I’m not entirely sure what “Fall Out” was aiming for from minute one. All I know is that director Derek Dubois keeps the audience in the dark, providing a narrative that’s about eighty percent ambiguous. And I was okay with that. If you can’t really offer a larger exploration of the world you’ve built, especially considering when it’s set during the apocalypse, the best thing to do is focus on getting us to know the characters in this situation, and director Dubois accomplishes that in spades.
Roger Corman’s contributions have been unmatched by most Hollywood directors, and sadly he’s become a mostly unappreciated presence in filmmaking. As viewed in “Corman’s World,” Roger Corman is one of the most ambitious but very money conscious filmmakers that’s managed to build an entire legacy out of creating entertainment on low budgets, while discovering some of the best filmmakers of all time. From giving Martin Scorsese and Peter Bogdonavich their breaks, to teaching Ron Howard how to direct around limited resources, Roger Corman has been a wizard of giving studios what they want, and doing it his way.
Director Lloyd Kaufman leaves no stone unturned with his return to Tromaville, as he revives his iconic “Nuke Em High” series, except for a modern age. Though it’s teeming with eighties flavor, including mutant punks that delight in mutilating unfortunate victims, Kaufman has a blast destroying most of society’s quirks and obnoxious qualities, including veganism, the obsession over social media, and how political movements are about being trendy and not actually caring. Despite many years to polish their films, and hone their craft, the return to Nuke ‘Em High is still an ugly and offensive film, but damned funny to boot.
Director Dave Cholewa’s “Dead Shadows” is HP Lovecraft meets “Night of the Comet,” and while surely that sounds like the ingredients for an amazing horror film, in the end it’s just a serviceable post apocalyptic horror thriller. It’s by no means a waste of time, but it never delivers on a lot of its ideas and story themes. Much of the concepts and sub-plots feel very under developed and half baked, with “Dead Shadows” unfolding in a very inexplicable series of events. I tried my best to follow along, but Cholewa really offers horror audiences a convoluted narrative for a movie that boils down to shooting aliens and monsters in the dark.
Because superheroes fighting crime isn’t enough, DC has to water it down even further for some reason. “Trapped in Time” is only a slightly edgier version of “Superfriends” placing the greater emphases on younger Leaguers and superheroes rather than focusing on the actual Justice Leaguers. That Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are so square, man. They don’t know today’s youth. Now, whiny impulsive Robin? He knows what the youth is about. Running at under an hour in length, and with a pacing that’s breakneck, “Trapped in Time” is kind of a Justice League movie. But then it really isn’t.
Claiming your territory is the law of the land, Carl and Michonne really like candy, a wall o’ zombies, and Rosita’s smoking hotness, all that and more on this episode of “The Walking Dead”! Once again the casting crew for “The Walking Dead” have really done their job in sticking true to the comics by casting Christian Serratos as series hotty Rosita. She was always cute during her years on Nickelodeon, but she virtually disappears in the character garb and has proven to be an interesting heroine. This time around the episode is split between three portions of characters, all of whom are getting ever closer to the enigmatic Terminus. Except Glenn has finally found a sign by Maggie to meet her there, and he’s more desperate than ever.
It’s Skinemax time and “Virtual Encounters” is the movie for anyone interested in delightful mediocre mid-nineties porn. As a movie it’s a pretty crummy and boring attempt to add fantasy elements to a genre already built around fantasies. Part of the Surrender Cinema division from Full Moon, “Virtual Encounters” is pseudo-science fiction that basically just features a slew of mildly erotic sex scenes that have no real context to them. They’re just there to get about as much mileage out of the movie before it ends.