Illustrated movie posters are explore here through their beginnings, history, the artists behind them, and their recent resurgence started with Mondo and their artist posters of older films that have become highly collectible and wanted. Directed by Kevin Burke, this documentary starts with the history of the medium and interviews with knowledgeable people and artists. This part of the film is filled with historical facts and anecdotal stories. The film spends a bit of time on the history, where posters can from, why are they the sizes that they are, why they look a certain way, their evolution, etc.
Don’t Breathe (2016) [Blu-Ray/Digital]
Director Fede Alvarez’s thriller is a pitch black take on “Wait Until Dark” with a hint of “People Under the Stairs” taking a blind man who turns the tables on perpetrators. This time around though, the blind victim is a very prepared war veteran who skulks around like a predator even in his own home. When he begins challenging the thieves that infiltrate his oddly armed home filled with various pitfalls, he stalks them with confidence, even without eye sight. Stephen Lang’s Blind Man is an oddly horrific and intimidating new horror character who works on his own moral code. Whether or not he’s a villain may depend on the interpretation by the audience, and what they consider pure evil or just pure justification. Fede Alvarez teams two groups of victims against one another in a world that’s taken away all of their futures and ideas of hope.
Killjoy 3 (2010)
“Killjoy 3” is a simultaneous rip off of “Waxworks” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” as Full Moon works desperately to create a new horror icon. Killjoy is a character who, let’s face it, could probably get his ass kicked by Chucky’s son Glenn, if things got hairy enough. Nothing about “Killjoy” makes too much sense, but you have to admire how the movie tries its damndest to transform mimes in to terrifying villains. Set very specifically in one location, we meet four college students as they’re preparing to have a get together one night involving drinks and horror movies in the house of one of their professors. Student Sandy decides to hold a gathering while he’s away, oblivious to the fact that he just made a broken pact with Killjoy.
Ratchet & Clank (2016)
The way critics savaged “Ratchet & Clank” in 2016, you’d swear we were given an animated move in the same league of “Norm of the North” or “Doogal.” Instead, we get a funny and entertaining science fiction adventure that doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but manages to be a fun animated movie nevertheless. I have never played the video games “Ratchet & Clank” is based on, but I know enough to understand the basic concept and premise. “Ratchet & Clank” is a eye catching and very good action film that touches on all bases and delivers one very interesting underdog tale about a potential hero trying to prove his worth. Director Kevin Munroe stages a prequel to the games that widens the universe of Ratchet and Clank and genuinely attempts to add another dimension to the titular duo for the sake of their fans.
Norm of the North (2016)
So Norm is a polar bear who lives in the arctic and doesn’t really know how to hunt. But that’s okay because he can speak to humans, for some reason. Why? It’s never explained, but Norm goes back to when he was a child and explains to the audience that everyone in his family can communicate with humans, including his grandpa. Just his luck, he and his friend Socrates, who is an intelligent bird (because he wears glasses ya see), realize that human tourists are coming to the arctic. Are you still with me? So in order to appease the humans, Norm willingly enlists the helps of his friends to perform for the hapless tourists. Which works too well because he and Socrates find out that the humans are turning the arctic in to a tourist destination. So Norm made the arctic a tourist destination and now hates that it’s becoming a tourist destination. Understand?
Birthday (2016)
With “Birthday,” writer and director Chris King tells the story of thousands of heroic veterans and their courageous wives. Many of whom have to endure hardships and years of struggles after their loved ones have come home disfigured or crippled after being injured in combat. Stars Mandy Moody and Chris Gouchoe are superb as a husband and wife separated by thousands of mile as her Marine husband, played by Gouchoe, fights in the war. After being injured in combat thanks to a land mine, he arrives home with both legs and one arm amputated.
Little Miss Perfect – Interview with Writer/Director Marlee Roberts
To go with last week’s review of indie drama Little Miss Perfect, director Marlee Roberts gave us a great interview to give us and you more insight into her film and how it came to be.