Digital]

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Joel Edgerton’s “The Gift” is this year’s “Gone Girl.” It’s one of the most irredeemably dark and nasty thrillers made in years and one of the best films of 2015, easily. It’s packed to the brim with morbid undertones, despicable circumstances, and characters that always walk in shades of grey. Despite audiences being able to identify who the protagonists are, they’re brutally unlikable people that all pretty much build the foundation for truly dire consequences. I highly suggest to audiences that love a good mystery, that they completely avoid any and all spoilers, and really absorb the message and dread soaked mystery behind “The Gift” for themselves.

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Gravy (2015) [Blu-Ray]

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I really wanted to love “Gravy.” In fact during some rare moments it manages to win me over, especially with the way it uses its array of character actors to great effect. “Gravy” sadly falls under the weight of its own self satisfaction, eliciting a ton of flat improv, lame ad libbing, unresolved sub-plots, and a climax that goes nowhere very fast. We follow our heroine for ninety minutes all for absolutely zero pay off. Did Roday and co. run out of money or did they run out of ideas?

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Goosebumps (2015)

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

What “Goosebumps” accomplishes, is not just paying homage to the joy of “Goosebumps,” but to the joy of reading and writing as well. It’s not many movies that can convey the idea of writing as something purely magical, and “Goosebumps” pinpoints how books can be a portal in to something entirely otherworldly, especially if you’re a fan of the world RL Stine has built for his fans since the 1990’s. More of a meta-horror comedy than an actual series of tales, “Goosebumps” is set in Delaware where Zach and his newly widowed mother are preparing to start their lives over. With Zach trying to adapt to his new school, he meets the gorgeous Hannah (Odeya Rush), a neighbor who is home schooled by her reclusive and strict father.

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The Gallows (2015)

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

“The Gallows” watches like a really bad “Fear Street” novel. If it were written by RL Stine at gun point. It’s beyond me that “The Gallows” managed to achieve a wide North American theatrical release with a pretty good ad campaign all around. Meanwhile, “It Follows,” a brilliant horror offering, had to rely on word of mouth. Beneath the hype “The Gallows” is a brutally boring and unscary attempt to cash in on the found footage fad that reaches the scares you’d find in a normal young adult novel. And I am being kind, since even young adult novels can often achieve some semblance of suspense and tension when they want to. “The Gallows” however is a forgettable and downright stupid effort that lacks in brains, common sense, and general creativity.

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The Green Inferno (2015)

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Emilie Black

Justine joins Alejandro’s social activists group after seeing that they had real results at her university getting janitors health coverage. Soon she finds herself going to the Amazon forest in Peru to save a small village from being destroyed by a company wanting the natural gas found under the area they occupy. The group goes to Peru, does their thing, and then heads back home. However, they do not make it home as their plane crashes in the Amazon. A part of the group dies in the crash in various horrible ways. As the survivors escape the wreckage, the villagers they came to save attack them killing a few more and taking the six last survivors with them. It quickly becomes clear that the captives are meant to be breakfast, lunch, and dinner as the first member is dispatched gruesomely and cooked.

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Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Surely, once you see “Going Clear” you’ll have no doubt that it’s a terrifying religion filled with a horrific history, but watched side by side with a film like “Jesus Camp,” and there’s not much a difference. Scientology is just an in vogue religion that’s managed to use its legal force and strong arms to keep the lid about its sordid history tight for many years. “Going Clear” is the really explosive expose of the church of Scientology, an institution that’s garnered considerable influence over the world since its inception.

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Gone Girl (2014)

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

It’s great that such a polished film like “Gone Girl” doesn’t opt for a more safe and Hollywood bound climax where we’ve seen a labyrinth of lies unfold in to a new bow. By the time “Gone Girl” has ended, director David Fincher has written his characters in to a corner, and they’re not at any point going to squirm out of it. I loved “Gone Girl” mainly because it’s a murder mystery without the kind of surprises you’d expect. Our characters are amoral and unlikable, and director Fincher has a keen sense of cynicism toward marriage and how it can be a fiasco that devolves in to a play.

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