"Gremlins 2: The New Batch" leaves you wondering what sort of audience this chaotic visual smorgasbord is aimed at. It is undoubtedly too violent in certain places for a pre-teen audience and it is much too fanciful and juvenile for a teenage audience. In any case it is very entertaining in its own shambolic way as the loosely constructed story strings together one unrelated set piece sequence after another. The gremlins themselves are particularly fearsome and frightning looking little critters - sorry, wrong franchise - and the film can be surprisingly gory in places as well, although it doe…
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When a filmmaker tackles a project that has a personal connection to the story, there’s always a risk that the director could be too close to the material to do it justice. And that would seem to be the case with the debut narrative feature from filmmaker Louise Hémon, who’s best known for her documentary work. However, that shift in genre does not seem to be the primary issue with this offering. The problem here is more contextual; indeed, it would appear that the director could be so acquainted with the subject matter that she assumes her audience may have the same degree of familiarity with…
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**_Sam Fuller’s WW2 tour of North Africa, Sicily and France-to-Czechoslovakia_**
Shot in the summer of 1978, this was inspired by Fuller’s experiences in the war with Robert Carradine as Private Zab representing him. It’s a lot to cram into less than 2 hours, and this explains the criticisms that the film comes across as a collection of incidents with little character development. Yet Fuller wanted to include the highlights of his 2.5 years in the war and this delivers as far as that goes. Some say it’s a commentary on how war is an ongoing circle of Hell. The problem with this interpre…
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Fathers and sons often have complicated relationships. In many instances, boys often don’t know their dads as well as they would like (or at all), leaving them with many unanswered questions about these individuals whom they dutifully but frequently inexplicably call “parent.” So it’s entirely understandable how the curious would jump at the chance to get to know their fathers better when such opportunities present themselves. So it is for two young boys, Aki (Godwin Egbo) and Remi (Chibuike Marvellous Egbo), who are invited to join their father, Folarin (aka Kapo) (Sope Dirisu), on a day trip…
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41/100
When a music student's ex-husband is accused of murdering her neighbor, she conducts her own investigation to prove his innocence ...which highlights one problem this film has in that it portrays the police investigators as complete morons in order to justify our protagonist's motives. She's likable and endearing and pretty smart so it was a fair watch but there's a huge amount of padding to fill the time and, unless I missed it, there's no explanation for the first murder. The twist ending was not a surprise. Nothing new. Mildly entertaining slasher. -- DrNostromo.com…
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Agustí Villaronga's "Pa Negre" (Black Bread) belongs to a vital tradition of Spanish cinema that uses a child's perspective to reveal how fascism poisons communities from within. Like Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" and especially Víctor Erice's "El Sur" (1983), this film understands that childhood under fascism means the premature death of innocence. Young Andreu doesn't just grow up; he's forced to witness the moral rot beneath the surface of his post-Civil War Catalan village.
The film operates on dual registers. On one level, it's a mystery structured like an elaborate game o…
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Though the casting does let this down a bit, there’s still a solid story and a proper San Francisco brawl at the end to keep it going. Priscilla Lane is the adept poker playing “Coralie”, the daughter of the wealthy “Steve” (Eugene Pallette) and engaged to “Forsythe” (Bruce Cabot). All is going great until the market crash wipes her dad out and leaves her stony broke. Determined to sort out his debts, she heads off to ply her trade as a gambler and regularly sends back cash to her fiancé to settle up with her father’s creditors. Unknowingly, she also has a would-be suitor in “Kincaid” (George …
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Life, as we all know, is full of twists and turns, some that advance us and others that set us back, with others still that facilitate both more or less simultaneously. Making sense of that can be maddening, too, especially for those looking for patterns in the chaos. Issues like this can be particularly meaningful (or mind boggling) for those with a spiritual bent, who try to understand these developments in terms of God’s plan. In fact, on an everyday secular level, those matters have even become enshrined in a popular board game in Spanish-speaking countries called “Oca.” And the principles…
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No matter how desperate circumstances may become in our lives, they can always get worse, presenting us with an exacting test of our capabilities and will to survive. And, in doing so, the experience provides us with an opportunity to look at how unimaginably resilient we can be, no matter how seemingly impossible the odds may appear stacked against us. Those are the conditions put to a worried father, Luis (Sergi López), and his young son, Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona), as they earnestly go in search of their missing daughter/sister at a rave in Morocco. Unfortunately, there’s no sign of her, …
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**_Gangs of New York… in the late ’80s_**
Shot in the dead of summer, 1988, this is an urban drama/thriller that comes in the tradition of “The Warriors,” “Delirium” (1979), “Rumble Fish” and “Certain Fury,” but it’s the least of ’em. On the positive side, it has the most action of these movies and Jeff Fahey (from “Psycho III”) makes for a great protagonist. Plus, you can’t go wrong with Sherilyn Fenn, one of the most beautiful women of the ’80s, as observed in “The Wraith” and “Two Moon Junction”; unfortunately, her presence isn’t milked for anything near what it’s worth (not talkin’ …
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