Welcome to the Punch (2013)

Well, THAT was a pleasant surprise. I’d heard positive ‘rumblings’ about this UK-born action thriller and now that I’ve had the chance to see it…I can say that it’s one of the better action flicks I’ve seen in quite a while. The story follows Max Lewinsky, a dangerously obsessive London cop, played by Englands answer […]

Grabbers (2012)

I’d never heard of this silly Irish ‘creature-feature’ before it was mentioned by a conveniently Irish co-worker…who grew up in the area where the flick was filmed. Beyond the initial premise that he’d described, I had no idea what to expect. So…the premise goes like this: A straight-laced, by-the-book female police officer, Lisa, is temporarily […]

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Sometimes it really does pay to know exactly JACK and SHIT about a film before soaking it in. Here is a prime example of that. All I knew going in was: A) Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were in it and B) it was a ‘darling’ on the awards circuit. So with a little persuasion, […]

The Ward (2010)

Ok, right off the bat…I LOVE a good chunk of John Carpenters filmography. I mean really, Halloween (1978), Escape From New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994) are ALL kick ass genre movies. Scattered in amongst […]

Red Dawn (2012)

Jesus fuckin Christ why?!!! Why did this idiotic remake need to be brought into existence?! The original Red Dawn (1984) holds a special place in my heart because it’s a terrific snap-shot into the era that it represents, that being the paranoid Republican-controlled Cold War era of the early to mid 1980s. I remember seeing […]

Life of Pi (2012)

When this film was in its initial release, I freely admit to being less than thrilled about its existence. I read the book, by Canadian author Yann Martel, a few years ago and I confess that l read it simply to see what all the hoopla was about. Overall, I wasn’t terribly impressed. I felt […]

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

James Camerons ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow has once again stepped up to plate, and knocked it outta the damn park. This woman is incredibly talented behind the camera and she seems to be on the verge of a cinematic winning streak, with this film following hot on the heels of The Hurt Locker (2008). With regards […]

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

I’ve been familiar with this particular title for a good number of years but it always just stayed in the peripherals of the horror/serial killer genre for me. In 1996, it received a rather prominent ‘shout-out’ in Scream and as a result, I mentally ‘bookmarked’ it for an eventual viewing. Having now seen this strange […]

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Oh, I SO wanted to like this flick. When I first got wind of Brad Pitt re-teaming with the director of (the under-seen) The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (2007) for a modern day crime movie, I was really intrigued. When it finally hit, the word-of-mouth was decidedly mixed. Usually my […]

Django Unchained (2012)

I love Quentin Tarantino movies. Always have. Of course, that ‘love’ isn’t level across the board, some of his films have been better than others. Inglourious Basterds (2009) was an interesting and daring exercise in ‘period’ film-making, especially for Tarantino, but it just didn’t quite come together as I had originally hoped (looking at YOU, […]