// Category Archive for: Movies

The Robocop Remake Gets A Trailer

By Tim Murr

I was 11 when the original Robocop came out in 1987. The first pictures I saw from the film and the TV spots hooked me. I became obsessed with seeing this movie. Since I was poor and the film was rated R, I didn’t get to see Robocop on the big screen, but I was allowed to rent it the week it came out on VHS.

Robocop has been one of the biggest pop culture obsessions of my life and also one of the biggest disappointments. Since ’87, we’ve witnessed a TV series, two animated series, a bunch of toys and collectibles that range in quality from brilliant to “why did they make this piece of crap,” and two sequels that were just awful.

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TIFF 2013 Review: iNumber Number

By Less Lee Moore

iNumber Number is a thoroughly enjoyable heist film from writer/director Donovan Marsh. There’s not a bit of flab to be found in its taut 96 minutes, all of which crackle with tension.

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Blu-Ray Review: X-Ray (a.k.a. Hospital Massacre) and Schizoid

By Brad Henderson

When I was younger, probably around the age of 14, I would help my mother at her job. She would pay me a hefty allowance and I could spend that on whatever I wanted. I used to save up my cash, go on Ebay, and buy box lots of VHS tapes of horror films (I still do this by the way). I would buy anything that I saw on there and spend my weekends staying up late to watch these movies.

One of those large lots I bought contained a cut VHS box fitted into a clear clamshell. It read Hospital Massacre. Upon pulling several titles to watch one night, it was first on my list. Not only was Barbi Benton in it, but Boaz Davidson also directed it. He also directed my favorite ’80s teen film of all time, The Last American Virgin (in the same year of 1982, I might add.)

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Blu-Ray Review: Frankenstein’s Army

By Less Lee Moore

Frankenstein’s Army is the feature debut of director Richard Raaphorst, who’s worked as a concept artist and visualizer. A few years ago, he released some impressive teaser trailers for a planned film called Worst Case Scenario, which unfortunately never came to fruition because his financing fell through. Fortunately for us, he used many of those ideas in Frankenstein’s Army.

Frankenstein’s Army is less like a straight-up horror film and more like a home movie of a haunted house or a survival horror video game, but don’t let that scare you away, because then you’d be missing out on some incredible visuals.

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TIFF 2013 Review: Brazilian Western

By Less Lee Moore

“Rich people design it; poor people build it.”
—João in Brazilian Western

If you’ve heard the song “Faroeste Caboclo” by Legião Urbana, the storyline of Brazilian Western will be familiar to you. For those who haven’t, it follows the song’s same storyline: a poor young man named João moves to the city for a better life, becomes a drug dealer, and falls in love, only for his life to end in tragedy.

Revealing this information won’t ruin your enjoyment of the film. From the opening scenes—which are very much in the style of a Western—we already know the ending is a sad one. Watching the events unfold is what makes Brazilian Western worth seeing.

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Blu-Ray Review: I Come In Peace (Dark Angel)

By Brad Henderson

Just when I thought Scream Factory has outdone themselves, they have the balls to release Dark Angel (a.k.a. I Come In Peace). I honestly don’t know where to begin with a film like this. First, it has Dolph Lundgren. Second, it has Dolph Lund . . . wait. It doesn’t matter what else it has; this film is insanely badass.

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TIFF 2013: My Top 20 Picks

By Less Lee Moore

A Field in England

This year’s Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5 – September 15. Rather than focus on some of the highest-profile films in the Festival (a few of which are already on my Top Ten Movies To Watch In 2013 list), I thought I’d pick 20 that are a little different.

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Assemblog: August 30, 2013

Our beloved editor is typing her fingers to the bone, blogging for TIFF 2013, but that doesn’t mean you can’t check out all the great new stuff on Popshifter this week!

The Internet lost its hive-mind this past week when it was announced that Ben Affleck had been cast as Batman in the sequel to Man of Steel, but Paul makes a great case for why it doesn’t matter at all; Melissa gets greasy with Lux Interior; Chelsea gets ethereal with The Copper Gamins; new contributor Tim shines a spotlight on the venerable Pere Ubu; Brad goes into the light with his review of Fire in the Sky; Less Lee provides her recap of FanExpo Canada 2013; and finally, I start a new Waxing Nostalgic series and offer an essay about when movies were movies, not digital presentations.

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FanExpo Canada 2013: 100,000 Fans Can’t Be Wrong

By Less Lee Moore

Another year of FanExpo Canada has come and gone. As usual, the four-day event was jam-packed with people and panels, photo ops and paraphernalia. With so many things happening and so many attendees, there are bound to be a multiplicity of experiences. Here are mine.

Day One: Thursday, August 22

The doors opened at 2:00 p.m. and as usual, there was already a line-up. I don’t like to brag, but I enjoy being able to go through the Media entrance and not wait in the lines outside. Although, never fear, non-media folks: I still have to wait in a line to get onto the exhibition floor like the rest of you. (I do think it would be nice if media got to go in about an hour before the show opens, just to prepare for photos and video shoots.)

This year, due to the addition of the Sports segment and the expected increase in attendance, FanExpo took up multiple floors in both the South and North buildings. This meant a bit more walking across the bridge between buildings, but it also made for less cramped conditions (at least on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday; I didn’t attend Saturday).

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Our Lady of Imperfect Presentation: The Church of the Flicker Pics

By Jeffery X Martin

As the circle is drawn, the people feel a small rush of energy run from person to person, the familiar arousal of ceremony. The quarters are called. The fires crackle. The ritual begins.

The Tennessee Theater pushes itself back from the cramped Gay Street sidewalk, buried within itself like a wolf spider in a trap. The pavement changes color from grey to a dark brown, and patrons wander in like unsuspecting grasshoppers, awed by the intricacy of the architecture and the anachronistic ticket booth, separate from the rest of the building, like cleverly placed bait.

Customers wander in, dazed, hypnotized by the almost criminal use of fleur-de-lis. Ushers show them to their assigned spots, plush maroon seats that do not recline and defy the existence of cup-holders. The quarters are close, and smelling the person next to you is not difficult.

Sitting inside the auditorium is like being trapped inside a Fabergé egg. Sequins adorn the curtain that hangs in front of the screen. The ubiquitous fleur-de-lis runs in giant arches around the stage, as do depictions of castles, dancing bears, and crests of long-forgotten families. History lives in the Tennessee like dinosaurs live in Jurassic Park; its existence is undeniable, but remanufactured. A refurbishment project a few years back made everything bright and shiny again. Some grime would be welcome, a slight layer of stickiness on the floors. It’s a theater, not a museum.

Maybe it should be, though, and perhaps all of us gathered here on this Sunday afternoon should be on permanent display. Eighty of us, maybe ninety, here to see The Godfather, Part II, a movie released in 1974. I have this movie on DVD. I tend to think a lot of people do. I have a fairly decent home entertainment system, nothing too high end, but it is manly overkill for my small apartment living room. Also: I can, and do, quote this movie on a regular basis. What’s the sense of leaving my comfortable home, dragging my wife with me, to pay hard-earned money to see a movie already burned into my subconscious?

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