Tag Archives: Romance

Nicholas Sparks: Limited Edition Collection (DVD)

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Whether we like it or not the Nicholas Sparks movies haven’t lost steam. Even when they’re flops, they’re still somehow tapping in to the life line of female movie goers, giving movie studios even more of a reason to adapt Sparks’ dramas about gorgeous Caucasian people with no actual problems, that find love with one another. Their love is, of course, chaste, pure, and innocent, with no real raw looks at the passionate love that become the focus of many of Sparks’ movies. Even posters for his movies show people on the verge of kissing. Nothing more. If aliens ever found these movies as a last remnant of humanity, they’d be convinced humans kissed and mated by rubbing noses together and meeting eyes intently.

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Cat People (1942)

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Director Jacques Tourneur’s horror thriller is probably one of the most unique and menacing thrillers about a woman’s inherent ferocity and rage ever made. “Cat People” is filled to the brim with metaphor and symbolism, from the parallels of Simone Simon’s character Irena’s to a black panther stuck in a cage, right down to a kitten confined in a small paper box by Irena’s husband to be Oliver. After surprising her with the pet as a gift, the cat discovers that it hates Irena, and she it. More suitably though, the two aren’t kindly to being tied down and given to domestic masters.

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Cat People (1982): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]

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When Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneaur conceived “Cat People,” the budget was low for anything truly spectacular, thus allowing them to get creative. Director Paul Schrader definitely has a larger budget and wider scope to deal with, resulting in a fairly forgettable remake. If you can call it a remake, mind you. All the mythology is lost in favor of a hyper sexual retelling that keeps the cat people and removes everything else. “Cat People” definitely fits the nostalgia bill for people who find Nastassja Kinski especially sexy, as Schrader soaks the film in a palette of neon colors and bold bright pastels while Giorgio Moroder’s score blares non-stop.

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Short Term 12 (2013)

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Brie Larson has remained one of the most subtle and hard working character actors in modern film, sometimes taking seemingly missed turns in great indies (The Spectacular Now), and often blowing people away with supporting performances (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). In “Short Term 12,” Larson proves she’s capable of being a lead and should often play the leading character in films that can show she’s a performer of beauty and immense vulnerability.

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Carrie (2013)

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If there’s anything I can say about the remake of “Carrie” is that it’s at least better than the 2002 version. It’s more focused and sleeker. I remember reading on many articles that director Kimberly Pierce was planning to deliver a new and dynamic version of Stephen King’s “Carrie” that differed greatly from Brian DePalma’s iconic horror masterpiece. I’d love to know what happened during the entire development of this film because watching it, all I saw were callbacks to the original DePalma movie. Surely, there’s the addition of the internet and a small riff on cyber bullying but it’s really just a riff on DePalma’s film.

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Nightbreed (1990): The Director’s Cut [Blu-ray/DVD]

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Thanks to the advent of home entertainment and a wonderful company like Scream Factory, director Clive Barker is finally able to realize his original vision for the cult horror film “Nightbreed.” While the film itself has gained momentum and respect over the years as a dark and morbid tale of monsters from the underworld facing human cruelty, Barker’s experience making the movie was a bitter one he often recollected with anger and sadness. With his Director’s Cut, he’s not only able to salvage old footage that he was forced to edit out of his narrative, but he re-structures “Nightbreed” in to practically an entirely new movie. One that’s better than the original cut.

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The Spectacular Now (2013)

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Director James Ponsoldt’s drama is very much a film that takes its pages from John Hughes’ teen oriented films about change and growing up. “The Spectacular Now” is much in the arena of “Breakfast Club,” and “Say Anything” where what we once thought we understood is actually false, and we eventually reach a fork in the road where we must decide to move on, or stay perpetually stunted by our environment. Director Ponsoldt introduces us to the destructive part of our lives that keep us from accepting growth and adulthood, and he just happens to be our protagonist Sutter.

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