Monthly Archives: June 2013

James DeMonaco’s “The Purge” is a bloody-minded, heavy-handed satire of life within these violent United States. It’s a horror film with the occasional visceral thrill — the fear of being hunted, the excitement of righteous violence against nameless intruders. But … Continue reading →

A terrorist act on the most video-wired streets in the world — London. Ex-lover lawyers (Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall) are defending the man accused on carrying out the terrorism. And Julia Stiles is a New York Times reporter covering … Continue reading →

The Hollywood Reporter found a former Scientologist willing to sit through “After Earth” and focus on its Sci-Tol talking points, evidence of Will Smith’s conversion and efforts to promote the group through the film. A few snippets of dialogue — … Continue reading →

Ethan Hawke’s had some good luck with horror, and “The Purge” has a hint of that. America, legalizing one day a year where there are no laws — and criminal impulses reign — a family barricaded against the mob, but … Continue reading →

However diminished his status among domestic movie audiences, Tom Cruise is still a very bankable box office star in much of the world. Especially, apparently, in Japan. His latest, “Oblivion,” opened well enough but faded before reaching $100 million in … Continue reading →

“Violet & Daisy” plays like a live-action version of a Japanese manga comic. Lurid and bloody, it has elaborate gunplay and kinky-kitschy lollipop sucking schoolgirls working as assassins to pay for their teen fashions and teen music obsessions. Vintage pop … Continue reading →

Horror cinema’s latest State of the Abattoir collection, “V/H/S/ 2”, is a properly blood-spattered and chilling collection of shorts — four films from the folks who made “The Blair Witch Project,” “Hobo With a Shotgun,” “The Raid” and “You’re Next.” … Continue reading →

In Shakespeare’s day, “Nothing” was a double entendre, and a sexual one at that. And “noting” was a sexual innuendo, not to mention a pun on “nothing.” So when the Bard titled his comedy “Much Ado About Nothing,” the man … Continue reading →