By Jake Dee

Director: James Foley
Starring: Halle Berry, Bruce Willis
Released: 2007

Oh the woes of Oscar winning actors! The great Alan Arkin has said on more than one occasion that after his achievement for supporting actor Little Miss Sunshine, he couldn’t get work for an entire following year. His advice to Academy Award winners; do something wild and silly as an encore, that way people can’t expect much from you right away. Critics will tune out until that awards cache simmers, then it simply becomes about the work again; giving the actor the freedom to truly explore a role in their own way, independent of shackled incentives to remain lime lit or buzz worthy. Halle Berry, who earned the golden statuette in 2001 for Monster’s Ball, seems to be taking Arkin’s advice to a whole new stratosphere (although she won the Oscar five years earlier than Arkin). Let’s see; Gothika, Catwoman, the second and third X-Men pictures, etc. Now we have Perfect Stranger, just another stitch in a consecutive thread of movies which has blanketed the bulk of Berry’s talent.

continue reading "Perfect Stranger (2007) Review"

By Nattalie Crawford

**Spoilers Herein**

In the quiet town of Verplank, NY, nothing seems taboo. The car of choice seems to be the Yugo and the lawnscapers seem to out number the lawns. Nothing can upset this quaint little town. Not even when well known Mona Dearly, played by Bette Midler, careens off a bridge to a watery grave.

News spreads through the town like wild fire, yet no one even blinks an eye. It almost seems as if everyone is relieved Mona is gone.

continue reading "Drowning Mona (2000) Review"

By Corisa Moreno

Have you ever watched Little Shop of Horrors and thought, I love this movie, I must find out more about it, and then you do some research on the internet and discover that the musical was based on a 1960’s Roger Corman low-budget movie called The Little Shop of Horrors and then you look up Roger Corman and realize …

continue reading "The Terror (1963) Review"

By Corisa Moreno

Ouch! Ouch! Please stop beating me over the head with your secondary plot of pseudo-moral judgment calls. You are going to fracture my skull. You see, fracture means to crack or break something, not to make a movie about a murderer and a prosecutor that we really don’t care about.

Plot overview: Anthony Hopkins’ character, Ted Crawford, shoots his unfaithful wife, gets arrested and then begins to act like a bumbling old fool in order to pull off his oh-so-clever scheme. The assistant district attorney, Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) is a young hot shot who just landed a job at a big corporate firm. He gets Crawford’s case in his last week of work at the humble DA’s office. Should he stay at his low paying but righteous job or should he go make corporate bank? It is a hard, difficult and painfully soul-searching quest that Willy has embarked on. But ultimately, he needs to find that dang murder weapon.

continue reading "Fracture (2007) Review"

By Jake Dee

Director: Neil LaBute

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn

Released: 2006

Nic Cage is one of the few bankable stars left in Hollywood. Demanding a whopping $20 million per picture (sometimes in excess of), his films can still generate quite a box office stir. He fills seats as they say, and as reward for it, studios spit piles of money at him. Not every film of his hits, mind you, but by and large he does pretty well. I can’t figure it out really, the guy has played about three variations of the same role for the last decade plus. Slight variations at that! Ever since he panned Oscar gold in 1996 for his work as a suicidal drunk in Leaving Las Vegas, we’ve seen him play tepid roles in flicks like Face/Off, Con Air, City of Angels, 8MM, Snake Eyes, etc. etc. Then, by the turn of the century, Cage made an interesting departure in off beat films like Adaptation, Matchstick Men, even the Weather Man, to a degree. But alas, the real Nic Cage stood up in 2006, first with Ghost Rider and never more apparent than in Neil LaBute’s remake of The Wicker Man.

continue reading "The Wicker Man (2006) Review"

By Jim McFadden

For everyone who thought a thriller based on the pagan rituals practiced on remote Scottish islands would be interesting, The Wicker Man is an 88 minute rebuttal. Or, if you managed to get your hands on the “essential” UK Director’s cut, a 100 minute rebuttal. Either way, I think when the film’s over, you’ll be a believer.

Although this movie was remade starring Nicholas Cage, I decided to review the original because, well, it doesn’t star Nicholas Cage.

continue reading "The Wicker Man (1973) Review"

By Adam Goldstein

Nominated for 7 Razzies in 1995 (including Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Original Song), Congo failed to bring home a single award. But don’t let that fool you, because with Showgirls and Waterworld released the same year, the competition was strong. And Congo, ladies and gentlemen, is awful… awful great.

continue reading "Congo Review"

By Nancy Johnson
When your husband says to you, “I’ve been watching you sleep at night”, run… girl run! Run oh dang too late! Anthony Hopkins had a major ‘fracture’ in his head and let me tell you I am scared and his piercing blue eyes are as cold as his wife’s dead body.

continue reading "Fracture Review"

By Edward Staiger

FROGS (1972)
Directed by George McCowan
Starring Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan Van Ark

THE NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972)
Directed by William F. Claxton
Starring Janet Leigh, Stuart Whitman, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley

By 1972 the pre-Jaws, pre-Spielberg “creature features” community had exhausted outer space and all the animals then guest-starring on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom as source material to threaten humankind. What could they come up with next? Another 50-foot Woman? As if combing the scalp of the cosmos, they scraped together what became Frogs and The Night of the Lepus - that is, bottom-of-the-barrel reptiles, mutant bunny rabbits and the usual roster of Hollywood has-beens.

continue reading "Lame-2-For-1!: Frogs (1972) and The Night Of The Lepus (1972) Reviews"

By Lee Arcuri

“From the producers of The Sixth Sense!” said the front cover of the DVD. I pick up the cover to read the back. “From the producers of The Sixth Sense!” says the back.

Don’t let things like this fool you. Always remember what can be said about Howard the Duck: “From the producer of Star Wars!”

continue reading "The Invisible Review"

By Nancy Johnson

There isn’t enough Cabernet Sauvignon to make me watch this again. Please why Nicolas Cage? No more please! Your monotone voice and the beady eyes, they haunt me at night, or is that my cat? “National Treasure” starts with a history lesson with a grandfather and grandson. Ok cool. Let’s begin. I’m ready to learn.

continue reading "National Treasure, is there a category marked “Boring”?"

By Kimberly Sabat

Now for a review on one of the worst movies since ROSEMARY’S BABY, I give you THE NINTH GATE. Oooo, so spooky, so satanic, so… Why did they pick Johnny Depp to star in it? Oh yeah, because it will bring every Depp fan from miles away to wonder in amazement why he purposefully appeared in this movie.

continue reading "The Ninth Gate Review"