tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45018350978237001552012-02-06T18:00:28.839-06:00Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-9587785250435095122012-02-06T18:00:00.000-06:002012-02-06T18:00:28.849-06:00

- -Of course I had to buy "Drive" this week, but don't think this nasty navy blue atrocity with its pinstriped type and lousy quote didn't make it just a wee bit tougher to shell out the $20 bucks to get it. -What confounds me is the fact that the film's cursive pink-chic typeface (which is even featured on the physical disc itself) is shunned for this safe, white sell-job, as if the studio

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-5152511947653352562012-01-10T16:04:00.001-06:002012-01-10T16:09:39.821-06:00

Everybody has to do one of these lists, right? I've been thinking about it for a while and decided it was time to just throw it out there.  - Really my only rule when compiling this list was making sure that I had actually seen every movie that I put on the list. Therefore, I didn't go trolling around Youtube just watching credits sequences. These are films that I have a great appreciation for

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-57796780562326941562012-01-09T15:13:00.003-06:002012-01-09T16:27:20.822-06:00

Truthfully, 2011 was a year that produced very few great films, even fewer good ones and a surplus of decent ones. Thus, making a Top 20 list was more a reach than in year's past, yet like every year, the great films are there - you just have to look for them.   - #20--"DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME"Directed by Tsui Hark-Tusi Hark's fantastical-historical Chinese epic is one

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-46895079535418758382012-01-09T09:47:00.001-06:002012-01-09T09:48:18.835-06:00

5. Kirsten Dunst, "Melancholia" - Working for the first time with Danish provacateur Lars von Trier, Dunst, with a glazed-over despondency, is the perfect conduit for von Trier's mediation on depression and the oncoming apocalypse. It's not until the film's second half, however that she really makes her mark with a few deadpan zingers about the futility of it all. "The earth is evil. Nobody will

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-7870370992821305342012-01-03T10:39:00.003-06:002012-01-03T15:56:18.404-06:00

5. Brad Pitt, "The Tree of Life" - As a temperamental, disciplinary father trying to raise his family in rural Texas in the 1950's, Brad Pitt's performance in many ways provides the backbone to Malick's odyssey on family, loss and creation. Both disquietingly menacing and vulnerable, Pitt fleshes out his capricious father figure with but a glance or a grimace.  - 4. Gary Oldman, "Tinker Tailor

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-32105128945572156982011-12-30T21:26:00.000-06:002011-12-30T21:26:22.187-06:00

I've pretty much exhausted what 2011 has to offer and with a viewing of Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" some time this weekend, that will make it 113 films seen this year - some bad, some good, but as we all know, mostly bad.  However, out of those mostly bad films I sat through this year, these ten were surely the worst. So before I get to the good stuff (Top 10 list coming later this weekend),

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-41419040603866921362011-12-25T06:26:00.001-06:002011-12-25T06:28:34.388-06:00

Without question, David Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is a much more accomplished, taut and ornamented adaptation of Steig Larsson's runaway bestseller than that wretched Swedish-language adaptation of a few years ago.  - Anyone claiming differently is either someone I don't like or cinematically inept. Fincher's film is carefully composed, meticulously arranged and accented, and

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-28346472911218925742011-12-20T21:57:00.000-06:002011-12-20T21:57:46.347-06:00

The production design on Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows", from the costume department to the art direction to Hans Zimmer's now-familiar score is, I must say, first-rate stuff - eye-popping, transportive, even soothing in its period detail, the sawdust in the air, the splintering of wood, the slush of mud in the street, etc. - But beyond the film's rapturous facade, its

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-13020808473167040852011-12-20T20:18:00.000-06:002011-12-20T20:18:18.089-06:00

Brad Bird's "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" is such a feat of high-tech globe-trotting spy-movie extravagance that it takes nearly the majority of the film's running time to reveal itself as a frivolous, hoary nuclear arms showdown. (Among the film's drawbacks, convolution is certainly not among them.)  - Not that most - included myself - are complaining, because the kind of propulsive,

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-72406460563800313012011-12-16T19:44:00.000-06:002011-12-16T19:44:41.152-06:00

I'm not entirely sold on Steve McQueen's "Shame", but this immaculately cold and detached portrait of a Manhattan sex addict is a real work of art. Every frame of this film appears calculated and carefully composed, as if every second was a still photograph hanging in a gallery, each contributing to a collective theme.  - I'm not sure that McQueen isn't exaggerating considerably at times here (

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-27181202751334773882011-12-14T16:17:00.001-06:002011-12-14T16:17:25.558-06:00

I look forward to this list every year. The Playlist, a movie blog with a deceiving background as a music-in-movies specialty, released their list of the best scores/soundtracks of the year. Some are quite unsurprising ("Drive", "Attack the Block"), while others are delightful, less-than-expected inclusions. - I personally don't think it gets much better than Cliff Martinez's stunning work on "

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-91352239204244031572011-12-10T21:35:00.002-06:002011-12-10T21:35:28.631-06:00

Seeing Steve McQueen's "Shame" tomorrow afternoon (thank you, NFL, for scheduling no games of consequence until Sunday night...), so certainly looking forward to that. With school pretty much wrapped up, it's time to play catch-up, so I'll be checking out stuff like "Beginners", "The Future", "Another Earth" and some other titles I missed this summer. - Speaking of which, for some reason, I

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-7718502796513860762011-12-09T12:40:00.000-06:002011-12-09T12:40:40.909-06:00

For me, there's no more enduring performance this year than John Boyega's in "Attack the Block," Joe Cornish's slick, propulsive small-scale action-comedy hybrid which rose through the ranks of genre festivals to become one of the more noteworthy debuts of the year.  - Boyega plays Moses, the leader of a young, petty street gang in an urban UK neighborhood, who rises above his more

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-47259914931828853042011-12-09T12:18:00.000-06:002011-12-09T12:18:23.018-06:00

Tom McCarthy's "Win Win", which I just caught up with last week, is a truthful, affectionate family drama, one that's easy to snuggle up to and sympathize with, while still staying true to its self and never compromising its characters in a way that makes them dismissible.  - With this film, McCarthy has further proven to be a practiced hand at portraying these kinds of honest, moving character

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-23828919057243804372011-12-09T11:39:00.000-06:002011-12-09T11:39:56.507-06:00

On the topic of Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," I consider myself - from the moment I left the theater until now - a fan. I love that this film (which is obviously breathtaking to witness and a strong counter-argument for the tasteful implementation of 3D) is such a strange detour for one of America's greatest enduring cinema icons, yet once you take it in, it feels like the product of no one else.  -

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-78692832763067314162011-12-07T13:28:00.001-06:002011-12-07T13:40:17.921-06:00

In what could be perceived as the conclusion (or perhaps bridge) to Danish provocateur Lars von Trier's recent explorations of guilt and depression - beginning with 2009's much ballyhooed horror film "Antichrist" - the director's latest film, the apocalyptically beautiful "Melancholia" is as relatively restrained as a film about the end of the world (and coming from the self-proclaimed "greatest

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-24896488242179369432011-12-05T11:28:00.000-06:002011-12-05T11:28:40.948-06:00

In-between spare moments where I'm not thinking about Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" (more on that later, by the way), I've managed to sit down to watch all manner of (mostly) terrible films at home, plus a few that weren't too painful and some that were quite good, honestly. - Top of mind, Marcus Nispel's "Conan the Barbarian" is an over-lit, over-blown spectacle that (in what is becoming an all

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-13437942601728054812011-12-02T21:04:00.000-06:002011-12-02T21:04:04.709-06:00

"The Muppets" is simply a joyous reunion tour, a get-the-gang-back-together send-off like no other, and I say this as someone with almost no prior exposure to the original TV show and subsequent movie spin-offs throughout the 80 and 90's.  - Jason Segel, who stars in and co-writes along with Nicolas Stoller, brings his doughy sarcasm both behind and in-front of the camera, managing to make the

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-25133249730848563542011-11-26T21:28:00.003-06:002011-11-26T21:56:11.534-06:00

I've been furiously trying to put together my final projects for school, spend time with the family and still keep up with the latest movies, so consider this a what-have-I-seen-lately purge, of sorts. - First up for Thanksgiving week was Alexander Payne's "The Descendants", a nearly de facto Oscar contender far before anybody had the chance to see it, what with its behind-of and

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-16255175768892823622011-11-15T07:16:00.000-06:002011-11-15T07:16:08.601-06:00

When 81 year-old (and presently overactive) Clint Eastwood was announced to take on a biopic on the founder and long-time director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, one would not have predicted a film that not only examines Hoover's precarious, reckless and secretive methods, but his (mostly speculative) life as a closeted homosexual.  - Although seeing as the script (a largely muddled and

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-13338634241074009852011-11-11T10:48:00.000-06:002011-11-11T10:48:13.775-06:00

I'm not a particularly knowledgeable or dependable barometer on the canon of DreamWorks properties post-2001's "Shrek," but I can say that "Puss in Boots," the latest offspring of that film that so enchanted viewers a decade ago, is better than the last two sequels and I haven't even see them.  - Which isn't so much a gleeful rave of this feline spin-off, but rather a condemnation of the

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-76223517585580915422011-11-11T08:30:00.000-06:002011-11-11T08:30:45.391-06:00

There's been so much news-feed garbage piling up about these two dueling "Snow White" projects that I'm not even sure I can separate the two, yet Rupert Sanders' "Snow White & the Huntsman" is the first out of the gate with a trailer. - - I have to say, at the very least, it doesn't look just all that dreadful, does it? I'm convinced the music is some sort of remix of Zach Hemsey's trailer music

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-10822226797499289772011-11-11T08:05:00.001-06:002011-11-11T08:06:33.680-06:00

Brett Ratner's fortunately topical "Tower Heist" is, for its majority, a semi-flat, moderately engaging heist comedy that nevertheless never really takes off. That is, until Eddie Murphy shows up.  - The highly-skilled, highly-missed comedic actor, who disappeared into a vat of atrocious, doughy children's films for the last decade including "I Spy", "Daddy Day Care" and the abominable fat-suit

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-84753958413474838372011-11-04T19:39:00.000-05:002011-11-04T19:39:33.043-05:00

In what I hope becomes a weekly series here at The Ludovico Technique, I'm hoping to mirror (or rather copy) the excellent weekly podcast out of Chicago, Filmspotting, and doing my own Top 5 list in accordance to their designated topic.  - Last week it was Top 5 Director Departures (in response to Kevin Smith directing "Red State") and thus, I'm here to provide my own list of five of the more

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-68511851109367501192011-10-31T09:25:00.000-05:002011-10-31T09:25:17.726-05:00

As a devout loyalist to John Carpenter's 1982 version of "The Thing," I approached this prequel/remake with an admittedly great deal of skepticism, but I feel confident in saying, even with my biased outlook, that Matthijs van Heijningen's update just isn't very good. - Showing us what happened at the Norweigan camp which found and accidentally let loose the imitative title creature, the film is

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-58511087990755367652011-10-30T11:12:00.000-05:002011-10-30T11:12:23.393-05:00

An oncoming storm plagues the visions of a young husband and father in Jeff Nichols' sophomore effort, "Take Shelter," a keen, deeply psychological portrait of a man either at wit's end or God's beckoning.  - Michael Shannon plays said man, Curtis LaForche, a construction worker caring solely for his wife (Jessica Chastain) and their hearing-impaired daughter (Tova Stewart) in rural Ohio. Curtis

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-78454513157487745752011-10-28T23:51:00.000-05:002011-10-28T23:51:29.219-05:00

Andrew Niccol's sci-fi thriller and corporate allegory "In Time" is, almost from the first few minutes, some kind of disaster. Even with a cast of young, sexy up-and-comers, the film is so logically nonsensical that to call it "half-baked" is a disservice to the word "half".  - Like most science-fiction these days, "In Time" is simply a pastiche of genre tropes, except the film doesn't even have

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-91844244273607910712011-10-28T09:20:00.002-05:002011-10-28T09:21:20.131-05:00

After last night's devastating loss in the World Series, (fuckin' Cardinals) I'm going to try and get on with it today and see a 10:45 of Andrew Niccol's "In Time" followed by Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous".  - I was going to see Bruce Robinson's "The Rum Diary," but the more I think about it, the more I'm not that interested in dipping into a mid-level, Hunter S. Thompson bizarro exotic jerk-fest

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-91312252908904007022011-10-28T08:59:00.000-05:002011-10-28T08:59:12.474-05:00

I saw Sean Durkin's "Martha Marcy May Marlene" back in August, I believe, but now that it has expanded somewhat and people are actually getting out there and seeing it, I just wanted to reiterate how much of a fan I am. - I described the film, in my review dated 8.26, as a thriller that "burns and unsettles with a protracted, detached sense of dread."  - "As the film progresses, promise of past

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-5795415549475812922011-10-27T15:29:00.001-05:002011-10-27T15:30:32.728-05:00

It's a fairly cold day here in DFW - 50's, cloudy, breezy - basically the first cold chill of the season, and I've just seen Andrew Haigh's "Weekend", the British gay independent film, and it's quite lovely as far as these kinds of films go.  - -It's a "brief encounter" story of two lovers (who just happen to be gay men) who meet one day and talk and chit-chat and have sex, discuss art,

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-48046558181124593702011-10-26T20:40:00.000-05:002011-10-26T20:40:13.969-05:00

With my giallo horror marathon concluding last week, I'd have to say that on the whole, I was rather disappointed with the quality of the films, or lack there of. There is a quotient of enjoyment to be had with them, but overall (especially watching them in succession) the films seemed consistently adventurous as technical showpieces yet narratively dull and frightfully formulaic. --There were

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-23310937223983711662011-10-21T10:15:00.000-05:002011-10-21T10:15:56.678-05:00

Edgar Allan Poe and giallo in the same breath sounds like either a match made in heaven or an awkward fit and, truth be told, Lucio Fulci's "The Black Cat," loosely based on the author's short story, likely falls somewhere in the middle. - -Set in rural England, the film naturally begins with a gruesome death, the apparent doings of a green-eyed black cat, seemingly in cahoots with a local

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-89544640971689119962011-10-20T19:26:00.000-05:002011-10-20T19:26:39.150-05:00

I had a sneaking suspicion going into Pupi Avati's "The House with Laughing Windows" that it was going to be a difficult sit (a no-name director, a relatively long running-time) and my gut feeling wasn't off-base in the slightest. - -An art-conservationist arrives in a scant, rural Italian village to specifically restore a rotting fresco of Saint Sebastian, which would you believe, is a source of

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-26613949155152047552011-10-20T12:06:00.001-05:002011-10-20T12:44:07.731-05:00

Dario Argento was in peak creative form by the time "Deep Red" came out in the mid-70's. Having already released his bewildering "animal trilogy," a trio of classic giallo films concerning innocent bystanders being dragged into the path of a psychopathic killer, "Deep Red" continues the trend while upping the technical virtuosity and bloodlust.  - -It's true that "Deep Red" was certainly

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-22070974808968096942011-10-20T09:26:00.000-05:002011-10-20T09:26:05.156-05:00

After a beautiful, quiet opening shot over the titles, Sergio Martino's "All the Colors of the Dark" begins with a lurid, batty dream sequence, one of many tormenting Jane Harrison, a mourning, mentally fragile young wife who just recently lost her unborn child in a car accident and witnessed her mother being murdered as a child. - -Talk about the post-traumatic double-whammy, as Jane, surrounded

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-37894904132740729292011-10-19T13:23:00.000-05:002011-10-19T13:23:27.727-05:00

A sadomasochistic killer paralyzes his victims with an acupuncture needle before carving their bellies in Paolo Cavar's "The Black Belly of the Tarantula," another offspring of Mario Bava's "Blood and Black Lace" and Dario Argento's "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" - your standard-order serial killer mystery routine. - - Following Inspector Tellini, however, as opposed to a hapless socialite

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-15348716967379361592011-10-18T16:19:00.000-05:002011-10-18T16:19:27.145-05:00

Part two of Dario Argento's "animal trilogy," "The Cat O'Nine Tails" is the only title in the trio which does not refer to a literal aspect of the film, but rather an arbitrary line of spoken dialogue referring to the number of leads available to the film's unlikely pair of amateur detective, who are both on the trail of a vicious killer. - -Although hardly an apt description of the film, the

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-67102324643206380632011-10-18T12:03:00.000-05:002011-10-18T12:03:27.094-05:00

A woman awakens from a recurring dream, an apparent lesbian fantasy, in which she in fact, murders her lover, who is in actuality, her next-door neighbor. When the police knock on the door and every aspect of her nightmare has indeed come to fruition, Carol (played by Florinda Bolkan) becomes frightfully worried that she's been set-up, or indeed the rightful killer. - -Sound familiar? This '

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-58415483939505338962011-10-16T15:06:00.000-05:002011-10-16T15:06:45.525-05:00

The third, final and frankly, greatest part of Argento’s introductory Animal Trilogy, “Four Flies on Grey Velvet” is also one the director’s best works. Sticking to his hand-rails, the film carries the same “wrong man” plot of an innocent man who is dragged into the path of a serial killer, set-up in an empty theater, with incriminating pictures of him holding the knife, standing over the dead

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-61120287016399888242011-10-15T11:47:00.001-05:002011-10-15T11:48:30.423-05:00

Acclaimed Italian horror director Dario Argento made his debut here with this early giallo prototype, "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage". Part one of the director's coined "Animal Trilogy," (which has more to do with the films coincidental titles than anything else, with "The Cat O'Nine Tails" and "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" being the other two) the fact that the film, viewed in a particular

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-72778251228910404482011-10-14T08:59:00.000-05:002011-10-14T08:59:31.986-05:00

Sounding like a parodic mash-up of three shorter titles, this mouthful of a film deals less with the serial killer route of the common giallo (to be established and then perfected in short time by the likes of Dario Argento) and more with one of the genre's ever-present influences, Alfred Hitchcock. - A libidinous, intoxicatingly sordid brew, "The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion"

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-67271542925935615962011-10-13T17:47:00.001-05:002011-10-13T20:50:44.380-05:00

Perhaps far more minor and far less revelatory than it would have you anticipate, George Clooney's "The Ides of March" is nevertheless a pleasing, bristling suit-and-tie political thriller that serves best as a piece of populist entertainment rather than an indictment on political corruption and treacherous campaigning.  -Ryan Gosling's Stephen Meyers, a brilliant, brash and idealistic young

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-12182727857337847282011-10-13T10:57:00.001-05:002011-10-13T10:59:58.498-05:00

Whereas director Mario Bava introduced the more fragile psychological elements of giallo in "The Girl Who Knew Too Much," with "Blood and Black Lace," he racks up the body count in this highly influential slasher film, an early incarnation of the masked serial killer formula. - But what particularly distinguishes "Blood and Black Lace" (and by extension, the giallo genre as a whole) from the

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-90389736453284888382011-10-13T10:38:00.003-05:002011-10-13T10:46:09.063-05:00

A starry, blue-eyed cheek-pinch of a film, Shawn Levy's "Real Steel" is a transparent, highly illogical amalgam of every smothering, cloying cliché of middle-American resolve, set, of all places, inside the world of robot boxing.  - John Gatins' disastrous, leaky script (which is based on a frankly ludicrous premise) touches on everything from a father-son drama, to a washed-up tale of redemption

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-38745294355740510822011-10-11T09:35:00.000-05:002011-10-11T09:35:41.678-05:00

Mario Bava is commonly referred to as the founding father of the Italian giallo film ("giallo" meaning yellow, referring to the gaudy yellow covers of pulp crime stories and potboiler mysteries) and his one-two punch of "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" and "Blood and Black Lace" both usher in the common tropes that we now associate with these trashy, virtuoso films. - - With "Blood and Black Lace," (

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-69199909704018251692011-10-07T19:39:00.001-05:002011-10-07T19:40:52.592-05:00

TimeOut London always has put out very thorough, iconoclastic film lists and their "Top 50 Westerns" is no different.  - I have my own list of the Top 30 Westerns coming out pretty soon here (likely after October), and as a pretty big fan of the genre, I have a discerning, argumentative opinion regarding TimeOut's particular picks.  - That being said, the list is pretty good for the most part. I

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-20615887126715029742011-10-07T19:06:00.002-05:002011-10-07T19:08:44.787-05:00

The folks over at Movieline have a funny, if a bit inconsistent, feature that I try and check out every once and a while, and that's there "Bad Movies We Love" list.  - This 10.5 post digs into Baz Luhrmann's sunset-colored outback epic "Australia" and I couldn't agree more. I remember seeing it Thanksgiving week of '08 as the second-half of double bill between it and "Milk" and I distinctly

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-68089330291229783972011-09-30T19:26:00.000-05:002011-09-30T19:26:26.905-05:00

There's so much talk these days (especially this side of her Emmy win) of Melissa McCarthy, the hefty sister-of-the-groom from "Bridesmaids," possibly getting in on the Best Supporting Actress race this awards season and I'm at a loss to really understand why. - I really quite like the film (its an irresistibly funny Apataw-brand comedy), but not only does Kristen Wiig give the most complete,

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-90552221522568560372011-09-30T18:35:00.000-05:002011-09-30T18:35:11.541-05:00

I ventured over to the local arthouse for what is sure to be an abbreviated run of Tsui Hark's mouthful of a film, "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame". A Chinese-Hong Kong co-production, the film is a bit of pickle to categorize, although wire-fu action-mystery seems the most appropriate and (if you can believe it) economical.  - Tony Lau stars as the title character, who is

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-74888561686928319852011-09-29T10:52:00.000-05:002011-09-29T10:52:45.661-05:00

I was a fan of Oren Peli's overnight sensation "Paranormal Activity," but I thought the follow-up last year was not only muted in its unbearable tension and creaking-door spookiness, but lazy and imitative.  - So naturally I had no expectations for the third installment, which hits theaters on October 21st, until I realized that it was directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the co-directors

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-28767213153209151442011-09-29T10:11:00.000-05:002011-09-29T10:11:38.513-05:00

Marketed as an airy, snazzy, whiz-bang assassin showdown, it turns out that "Killer Elite" is nothing but a dour, ugly true-story agency thriller - dull when bullets are flying and just about bereft of life when they aren't. -Based on Sir Ranulph Fiennes' 1991 novel The Feather Men, the film quite awkwardly shapes a traditional Jason Statham template inside of a mid-80's Oman oil crisis which

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-11032156515383575432011-09-25T21:35:00.000-05:002011-09-25T21:35:08.018-05:00

The majority of Bennett Miller's agreeable, articulate backroom baseball drama ironically, rarely takes place on a baseball field. In fact, most of the ballparks in "Moneyball" are completely empty, just the way the Oakland Athletics' mercurial, enigmatic GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) prefers it.  - Instead, this engrossing-but-not-exhilarating, warm-but-not-sizzling underdog story (based on Michael

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-67972463687936708702011-09-24T11:52:00.001-05:002011-09-24T11:52:20.880-05:00

In honor of seeing Brian De Palma's "Carrie" in 35mm last night at The Texas Theatre, my mock poster, done by hand simply with red acrylic and white illustration board.  -

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-89154014749634011132011-09-22T21:54:00.000-05:002011-09-22T21:54:17.496-05:00

Against my better judgement, I went to see Rod Lurie's "Straw Dogs" this Monday and didn't find much to like about it. Peckinpah's misogynistic, fascist 1971 original has been transformed into a marginally loftier version of "The Last House on the Left".  - I say loftier because, although "Straw Dogs" definitely gets its rocks off on some final-act, we-must-protect-this-house, castle-siege

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-67599384506685766702011-09-22T16:51:00.000-05:002011-09-22T16:51:25.329-05:00

Nicolas Winding Refn doesn't shy away from violence, making waves and igniting debate as recently as last week with a bevy of second-half bloodletting. I've argued all along that I felt the film's violence was shocking, yet organic, and almost essential to the film's deadly quiet protagonist as his preferred method of expression, even foreplay.  - Well would you believe it that Refn agrees?

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-86963269684154308222011-09-22T16:22:00.000-05:002011-09-22T16:22:59.703-05:00

With news today dropping that Universal is going to hide Jim Sheridan's "Dream House" from critics before its release next Friday on the 30th, we can pretty much chalk it up as a dud. -The trailer makes its clear that this horror-thriller, with its obvious "Shutter Island" aspirations, centers around Daniel Craig's character and whether he is either living in a haunted new home with his family or

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-29967217471517249702011-09-18T21:04:00.000-05:002011-09-18T21:04:33.614-05:00

Although "The Last of the Mohicans," Michael Mann's passionate, picturesque frontier saga, may appear at first glance as one of the director's most unique and graceful works, (not to mention his most unabashedly romantic) the career-long ethos of mortality and the thin dividing line between men in conflict fits right in with his greatest works from "Heat" to "Public Enemies".  - In the case of

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-37640874355630742872011-09-17T19:00:00.001-05:002011-09-17T19:00:56.323-05:00

If you've seen Nicolas Winding Refn's "Drive" this weekend, odds are you've at least considered purchasing the film's chic 80's soundtrack. The Chromatics "Tick of the Clock" opens the film with a nice electro-groove followed by the opening credits song, Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx's "Nightcall," featuring a growling, robotic vocal from the former.  - I have a personal soft-spot for the sweet, tingly "

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-44628029320675128422011-09-17T14:24:00.001-05:002011-09-17T14:25:48.528-05:00

I really dig Joseph-Gordon Levitt, but David Koepp's bicycle-route thriller "Premium Rush" just doesn't look very good. I try to avoid trailers at all costs, but this one snuck up on me in front of "Drive" and I didn't think much of it.  - - I remember those photos of Levitt biking around New York City which surfaced around last summer sometime and thinking, "oh, how cute, he's filming some

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-30945640934786328772011-09-16T22:25:00.002-05:002011-09-16T23:22:10.534-05:00

Of its many attributes, ironically "Drive," Nicolas Winding Refn's striking, white-knuckle crime thriller, is not notable for its speed. Sure, tires squeal and engines grumble, but what stands out about this instantly robust film (besides its stripped-down, retro-cool paint job) is precisely what isn't said - long droughts of silence building up into concussive ruptures of carved necks,

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-55443631532175294782011-09-16T11:25:00.000-05:002011-09-16T11:25:27.598-05:00

I didn't realize that Kelly Reichardt's masterful "Meek's Cutoff" was released on DVD and Blu-ray this week, but it's worth noting because I'm sure this minimal feminist-western didn't venture too far outside of the big markets when it dallied in theaters around March/April or so. Surely the film will find my Top 10 list when all is said and done. -

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-86679173750910315842011-09-16T11:19:00.000-05:002011-09-16T11:19:32.343-05:00

You may know by now that I'm a big fan of Steven Soderbergh's chilly, frightening virus-procedural "Contagion," mostly because of its rhythmic pacing and rigid personality, but also because it's simply downright scary. -Well even members of the CDC had to give it up to Soderbergh and the film, describing it as "very plausible" and "accurate" in a screening given specifically to employees in

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-28128141220426834072011-09-15T20:36:00.002-05:002011-09-15T20:53:57.614-05:00

I'm very excited about this feature (I always enjoy doing theme-driven viewing marathons to share with everyone) and this special Giallo Horror Marathon, which is only just a part of the stuff I'm doing in October, will be no different. - I truly haven't really seen anything from the genre so not only is this a fun way to cover films, it's also a great way for me to extend my vocabulary, and so

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-43615218459046423322011-09-13T22:30:00.001-05:002011-09-13T22:38:58.981-05:00

Evan Glodell, who stars in, writes and directs here in "Bellflower," his incendiary, deceivingly micro-budget debut, plays a twenty-something slacker named Woodrow who sits around all day with his best friend Aiden (Tyler Dawson) in blistering Southern California, dreaming of the impending apocalypse, assembling flamethrowers in its wake.  - But before the two can bask in their "Mad Max"

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-46623676313082351212011-09-10T22:58:00.000-05:002011-09-10T22:58:03.965-05:00

Meticulous and frightening, the virus-thriller "Contagian" unravels with a steely, matter-of-fact resolve as it boldly, scrupulously lays out the pieces to its seemingly cautionary trappings, though truthfully director Steven Soderbergh appears more interested in the wildfire intensity of the disease, the mechanics of the containment.  - Essentially a strict procedural, the film is gorilla-glued

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-8552806303234212392011-09-10T17:26:00.001-05:002011-09-10T17:26:44.766-05:00

I spotted this while planning my 80's Horror Blowout (De Palma pun not intended.) That is all. -

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-62578598783763823382011-09-10T17:11:00.000-05:002011-09-10T17:11:11.152-05:00

I'm incredibly distressed by this confusing prequel, which nevertheless takes on the same name as John Carpenter's horror-relic, "The Thing". - So this new version will apparently follow the Norwegian expedition who the Americans (Kurt Russell) stumbled upon at the beginning of the '82 version, the ones who couldn't aim trying to shoot that dog from a helicopter. - My problems are really two-fold

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-42046477279746452282011-09-10T16:53:00.000-05:002011-09-10T16:53:46.783-05:00

The biggest surprise of the festival season so far has got to be that Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous," his Shakespeare-was-a-hoax historical thriller, is getting good remarks out of Toronto.  - InContention's Kris Tapley was the first to chime in with his endearing thoughts, but the twitter-verse soon followed suit, one surprised viewer after another. - While "Anonymous" certainly doesn't perfectly

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-1506539260622142592011-09-09T19:13:00.000-05:002011-09-09T19:13:54.228-05:00

Fox Searchlight picking up Steve McQueen's festival hit "Shame," (which could easily take the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival awards, handed out this weekend) is hardly a surprise given that we knew the independent distributor always picks up films around this time ("Black Swan") and they were known to have been circling the wagons for a few days now.  - There have been doubts recently

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-41026129309208126682011-09-09T14:09:00.000-05:002011-09-09T14:09:58.034-05:00

"YOUR HIGHNESS" (2011) - After the nearly impeccable, misunderstood stoner action-comedy "Pineapple Express," David Gordon Green stays in his guilty-slack mode with the sword-and-sorcery spoof "Your Highness," a grotesque misfire if there ever was one.  - The film's conceit is admirable enough, a tongue-in-cheek callback briefly conjuring the nostalgic fire-and-armor glimpses of "Dragonslayer" or

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-50090110022072623182011-09-08T12:23:00.001-05:002011-09-08T12:24:45.278-05:00

For some reason I skipped over Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" this summer, perhaps feeling fatigued from all of the Cannes conversations and analysis and feeling in the mood for something far bigger and costlier.  - Whatever the reason, I finally caught up with it yesterday and I'm really glad I did. Obviously Allen has been on a decades-long run of astonishing productivity and somewhat

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-35899951377936395882011-09-08T09:42:00.001-05:002011-09-08T09:44:29.514-05:00

Beginning with a careless, youth-angst car wreck along the winding, wind-swept roads of Ireland's soggy Connemara region, where this edgy, quaint little buddy-cop comedy cozily take its place, a bulbous, burly officer lazily advances onto the scene, checks the now-ejected driver for a pulse (there is none) and subsequently rummages through his pockets, taking out a rolled-up plastic bag,

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-70925123898905284132011-09-06T21:31:00.000-05:002011-09-06T21:31:42.961-05:00

Beginning with company credits synchronized to the outbursts of children's laughter, the first few minutes are the last you'll hear of it during the course of the enraged, coercive "The Last Circus," a title fit for this deliriously-pitched, intermittently sly big top bloodbath.  - An oafish, rotund clown named Javier (Carlos Areces) is new to the circus, led by an alcoholic sadomasochist clown

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-31370483676863855102011-09-06T19:54:00.001-05:002011-09-06T19:54:40.924-05:00

"SEASON OF THE WITCH" - Mundane, dreadfully 'straight' medieval quest film, "Season of the Witch" is not only hopelessly lifeless, but frightfully ugly (there are shades of amber and ice-mint blue and nothing in-between.) - Two crusaders (Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman) return home to find plague and witchcraft the topics of the day, and are soon requested by the Church to escort an accused witch

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-59570056696442070212011-09-06T10:04:00.000-05:002011-09-06T10:04:46.089-05:00

It's good to hear that Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Heights" is being described as an "extreme, forbidding" film. InContention's Guy Lodge supplies that enticing description in his brief, 140-character-less B+ instant reaction from the Venice Film Festival, where the film bowed today to (it would seem) across-the-board raves.  - The twitter world is certainly buzzing after the "Fish Tank" director

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-36483797781949005212011-09-05T13:16:00.001-05:002011-09-05T13:17:32.823-05:00

I've had to restrain myself from talking up the concurrent Venice and Telluride Film Festivals (the latter of which wrapped up today, I believe), because I'm sure everyone has been keeping up with it on their own terms.  - In short, David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" has champions, detractors, skeptics in equal measure, it would seem. Steve McQueen's "Shame" sounds like a real glum,

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-78988743642686690222011-09-04T15:34:00.000-05:002011-09-04T15:34:04.648-05:00

"THE GREEN HORNET" - What would a traditional superhero film look and sound like written by two dispassionate stoners? Well, we get our answer with "The Green Hornet," a listless adaptation of the comic-book character that originated in the 30's and reached TV fame in the 60's. - Seth Rogen stars and co-writes with Evan Goldberg, yet mostly the film has a familiar, mechanical feel to it, all the

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-24360597538734011702011-09-04T15:05:00.000-05:002011-09-04T15:05:02.349-05:00

I saw Olivier Assayas' 339-minute "Carlos" in fragmented segments on the Sundance Channel when it aired sometime last February, and I'm guessing that watching it at home on the small screen, in some way, was cause to blame for my underwhelming reaction to it.  - I remember thinking that I was mightily fatigued by the end and that the revolutionary epic, be it of an urban or jungle variety, was

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-48272403761067008542011-09-04T08:50:00.000-05:002011-09-04T08:50:01.849-05:00

It's nice to see that John Madden's "The Debt," a relatively smart, tidy adult thriller will likely out-gross "Apollo 18" and "Shark Night 3D" to take 2nd for the weekend.  - As I said (in far greater words) in my review, "The Debt" pretty much works in spite of the fact that its decades-spanning narrative never fully takes off on an emotional level and that its characters, portrayed by two

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-68731025372964182162011-09-04T08:39:00.000-05:002011-09-04T08:39:28.145-05:00

It seems to me that I saw the first teasers for Trevor Cawood's "Apollo 18," the latest found-footage horror film in a recent trend that took this suddenly popular sub-genre to the moon, and thinking that it looked pretty interesting, if nothing else. I'm saying that I legitimately wanted to see it.  - Then the thing just disappeared, it seemed. (Ironic, given its lost-and-found conceit.) I

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-29754854475965982142011-09-03T17:40:00.000-05:002011-09-03T17:40:56.355-05:00

With its outward bursts of incendiary violence, agog female sexuality and a brave, nutty, obstreperous dual-central performance, Lee Tamahori's schlocky, gleefully ignoble thriller "The Devil's Double," is the kind of moderately pleasurable piece of exploitation that's more enticing for its girls-and-guns masculinity than its astuteness.-But it's a moderate, if not bantam amount of slick to go

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-82590056324224779742011-09-03T09:45:00.001-05:002011-09-03T09:46:41.505-05:00

Robert Siegel's The Silver Screen series on Blu-ray.com is always an interesting read, or even just a scroll through.  - He talks up Stanley Donen's "Charade" in this week's article (which should probably be recognized as the greatest Alfred Hitchcock film he never made) and as per usual, there are a ton of great publicity stills, posters, art and behind-the-scenes info.  - I've always loved

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-44533098675211695222011-09-03T09:29:00.000-05:002011-09-03T09:29:22.028-05:00

I'm intrigued by Andrew Niccol's upcoming science-fiction thriller "In Time," but only because of its wide-ranging, very interesting young ensemble. For me, it has the vague, middling trappings of the fickle "Repo Men" or the rote "Surrogates", yet that cast, with supporting roles from promising TV actors Vincent Kartheiser ("Mad Men"), Matthew Bomer ("White Collar") and dependable veterans like

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-41129866194229590062011-09-02T13:53:00.001-05:002011-09-02T13:53:24.829-05:00

Hot on the heels of the Oscar-winning "It Happened One Night," MGM's 1936 getaway screwball comedy, the plainly titled "Love on the Run," had no false aspirations and made no mistake of its intentions, recycling Clark Gable as a reporter on-the-run with a fleeing young bride. (The other half of Frank Capra's indelible 1934 comedy, Claudette Colbert, would play her part again in the familiar "It's

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-61577061936327979862011-09-01T20:45:00.000-05:002011-09-01T20:45:29.938-05:00

A tidy, affecting work, John Madden's "The Debt", which begins in 1966, ends in 1997 and fills in pretty much everywhere in-between, is a thriller-within-a-thriller of sorts, telling the story of three Israeli Mossad agents, their mission to capture an infamous Nazi war criminal and its lasting effect on them throughout the years. - We can tell by the piercing stares and forged enthusiasm

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-81468662948213934552011-09-01T10:34:00.000-05:002011-09-01T10:34:33.496-05:00

Slinky, beautiful female assassin, born-from-childhood vengeance, greasy, mutilated crime-lord, it must be another Luc Besson action-thriller. Yes, truth be told the prolific French writer/producer/director has been diluting his brand recently with more bald-headed machismo humdingers like "The Transporter", "From Paris with Love" and "Taken", but "Colombiana", perhaps the most meager of them all

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-44625375669243192312011-08-28T22:24:00.000-05:002011-08-28T22:24:52.733-05:00

Kathryn Sockett's hugely popular, two-years-running, can't-escape-it bestseller The Help, centered around African American maids working in Jackson, Mississippi at the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960's, has finally seen its way to the big screen in the form of Tate Taylor's friendly, weepy adaptation.  - At an elongated 146 minutes, The Help is a surprisingly brisk affair with

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-14543812537372744252011-08-27T22:06:00.000-05:002011-08-27T22:06:30.987-05:00

While we're all keeping our eyes on Hurricane Irene, stories are floating around today about how this weekends box-office returns will likely be the lowest of the year, a meager $80 million, which of course, is partially due to exhibitors being forced to close about 1,000 theaters across the entire East Coast.  - But really, as Nikki Finke pointed out this morning, this whole hurricane business

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-5629483397737069562011-08-27T20:44:00.001-05:002011-08-27T20:54:52.910-05:00

"THE MECHANIC" (2011) - Slick with its gunplay and gleefully violent, Simon West's The Mechanic moves at warp speed, looks good doing it, but ultimately, it's a meat-headed, perverse little mess.  - Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is a hitman who takes in a reckless, impudent troublemaker (Ben Foster) after killing his father (Donald Sutherland) in the film's second of many mandated hits. Why

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-8841653148791585182011-08-26T17:04:00.001-05:002011-08-26T17:10:15.206-05:00

Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene is a searing post-traumatic recollection of a young girl's tattered, turbid psyche that burns and unsettles with a protracted, detached sense of dread.  - Utilizing an effective, seamless flashback structure, the film charts and recounts the cruel and peculiar events involving the inconclusive title character (Elizabeth Olsen) and her time spent with a

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-37106081377171858142011-08-24T20:23:00.001-05:002011-08-24T20:24:13.338-05:00

Last week, I went to see John Milius' original Conan the Barbarian (1982) at the Texas Theatre on a troublesome but still highly rewarding 35mm print.  - -I had never seen it before (outside of a vague childhood remembrance), but the film is certainly an intriguing 80's sword-and-sorcery treasure, one of the few of its kind (alongside John Boorman's Excalibur) that has echoes and passages of a

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-51379651342654964682011-08-23T20:47:00.001-05:002011-08-23T20:47:42.491-05:00

Gregory Burkhart's 8.12 Fearnet piece about the musical work of John Carpenter discusses at a medium-length the director's "Ten Best Film Scores". He talks about Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, but he makes one glaring omission, in my mind, and that's Carpenter's bassy, progressive synth theme for Assault on Precinct 13.  - Essentially a zombie-action movie, Assault centers around a cop

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-82593932196754471402011-08-21T19:58:00.000-05:002011-08-21T19:58:32.761-05:00

"RED RIDING HOOD" (2011) - Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood is a loose, feeble feature-length adaptation of the classic folk tale, attempting to imbue the familiar story with a barrage of traditional elements each varyingly unsuccessful.  - Ineffectively marrying a hollow, passionless romance with supernatural horror elements, it's ultimately the latter which overwhelms the senses and

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-14895551223892403912011-08-17T22:25:00.002-05:002011-08-17T22:26:17.346-05:00

Michael Anderson's elongated, award-winning Around the World in 80 Days has the reputation of one of Oscar's great calamities, another example perhaps of the Academy's willingness to praise anything bright and shiny and more importantly, big.  - The film, however, is hardly a real catastrophe, in fact, it's quite pleasant at times. Truly, it's more successful as an exotic travelogue than a

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-28913237036839023182011-08-17T20:20:00.002-05:002011-08-17T20:25:23.669-05:00

I'll never understand why studios re-issuing classic films on Blu-ray insist on slapping together some hideous, balloon-headed digital artwork. Just look at this cover art for the December release of Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis ('44) - it's absolutely disgusting. It looks like a photoshop hairball. -

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-58353129857340726792011-08-16T23:14:00.000-05:002011-08-16T23:14:52.418-05:00

Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Planet of the Apes certainly works, if only admissibly so. It works because at its center is a vivid, coherent emotional journey with a real payoff, yet it never ascends because the filmmaking, although technically flawless, is too cloddish, facile and jackhammer-subtle.   - It's also a film that constantly teeters between being genuinely moving and terribly cloying

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-65009618835027174402011-08-05T21:17:00.000-05:002011-08-05T21:17:06.252-05:00

"THE THREE MUSKETEERS" (1939) - Alexandre Dumas fans stay away, this farcical, loosely-based adaptation takes great liberties with the source material in favor of some playful hi-jinks and merry melodies, turning the classic story into a 73-minute quasi-musical comedy.  - The results aren't entirely amiss, however, as the film's brisk, trim physique and Ritz brothers buffoonery provide enough of

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-92169483138108826202011-08-05T10:35:00.000-05:002011-08-05T10:35:32.304-05:00

More reputable for its box-office deficiencies than its song-and-dance numbers, Yolanda and the Thief, a high-gloss musical-fantasy production from the renowned Arthur Freed and Vincente Minnelli, was a massive flop upon its release in 1945, both critically derided and a mammoth black-eye to its two stars and previously infallible production team.  - It was such a catastrophe, it lost MGM over

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-61766786469906377302011-08-03T16:09:00.002-05:002011-08-03T16:12:19.206-05:00

Alfred Hitchcock's formal, functional I Confess is an especially atypical entry into the portly director's oeuvre, not because it isn't any less fascinating or lacking in technical skill, but because  this half-thriller, with its moral crisis through-line and overt Catholic symbolism, feels far removed from the kind of crafty, playful, bewildering suspense-thrillers that we're accustomed to.  -

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4501835097823700155.post-30060216395170457632011-07-31T12:19:00.001-05:002011-07-31T12:20:11.960-05:00

For some reason I'm woefully fatigued at the thought of writing full-length reviews for Captain America and Cowboys & Aliens, but I've managed to work up something to say about these two films, both of which have their fair share of issues. - Joe Johnston's Captain America, first off, is really a triumph of sweetly-flavored nostalgia and pure WWII newsprint pulp. I can't say that the film

Chase Kahnnoreply@blogger.com2