Grandpa attempts the franchise’s most daring stunt of all: telling a story. But only barely; while the narrative here serves its purpose — as a framework for a succession of Borat-style bad-taste bits — it is as minimal as allowed. That it also is the funniest film of the year (until […]
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Resolution
Resembling Wolfman Jack as a hobo, Chris refuses. With the help of a taser and handcuffs that attach to a pipe running along the exposed wall, Michael puts Chris on an involuntary, seven-day detox. As his friend experiences withdrawal, Michael comes across some tweakers and members of a religious fringe group, but these weird people […]
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All Hallows’ Eve / Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear
Like many a great ‘ween tale, the dirt-cheap All Hallows’ Eve opens with a babysitter and her young charges, one of whom got a little something extra dropped into his sack of candy: an unlabeled VHS tape. Because the household still has a VHS player, the sitter (Katie Maguire) is able to view the cassette’s […]
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Hogan’s Fable
Hogan, a 2008 music composition graduate of Oklahoma City University, has presented several of his short films in deadCENTER Film Festival and has also worked on television projects. But he wanted The Fable of Shannon Cable to serve as his feature film debut because it marries unlikely genres, includes a music video, sports his “awkward […]
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Queerbait
Of all things, the VHS tape is in the midst of a nostalgic resurgence. Not only does the dead medium of the 1980s enjoy having a horror-anthology franchise named after it, but no fewer than three new documentaries celebrate its heyday, and a few indie labels have issued limited-edition releases on bulky cassettes rather than […]
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Pacific Rim
I realize this unpopular stance puts me at odds with fervid fanboys nationwide who all but wet their pants over the film this summer, but that’s OK — it’s hardly the first time. I, too, would have loved this movie at the age of 8 … unfortunately, a few decades have passed. A mere seven […]
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Maniac
That’s not to say this update isn’t gory — oh, boy, is it ever — but it has a style the first film sorely lacked. Admittedly, Lustig had little budget to work with back then, whereas P2 helmer Franck Khalfoun enjoyed a $6 million sandbox, now clumped with blood. Playing aggressively against his nice-guy rep, former […]