22 Jump Street (2014)

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Guest Contributor

21 Jump Street was a film that I thought was funny on its original viewing, but I didn’t find it as hilarious or over the top hysterical as many others did. Recently, however, after two current viewings, two years later, I’ve come to discover that it is a very funny movie and it holds up incredibly well. Needless to say, I was excited to see what they were going to do with 22 Jump Street and I was excited to be spending more time with these characters. It’s hard to deny their chemistry and it is back and in full force with 22 Jump Street.

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Daniel (2014)

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

If there’s one really negative criticism I can lobby at “Daniel” is that it feels more like a prologue to a larger film, than a short film. And I’d love to see Peter Dukes create the long form narrative to this shot film someday. “Daniel” is a very good and creepy short film that centers on its big hook, and once it comes, it’s tough to forget.

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The Jungle (2014) (DVD)

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

On the back of the DVD box for “The Jungle,” there’s a picture of a hunter draped in camouflage pointing a gun, while a giant monster with devil horns lurks behind him with large teeth, prepared to pounce. Drink the image in as much as possible, because that’s the only glimpse you’ll get of an actual monster in the entire damn movie. Sure you see glowing eyes, and hands, but “The Jungle” lacks an actual point for existing. There are men hunting a monster, but no actual monster.

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Daniel (2013)

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

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Isa (2014)

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

One of the aspects of “Isa” that I enjoyed beyond the predominantly latino cast, is the fact that its heroine “Isa” is a strong individual. When we first meet her, she’s a brilliant tech wiz who sells jail breaking cards on the side for extra cash. She always seems one step ahead of everyone, even at her most vulnerable, and uses a troubling dilemma as an opportunity to find out about her shady past. She has memories of parents she barely knew, and is living a life she doesn’t quite trust to be her actual one, and she’s capable of finding out and giving the villains of the film a damn hard time working around her brain.

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The Monkey’s Paw (2013) [Blu-Ray]

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

It definitely feels like someone took the original short story of the monkey’s paw, and stretched in to ninety minutes of melodrama. There’s so much padding and filler here, you could cut it down to fifty minutes without missing much. “The Monkey’s Paw” is one in dozens of variations of the dreaded monkey’s paw tale, created by W.W. Jacobs (about the perfect wish trinket with dire consequences). Except the monkey’s paw bears little to no relevance in a movie about an undead guy who just wants to take his young son fishing. He just wants to take him fishing, what’s a dead guy to do? Kill a lot of boring supporting characters to get his wish?

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The Prowler (1981)

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

You can really see Tom Savini’s fingerprints all over “The Prowler,” as it elicits a lot of gruesome deaths for such a downbeat slasher movie. Much of the effects also echo a lot of the gore we saw in “Dawn of the Dead” including the exploding head moments. That said, “The Prowler” is a surprisingly strong slasher effort that doesn’t hold a lot of doors open for sequels, but manages to be a surprisingly decent and vicious whodunit with a creative and merciless serial killer unleashed on a vacation resort.

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