Back in 2007, director Donlee Brussel submitted a film to our website called “Cabbie.” It was a short comedy about a cabbie played by Steve Gelder who approaches his job with passion and a stiff tongue in cheek attitude. The movie was less than watchable up viewing the short. Two years later, Donlee Brussel has taken his original twenty minute short comedy and reduced it to fourteen minutes with a heavily edited final product that has a more definite and even tone as opposed to the last cut that needed some drastic work on the comedic atmosphere and storytelling. Was this second chance worth it from Brussel? Honestly no.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Zombieland (2009)
It’s been precisely five years since the UK tossed “Shaun of the Dead” in to the American shores and so successful was it with fans that most of America’s directors (both independent and mainstream) have tried anxiously to deliver what the “Spaced” clan have. Along the way the after effect of the movie brought us some good clones (Fido) and some just purely awful (The Mad) and the quest to create our own version of what Edgar Wright gave us hasn’t ended, not by a long shot. So here we are again five years later and we finally have a movie that works along “Shaun of the Dead’s” tone while paving its own signature in the horror comedy subgenre.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
At this moment and time I’m still not sure what I thought of “Jennifer’s Body.” I mean it has its high points but in the end I was left completely unimpressed and just all around apathetic to what I’d seen. For one thing I enjoyed “Jennifer’s Body” more when it was called “Ginger Snaps.” Director Kusama’s story of two sister-like friends (who find themselves in a supernatural situation that’s bigger than themselves one of whom is a freak while the other friend is a looker) has already been covered and with much more effective storytelling to boot. That being said, “Jennifer’s Body” is definitely not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, it’s just not going to re-invent the wheel.
Boogeyman 2 (2007)
If you recall, the original “Boogeyman” was a steaming pile that seemed to put up so much effort for an end product that would ultimately mean nothing, and this is because of the phenomenally bad writing that took the interesting concept and went nowhere fast. What “Boogeyman 2” does is take the typical route and makes all the obvious moves: It becomes a slasher movie, one that basically follows in continuity with the first without reminding us too much how much it stunk. Call me an apologist, proclaim my taste as being awful, but “Boogeyman 2” isn’t so bad. Sure it’s far from perfect but what it lacks in originality and scares it makes up for in creativity and hitting most of the right chords as a slasher film… and yes some of the performances manage to be pretty decent in the meanwhile.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
The character of Wolverine has always been a hard sell for yours truly. As a comic book superhero, Wolverine has always been one of the more overrated in Marvel Comics in spite of his rabid following. Wolverine’s progression from this tier villain to top tier superhero has been nothing short of remarkable, so when he received his own spin off that unfolds to tell his story once and for all, I was quite confused. The entire “X-Men” film franchise have already been nothing more than vehicles for the Wolverine with the X-Men taking nothing more than a supporting status to what he can do on screen. We’ve already had three Wolverine films, did we really need to see another with the furry one front and center? Yes and no.
Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Inspired by Michael Dougherty’s short horror film “Season’s Greetings,” our favorite trick or treater Sam returns to remind us of the further tricks he has up his sleeve as Dougherty introduces a film comprised of interwoven sub-plots a la “Go” (where everyone is out for the occasion but only a select few experience the true heinous clutch of Halloween evil) along with the comic book format in the vein of “Creepshow” where we’re bombarded with comic panels of what’s to come .
Season's Greetings (1996)
Back in the late nineties to early millennium there was a series on the Science Fiction channel here in America called “Exposure,” it was a fantastic take on a mini film festival by taking experienced indie directors and showing off some of the best and worst short films they could dole out to the audience. In the meantime we also were able to see early works from legendary filmmakers in Hollywood. “Season’s Greetings” was one of the best I’ve ever seen.