Hard Revenge Milly

An action-packed Japanese tale of futuristic revenge told as a Manga-come-to-life short film(43 min). Deleriously over-the-top in the spraying blood dept. with some well-choreographed, well cut fight sequences and a general air of fun Asian ridiculousness and boundary-pushing. It’s a fun lil ‘watch’. And again…subtitles. July 2, 2011 at 9:47pm

Days of Darkness

A surreal, dark comedy from Quebec about the hallucinatory ‘unraveling’ and subsequent psychological reinvention of an unhappy gov’t worker’s life. Interestingly paced and often quirkily hilarious with a complex tone and a plot line that’s seemingly all over the place. Interested in strangely amusing Canadian cinema and are able to stomach subtitles…? July 2, 2011 […]

Storage

Woah!! A sweet lil Aussie gem that packs a punch! This well-stylized and atmospheric flick’s high production value gives this an entertainingly sinister ‘graphic novel’ feel. And when the ‘twists’ hit, they hit without warning. The easy pacing leads nicely into a couple abrupt(but not jarring)shifts in tone. It just plain works…and works well. Looking […]

Altered

A surprisingly cool alien invasion horror from the Blair Witch crew. The no-name actors really give it their all and they give it well. Damn gross make-up and a now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t approach to the monster really spruce this B-movie up. And there’s a gnarly intestine gag that I guarantee you haven’t seen before. You want a […]

Pride and Glory

Intense and realistic cop drama boasting a slew of believeable performances from a well-versed cast, with Norton and Farrell standing out noticeably. The two enthusiastically engage in one of the best down-n-dirty fisticuffs I’ve seen in a while. It also has a nicely subdued, decidedly un-Hollywood finale’. A decent addition to the Cop Movie genre […]

The Plague Dogs

What a trippy ‘find’! A strange, sombre and suspiciously intelligent ‘curiousity’ of English animated storytelling from ’82. A gloomy look at the ‘lives’ of a pair of escaped lab animals that definitely gets the intelligent mind ‘going’. There’s an eerie sadness to it. A cool, cinematic gem that deserves to be seen. So NOT for […]

X-Men First Class

An entertaining, well-thought out ‘origin’ story that wipes away the dreck of the last two films in the franchise. Inspired ‘period’ detaills merge to give the film a groovy sixties, ‘James Bond’ vibe that actually works while the actors seem dedicated to thier roles. Some nice ‘shout outs’ to the established lore and an awesome […]

The Mechanic

A clever and well styled action flick with some nice attention to gritty detail and some kick ass action scenes. Statham and Foster make compelling, fleshed out leads who inhabit an interesting ‘grey’ zone with a workable yet uneasy dynamic that changes as the story unfolds. If you like ‘smart’ hitman/conspiracy films…this one is worth […]

Micmacs

A charming live action cartoon done in the brilliantly quirky style now expected of Jean Pierre Jeunet. Vibrant, zany characters and outlandish situatons make this film a fun lil piece of French cinema that stands up well with Jeunet’s other gems ‘City of Lost Children’ and ‘Amelie’. This one is definitely a fun ‘watch’. May […]

The Red Baron

A lavishly mounted tellling of the war career of Germany’s top Ace of WW1. The attention to period detail is impressive and the dizzying dogfight sequences are surprisingly well done and exciting. Decent performances all round with some familiar faces in the cast. For anyone with an interest in well dramatized military history…this one’s a […]