A two and half hour anthology horror film? Come on, no one has such interesting stories that it needs a two and a half hour run time. The question is would you rather have a few excellent horror stories, or a lot of sub-par ones? If you answered the latter, “Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales” is the movie for you. Seemingly comprised of separate episodes of a series called “Twisted Tales,” they’re pasted together to form an awkward, often boring anthology horror film with no budget and no creativity.
The movie that Kickstarter gave us is finally here, and it’s pretty great to see Veronica Mars back and in action. I fondly recall following “Veronica Mars” during season two after I grabbed a hold of season one and tore through the entire freshman year in one sitting. Like many series before it, “Veronica Mars” is one of the more under appreciated crime dramas that never got its due, despite a loyal fan following and critical acclaim. Thankfully creator Rob Thomas is finally able to put his love child to bed, and give fans the sign off we’ve been pleading for, for years.
Back in the eighties and nineties, Arnold Schwarzenegger was larger than life. With his large build and thick Austrian accent, his rough exterior was contradicted by his sweet personality. This carries over more than successfully in Ivan Reitman’s “Kindergarten Cop,” one of his many efforts to connect with younger audiences. His transformation in to kids film star is nearly seamless, as he’s able to connect with his primarily younger cast surprisingly well, and garners a strong chemistry with just about everyone in the film.
No matter how much we love someone, no matter how much time we spend around them, we never truly know them. Even when we’ve spent enough time to know their routines and their flaws, we can never really know the person we love. Director Sarah Polley constructs an extraordinary documentary in where she attempts to figure out who her mother was. Surely, she knows who her mother was, but after her death, she’s spent an immense amount of her time during her film trying to figure out who she was. And surely enough, she realizes the person her mother was, wasn’t the person everyone else knew her as.
After spending years in bootleg limbo, horror fans finally can own all seventy two episodes of the 1980’s anthology series “Monsters.” We’ve made no secret of our love for the series in the past, and it’s great to finally see the series get its due on DVD. I’m sure a lot of Blu-Ray geeks are pining for their own editions, but for now, this set is a great step forward. Perhaps we’ll eventually see a Blu-Ray edition for fans down the line.
The excellent Gina Carano takes her shot at her own version of “Breakdown,” and “Frantic,” with an action thriller that delivers on all fronts. If you loved Ms. Carano in “Haywire,” you’ll really enjoy the turn Carano takes here. “In the Blood” features a very respectable supporting cast along with Carano, playing a honeymooner with a tortured past who discovers her husband Derek has suddenly disappeared during their Caribbean getaway after a zip lining accident. Has he been kidnapped? Murdered? Is it a ruse from his over protective wealthy family to end the marriage?
Stephen Frears’ drama about a woman touching down on her roots and seeking some sense of purpose is a sweet and simple dramedy that really reaches emotional lengths beyond its quaint story. Based on a true event, Steve Coogan is fantastic as a jaded and somewhat disgraced political journalist Martin Sixsmith who decides to leave his world in exchange for writing about Russian history. He’s approached by Jane, a waitress, at a party who offers him a chance to help her mother Philomena search for her long lost son. At first he’s put off by the idea of the search but soon sees it as his opportunity for a best seller.