Extinction (2015)

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

Miguel Ángel Vivas’s is essentially “I Am Legend” with two men and a little lady, fighting off the elements with TV quality special effects and so so direction. And in the end we’re left with a mediocre apocalypse film that at least tries for something unique and different. The opening is kind of a riff on “28 Days Later,” and there are some take aways from “The Walking Dead,” but I have to give it to writers Alberto Marini and Miguel Ángel Vivas side stepping the same old zombie apocalypse doldrums. Even if the prologue does involve that same zombie carnage we’ve seen a thousand times over.

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Beach Babes From Beyond (1993)

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

“Whoa! You’re beach babes from beyond.”
“You bet your ass, man.”

I’m a big fan of David DeCoteau’s early work with Charles Band and Full Moon, but with “Beach Babes from Beyond,” I might have finally found something of his I really dislike. It’s a nineties softcore skin flick (from Band’s softcore label Torchlight Entertainment) that feels like an eighties science fiction comedy. And when I say that it’s softcore, I mean soft. The sex scenes don’t really look like two people have sex so much as they resemble two naked people trying to climb over one another to get in to bed. Not that it matters, since there are only about three sex scenes and they’re not the highlight of the movie, mysteriously.

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Cabin Fever (2016)

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

It’s no secret what my feelings are about 2003’s “Cabin Fever.” I hate it. I despise it. If I could go back in time, I’d prevent myself from spending money on it in theaters and instead go see the mediocre “Underworld.” It’s one of the most painful movie going experiences I’ve ever endured, and I welcomed a remake. Surely, it’s disgraceful that in this day and age “Cabin Fever” has had two sequels, and a remake, while films like “Behind the Mask” are scrounging for money for a follow-up. But Hollywood is Hollywood, and people love their trash. Thankfully, 2016’s “Cabin Fever” is a superior remake, even if it is still abysmal nonsense.

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Total Recall (2012)

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

Colin Farrell is back again as an odd choice for action hero playing “Average Joe” Douglas Quaid. He is a factory worker who helps produce police bots for his world that has been divided in to two separate factions. The remaining world that has survived chemical war fare are living on various levels, all controlled by the government. Douglas’ world remains a stink hole lower class existence until he arrives at Rekall, anxious to install artificial memories in to his brain for the sake of amusement. Upon implanting a fantasy in his mind, Quaid learns he is really a super spy, and now Chancellor Cohaagen who is slowly rising to power, is after him. Along with him and his army of robotic police, there’s Doug’s smoking hot wife Lori, who is revealed to be a skilled assassin who is driven to kill Douglas at all costs.

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Total Recall (1990)

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

Sure “Total Recall” is an ultraviolent and action filled adaptation of the original “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” from Phillip K. Dick, there’s a rhyme and reason for everything that unfolds in the film, right down to the prostitute with the trio of breasts. The inherent lunacy reflects the mind set of our main hero Douglas Quaid and acts as a platform for the idea that perhaps he’s living a fantasy or is really this vicious secret spy. Paul Verhoeven’s version of the original story packs a real sense of intellect and brilliant ambiguity beneath the seemingly surface science fiction action tale of a man named Quaid, who is struggling to battle the government and fight for a group of underground mutants. When we meet Quaid he’s a man who is comfortable at home living in a well furnished apartment and is married to an insanely sexy woman. He wants more though, especially with developments involving the government exploring Mars, and perhaps using it as a means of travel for local tourists.

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I Am Street Fighter: 25 Years of Inspiration (2012)

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

I have nothing but love for “Street Fighter,” one of the greatest, if not the greatest fighting video game ever made. My first contact with it was during my elementary school days when I’d pass by the arcade cabinet residing outside of a local auto shop. There was always someone playing it, but I would look over their shoulder and see what the game was. Later on I learned to love the “Street Fighter II” on the Super Nintendo and I’ve had an interest in its universe for many years. “Street Fighter II” set the template for pretty much every fighting game ever consumed by mass audiences, and is still a brilliant fighter based around strategy and quick timing.

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Night of the Slasher (2015)

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

Director Shant Hamassian’s short horror film is a rather excellent meta-tale that takes the classic horror slasher movie tropes and places them in to a new light. What if you could control the idea of the slasher coming to your door attacking with you a set of rules a la “Scream”? That’s the case for a young beautiful girl who is home alone at night. When we first see her, she’s this insanely sexy girl dancing in her lacy skivvies, but upon fully glancing at her person are a witness to the stitched wound she wears on her throat. The scar and silence says all, as she was clearly the victim of a vicious attack by a killer meant to end her life, but somehow survived.

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