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Machete (R)
★★★★★
Robert Rodriguez’s co-directed grindhouse fun-fest is loaded with laughs, gore and ’70s-styled social commentary. Machete follows former a Mexican Federale called Machete (played with gusto by Danny Trejo) who is hired to assassinate a Texas senator. Machete soon becomes public enemy numero uno, waging a one-man war against the bigoted powers that oppress and kill his people. You can guess his weapon of choice.
Read More »The Last Exorcism (PG-13)
★☆☆☆☆
Following in the shaky-cam footsteps of The Blair Witch Project, Daniel Stamm directs a poor script about evangelical con-man Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian). Marcus takes along a couple of documentarians to record his experiences and the trio road trip to rural Louisiana where a fundamentalist farmer believes his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed. The Last Exorcism has all the appeal of a glorified student film.
Read More »Taste the Fury
Mexpliotation comes to town and brings a social commentary greased with violence
Robert Rodriguez’s co-directed grindhouse fun-fest Machete is loaded with laughs, gore and ’70s-styled social commentary about America’s current immigration crackdown. Rodriguez has coined the phrase “Mexpliotation” to describe his ironic reversal on vigilante films, such as Dirty Harry and Death Wish, which were considered by some at the time of their release to represent a fascistic right-wing mentality.
Read More »Documentary Demons
The Last Exorcism combines two genres and sends them to cinematic hell
More a sketch of an idea for a horror movie than a fully formed film, The Last Exorcism is a yawn-inducing attempt to cash in on a combination of exhausted genre tropes. Following in the shaky-cam, found-footage footsteps of The Blair Witch Project, Daniel Stamm directs an incompetent script about an evangelical con man, Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian). Cotton carries on his family’s well-established business of conducting exorcisms for illiterate backwoods types who traditionally respond well to the power of material-supported suggestion.
Read More »Mesrine: Killer Instinct (Not Rated)
★★★★☆
Based on Mesrine’s memoir Mesrine: Killer Instinct (Part 1), director Jean-François Richet creates an action-packed crime drama. The story opens in ’60s France where war hero Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) starts his career by meeting mob kingpin (Gérard Depardieu). There’s an addictive quality to the film due to the story’s unpredictable nature and the expert filmmaking on display.
Read More »The Switch (PG-13)
★★★☆☆
Thanks to the lovable chemistry between Jason Bateman and newcomer Thomas Robinson, The Switch is a fun and endearing flick. Bateman plays Wally, who switches his best friend Kassie’s (Jennifer Aniston) sperm donor swimmers with his own. Despite the plot being unoriginal and the first half a bit of a snooze, once the second half picks up you’ll be on board as the movie’s touching and comic events unravel.
Read More »Piranha 3D (R)
★★★☆☆
This is one of the most gleefully gory horror movies of all time. Director Alexandre Aja’s update of Joe Dante’s notorious 1978 film (written by John Sayles) packs in exposed boobies and dismembered bodies. Lake Victoria, Ariz. (Lake Havasu), is the partying ground for a slew of horny college students. Aja (High Tension) ramps up the tension and gore to a fever pitch before sprinkling in a hearty dose of gross-out humor.
Read More »Takers (PG-13)
★☆☆☆☆
Written by a committee of four screenwriters, Takers is a nondescript heist movie with one-dimensional characters and an inexcusably silly plot. Misguided director John Luessenhop wants his audience to admire his well-dressed gangsters who talk like they’re taking a semester away from Harvard to pull off an armored car job in L.A. To see talented actors Matt Dillon and Marianne Jean-Baptiste stoop so low is a travesty.
Read More »Nanny McPhee Returns (PG)
★★★☆☆
A vast improvement over the 2005 franchise introduction of co-writer/actress Emma Thompson’s household savior, this sequel finds modern-day meaning in its World War II-era English trappings. Nanny helps farm-owner Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) by teaching her unruly charges “five lessons” that will leave the family members “wanting” but not “needing” her continued service.
Read More »Lake Horror
You might never go on spring break again
“I don’t pole-dance for nothing.” That’s what one of Piranha 3D’s many frequently topless beauties says before climbing onto a rope that hovers four feet above the surface of water teeming with frenzied, toothy prehistoric fishes. It also expresses the irreverent tone for one of the most gleefully gory horror movies of all time. Director Alexandre Aja’s update of Joe Dante’s famous 1978 film (written by John Sayles) packs in exposed boobies and dismembered bodies like maraschino cherries filling a 50-gallon aquarium.
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