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Source: Joblo.com
Monthly Archives: April 2013
REVIEW: SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Pat (Bradley Cooper) is a bipolar man who has spent the past 8 months in a psychiatric hospital after beating his cheating wife’s lover half to death. Upon release, Pat goes to live with his parents, Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) and Dolores (Jacki Weaver) and has every intention of trying to rebuild his life and get back with his wife, Nikki (Brea Bee) despite a restraining order. But, his plans take an interesting twist as he befriends an emotionally disturbed widow, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) who claims to want to help him reach his wife, but, possibly has her own agenda. Silver Linings Playbook is written and directed with a nice offbeat style by David O. Russell, based on a book by Matthew Quick, who crafts a nearly perfect film that is both romantic comedy and emotional drama. He gets fantastic performances out of his cast. Lawrence fully deserves her Oscar as her performance is a tour de force portraying the emotionally damaged Tiffany and Cooper is right behind her as the determined but, still slightly delusional Pat. De Niro gives his best performance in years as Pat’s Eagles loving bookie father and Chris Tucker, in a supporting role as a friend of Pat’s from the hospital, gives the performance of his career. Who knew from Friday and the Rush Hour movies that he had such depth. I really have no major faults with this offbeat flick that is filled with emotion, heart and laughs too. It takes a little time to hit it’s stride but, that’s about it. A great movie that has depth and substance to go along with the heartfelt entertainment. Brilliant. ***1/2
NEW SET PICS OF SCARLETT JOHANSSON AND CHRIS EVANS AS NATASHA ROMANOFF AND STEVE RODGERS
New photos have surfaced from the set of Captain America: The Winter Soldier of Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff and Chris Evans as Steve Rodgers questioning a man in a suit… and apparently Agent Romanoff is not happy with the answers he’s giving…
(click on pictures to enlarge) (source: CBM; photos: Pacific Coast News)
NEW STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS CLIP!
BE WARNED. TO THOSE WHO ARE WELL VERSED IN STAR TREK LORE, SOME OF THE DIALOG HERE MIGHT GIVE CLUES TO SPOILER INFORMATION!
TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: THE BEST OF LUCIO FULCI
ZOMBIE (1979)
George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was called Zombi in Italy and was a hit, so when Italian Horror meister Lucio Fulci created his own zombie gore classic, it was released in Italian theaters as Zombi 2 to cash in on Dawn’s popularity, but Zombie, as it’s known in the USA, is it’s own movie. The action and eating take place after a bloody opening sequence of a zombie occupied boat entering a New York City harbor, on the remote Caribbean island of Matool and is the product of voodoo being used to raise the flesh eating dead from their graves. The boat entering NYC waters belonged to a doctor, and the story centers on reporter Peter West (Ian McCulloch) and the missing doctor’s daughter, Anne (Tisa Farrow), traveling to the fictional island to find the doctor’s whereabouts. Once there, they and a couple, Bryan and Susan (Al Cliver and Auretta Gay) whose boat they rented, soon discover a living nightmare and that a horrible fate may be in store for all of them as their boat is damaged and they are trapped on the island with the ravenous dead.
The gore is shocking and the zombies are far grosser looking then even Romero’s and while it is smaller in scope, it is very creepy and atmospheric when not splattering blood and guts all over the screen. Much like all of Fulci’s horror films, Zombie has a surreal nightmarish quality to it to go along with all the gore such as the climactic battle against the army of walking dead set in a burning church turned hospital ward. The film’s haunting visuals are courtesy of cinematographer Sergio Salvati and has a haunting score by frequent Fulci collaborator, Fabio Frizzi. The film has many shocking moments, but is most famous for the ‘eyeball’ scene and the underwater shark v.s. zombie scene witnessed by shapely topless diver Susan. I personally prefer the work of Fulci over the more popular, but in my opinion overrated, Dario Argento. One of my all time favorite horrors and a must watch during the Halloween season. Recently remastered on a beautiful blu-ray from Blue Underground. Still one of the greatest zombie movies ever made.
4 Fulci zombies!
WARNING: TRAILER IS VERY GRAPHIC!
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CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (also known as THE GATES OF HELL) (1980)
A priest hangs himself, a seance goes tragically wrong and the dead rise…all in the first five minutes of another gory and disturbing horror from Italian maestro of terror, Luci Fulci. Fulci’s trademark spooky visuals, as photographed by frequent cinematographer Sergio Salvati, and trademark gore fills this story of a small town priest’s suicide that opens the gates of Hell. Now a reporter (Christopher George) and a psychic (Catriona MacColl) must travel to a remote New England town to close Hell’s gates before the evil ripping the town apart spreads to the rest of the world.
As usual this Fulci flick is loaded with atmosphere, gruesome gore, (such as a drill through the head and a woman vomiting up her own entrails) and zombies. Fabio Frizzi once again provides the haunting score. Not quite up to the standards of his Zombie or his next film, The Beyond, but a gory, creepy Italian horror none the less! Also, the only film I know of that contains a blizzard of maggots! Originally released in the US as The Gates Of Hell.
3 and 1/2 Fulci zombies
WARNING: TRAILER IS VERY GRAPHIC!
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THE BEYOND (1981)
A young woman (Catriona MacColl) inherits an old Louisiana hotel not knowing that 54 years earlier, a group of frightened townspeople tortured and murdered a man staying in room 36, who was suspected of being a warlock. Before his death, the warlock warned that the hotel sat on one of the seven gates of Hell and he had found the key. Needless to say, efforts to reopen the hotel meet with tragic and gruesome results and there is definitely something unnatural going on in room 36.
Italian horror master Lucio Fulci creates one his most nightmarish and surreal films in this story of a house haunted by a very powerful and ancient evil. As the young woman and a doctor friend (David Warbeck) try to unravel the mystery of the hotel’s sinister past, the evil force continues to provide gruesome fates to those that come into contact with it, or try to warn our heroine. Fulci’s film is a disturbing supernatural tale with some very atmospheric and spooky visuals combined with some very shocking and inventive gore. Once more the cinematography is by Sergio Salvati and music by Fabio Frizzi. From carnivorous swarms of spiders, to acid in faces, to reanimated corpses, this film is a chilling and very unsettling horror from the first frames till the nightmarish last. Surreal at times, but always haunting. A first rate Italian horror from one of it’s masters and one of Fulci’s best. The spider scene still freaks me out!
4 Fulci zombies
WARNING: TRAILER IS VERY GRAPHIC
NEW “PACIFIC RIM” TRAILER IS ALL SORTS OF AWESOME!
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE ESTIMATES APRIL 26-28
For those of you who like to keep track of the box office, “Pain & Gain” led the top 10 this weekend with an estimated $20 million opening…
1. “Pain & Gain,” $20 million.
2. “Oblivion,” $17.4 million.
3. “42,” $10.7 million.
4. “The Big Wedding,” $7.5 million.
5. “The Croods,” $6.6 million.
6. “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” $3.6 million.
7. “Scary Movie 5,” $3.5 million.
8. “Olympus Has Fallen,” $2.8 million.
9. “The Place Beyond the Pines,” $2.7 million.
10. “Jurassic Park” in 3-D, $2.3 million.
HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: WAKE WOOD (2011)
WAKE WOOD (2011)
Despite echos of Pet Semetary and The Wicker Man, Wake Wood still manages to be a spooky tale of not leaving dead things lie. Young couple, Patrick and Louise (Aiden Gillen and Eva Birthistle) loose their daughter, Alice (Ella Connolly) in a tragic accident when one of veterinarian Patrick’s canine charges mauls her to death. Heartbroken, the couple move to the small backwoods town of Wake Wood to try to get away from the awful memories, but fate intervenes. There are some pagan practices going on in this strange little town including an ancient ceremony that is said to be able to bring back the dead for 3 days, as long as the party in question has been dead for less then a year. Now the Daley’s have a chance to see their dead daughter one last time and properly say goodbye. But this is a horror film, so it’s no surprise that things go wrong with gruesome results. After all, the Daley’s did lie about how long their precious Alice has been dead and now what has come back may no longer be their little girl.
Wake Wood has some flaws. Aside from the familiar story, it does cut away too fast sometimes from some of the gruesome moments without giving them full effect and the deliberately slow pace may not be for everyone, but it is still an effective horror with some good atmosphere, plenty of creepy goings on and some very bloody mayhem, especially during it’s last act. The final scene is also quite chilling, even thought not being entirely unexpected. Director David Keating gives the film some nice moody atmosphere and some very creepy moments, despite the derivative nature of the script. He also gets good performances from his cast especially from young Miss Connolly as the reanimated and not quite right Alice. A spooky little flick from the new Hammer Films for a stormy Saturday night on the couch.
A spooky 3 reanimated corpses!
GIANT MONSTER UPDATE #3: GODZILLA CARNAGE IN CANADA!
A photo of the leftover Godzilla carnage from the Canadian set of Gareth Edward’s Godzilla reboot now filming for a May 2014 release.
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SPEAKING OF GIANT MONSTER FLICKS: A NEW PACIFIC RIM POSTER SURFACES!
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MonsterZero NJ's Movie Madhouse 