Consider the city’s four-year homicide statistics, as shared in the opening minutes of the documentary Narco Cultura: In 2007, “just” 320 murders were committed there. In 2008, 1,623; in 2009, 2,754; and in 2010, 3,622. For perspective, that last year, the city with which Juárez literally shares a border — El Paso, Texas — had […]
part
Posted inArts & Culture
The Hangover Part III
In response, for this summer’s The Hangover Part III, director Todd Phillips and the gang did something totally different. Complained the multiplex populace, “It’s not enough like the first one!” America, you fickle, fickle bastard. What’s funny about the whole thing is that both sequels are, well, funny. Yet The Hangover Part III just can’t […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Evil Dead
In Sam Raimi’s wildly original, wildly influential The Evil Dead of 1981, five friends into the woods for a cabin getaway and couldn’t get away from the demons they accidentally summon from an ancient book. In his feature debut, Uruguay director Fede Alvarez retains that setup, minus the vacation. In his vision, the young men […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Last Exorcism Part II
She even gets a job cleaning hotel rooms and attracts the eye of a boy who works there (Spencer Treat Clark, 2009’s The Last House on the Left remake). But she can’t escape everything — namely, the demon still inside her. Still produced in part by Eli Roth (Hostel) but directed by new blood Ed […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Mad Max Trilogy
The first film introduces future cop Mad Max Rockatansky and director George Miller’s violent, pedal-to-the-metal world of carmageddon. Its chase sequences are as exciting as anything the action genre had seen, and they still hold up because their influence is ever-present. While Max’s family life slows the middle, it fuels a bang-up final act of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Collection
Those who haven’t seen the original film are urged to do so before diving into this sequel. It begins where its predecessor ended, and try as the opening credits might, they fail to adequately acclimate any newcomers, who may be lost. Not that the new film is deep or complex. It does, however, work best […]
Posted inMusic
Tracks of my ears
Sleek and stylish electro duo The Deer Tracks is about as overtly Swedish as a certain chef from The Muppets, which means the blood coursing through the two members’ veins all but guarantees they construct ridiculously infectious pop music far more sturdy than an IKEA shelving unit. In fact, they do. The two — singer/chanteuse […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Silent Night / Silent Night, Deadly Night / Silent Night, Deadly Night Part II
In her third horror remake within as many years, Jaime King (My Bloody Valentine 3D, Mother’s Day) stars as Aubrey Bradimore, a crossword-loving sheriff’s deputy forced to work on Christmas Eve — in particular, the annual Santa parade. She lives in a dreary small town where nothing really happens, but she’s in luck: There’s a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Painted Skin: The Resurrection
Five hundred years ago, a fox demon (Xun Zhou, Cloud Atlas) was imprisoned in the ice. Five hundred years later, she is freed, is nursed back to health, and wants to be human, yet has a heart hot enough to melt ice. This being an Asian epic fantasy, that doesn’t strike the other characters as […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hostel / Hostel: Part II
From 2005, Hostel drops three collegians into Amsterdam for a debauched vacation of pot and poon, only to accidentally become victims in a bizarre business in which the wealthy pay big bucks to torture the kidnapped in an underground warehouse. Roth spares nothing, leaving viewers to cringe at every slice of the Achilles tendon, snipped […]