Movie Review: Frailty

I know this movie is an oldie...but its also a goodie. "There are demons among us" echoes the voice of Mr. Meiks played by Bill Paxton as a man who has a vision by an angel and becomes a messenger of mercy from God to destroy demons. In the movie Frailty, the story begins with Fenton Meiks played by Matthew McConaughey as man who claims he knows the man who is known as the God's Hands killer. He admits that the serial killer is his own brother.

From there Meiks tells the story to FBI agent Wesley Doyle played by Powers Boothe the story of his childhood and what it was like growing up in a single parent home with his father and brother. His father is sent on a mission from God to destroy the demons that are among us. These demons appear in human form and young Fenton believes his father is killing innocent human beings and not demons.

Fenton tries to tell the local police that his father is crazy, but no one believes him. Soon after Fenton is punished by his father forced to stay imprisioned in the backyard of a makeshift dungeon he created for disposing the bodies of his victims.

This film is a thriller/horror film that will have you on the edge of you seat minute by minute. Stunning performance by Bill Paxton, who also directed the film. A late review, but a film certainly worth its wait!!!

The summary of the movie ends here, because there is a pretty intense plot twist that shall remain secret until you have seen the film, but let's just say as someone who can predict a plotline very well, I didn't see it comin! As a sidenote; it was good to see McConaughey in a film where he didn't play a stoner or a wisecrackin douche who has commitment issues with women. Of course this film came out in 2001 and he hasn't really played against type since. Poor Matthew.

Watching Cloverfield Makes Me Scurred To Live Here

Brief Review: You will jump out of your seat, you will get scurred, and you will suffer from some motion sickness especially if you had a few drinks before getting to the theater like I did.

Be ready to look for little clues and hints in the film. J.J. Abrams produced this flick so if any of you are "Lost" fans, then you know what I'm talking about. Great story told from the perspective of a video camera. With the marketing hype and the way the film was shot it was very reminiscent of the Blair Witch phenomena of the late 90's.

The film did extremely well at the box office and there's already talks about a sequel. Of course, watching the film you already get the sense that a sequel is coming anyway. Interesting flick. Well directed. Any indie filmmaker could of made it too which is inspiring...

But shit...now I'm scared to leave my apartment. From watching I Am Legend to Cloverfield...this island is really a trap if a disaster were to occur. Can someone buy me a one way ticket to L.A.??

Indie Pick O' The Day: Shadowboxer

I loved this movie! Okay, besides looking at an oil-glistened booty from Cuba Gooding Jr and not too mention full frontal of Stephen Dorff doin it doggy style this is actually a very witty film with fully developed characters and a substantial plot. Yepperoonies!!!

Basically ol' Cuba Goody is a hitman along with his stepmother/lover Helen Mirren. yes, that's right...she's his stepmom AND his girlfriend. Anyways, the two of the are killers for hire and Mirren's character is hit with some unfortunate news that she is dying of cancer. After years of killing people, Mirren suddenly grows a conscience when she is hired to kill the wife of a crime boss who just so happens to be preggers (that's pregnant yall). The wife is the hot n sexy Vanessa Ferlito, who I TOTALLY loved in Death Proof.

Mirren decides to have mercy on her soul and not kill the pregnant wife, but instead take her in and put her into hiding. She even decides to help take care of her kid!!! Well the story of events of this film evolve over the years and the plot starts to get really interesting!!

Ummm...oh yea, did I mention "the hotness that is" JGL is in this film?? Oh yea, and lemme say he really is hot. He plays a doctor to the crime boss and is responsible for helping the injured clients who find themselves getting shot in the foot by their crime bosses. JGL's girlfriend is voluptuous funny lady Ms Mo'Nique which I find to be incredibly bizarre...yet sexy! My favorite scene is when JGL gets caught "tipping the velvet" with another chick and Monique finds them in that uncompromising position. HOTNESS!!!!! JGL doing his thang...wowz. I think I rewound that scene like 5 times.

Anywayz, the film is directed by none other than producer Lee Daniels who produced Monster's Ball. My aunt claims to know his mom...hey Aunt Faye give me the hookup!!!

Indie Pick O' The Day: The Lookout

"I wake up. Turn off the alarm. Look outside so I know what to wear. I took a shower... with soap. Then I shave. Sometimes I cry for no reason. I wake up. I get dressed. I take my meds. I eat breakfast and I don't read the paper, it confuses me, which makes me mad. I wake up."

I know, I know this is just another excuse for us to rant and rave about our JGL but we can't help it! This is a kick ass movie! The Lookout is about poor Chris Pratt who finds himself in a devastating car accident that leaves him with a life long brain injury. He only remembers bits and pieces of moments at a time, and has to write down everything in order to commit it to memory.

Chris finds himself being taken advantage of when he is approached by Gary Spargo (played by Matthew Goode). Gary lets Chris in on a little secret---"wanna rob a bank?" Chris finds himself at caught between a rock and a hard place when he ponders whether he should go with the heist or let well enough alone.

Jeff Daniels and Isla Fisher also co-star in this wild ride crime thriller. The script is by seasoned screenwriter Scott Frank who wrote Minority Report and Out Of Sight. This is Frank's directorial debut in this film.

Ummm can I just say something??? Will someone give this kid an Oscar already? He is such an underrated actor!!! Let's get scrubs like Paul Walker off the screen and add more JGL to the movie theaters!!

Indie Pick O' The Day: The Doom Generation

I love the tagline for this film: Sex. Mayhem. Whatever.

The film being referred here is none other than the wild, hipster, androgynous thriller The Doom Generation. This eccentric flick directed by none other than the master of emo indies himself Mr. Gregg Araki. Another film of his was reviewed by NYIndieSeen called Nowhere, which is just as stylish as The Doom Generation. After I rented Nowhere I became obsessed with Araki's auteur film style and decided to see what other films he's made....well that's when this movie came into my life.

The Doom Generation is two hipster loners Jordan White and Amy Blue who have nothing else better to do in their unfulfilled lives than to wander aimlessly on a journey to nowhere. During their journey, they meet Xavier. The threesome grow a VERY close relationship that involves sex, drugs, and a violent killing spree into the life of shoplifting and intimate bonds with psychotics.

The movie is out there and certainly not for everyone. But if you're really into avant garde stylized films than this is the one to rent...or shall we say the one to Netflix. You may not get all of Araki's message in the film, but its probably because he doesn't want you to.

The film has a large number of celebrity cameos, but the principle players star Rose McGowan, James Duval, and Johnathon Schaech.

Early Review: Disturbia

Early Review!!!!! Disturbia the new suspense thriller from director D.J. Caruso (Salton Sea) focuses on the life of a troubled teen Kale (Shia LeBeouf) after the tragic death of his father. One year after the event he is still deeply affected by his loss. One day without much provocation he attacks his Spanish teacher. This action then leads to his house arrest and Kale has a special house arrest tracker placed on his ankle. Bored with the 3 months he is to remain under house arrest Kale then starts to entertain himself by spying on his neighbors including his hot new neighbor Ashley (Sarah Roemer).

He then becomes aware of his neighbors everyday routine. But he starts to notice that something about neighbor Turner(David Morse) isn't right. Kale thinks Turner is a killer when one night he thinks he sees Turner attack a young woman. Or does he? His best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and Ashley start to help out with his stakeout and watch Turner. However, things take a turn when Kales mom (Carrie-Anne Moss) becomes taken with Turner and Kale finds that he must prove his neighbor is a killer before something happens to his mother or him. But its kind of hard to convince people, when everyone thinks you're a basketcase, troublemaker kid going stir-crazy.

To me this film was pretty good but not spectacular. It was a lot like watching a WB version of Hitchcock's Rear Window. You can always judge for yourself. The film opens nationwide April 13th.

Indie Pick O' The Day: I Spit On Your Grave

In the mood for love tonight? Want to rent a movie for you and your boo to share some "we" time with for the evening? Well how about this one? It's about girl who gets savagely gang raped and decides to kill each of her rapists one by one to get the ultimate revenge!

Sounds like a real tearjerker

I Spit On Your Grave stars Camille Keaton (she's actually the Grand-niece of the famous silent film star Buster Keaton no relation to Michael Keaton though). Keaton plays Jennifer Hill, a writer who is working on a new novel and needs to get out of the city to finish it. She rents out an apartment upstate in New York and finds herself attracting the attention of rowdy male locals. They catch her off guard one day and strip her naked for the village idiot of the group, who has never gotten any--to get some. She is attacked and raped further two times by four other degenerates.

The rape scene is actually documented as the longest rape scene depicted on film. It's close to around 15 minutes long, maybe longer. After she is raped, Jennifer slowly recovers and decides to take vengeance on her rapists one by one.

The best scene (and the most notorious) is the scene with Jennifer and one of her rapists in the bathtub. She lures him into her apartment, giving him the impression that she enjoyed her attack, and convinces him to take a bath with her. What happens next....ya gotta watch the movie we're not gonna spoil it for ya!

What is disturbing and intriguing about this film is the fact that there is no music. No musical score to make the scene more dramatic, which always feels so much like a movie to me. Instead Meir Zarchi decides to "keep it real" by nixing the music. In a sense it almost feels like its really happening. Like the camera is just following the events that take place in this poor woman's life.

It doesn't get any more precious than that.

Dark, Grim, Scary and Violent....We Likez!

All of those adjectives describes one film...Pan's Labyrinth.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro this film is nominated this year for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It tells the dark tale of a young girl who travels with her pregnant mother to live with her mother's new husband in 1940's Spain. It is wartime in Spain and to escape the realities of war she lives in an imaginary fantasy world that has some darkness to its light.

This film was not what I expected, and if you think the words, fable, storytelling, and fantasy is worth bringing the kids to see this one...I suggest maybe not. It's pretty dark and violent.

We are rooting for this film to win Best Foreign Language, it's by far one of the best of this year! A must see if you haven't already.

Jim Carrey's new Movie!

check out the trailer here

umm, I think Ill pass,

Let me know when Ace Ventura 3 comes out _K?, __Alrighty then.

Indie Seen Pick 'O' the day: Irréversible

"Le temps détruit tout - Time destroys everything "
:

Unsettling, disturbing, graphic, and completly brilliant. This 2002 french film. Follows an unforgettable and Tragic night in the life of a couple in paris.

Written and Directed by Gaspar Noé , the film tells their story in reverse order, beginning with a brutal assualt on a character involving a fire extinguisher that does not seem to let up. its a cringe worthy scene that the camera refuses to pan away from, realistic and haunting the film eventually leads us to the cause of that violent attack.

Monica belluci and Vincent Cassell star as the couple and both give geniune performances

Just to give you a taste of what your in for: it was stated by Newsweek Magazine that "this was the most walked out of movie of the year" , and of the 2,400 people at the film's Cannes premiere, 200 walked out. (Imdb)

and I have to admit that there were times where I had to look away from the screen. ( things got a bit tooo real to handle). still Ultimatly it is a rewarding film experience.

be warned, this one is not for the squeamish.

Worth Checkin Out This Weekend

This is a film that consists of different stories surrounding the death of one girl. However, each story is connected to the dead girl. Yea, it does sound like another vignette of stories that are tightly weaved around one tragic incident. We've seen this formula before we know, but the ensemble cast alone makes it worth seein.

The Dead Girl (2006)
Dir. Karen Moncrieff

The life of a lonsome caretaker is turned upside down when she stumbles upon the body of a murdered girl. This discovery may provide closure for a forensics graduate student whose sister went missing when she was a child.

A housewife makes a disturbing connection between the body and her own husband which leads her to take dark and decisive action.

A mother desperately searches for answers about her runway daughter's life and find answers in one of her troubled friends.

A volatile young woman goes on an odeyssey to get a birthday present to her little girl.

Together these stories paint a devastating portrait of seven women who lives are linked by a single act of violence and a desire for change.

CAST: Josh Brolin, Toni Collette, James Franco, Marcia Gay Harden, Mary Beth Hurt, Piper Laurie, Brittany Murphy, Giovanni Ribisi, Mary Steenburgen, and Kerry Washington.

Blood, Guts, and Sluts!

Quentin Tarrantino and Robert Rodriguez those genuises of indie filmmaking are teaming up once again to bring you GrindHouse being released in April this year. It's a pretty cool concept. In typical Rodriguez-Tarrantino style, they pay homage to B-movie explotation films. Grindhouse, also known as Grindhouse cinema or trash cinema, are a genre of movies that throw out all that arthouse bullshit out of the window and sensationlizes excessive sex, violence, and gore.





We know its sort of a long way off, but we are counting the days until this bad boy gets released!! GrindHouse is two movies presented as "Planet Terror" directed by Rodriguez and "Death Proof" directed by Tarrantino. Here's just a sample of what this film has to offer:








Rose McGowan has a amputated leg that serves as a machine gun

Kurt Russell owns a car that kills and stalks beautiful women

An outbreak of infected sickos take over a small town

Killer zombies ravage a community


Ok now here's the kicker! The scenes in the movie are presented as a montage of movie trailers. What will these guys think of next? Dontcha love it?? Or do you hate it? Either way, this will be another Kill Bill/ Sin City obession for the 2007 summer blockbuster year!

Just a teaser of what Grindhouse has to offer

Check it Out : heres my recomendation on what to check out for this weekend

Once you've wiped the vomit from your mouth from the night before of vapid club hopping and binge drinking, why not get your ass to a cinema and get those braincells you killed, while downing you sixth Vodka and coke (lohan style), rebuilding.


this one sounds good:





Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (140 min., Rated: R)
Starring :Karoline Herfurth, Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Rachel HurdWoodDistributor:ParamountAwards:Country of Origin:MPAA Rating:Rated R.Release Year:2006
Tom Tykwer (“Run Lola Run”) directs and two time Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman and acclaimed young actor Ben Whishaw star in this murder mystery that follows Jean-Baptiste Grenouillean (Whishaw), an obsessive perfume maker on the hunt to capture the elusive scent of young womanhood. Twelve women are found dead as Grenouille’s obsession turns deadly, and panic breaks out as people rush to protect their daughters while an unrepentant and unrelenting Grenouille still lacks the final ingredient to complete his quest.

I'm getting a little American beauty vibe from that poster, but luckily there doesnt seem to be any kevin spacey in site.

It's currently playing at the angelica, check here for showtimes