It’s so very hard to elicit real tension and fear in a movie. When it’s done right, it’s a magical thing. I love and crave those moments. I keep going back to it, but The Orphanage is really a perfect ghost story that way. On the other hand, some films spend a lot of time […]

When you look like Dwayne Johnson and sometimes enter an arena as The Rock, it’s tough to escape tough guy roles and action movies. Diversions include bad films like Tooth Fairy. Although there’s a living to be made as an action star, it’s no surprise that Johnson wants more challenging roles. Snitch—not to be confused […]

Aging is definitely not a spectator sport. You must realize at some point that you’re as much of a participant as the subject. This peculiarity makes the popular Up series of movies an odd choice for entertainment. The familiar people in this set of documentaries are as much a mirror to our own lives as […]

Movies of politics or revolution work best when there’s a unique approach to the topic. If there was ever a different take on protesting the leader in office, it took place in 1988 Chile when Augusto Pinochet tried to appear democratic by putting his leadership to a referendum vote. Little did he know that he […]

Dwayne Johnson is the star of Snitch, a new action/drama about a small business owner named John Matthews, who has to go to the extreme to get his son out of a very tight noose. When it comes to Johnson I have to continually wonder if I’ll ever see him in a film where I’m […]

Beautiful Creatures is a supernatural story involving two main characters—Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) and Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich)—who are drawn to one another in more than the typical ways usually associated with love affairs. The supporting cast is top-notch including Jeremy Irons as Lena’s overprotective uncle, Emma Thompson as her mother, Viola Davis as the […]

Animated films should be a gold mine for most filmmakers because parents almost blindly drag their kids to these movies as an easy activity for families. Add in those extra 3D dollars, and any company should clean up and at least recoup their production costs. It’s pretty hard to make an awful animated film because […]

I was afraid that the success of the Twilight films would lead to a rash of adaptations of other young adult supernatural series to the big screen. Hopefully, Beautiful Creatures will put an end to any plans beyond what’s already in production. This ambitious film with great production values falls flat for a number of […]

The latest Nicholas Sparks novel to be filmed is Safe Haven. It’s another romance surrounded by elements that threaten an otherwise obvious love affair. I must admit that I’m a huge fan of The Notebook which has gotten me no shortage of curious looks from various friends but I still contend it’s a great love […]

I wish that I had a winning formula for anything — perhaps video game design or writing — that would produce money at a regular rate with different versions of that same formula. Nicholas Sparks seems to have a knack for writing romantic dramas that get turned into movies starring pretty actors kissing in the rain. Some […]

Writer/director Don Coscarelli has a good pedigree and cult following with previous favorites Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep. Those films found a perfect mixture of camp and horror. In an attempt to adapt David Wong’s novel of the same name, Coscarelli has lost his way, his touch or both. Dave (Chase Williamson) meets with skeptical journalist […]

On May 5th, 1993, three eight-year-old boys — Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers — were reported missing and later found hog-tied, naked and submerged in a local stream. Almost at once, the authorities knew this had all the telltale marks of a satanic ritual killing, and they arrested the most likely suspects — […]