Netflix Mining – Mutant Vampire Zombies from the Hood

Posted in movies by - Jan 19, 2012
7 Comments

IMDB lists the director’s name as ‘Thunder Levin’. That may be the most awesome director credit I’ve ever read. I mean, how can you be less than awesome with a name like Thunder Levin?

‘Mutant Vampire Zombies from the Hood’ surprised me, in mostly good ways. I picked it because I liked the title, and I wanted to see what a Mutant Vampire Zombie looked like. (Slight spoiler: turns out they look like zombies. When they start to mutate, they look like bubbly zombies. Vampire is more verb than noun here.) I also noticed that the cast was anchored by the …

Read More

Netflix Mining – Delhi Belly

Posted in movies by - Jan 15, 2012
No Comments

First of all, Delhi Belly is slang for severe gastrointestinal distress. Spoiler alert – this affliction does occupy a central space in the narrative. You might want to think of this as kind of an Indian entry in the ‘Bridesmaids’ genre of sweet, silly, gross-out flicks. The language is pretty harsh for Bollywood (but very funny), the gastro gags are pretty disgusting (but also sort of funny) and the violence is cruel and out of left field a bit (but also quite funny).

The movie concerns some 3 slacker roommates who are approaching the age where having a bunch of roomies …

Read More

Quick Review – Tinker, Tailor Soldier, Spy

Posted in movies by - Jan 11, 2012
1 Comment

I had a good time, and I don’t hesitate to recommend it for the kind of person who liked ‘The Conversation’. If you require a little more splodey in your spy movies, you should probably pass.

Read More

Quick Review – The Darkest Hour

Posted in Uncategorized by - Jan 02, 2012
No Comments

Sure, at first glance ‘The Darkest Hour’ looks like the kind of low-budget, half-assed sci-fi thriller that exists only to make Redboxes appear well-stocked. It’s more than that, though. It’s also a half-assed sci-fi thriller that exists to relentlessly jam a new special effect down our throats – I’m gonna call it ‘quantum suck’. In this effect, humans are dragged into a vortex while they shed pixels like they’re being pulled through a digital wood chipper. It’s not a terrible effect, the first couple dozen times.

The plot is simple. Two Americans who may or may not be Jonas Brothers fly …

Read More

Quick Review – The Sitter

Posted in Uncategorized by - Dec 22, 2011
No Comments

From the trailer, you might be expecting this to be a semi-hip, foulmouthed retread of ‘Adventures in Babysitting’. It is that,sure, but what you can’t tell from the trailer is that it’s also so much less. ‘The Sitter’ is bristling with ignorant stereotyping and tepid sight gags. Jonah Hill’s snappy patter has its moments, but it feels like no one bothered to write a part for him. Everything he says feels improvised, and not in the awesome ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ way.

Most of the laughs are derived from lazy 80’s style mockery of all kinds of subcultures. There’s a gay dude …

Read More

Netflix Mining – War of the Worlds 2 : The Next Wave

Posted in movies by - Dec 21, 2011
No Comments

This is a film from The Asylum, home of the ‘mockbuster’. On the off chance that you’re not hip to their brand of cinema, these are the guys who brought you such bootleg classics as ‘The Day the Earth Stopped’ and ‘Transmorphers’. The Asylum specializes in making unbelievably cheap retreads of successful Hollywood films, apparently in the hopes of tricking drunk people at their video store’s last call. They shoot fast, they shoot cheap and they use C.Thomas Howell much more than you might expect. The quality of their output is spotty, but you can’t salt the work ethic.

Really, if …

Read More

Quick Review – Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol

Posted in movies by - Dec 21, 2011
No Comments

In lieu of review, I present a series of questions that prevented my full enjoyment of this film.

1) Why are we still afraid of the Kremlin?

In the world of MI:GP we are still neck deep in the Cold War, apparently. The Kremlin is still an impenetrable fortress and the Soviet military is still poised to pounce on US targets. 35 years ago, the military might of Russia might still be a worthy concern. Today, I’m not even sure Ukraine is terrified of Russia. Now, to be fair, the real menace in this film is something even more boring, so it’s …

Read More

Quick Review – Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Posted in movies by - Dec 17, 2011
No Comments

They are still engaged in a steampunk-kung-fu battle of wits with Moriarty, and they still have a very fancy set that Ritchie can’t help zooming around whenever things threaten to get focused on the characters.

Read More

Quick review: Hugo

Posted in movies by - Dec 14, 2011
No Comments

‘Hugo’ is one of the most dazzling visual experiences I’ve ever had at the movies. It’s a clinic on how to use the special properties of film to tell a story. If you turned off the sound, the visuals could tell the story on their own. It’s a love note to the pioneers of cinema, and to the heights we can reach by enthusiasm alone.

As in ‘Goodfellas’, there is a long tracking shot at the beginning that sets the tone for the film and reminds us what a painterly eye for detail Scorsese brings to every project. If there was …

Read More

Mood Music – Theme from SWAT

Posted in Mood Music by - Dec 13, 2011
1 Comment

You live in a world of miracles. You need no more proof than this: the song below was a TV theme song. In 1976, a rather tedious police-themed action show somehow found itself with a theme so crazy funky that it’s still on heavy rotation here at the Daringtonium headquarters. In a medium that lends itself to pap like the themes to St. Elsewhere or LA Law, it’s an almost impossible gem. It’s a theme that deserved a better show. Listen to Rhythm Heritage lay it down and feel like a secret badass. Play it in your head when you …

Read More
« Previous Page
Next Page »