I’m not one who gives a crap about tabloids at all. Occasionally I’ll skim over something by accident or watch something on television where I simply can not avoid it but otherwise I find no value in prying in to the lives of people who claim to have it hard when they really don’t. Take Paris Hilton, a young woman who is one of many people in Hollywood who have claimed their fame for doing absolutely nothing. But hey, she’s a victim too. Or at least that’s what this propaganda infomercial about Paris Hilton tries to convince us of.
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Where in we saw Tony Stark as a modern day Howard Hughes in the first “Iron Man,” a reclusive eccentric bachelor billionaire whose vision produced the iron man suit allowing him to achieve his brilliance and somehow benefit the whole of mankind, we’re now given a different view in to Stark by screenwriter Justin Theroux as Stark is presented as a modern day Oppenheimer whose creation and mind-blowing new discovery is about to become the property of the US government whether he likes it or not and will probably be used as a war weapon.
Scream (1996)
When I first watched “Scream” back in 1996 I thought it was a masterpiece, a horror film filled with endless possibilities. But as I’ve gone on and managed to watch “Scream” again I’ve come to realize that Wes Craven played many people, and (whether I like it or not) the series he followed it with has been successful. “Scream” is just more of the same humdrum slasher fare that we’ve seen a billion times, except it’s served up with the deceit that we’re seeing something wholly original. What with the Ghost Face’s eerie facade and the atmospheric setting, “Scream” definitely has that illusion that what we’re laying our eyes on is something we’ve never seen before. In actuality we have, except Craven and writer Kevin Williamson never quite let on about it. “Scream” is a movie that never knows what it wants to be. Is it a murder mystery posing as a slasher film? Is it a horror comedy? Is it a spoof of slashers? Is it a loving satire? If it pretends to be an anti-slasher then why does it jump head first in to cliché slasher trappings in the final half of the film?
Mirrors (2008)
I don’t know what exactly was going on with the production in Alexandre Aja’s remake of the 2003 Asian horror film “Geoul sokeuro,” but as it stands, this remake is probably one of the most inadvertently comical horror films of the last five years. The marketing campaign for this film promised one of the most insane genre outings we’ve ever seen, and I knew I was in trouble when I began to chuckle at Kiefer Sutherland screeching at the sight of his deformed doppleganger in his bathroom window. Everything about “Mirrors” has the potential to turn in to a bonafide horror masterpiece, and instead we’re given nothing but fake scares, clunky dialogue, and writing that is just atrocious.
John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter is a son of a bitch. Why? Well, in this climate of modern movie making, remakes are all the rage. It’s the go to source for marketing on a well known product to ensure a quick profit at the box office for general audiences who just want to go to the movies to see a well known story. And when people try to argue against this craze, those who are in favor of remakes always win the argument by muttering four words: John Carpenter’s The Thing. The declaration of these four words automatically shuts everyone up and renders any debate against remakes completely void and irrelevant. What makes this movie so unique that it defeats any arguments against remakes?
Every Other Day is Halloween (2010) (DVD)
I was born around a time where television was beginning to change. Around the time where I was a kid, television was still all about local programming and whatever movies stations could dig up to fill the time slots, so my brother and I spent many days sitting down to watch horror movies that they just will not show anymore on local television. Many kids today have the internet at their fingers and can access whatever they want, but for people like me and people born much earlier, movies were an event, and one you stopped your day to focus on. Horror hosts died with the changing face of television and what with the censorship and corporate stranglehold of American television, all charm and enthusiasm has been lost in a sea of stale programming meant to sap dollars and not entertain.
The Ten Best VHS Covers of All Time
I grew up in the Bronx where it was almost impossible to walk down the street without bumping in to a video store. There was one on every single block. They were the Starbucks of the bygone age. And nine times out of ten they were mom and pop stores. Low budget places just looking for a quick buck to make off of the big VHS craze of the eighties and nineties. This was before Blockbuster and Hollywood video began taking over these places and running them out of business. As a kid my parents were always off attending to financial affairs and on many occasions they’d leave me and my brother to spend the day with my cousin at the local video store “JR Video” (No relation). My aunt worked there for almost five years and we’d spend the entire day there running around the big store, watching low budget horror movies on the television mounted on the ceiling and playing in the back closet where they stored all of the VHS tapes and I could still remember looking out the back door in the end of the closet and seeing the poster for “Basket Case” glimmer in the sunlight. This is the place where I was basically exposed to movies of all kind.