71% Lust, Caution
Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution is a tense, sensual and beautifully-shot espionage film.
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46% The Brave One
Magnetic performances between Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard can’t quite compensate for The Brave One’s problematic and unconvincing eye-for-an-eye moral.
Moviefone’s 31 Days of Horror
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Home Entertainment
Say what you want about all those other so-called “months” throughout the year, October is known for one thing and one thing only — Columbus Day! Yes! No, actually I’m talking about another holiday; one that doesn’t get you a day off work or school, but does allow you to dress up like a freak and beg your neighbors for candy … right after you’ve covered their car with toilet paper and eggs. Halloween. Forget about buying crappy presents for people, Halloween is all about celebrating what scares us — and in honor of the pumpkin-picking, Cinderella-wearing love-fest, Moviefone is counting down the 31 Best Horror Movies of All Time. But they’re not just giving you a list and calling it a month; nope, they’re releasing one film per day throughout October, while providing clues for the movies they haven’t uncovered yet. Think you know your horror? Yeah, so did I, until I scrolled through a list of 30 clues that truly test your scary movie knowledge.
Here’s a few examples: Number 28: “This modern classic borrowed its poster art from a Salvador Dali photograph.” Or how about Number 25: “This British horror flick’s female lead refused to appear naked from the waist down, but she was furious to learn that footage of a (pregnant) body double’s backside was used in a nude dancing scene.” Ooohh, and then there’s Number 22: “Molly Ringwald was originally approached to play this flick’s teenaged heroine, but turned down the role because she was 27 at the time.” The 31st film has already been uncovered (The Ring), and now it’s up to you to sift through the clues and piece together the rest of their list. And stay tuned to Cinematical, as we’ll be unveiling our own 31 days worth of Halloween content real soon. Oh October, where would we be without you …
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EXCLUSIVE: Ian McShane Tells Cinematical HBO Has Scrapped Those ‘Deadwood’ Movies
Filed under: Deals, Fandom, Newsstand, HBO Films, Western
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Yeah, I’m not happy about it either. Earlier today, I got a call from Ian McShane to talk about his new family fantasy movie, The Dark is Rising, and I asked him the big question Deadwood fans have been wanting to know for a while now — was HBO just blowing smoke with its promise to wrap up the series with a couple of made-for-TV movies? Well, the answer is yes, McShane revealed to us. “I just got a call on Friday from … a dear friend of mine, who told me that they’re packing up the ranch,” McShane said. “They’re dismantling the ranch and taking the stuff out. That ship is gonna sail. Bonsoir, Deadwood.” He went on to say that even if the movies were happening, there would be the strike to consider, and on top of that, he’s committed to a filming schedule that would prevent him from doing them anytime before late next year anyway.
I told McShane that as a fan, I felt completely cheated by this move on HBO’s part. “You feel cheated? Imagine how I feel!” he replied. “We all do. We all do. It was one of those one-off jobs that you do which has got an extraordinary creative brain behind it, and it kept getting better, and the actors were great. It was a fabulous place to be and work. It was a workshop cum theater cum film. It was an extraordinary time. But everything has to come to an end, babe.” So, there you have it.
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Fantastic Fest Review: Invisible Target
Filed under: Action & Adventure, Foreign Language, Independent, Theatrical Reviews, The Weinstein Co., Fantastic Fest, Cinematical Indie
Crunch! Bam! Ouch! Wow! Great action movies make you want to express yourself in exclamation marks. As evidenced by Invisible Target, the Hong Kong film industry has forgotten more about making action films than Hollywood will ever learn. Invisible Target may not be strikingly original in either its plot or action choreography, but there’s definitely something entirely positive to be said for a film that intends to be nothing more than a delivery system for adrenaline and keeps its promise in a very satisfying fashion.
A gang of thieves led by Tien (Wu Jing) and Yeng-yee (Andy On) blows up an armored truck so they can steal the millions of dollars that are secured inside. The explosion is so huge and fiery that it wipes out nearby cars and stores, including a jewelry shop where a woman is shopping for wedding rings. The woman is the fiancee of police detective Chan Chun (Nicholas Tse); six months later, he is still grieving her loss and aching for a chance to avenge her death.
Having fled Hong Kong after the robbery, Tien’s gang is forced to return in search of their share of the booty, which was not paid as promised by their “invisible” boss. They cross paths with another police investigator, Fong Yik-Wei (Shawn Yue), who is as arrogant as Chan is brooding. Fong and his squad are in the process of making a drug bust when Tien’s gang bursts in, displaying a brazen defiance of police authority. Fong suffers further when he is forced to (literally) eat lead. He aches for the chance to avenge his humiliation.
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Fantastic Fest Review: Invisible Target
Filed under: Action & Adventure, Foreign Language, Independent, Theatrical Reviews, The Weinstein Co., Fantastic Fest, Cinematical Indie
Crunch! Bam! Ouch! Wow! Great action movies make you want to express yourself in exclamation marks. As evidenced by Invisible Target, the Hong Kong film industry has forgotten more about making action films than Hollywood will ever learn. Invisible Target may not be strikingly original in either its plot or action choreography, but there’s definitely something entirely positive to be said for a film that intends to be nothing more than a delivery system for adrenaline and keeps its promise in a very satisfying fashion.
A gang of thieves led by Tien (Wu Jing) and Yeng-yee (Andy On) blows up an armored truck so they can steal the millions of dollars that are secured inside. The explosion is so huge and fiery that it wipes out nearby cars and stores, including a jewelry shop where a woman is shopping for wedding rings. The woman is the fiancee of police detective Chan Chun (Nicholas Tse); six months later, he is still grieving her loss and aching for a chance to avenge her death.
Having fled Hong Kong after the robbery, Tien’s gang is forced to return in search of their share of the booty, which was not paid as promised by their “invisible” boss. They cross paths with another police investigator, Fong Yik-Wei (Shawn Yue), who is as arrogant as Chan is brooding. Fong and his squad are in the process of making a drug bust when Tien’s gang bursts in, displaying a brazen defiance of police authority. Fong suffers further when he is forced to (literally) eat lead. He aches for the chance to avenge his humiliation.
Continue reading Fantastic Fest Review: Invisible Target
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Fantastic Fest Review: Hell’s Ground
Filed under: Horror, Theatrical Reviews, Fantastic Fest, Cinematical Indie
Stop me when this sounds familiar: A group of kids lie to their parents, hit the road for a night full of partying, and stumble across a nightmare of monumental proportions. Sounds like your typical B-grade horror movie, right? Absolutely. Hell’s Ground is an unwaveringly derivative and preposterously gory little genre concoction that borrows a lot from the finest films of George Romero, Sam Raimi and Tobe Hooper while forging very little new ground of its own. But you know what? It’s still a fun fright flick, even with all its obvious touchstones and blatant inspirations. Once the movie gets the character introductions and the requisite wheel-spinning out of the way, it’s a pretty energetically good time.
It’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Dawn of the Dead, sorta … oh, and it came from Pakistan. Did I not mention that part? Yep, a mega-splattery zombie-strewn slasher flick from Pakistan. Shot entirely in Islamibad by a bunch of young filmmakers who clearly grew up with the same horror flicks we did. So while you’re being assaulted with ideas, characters and monsters that are clearly ‘borrowed’ from other sources, well, it’s just quite the novelty to witness Pakistan’s first gore movie.
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71% The Jane Austen Book Club
Though at times formulaic and sentimental, Jane Austen Book Club succeeds on the strength of its likable ensemble cast.
Another ‘Cloverfield’ Photo! Yay!
Filed under: Fandom, Movie Marketing
It’s been awhile, but another mysterious photo has popped up over at 1-18-08.com (aka The Unofficial Official Website for “Cloverfield” — aka That Mysterious J.J. Abrams Project). I’ll admit that I haven’t been following the viral marketing for this film since — I dunno — July, so I’m not completely up to date on all the different websites beside this one that may or may not have something to do with the movie. But in case you’re still following the clues, if you flip the above image over (on their site, not ours), you’ll see the recipe for a Japanese dish, in Japanese. You can find the translation over on the Unfiction message boards, as well as more info on the Cloverfield Clues blog.
As far as I know, an official title still hasn’t been released, and we’re all still assuming the film will be released on January 18, 2008. From the details that have emerged, we know the film will follow a group of kids from New York City who attempt to survive an attack from an unknown monster(s). Oh, and the entire film will most likely be told via shaky handheld cameras, a la The Blair Witch Project. Matt Reeves is directing off a script from Drew Goddard, while folks like Lizzy Caplan, Mike Vogel (who’s rumored to be up for the role of Captain Kirk in Abrams’ Star Trek XI) and Jessica Lucas star. Not much else to go on, but whatever it is that chef is holding up — well, it looks disgusting.
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Fantastic Fest Review: The Beautiful Beast
Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Theatrical Reviews, Fantastic Fest, Cinematical Indie
Playing like an overheated Tennessee Williams drama in which all three members of a suffocatingly intimate family are deranged, The Beautiful Beast maintains a consistent tone of simmering unease. Imagine if Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was set on an isolated, pastoral French-Canadian estate, and you begin to get the vibe created by director Karim Hussain. Hussain adapted the debut novel by Canadian author Marie-Claire Blais, published when she was just 20. Blais was educated by Roman Catholic nuns; while the story, as told by Hussain, does not tackle religion directly, it is a de facto attack on conventional morality and conversative values. The film version, swathed in allegorical fantasy, tends to unravel rather than unfold; we feel less like we’re watching dysfunctional family dynamics than being taught a lesson in human depravity.
The widowed Louise (Carole Laure) takes the lead as the family visits cruelties upon one another. She calls her beautiful daughter Isabelle-Marie (Caroline Dhavernas) “ugly” for smiling at her equally gorgeous brother Patrice (Marc-André Grondin) at the dinner table. What seems to be an unhappy mother-daughter relationship is turned sideways when Isabelle-Marie finds Louise and Patrice far too clingy with one another at bedtime. Are they carrying on an incestuous affair? Is Louise so jealous for her son’s affections that she was offended when Isabelle-Marie smiled at him?
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