Scottie is experiencing a change of life that has him rethinking where he’s going and even worse is the fact that his massive success has nothing to do with drive or ambition. It’s merely dumb luck. Director Chris Esper’s “Please Punish Me” is a funny and charming dramedy about a man looking for a direction in life who finds it in the unlikeliest of places.
Director Alex DiVincenzo takes the “Scream” formula and gives it a modern dysfunctional twist with a film I can only describe as a laugh a minute satire. Commenting on the nature of auto correct and its utter horrific ability to take words in to inappropriate new variations, “The Horrors of Auto Correct” is brilliant.
I imagine the logline for “Infected” was it’s the UK meets “Dawn of the Dead.” Sometimes “Infected” can reach for moments of greatness and almost achieve it, but it’s too concerned with ripping off “The Walking Dead” and Romero to hit that peak. “Infected” is really nothing you haven’t seen before, it’s a movie about the end of the world and zombies taking over the great metropolitan area of the UK. Director Andrew Gilbert follows a trio of characters, all dwindling in size as they struggle to find safety amidst the walking dead.
Almost three hours brings you zingers and one liners for some of the finest hall of famers sports has ever seen and Time Life Brings it in one fine compilation. For folks that just want to see the sports stars of the seventies and eighties be roasted among their peers, “Hall of Famers” is a fine volume for the “Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts” Library.
“The Duff” is a pretty okay movie that’s mainly just a film to showcase how utterly talented Mae Whitman is. Whitman has been a third and fourth banana for years, and it’s a shame she doesn’t take command of more movies that display how she can keep attention on her. Even in a movie where she’s the Designated Ugly Fat Friend, she shines more than any of the other girls. Which is tough considering Bella Thorne is quite attractive.Whitman is Bianca Piper, a horror geek with a penchant for hanging around some of the finest girls in her high school. While talking to ex friend Wes during a party, she’s informed by him that she’s a DUFF. Much to the chagrin of the status quo in her high school, Bianca decides to re-invent herself and pursue the man of her dreams.
The “Ghoulies” film series is the predecessor to Charles Band’s obsession with miniature terrors, and it took a long time before he could perfect the formula. Somewhat before the “Troll” movie debacles, the “Ghoulies” movies are recognizable not so much for their iconic monsters but for the monsters coming out of toilets in every single movie poster they’ve inhabited. Scream Factory packs in a twofer feature with new and interesting extras that the movies deserve far too little.
“Carrie” is one of the most attempted and tapped in to books of all time, and Scream factory’s latest release proves this fact pure and simple. The story of a pubescent young girl coming of age to realize she’s pure evil, or perhaps misunderstood (?) is a compelling tale that Hollywood has tried to perfect can’t quite get right. Brian DePalma’s film has comes the closest to acing what makes the narrative so incredible. 2000’s “Carrie” was a made for TV backdoor pilot for a possible TV show that’s just a mess from start to finish. Even without its efforts to tout itself as the next big television show, “Carrie” only has a few redeeming features to it and nothing more.