Aftershock (2013)

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Have we reached so low down the totem pole that we’re now ripping off Eli Roth movies? Is that the definition of desperation or what? “Aftershock” feels like one of those situations with “Poltergeist” where Eli Roth was ghost directing while Nicolas Lopez was credited as director. It’s a half hour of a lame tourist dramedy, followed by an hour of really silly gore and zero direction in its story, all leading in to a finale that shamelessly rips off the final scenes of “The Descent.” Thank goodness “Aftershock” is a merciful ninety minutes.

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The Call (2013)

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Director Brad Anderson’s thriller “The Call” is entertaining and unique only thanks to its ludicrous premise, and abundantly stupid characters. While the first half of the film presents glimmers promise with great tension, and taut atmosphere, it falters mid-way and never comes back from the depths of idiocy. Halle Berry is an experienced 911 operator who is tasked with helping a young girl who is being terrorized by a burglar, breaking in to her house. When the burglar kidnaps her, and the young girl is discovered in a shallow grave days later Jordan is traumatized and leaves her job. She blames herself for the girl’s murder. And for good reason. If you advise a victim to hide under the bed and keep quiet, then the phone is accidentally disconnected, why in the hell would you call them back knowing they’re still hiding and risk giving away their location?

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Man of Steel (2013) [DVD/Blu-Ray]

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While I’m often opposed to re-inventing characters, director Zack Snyder alters the story of Superman, not just for the sake of a new audience, but for dramatic benefit. The origin of Superman present in “Man of Steel” is a compelling and often gut-wrenching tale, followed by a wonderful glimpse at the introduction of Superman to a world in need of a savior. Director Zack Snyder hones much of the awe and grit from “Watchmen” and implants it in to “Man of Steel” where we’re given an exciting and often entertaining new Superman.

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Thor: The Dark World (2013)

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Thankfully, the follow up to 2011’s adaptation of Marvel’s “Thor” really seems to be intent on fixing the original film’s mistakes. While I really enjoyed the first installment, “Thor: The Dark World” is thankfully more fantasy based, and less a fish out of water action film, this time around. The writers have to work hard to bridge this tale in to the new “Avengers” movie, so we’re left experiencing the fall out from “The Avengers.” After Thor left to fight Loki, Thor has to face Jane who resents him never coming to ensure he was safe, and Loki is viciously angry toward Thor for imprisoning him.

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The Wolverine (2013)

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Man, Wolverine is a boring character. Never has that been made more apparent than in “The Wolverine.” Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine with the personality of a waffle, and rather than playing the character as a man in his element, like in the comics, Wolverine is a fish out of water. He can’t speak Japanese, nor can he understand it. So he needs a Japanese character to hover around him lest he become trapped in a hilarious misunderstanding. Like the scene where he’s being scrubbed by a group of bath women.

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Generation X (1996)

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I think it’s time for a resurgence of “Generation X” back to television. Back in the nineties FOX Television in the US aired weekly television movies of the genre variety hoping for a big television show to hit the airwaves. One of them was “Generation X.” Suffice it to say, though the announcement was never official, if the hip comic series was a hit television movie, we may have seen a hit television series very soon. Among the myriad problems of the TV movie is what almost all of FOX dramas suffered from: It’s incredibly murky.

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EXO Man (1977)

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Why wasn’t “Iron Man” turned in to a movie or TV Series until five years ago? Watch “EXO Man” to see how horribly a live action Iron Man could have turned out back in the seventies. To make things worse, this is one of those low budget superhero films where it’s almost ninety minutes in length, and we don’t see the actual EXO Man until an hour in to the movie. “EXO Man” is one of the dozens of movie pilots that was aiming to be a superhero television series, and thankfully never developed beyond a movie.

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