Posts Tagged ‘Death’

  • 03 Oct

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    The Uninvited Trailer for an Uninvited Re-Make

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    The Uninvited Movie StillA few years ago I had a chance to see Ji-woon Kim’s fantastic A Tale of Two Sisters on the big screen. It was (surprise!) during VIFF, in a packed house at the Vogue. I walked out of that film sore from holding the seat so bloody hard. I saw it again a few years later and the movie didn’t have the same creep factor as the first time I saw it but it was still wholly enjoyable.

    Sometime back it was announced that work was underway on an American remake. I was under the impression that the remake shared a title with the original but it looks like that’s not the case. The Uninvited is being directed by English brothers Charles and Thomas Guard and stars a surprisingly good cast including Elizabeth Banks and the fantastic David Strathairn. It’s not clear how much of the story is retained from the original film but it looks like the basic idea is the same: a girl returns home after a stint in a mental hospital.

    I doubt that the Guard Brothers can build the tension and mood that made Jee-Woon Kim’s film so successfully creepy but it does look like they’ve gone ahead and taken entire sequences from the original film; sequences that they’ll never get just right.

    The trailer looks like your run of the mill horror remake aimed at the teen market, but I have to admit I’m curious. I actually want to see Banks and Strathairn together, plus I’d like to see if any part of this film manages to be creepy (the fact that the film was shot locally also holds some mild appeal).

    The Uninvited opens on January 30th.

    I’ve tucked both the trailer for the original film and the upcoming remake, under the seat. Watch them both and then go out and rent the original. I doubt the remake will be anywhere near as good (though I’m always up for being surprised).

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  • 03 Oct

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    Adams and Blunt in Sunshine Cleaning Trailer

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    Sunshine Cleaning Movie StillThis has “Sundance darling” written all over it. Quirky characters, weird job, dramatic and funny; it’s all here. If this was any other movie, I wouldn’t even bother with a look at the trailer but Sunshine Cleaning happens to feature two of my favourite young actresses.

    This is the all around women’s film. Written by Megan Holley, directed by Christine Jeffs and starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt in lead roles, it’s the story of two sisters in need of money. The duo discovers that there’s a whole lot of it to be made cleaning crime scenes and so Sunshine Cleaning is born.

    Although the film had good buzz going into Sundance, it wasn’t picked up for distribution until late in the festival which, as Karina Longworth at Spout Blog speculates, may have something to do with the amount of gore in the film (which is certainly hinted at in the trailer).

    I’m not impressed by this trailer and if this featured any other two actresses, I’d likely give it a pass but I can’t say no to Adams and Blunt together. Though Overture has released the trailer, no word yet on the distribution date.

    Trailer is tucked under the seat!

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  • 29 Sep

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    VIFF Review: Chelsea on the Rocks

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    A documentary about the infamous Chelsea Hotel is always going to get my attention, especially when it’s a documentary directed by the great Abel Ferrara, unfortunately, Chelsea on the Rocks is not the film I was expecting.

    Chelsea on the Rocks Movie StillTo be honest, I’m not sure what I expected from Ferrara, a filmmaker whose work has always pushed buttons. I always felt a little sleazy watching Ferrara’s films and considering that the Chelsea straddles the divide between sleaze and celebrity, I’d hoped for great things. In its stead, we have a documentary that is neither groundbreaking nor particularly enjoyable to watch.

    Using a combination of interviews with residents, previous tenants, archival footage and even re-enactments of celebrity guests, the film tries to say something about the Chelsea but I’m hard pressed to figure out what. It could be discerned from the material provided that the Chelsea is an odd place where celebrity and the general population meet on equal footing and that, at least comes through in some of the discussions. I’ll give him this much: Ferrara’s approach to the film is unconventional. A compilation of conversations with Ferrara sitting off camera asking questions about people and events and often, even engaging in the discussion with an observation or a comment, the film’s set-up is at least interesting.

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  • 22 Sep

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    Heroes Season 3…. Meh

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    Andrew has his love for Lost, Kurt has his love for The Wire (I share this one btw) and I had my love for Heroes. Last years season 2 was poor enough that I find myself only mildly interested in checking out the first episode of season 3 tonight. If I could just take it at the whole writer’s strike thing and ignore it I would probably be somewhat looking forward to tonight. Unfortunately they also wrote two things that really annoy me. If you are going to write a death into a story then have it mean something. Do not just keep a character around because the audience wants it. At the end of season 1 Nathan Petrelli and Peter Petrelli are set to be written out. Of course they bring both back for season 2. At the end of season 2 Nathan is once again in a position to be written out and on top of that so is Niki. This is cool they are willing to kill off characters. We already know a whole bunch of new bad heroes are going to show up this year so why not add a bit of drama and have the good heroes have to deal with a death or two on top of it. Nope, every clip I have seen shows that Nathan and Niki are still around. Have some balls dammit! If you are going to write a death into it then let them die.

    I will probably watch at least the first episode and I am willing to admit that I might eat my words but as of right now I just don’t really care about the series any more. It just bugs me in books, movies and TV shows when a character that should be dead comes back simply because the audience liked the character.

    Okay I’m done my mild rant. Now back to movies.

  • 12 Sep

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    Women’s Stories: Trailer for The Stoning of Soraya M.

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    The Stoning of Soraya MSome will argue that women are repressed in Western society but when one considers life for women in other parts in the world, it’s fair to say we have it relatively easy.

    Take, for example, the story of Soraya M. In 1993 French/Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam told the story of this 35 year old woman who was wrongly accused of adultery. After much research, it was discovered that the husband wanted to remarry and couldn’t afford a second wife. He asked Soraya for a divorce, she refused for financial reasons, and so he conspired to accuse her of adultery which eventually led to her death by stoning. Soraya’s story caused quite an impact 15 years ago when it was first made public and it’s about to make a few more headlines.

    Based on the novel of the same name and directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh The Stoning of Soraya M. stars Mozhan Marnò as Soraya, Oscar nominated Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) and James Caviezel. The film, which recently premiered at TIFF, is receiving largely positive and even a few glowing reviews and from the trailer, it certainly looks deserving.

    The Stoning of Soraya M. opens in limited release on October 31st. I’m not sure how limited that distribution is or if there are plans for wider release further down the road but we’ll keep you posted with any updates. In the meantime, be sure to take a look at the trailer at the film’s official website.

    Big thanks to the folks at Quiet Earth who passed along the trailer.

  • 02 Sep

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    Hathaway and Wilson in Passengers Trailer

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    Passengers Movie StillIt’s always nice to see an actor one likes make a bit of a splash but I’m not sure Patrick Wilson is really going down the right road. Since I first spotted him in Hard Candy I’ve been curious about Wilson whose performance was overshadowed by Ellen Page. For the most part, his performances since then have ranged from great (Little Children) to wasted (Evening) and it looks like he’s headed down a bad road.

    First in the bad comes Lakeview Terrace, the crazy neighbour thriller with Samuel L. Jackson which looks worse by the minute and close on its heels is Passengers, a horror film about a plane crash survivor who emerges from the disaster with extrasensory perception (Wilson) and then falls for the grief counselor (Anne Hathaway) followed closely by bad things unforlding.

    To its credit, Rodrigo García’s film is not a remake and though the concept isn’t exactly fresh (I keep thinking The Mothman Prophecies) it’s nice to see something vaguely original. I only wish it looked better because this trailer doesn’t show a whole lot to get excited over (other than a Hathaway love scene which seems to get the boy’s attention). As for Wilson, here’s hoping these are only small tumbling blocks on the road to better things. The furture is looking mildly better with 2009′s Watchmen.

    Passengers opens in limited release on October 24th.

    Trailer is tucked under the seat!

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  • 25 Jul

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    Review: Jack Brooks Monster Slayer

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    Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer One Sheet

    Director: Jon Knautz
    Writer: John Ainslie
    Producers: Neil Bregman, Trevor Matthews, Patrick White
    Starring: Trevor Matthews, Robert Englund, Rachel Skarsten, James A. Woods, Daniel Kash, Stefanie Drummond
    MPAA Rating: R
    Running time: 85 min

    It’s been a while since we’ve seen a horror comedy that captures the goodness of campy 80’s films as well as Slither and although Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer doesn’t quite reach the level goodness provided by James Gunn’s gem, it certainly comes pretty close.

    A midnight screening classic in the making, Jon Knautz’s film is a winning marriage of schlocky horror and comedy. It’s the story of Jack Brooks, a plumber with a short fuse who has been suffering from emotional rages since the grizzly death of his parents at a tender age. He’s making the best of it, or at least trying to, but sometimes, people just push a little too far, leading to incidents where the pushers usually end up badly hurt. When Brooks is confronted with a monster attack at a night class (he’s trying to better himself), he makes the decision to fight back rather than run away and the result is a glorious 20-minute murderous rage of a finale full of zombie-like monsters, gushing geysers of bodily fluids and a monster who looks like a cross between Jabba the Hutt and paper mache.

    Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer Movie StillShot on location in Toronto on what is likely a stringent Canadian budget, Monster Slayer surpasses its low budget limitations and gleefully hugs its campy-ness. Had the filmmakers tried to make this with a serious tone, the film would have failed miserably but as an entry into the low-budget horror-comedy genre, it works. For the most part, other than the Professor Crowley monster, the practical effects and man-in-suit solutions work with the film’s tone to the point that even the strange looking Crowley monster seems to fit nicely. Though you have to stretch a little to get over some of the less eye popping effects, the main reason the film’s success is it’s lead.

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