Who do you call when rock star zombies (what’s the difference?) attack your house? Steve Perry. Seriously. A couple of “The Darkness” loving yuppies arrive home one day to find their home under siege by the living dead. Living Dead Rock Stars. It makes sense. You like “The Darkness”, you should be killed.
Tag Archives: J
Junebug (2005)
There’s that saying that if you marry someone, you’re not only marrying them, but you’re also marrying their family and their friends. The same could be said for Gloria who is in for an utter journey of discovery when she meets George. One day at a city gallery, she and George meet and instantly the sparks fly, and they quickly fall head over heels in love. Only ten minutes into the film does the film start up, and for other films, that would be incredibly rushed, but thankfully, it doesn’t. Because the romance is not the story. It’s really only a catalyst for what we’re about to see.
Jarhead (2005)
Most of Anthony Swafford’s war time spent was on a war that never happened. Swafford recollects in an issue of Entertainment Weekly, that most of the time spent in the military was his superiors yelling fire in a crowded auditorium, spending time training, and bulking up, and training for nothing. “Jarhead” is one of the closest modern depictions of Don Quixote we can ever really see. A film about warriors training for a war that would never come, facing an enemy that may not have been there to begin with. But, Swafford’s story is depicted through a memoir that can be dictated through different eyes. For some it’s an anti-war message, for others it’s just a non-biased portrait of a man who never went to war despite being in the military during war time.
Japanese Story (2003)
Toni Collette can carry a movie as we’ve seen in “The Sixth Sense”, and she can play supporter and steal the show like in “Shaft” and “About a Boy”, so I take every chance possible to watch new movies starring this always likable and very versatile indie actress, and “Japanese Story” is the perfect example of her just amazing acting skills she presents with every film she’s in. Despite its title, it’s not foreign, I’m sorry to tell ya, folks, like “La Femme Nikita”… oh wait that is foreign… moving on–as I said, it’s a culture clash, and quite a good one at that; they’re opposite. The two people we meet here are completely opposite all in nature, culture, and refinement.
A Joker’s Card (2004)
“A Joker’s Card” is possibly one of the more ambitious DC fan films I’ve come across in years. As a comic geek, I’ve admittedly seen very little fan films, but this one was surprisingly good. I wasn’t expecting much in terms of quality, but director Wu takes what he has and turns it in to a very colorful off-beat fan film that spoofs Batman’s rogues gallery. Imagine the villains and heroes off-spring attempting to create their own crimes and chaos. Dick Grayson’s son Nick has a bondage fetish, the Joker’s and Mr. Freeze’s sons are working together to kill Gotham’s off-spring of heroes to inflict their own crimes but are met with obstacles when Wonder Woman’s daughter decides to save the day. I was just laughing my ass from beginning to end because while it is a fan film, its intention is to charmingly spoof the Batman lore and it pulls it off well.
Jersey Girl (2004)
I’m not a fan of Kevin Smith’s movies. And with Ben Affleck, and Jennifer Lopez is featured on the first segment of the movie, not to mention the basic problems with the hype concerning this film, as I went into it, I have to say I was very surprised by what I saw in the end. Though Smith does goes more mainstream with a film that is allegedly based on his life with his kids (If my life was this corny, I’d have blown my brains out long ago), “Jersey Girl” doesn’t set precedent for originality, nor does it really win us over with its sickening sweetness that works against the story rather than for it.
Ju-on (2002)
“Ju-On” is a sheer test of terror, tension, and heightening suspense, and director Takashi Shimizu who also writes the script gives some inspiring direction that echoes Hitchcock’s directing style of silence and horror within everyday aspects. Though the haunted house movie has been done as far back as movies have been around, Shimizu does one hell of a job with the formula creating not a movie with ghosts, but demons. Starting off with a gritty and frightening sequence in which a man murders a woman, her cat, and proceeds to make his way up to a young boy, and we skip to present day where we watch victim after victim fall under the unrelenting spell of the demonic entities that live in the house.
