// Category Archive for: Movie Reviews

SXSW Movie Review: The Final Girls

By Brad Henderson

Most horror parodies aren’t smart and in recent years they have gotten really tedious and boring. Towards the beginning we had films like Pandemonium, Student Bodies, and Saturday The 14th. Then the craze died down but came back with a huge bang due to the success of Scary Movie. Ever since then we’ve had a few films pop up here and there (Cabin In The Woods, Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil, and Scream) and more serious filmmakers even started making these kinds of movies. With the newer flicks, parody was thrown out of the window and they turned into horror comedy throwbacks. The Final Girls will give a new meaning to these kinds of comical throwback flicks.

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DVD Review: Wolfcop

By Less Lee Moore

As any regular reader of this site knows, especially if you follow Brad Henderson’s reviews, ’80s throwback horror and action films are a hot commodity right now. Sometimes they work; sometimes they don’t. The ones that do have two things in common: enthusiasm and commitment. Even when these films aren’t total successes, there are usually enough enjoyable elements to make them well worth watching. Which brings me to Wolfcop.

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DVD Review: Motivational Growth

By Jeffery X Martin

One of my favorite movies is a film from 1968 called Symbiopsychotaxiplasm. It is the cinematic definition of “meta.” A film crew is making a film in Central Park. They are being filmed by another film crew. Somewhere across town, a film class is critiquing the film as it plays out. Meanwhile, a flamboyant group of Central Park weirdos interrupts the filming of the original film. If it sounds like madness, it’s not. Sure, it’s experimental as Dr. Jekyll, but it’s an utterly fascinating watch.

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Blu-Ray Review: Poker Night

By Brad Henderson

Who the hell approves artwork for DVDs and Blu-rays for XLrator Media? I will slap the shit out of them for slapping together this bullshit for Poker Night.

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Blu-Ray Review: Track The Man Down

By Brad Henderson

It’s funny how simple movies were back in the day. That’s not a bad thing. It seems these films relied more on acting and cinematography rather than some intricate plot. Lately I’ve been checking out a lot of Olive Films releases and been pleasantly surprised with what I’ve been seeing.

Last night I checked out a very low-key crime drama, Track The Man Down. As I said in the beginning, some of the films from this era have basic plots and focus more on the look and performances; Track The Man Down is a perfect example of this. A group of men rob a dog track and one of the gang members holds onto the cache of cash. Once they figure out the cops are onto them they split, leaving the cash with one of the gang member’s girlfriends. From there the story unfolds more, giving us little surprises along the way.

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Blu-Ray Review: Every Man For Himself

By Brad Henderson

Jean-Luc Godard is a name I’ve been familiar with for a while and from a very young age. I first discovered Godard because of Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino was in an interview discussing movies and whatnot and mentioned he named his company after a French film called Band Of Outsiders. I immediately tracked it down because I was a nerd and Tarantino is a favorite of mine; he has introduced me to so many films that I cherish to this day.

After watching Band Of Outsiders, I did my best to try to track down other Godard films. Contempt, Alphaville, Breathless, and other films have really impacted me. Recently The Criterion Collection reissued his 1980 film, Every Man For Himself. My familiarity with Godard is through his films from the ‘60s and ‘70s so anything past that is new to me, but I was happy to dive into a Godard that was a little alien.

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DVD Review: Blood Car

By Brad Henderson

Well, I just watched Blood Car. I freaking loved Blood Car.

Blood Car was apparently made in 2007 and is just now getting a physical media release in 2015. Criminal. Going into it I wasn’t expecting much because it seemed from the plot and cover art it was going to be an overly gory schlock fest. Well, it was an overly gory schlock fest but a damn fine one that had me tearing up I was laughing so hard. That’s something to be said because I’m not really a “LOL-er” or whatever the hell you call it. I laugh, but it’s mostly inside. Soulless is another name for it, so I’ve been told.

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Blu-Ray Review: The ABCs Of Death 2

By Brad Henderson

W Is For Wish

The setup for The ABCs Of Death is brilliant. Get 26 badass directors and give them some cash to make something sick and twisted. Unfortunately, not structuring it properly resulted in an extremely discombobulated flick with some high quality shorts among a barrage of lame and not so great ones. When I first saw the movie I was extremely disappointed, but over the past few years I’ve grown to love a handful of shorts and continue to watch them on and off again. D, L, O, Q, R, S, U, and Y were my favorites but everything else was either very bland or just not good. Now we have The ABCs Of Death 2 which is completely different. Regrettably, that “difference” is that they are all quality shorts but very few are entertaining.

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DVD Review: The Scared Stiff Collection, Vol. 1

By Jeffery X Martin

You know that moment when you first start getting a hangnail? You know you should get the clippers and cut it off before it becomes a real hassle, but instead, you play with it. You twist it around, push it back into the already ruptured skin, or pull on it. Sometimes, you can make it bleed. It hurts. You know you should stop. You don’t even understand why you’re putting yourself through that pain. But you keep doing it because part of you, a dark nameless section of your psyche, enjoys it. It loves the pain. It needs the humiliation.

If you’re a fan of that level of masochism, you’ll have a great time with The Scared Stiff Collection, Vol. 1. Low-budget horror can be a wonderful thing. Even some zero-budget stuff can be all right. But there are some movies that are not watched as much as they are gawked at, where wretched ineptitude is the real star of the show and it hurts.

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Blu-Ray Review: V/H/S: Viral

By Brad Henderson

The V/H/S series is something I’ve loved and hated at the same time. I say that with the utmost respect; I’m not trying to be an asshole. When the first installment was released I was fucking stoked. Between the filmmakers involved and the trailer that was released, I couldn’t wait until the day I saw it. I remember very vividly renting it at midnight on VOD and being overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. I’ve actually felt this way with every entry and that’s because all the installments are 50/50 for me.

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