Cursed (2005)

Posted on September 11, 2005 by Felix Vasquez

This is “Scream” werewolf style, with red herrings, a hip cast, endless pop culture references, jump scares and a leading lady who can actually act being forced in to a situation. She even has a spazoid sidekick. Plus there’s that “Scream” style ending with everyone running back and forth and the “Maybe it’s him, maybe it’s her, but no it’s this person!” gimmick. But more characteristically, “Cursed” is a jumbled mess filled with moments that will surely have you repeatedly declaring “That would have been a great sequence”, and I was doing the same thing. Werewolves in the mirror room? Would have been great. Changing in to a werewolf in a public bathroom? Would have been great. Silencing barking neighborhood dogs with a howl? Could have been great. But alas, none of it really is.

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Crash (2005)

Posted on September 2, 2005 by Felix Vasquez

From the very beginning, director Paul Haggis gives us a dam and begins filling water rapidly in to it, and as the water piles up minute by minute, we just know eventually the dam will burst. So, like me, the audience will be at the very edge of their seat, unable to look away as Haggis teases and manipulates us waiting for the crack in the wall where the walls will come tumbling down. Does it ever? You have to watch to find out. But, as I sat watching, I knew eventually something was going to give way and lead up to a shocking moment, and it’s just something you must experience, because my words can not express how utterly breath taken I was by this amazing film. “Crash” is a film I intend to spend much of my life spreading the word about, because it deserves much talk and discussion among its viewers.

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Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)

Posted on August 28, 2005 by Felix Vasquez

As per Jim Jarmusch style, “Coffee and Cigarettes” is a study, not only of human nature, and conversation, but also on unbridled meandering within gestures and just conversation in general which prompt uncomfortably silences and really fascinating situations that are often very amusing and engrossing. Filmed in stark black and white, Jarmusch examines conversation and human interaction while prompting his fascination with Coffee and Cigarettes, an admittedly unhealthy diet that all of the characters use in their sketches. As a love of coffee and a sheer hater of cigarettes, the film did manage to make for some entertaining sketches that shows off the talents of its stars while inadvertently paying homage to “Waiting for Gidoux”.

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Catwoman (2004)

Posted on August 21, 2005 by Felix Vasquez

Funny thing about bad movies. They can reflect either the utter refusal to be resourceful from a filmmaker, or they can mirror the utter vanity of its makers. Such is the case of “Catwoman” a film touted as a bonafide hit before we saw the true horror. Bad movies with large budgets, and big stars ensuring a hit regardless of pre-conceived notions and even ensuring a good film after the general reservations from looking at the monstrosity that is the Catwoman costume. Films like these, from the standpoint of a movie-goer, and a comic book fan make me blood thirsty, and I revel in bringing out the claws (Pun not intended) and knocking it down a notch. There is NOTHING redeeming about this film, there’s nothing here that I can point out was a mild positive aspect. This is a film that screams sheer vanity from its star and filmmaker, and is truly thirty minutes longer than it has the right to be.

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Camp Slaughter (Camp Daze) (2005)

Posted on July 30, 2005 by Felix Vasquez

So, as I’ve mentioned a million times, I’m a hardcore slasher fan. Aside from being a hardcore horror fan, I also am a fan of the sub-genre, and director Alex Pucci and writer Draven Gonzalez really seem to know their stuff when it pertains to slashers, and that’s one reason why I was smiling throughout the entire film. The film opens as you would expect any slasher to. Dark creepy camp, a camp sing-along with a ridiculously catchy hook, and then death. And then more death. The ending though is very similar to the opening of “Friday the 13th”, hell even the score and opening title nearly make it almost identical, and my attention was caught. I loved the opening simply because director Pucci captures the mood very well and almost copies the original film to the tee.

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Collateral (2004)

Posted on July 13, 2005 by Felix Vasquez

Max is an average man, your average American man with big ambitions who drives a taxi during the day. He finds that the day is drudging on as usual, a woman arguing with her husband, a few passersby, and still he has little money, and is only a half a foot closer to his dream of owning a limousine company. After a memorable exchange with a pretty passenger, Max’ dreams of breaking free from his work is about to come true when he picks up a white haired older man who makes it worth his while to become his personal chauffeur for the night, little does he know that sometimes wishes can come true as the man he just picked up is a hit man intent on killing everyone on a list and making his deadline and he’s not about to let Max walk away.

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Constantine (2005)

Posted on July 7, 2005 by Felix Vasquez

While I was interested in watching “Constantine”, I didn’t really get what I was expecting. I never once read a comic of “Hellblazer”, but I know the general gist of it, and despite my disappointment with the miscasting of Reeves and the loose adaptation, I did get more than I bargained for. Constantine was essentially a story that takes place in the UK, but despite the Americanization, it ends up becoming a really solid adult thriller in the end. Constantine is a demon fighter who has been diagnosed with cancer and is now seeking to buy his way in to heaven, and through that journey, director Francis Lawrence who is shockingly a music video director, surprisingly gives some grade A direction for what is rightly a stylish yet very murky supernatural thriller.

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