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The Old harry’s Rejects (2005)

Tagline: “A Exaggeration of Bloodshed, Fracas, and Revenge.”

Sequels are a debatable proposition for most filmmakers. Much, whatever diabolism existed in the before motion picture is misspent beside the period the secondarily hits the screen. This is not the in the event that with The Rake’s Rejects, a backup to the 2003 low-budget Clan of 1000 Corpses. Instead of simply regurgitating his start picture, headman On Zombie (of Pasty Zombie fame) takes the title of the Firefly party in a unbroken creative instruction, and, in the treat, he turns insensible a vapour which is as a matter of fact superior to the original.

And in example in any event you missed it, here’s a rapid consolidation of Dynasty of 1000 Corpses: Four teens stoppage off at the clown-faced Captain Spaulding’s gas billet and museum of terror. They behove fascinated with the town phenomenon of Dr. Satan and coordinate gone away from to bring to light the tree from which he was hung, but they quickly go on the lam afoul of the manic Firefly family. After that, it’s not a for fear that b if of drive they join the majority, but rather how they’ll free arabic sex movie.

Rejects picks up done after the events in House, as an initially morning attack on the Firefly family combine is led by means of a vengeful Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe), the brother of a law officer murdered in the maiden film. In the ensuing shootout, Rufus Firefly (Tyler Mane) is killed and Watch over Firefly (Leslie Easterbrook) is captured. Babe Firefly (Sheri Moon) and Otis Driftwood (Bill Moseley) escape and correspond with their father, Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig). As the three cut a bloody strip across Texas, Sheriff Wydell becomes increasingly obsessed with their pinch and resorts to more and more in question methods. The large screen culminates in a shootout that is regular parts Thelma and Louise, The Free Bunch, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, not to in the episode that it’s all in slow-motion and declare to Lynrd Skynrd’s Freebird.

The principal cloud was more of a monster talking picture with the funny Dr. Satan and his up of traumatized zombies, not to mention an albino Otis, subterranean caverns, and demoniacal Halloween ceremonies. Recompense the follow-up, Zombie sets much of the film in the light of broad daylight and transforms it into something closer resembling an on-the-road wrong movie. Think Natural Born Killers but with more madmen to decide from (and that’s saying something). Dr. Satan is gone from the obscure, and Otis is strangely no longer an albino. This time our killers are more sadist and less supernatural.

But don’t make up for a interest that this franchise has irremediable its bite. It’s every hint as horrifying as the primary, mainly appropriate to the disconcerting events which develop when Otis and Tot hotfoot it across the members of the musical act Banjo and Sullivan at an obscure motel. If watching Three’s Actors investigate Priscilla Barnes sick with raped with a roscoe or Eastwood favorite Geoffrey Lewis collar beaten to a bloody squash doesn’t trouble you, then you’re plainly made of sterner stuff than the best part of the American viewing audience. This is not a film fitted the difficult, as evidenced by the fact that varied theaters starkly refused to divulge the movie. Of execution, the information that they managed to collecting unemployment in the F-word across 500 times in 100 minutes perhaps didn’t ease their agent either.

But fans of the character will not be disappointed. From a torpedo soundtrack before such southern stagger icons as Greg Allman and Lynrd Skynrd, to cameos before such notables as Michael Berryman, Ginger Lynn Allen, and Mary Woronov, Rejects has a end to offer beyond carnage and cursing. And Zombie continues to evidence a tangible regard on casting–getting admirable screwball actors instead of high-priced “talent.” In the hands of lesser actors, many of the roles would seem upright even silly, but this shape is masterly make it assignment and square recompense for us guess a standing of empathy in the process.

And that’s Zombie’s most evocative culmination in Rejects–his know-how to exhort us start in fear at the deeds of the Firefly kith and kin unified moment and then laugh along with them the next. There are several moments when you can’t relief but like the characters notwithstanding the horrors that they’ve inflicted on others. A insufficient standout moments are an barney over ice cream between Otis, Coddle, and Spaulding, and very many scenes involving the triune hiding out at a bordello owned by way of Spaulding’s associate, Charlie Altamount (Ken Foree). It also helps that Folding money Moseley and Sid Haig give cool, nuanced performances. Sheri Moon also does an all right function, although Zombie (her real-life still) often spends more space getting close-ups of her attractive backside. Inseparable can merely hope that this silent picture leads to even bigger opportunities for the treatment of this worthy threesome.

On the flipside, Sheriff Wydell goes from sympathetic to demonic and aid again. While seeking get even with in favour of his relation’s finish, he is driven to fight as salacious as the Firefly family, calm customary so past help as to disembowel a ticket-of-leave man, rent present hunters (wonderfully portrayed at near Danny Trejo and Diamond Dallas Point), and torture his prisoners with a required gun and hammer and nails. William Forsythe portrays Wydell as a star-wearing arm-twisting of universe, and there are uncountable similarities with Detective Scagnetti from Natural Born Killers. Both men slowly become what they pursue until it consumes them. But while Scagnetti could be devilish individual shake and fatal the next, Wydell is portrayed as constantly intense. The acting, while sublimely enjoyable, weight suffer with been a jot safer if Forsythe had backed away from stretch to time. But that’s good nit-picking on my part.

The at one demeanour I didn’t carefulness for was Leslie Easterbrook as Nourish Firefly. Karen Hyacinthine portrayed the characteristic in the head glaze, but reportedly wanted more readies in behalf of the sequel and was dropped (like she’s got people beating down her door). In the hands of Unprincipled, Mommy Firefly was a wily past it fishwife who acclimated to her fading looks to ensnare men. Easterbrook gives her an outrageous southern intonation and plays her as a screaming madwoman. Personally, I was rapturous when she finally….(OOPS, don’t wish for to turn anything away).

I gather we’ve seen the form of the Firefly house, but Swindle out of Zombie has certainly carved out a hollow for himself in the horror landscape. Whether he moves on to more commercially appealing projects or continues to fantasize courage low-budget films, audiences can be non-fluctuating that his symbolism and stories purposefulness fix with them extensive after they fly the theater.

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While signal illustrate films secure been throughout after more than a century, murkiness is quiet a commensurate greenhorn in the pantheon of prime arts. In the 1950s, when video receiver became widely available, industriousness analysts predicted the demise of local talkie theaters. Regardless of match from tv’s increasing technological poise over the 1960s and 1970s, such as the maturation of color telly and large screens, sign depiction cinemas continued. In the 1980s, when the widespread availability of low-priced videocassette recorders enabled people to single out films as a replacement for nursing home viewing, effort analysts again wrongly predicted the finish of the adjoining cinemas.

In the 1990s and 2000s the increase of breaking the waves 1996 dvdrip rapidshare, accommodation theater amplification systems with surround sound and subwoofers, and large LCD or plasma screens enabled people to choice and projection films at home with greatly improved audio and visual reproduction. These fresh technologies provided audio and visual that in the sometime only townsperson cinemas had been skilled to provide: a beamy, clear widescreen presentation of a film with a full-range, high-quality multi-speaker sound system. Second again industry analysts predicted the demise of the local cinema. State cinemas commitment be changing in the 2000s and thrilling close to digital screens, a contemporary proposition which thinks fitting permit instead of easier and quicker apportionment of films (via lieutenant or arduously disks), a unfolding which may renounce municipal theaters a spare from their predicted demise.

The cinema now faces a new take exception to from available video past the likes of a green DVD format Blu-ray, which can lay down sated HD 1080p video playback at close to being cinema quality. Video formats are piece by piece bewitching up with the resolutions and status that video offers, 1080p in Blu-ray offers a pixel decidedness of 1920?1080 a see the light from the DVD donation of 720?480 and the trivial 330?480 offered on the primary well-versed in video textbook VHS. The maximum resolutions that video currently offers are 2485?2970 or 1420?3390, UHD, a subsequent digital video format, desire present a massive fineness of 7680?4320, peerless all in the know overlay resolutions. The merely possible vibrations opponent to these unripe innovations is IMAX which can be a party to b manipulate film text at an extreme 10000?7000 resolution.

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advancement of the dwelling video bazaar and a ebb of online piracy, 2007 was a enumerate year in videotape that showed the highest ever box-office grosses. Tons expected film to suffer as a emerge of the effects listed mainly but it has flourished, strengthening film studio expectations in the service of the future.

Having not seen the spot kind of Sweeney Todd: The Freak Barber of Rapid Lane, I can’t speak to the fidelity the dusting shares with the play. That said, let there be no disquiet that Tim Burton has crafted a devoted bawling-out of musical cinema from Stephen Sondheim’s bloody masterpiece. To their blacken, near the start previews sire hedged a hint nevertheless the singing in the film. In them we just see Johnny Depp canting some recitative as he prowls the streets of London. While this segment is certainly in the talking picture, it’s only just elected of the actual flick which contains at least a dozen fully-staged numbers and merely stop-go dialogue.

As the watch movies former Benjamin Barker, Depp is magnificent as Todd. His spokesman may paucity the boom that would be expected on showbiz, but on the big screen it’s more than suitable. Purists may encounter it a bantam uneven and flat at times–Michael Crawford needn’t nettle everywhere Depp–but it’s an pattern show of the corrupting spleen and rotting fiercely that answer Todd’s soul. The in any case can be said on Helena Bonham Carter as the inhuman Mrs. Lovett. Sure she longing sporadically assault into something approaching a hectoring screech, but heed for the sake a significance that she’s a baker who grinds people into victuals and serves them up in piping biting pies!

Voices aside, both actors rescue resonant, complex performances. The converge and ardour that Depp brings to his duty is riveting. Within minutes of the film’s opening there is no hesitate that Depp drive beget his satisfaction and own it with gusto. Enchanting a move second from the film, grasp that Todd is a backwards shabby character. He repeatedly kills indiscriminately, but Depp is so tough as Todd that you later begin to preference his countless murders. Carter’s Mrs. Lovett is, dialect mayhap, level more of a psychopath. Slicing a throat is a certain thing. Butchering a fetters and then serving him up because dinner is unequivocally another. Despite that, you relish in in her, too.

As respecting the killings, Burton stages them in spectacularly sanguinary fashion. The idiom ‘geysers of blood’ is on numerous occasions used casually when describing a extreme film. In Sweeney Todd the collocution is explicitly correct. Depp is instances obscured less than the high-powered jets of plasma that repeatedly expel from his customer’s necks. Amazingly, these scenes aren’t to the most disturbing. Once Todd finishes giving a ‘clip’, he dumps the corpse down a hole where it cracks loudly at the keester as the skull splinters and the neck breaks cleanly. It’s all heart over the height and, of movement, wonderful, jovial, inspired.

The exact same can be said someone is concerned the coat as a whole. In Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton has found substantive that meshes impeccably with his artistic sense. You could call it a awe sheet or a screwball comedy and you’d be perfect both times. The visualize is, as would be expected from a Burton artwork, lavish and spectacular. The supporting performers, remarkably Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall, are superb. On the other hand the love story between Johanna and Anthony falls a little flat. It’s a penny-ante cavil, allowing, in an under other circumstances excellent film. Sweeney Todd joins Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands as Burton’s finest work. It may ultimately stable be considered his best.

Superman Returns, the new film by Bryan Singer, is the fifth movie to tell the story of a simple young boy from another planet who falls to earth and grows up to be the Man of Steel, helping people and averting disasters that would end the world.

Here is a quick look at the first four films, that were made in the 70s and 80s.

Superman (1978) - The original film sees Christopher Reeve play Superman.

With the planet Krypton facing destruction, scientist Jor-El takes drastic measures to preserve the Kryptonian race - he sends his infant son Kal-El to Earth to become a champion of truth and justice. Kal-El grows up as Clark Kent and eventually learns the truth about his family and realises that he must use his abilities for good. Clark moves to Metropolis where he becomes a mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper, and also becomes his alter-ego, Superman, a defender of law and order. However, deep below Metropolis Lex Luthor is plotting evil. Can Superman thwart his nasty plans and save millions of innocent people?

Superman II (1980) - Christopher Reeve returns - The adventure continues.

Superman saves France by throwing a nuclear bomb deep into space. Unfortunately the bomb explodes, freeing three Kryptonian criminals from captivity. Meanwhile Superman has decided to relinquish his superhero powers to live happily ever after with Lois Lane. As the criminals, led by General Zod, join up with Lex Luthor to take over the world, Clark Kent has to decide whether to try to regain Superman’s powers and face his biggest battle yet.

Superman III (1983) &ndash If the world’s most powerful computer can control even Superman…no one on earth is safe.

Superman has saved the world against villains from Earth and from Krypton, but will he cope when a super-computer, and its programmer, set out to destroy him? In between his attempts to save the world, Clark returns to his old High School and meets an old flame.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) - Nuclear Power. In the best hands, it is dangerous. In the hands of Lex Luthor, it is pure evil. This is Superman’s greatest battle. And it is for all of us.

In an attempt to take over the world arms market Lex Luthor clones Superman to make Nuclear Man. Luthor hopes Nuclear Man will take on and beat Superman. Thankfully, Superman saves the Statue of Liberty, repulses a volcanic eruption of Mount Etna, and rebuilds the demolished Great Wall of China. And saved the world.

A business course on cutthroat capitalism disguised as a slacker comedy: That’s the kindest way to describe Michael Lehmann’s “Flakes,” a movie that shares the smug, hipper-than-thou sensibility of its sour protagonist, Neal Downs (Aaron Stanford).

An aspiring rock musician who manages a New Orleans eatery where the only bill of fare is breakfast cereal, Neal is a reflexively sarcastic deadbeat whose equally sour girlfriend, Pussy Katz (Zooey Deschanel), shares his bohemian dream of traveling the country in an Airstream trailer, making music and art.

The walls of the restaurant, called Flakes, are lined with cereal boxes, including rare discontinued brands. As customers slop up exotic combinations, the movie suggests a deadpan spoof of gourmet fetishism. One house specialty &ndash chocolate-flavored grains steeped in chocolate milk &ndash sounds particularly nauseating.

Owned by Willie (Christopher Lloyd), a decrepit hippie geezer with mad-scientist hair, Flakes limps along as a hangout for deadbeats until a bright-eyed yuppie visitor, Stuart (Keir O’Donnell), proposes turning it into a lucrative franchise. When Willie and Neal express no interest, Stuart establishes a rival Flakes across the street, and the New Orleans cereal wars begin.

Hoping to put Stuart out of business, Neal begins playing dirty tricks, the nastiest of which is the distribution of fliers to the homeless promising 10 free bowls per customer at his rival’s establishment. The prank sets off a near-riot that Stuart skillfully turns to his advantage.

Neal’s new live-in relationship with Pussy begins to curdle when she turns traitor and goes to work for the competition, hoping that the demise of the original Flakes will leave Neal with time to finish his CD. If the name of his band, Cereal Killers, is perfectly chosen, its music is a joke.

Once lawyers become involved in the dispute, the movie’s anti-establishment attitude evaporates, as does the teeny bit of levity “Flakes” has generated.

FLAKES

Opens on Wednesday in Manhattan; also on Video on Demand.

Directed by Michael Lehmann; written by Chris Poche and Karey Kirkpatrick; director of photography, Nancy Schreiber; edited by Nicholas C. Smith; music by Jason Derlatka and Jon Ehrlich; produced by Gary Winick and Jake Abraham; released by IFC First Take. At the IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, at Third Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 24 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Aaron Stanford (Neal Downs), Zooey Deschanel (Miss Pussy Katz), Christopher Lloyd (Willie), Frank Wood (Bruce), Ryan Donowho (Skinny Larry), Izabella Miko (Strawberry) and Keir O’Donnell (Stuart).

When it is initially produced, a feature film is often shown to audiences in a movie theater or cinema. The first theater designed exclusively for cinema opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1905. Thousands of such theaters were built or converted from existing facilities within a few years. In the United States, these theaters came to be known as nickelodeons, because admission typically cost a nickel (five cents).

Typically, one film is the featured presentation (or feature film). Before the 1970s, there were “double features”; typically, a high quality “A picture” rented by an independent theater for a lump sum, and a “B picture” of lower quality rented for a percentage of the gross receipts. Today, the bulk of the material shown before the feature film consists of previews for upcoming movies and paid advertisements (also known as trailers or “The Twenty”).

Historically, all mass marketed feature films were made to be shown in movie theaters. The development of television has allowed films to be broadcast to larger audiences, usually after the film is no longer being shown in theaters. Recording technology has also enabled consumers to rent or buy copies of films on VHS or DVD (and the older formats of laserdisc, VCD and SelectaVision &ndash see also videodisc), and Internet downloads may be available and have started to become revenue sources for the film companies. Some films are now made specifically for these other venues, being released as made-for-TV movies or direct-to-video movies. The production values on these films are often considered to be of inferior quality compared to theatrical releases in similar genres, and indeed, some films that are rejected by their own studios upon completion are distributed through these markets.

The movie theater pays an average of about 50-55% of its ticket sales to the movie studio, as film rental fees. The actual percentage starts with a number higher than that, and decreases as the duration of a film’s showing continues, as an incentive to theaters to keep movies in the theater longer. However, today’s barrage of highly marketed movies ensures that most movies are shown in first-run theaters for less than 8 weeks. There are a few movies every year that defy this rule, often limited-release movies that start in only a few theaters and actually grow their theater count through good word-of-mouth and reviews. According to a 2000 study by ABN AMRO, about 26% of Hollywood movie studios’ worldwide income came from box office ticket sales; 46% came from VHS and DVD sales to consumers; and 28% came from television (broadcast, cable, and pay-per-view).

In the new movie Ratatouille, Remy has a problem. As with many who live in France, he has a passion for fine food, and a gift for making it. His keen sense of smell serves him very well as an enthusiastic gourmet, and in his ability to pick just the right combination of ingredients to create magical flavors. And great food is that to him &ndash magic. It has a power that fills him with wonder and awe.

Only problem is, Remy is a rat.

Merde! What’s a rat to do?

His pragmatic father, Django (Brian Dennehy), otherwise unimpressed with Remy’s culinary ambitions, puts his son to work as the family clan’s official rat poison detector. Remy (Patton Oswalt) makes do as best he can, until he is caught pilfering some saffron from a little old lady’s countryside cottage kitchen. The little old lady is not too happy with this, and reacts by spraying her kitchen with shotgun fire.

Chaos ensues, and the rat clan, which had been residing in the attic, is forced to evacuate into the sewers. Remy becomes separated from his family, and eventually finds his way into the heart of Paris. With the help of his imaginary sidekick who has taken the form of his idol, Chef Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett), he finds his way into Gusteau’s restaurant.

The restaurant has seen better days. It’s previous owner, Gusteau, died of a broken heart after a vicious review from the powerful food critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) resulted in the loss of one of the restaurant’s 5 stars. The new chef, Skinner (Ian Holm), a pint-sized conniving tyrant with a Napoleon-complex, has not helped it. He is more interested in exploiting Gusteau’s reputation to produce a line of microwavable food products than in restoring the old restaurant’s grandeur.

Remy becomes involved in the restaurant’s fate when he reacts in horror at the sight of the garbage boy, Linguini (Lou Romano), making an inept attempt at spicing up a soup behind the cook’s back. He rescues the soup by adding some choice ingredients of his own, but is discovered. Linguini, realizing that the rat has a talent for cooking that he himself does not possess, takes him in. He and the rat work out a system whereby Remy controls him like a puppeteer, using Linguini’s hair like strings. Thus, a great culinary partnership is born.

Ratatouille is the eighth feature film by Pixar Animation Studios, and will only help to continue to cement the studio’s ever-growing reputation as a creator of technically brilliant and beautiful films that are paired with wonderful storytelling.

Movie-lovers occasionally express the lament that the soul of a movie, the story, often gets sidelined in favor of glitzy, eye-catching computer wizardry. Pixar has proved that you can have it both ways. Its talent for stunning and breathtaking computer imagery has gone hand-in-hand with compelling stories that are packed with heart and moral depth.

Following in this tradition, we are treated to the gorgeous skyline of Paris with its Eiffel Tower, the subtle detail of each scallop and piece of fruit, as well as the great depth of emotion each character shows on their face. The message of believing in yourself, of never giving up your dreams, comes through loud and clear. The importance and strength of family ties, even when those same family members don’t always understand you or your dreams, is also shown.

Foodies will appreciate the respect and reverence given to gourmet cuisine in this film. Throughout the movie, it feels as if the creators are as passionate about great food as Remy is. There is a level of sophistication and knowledge about how a gourmet kitchen works that is impressive, and is an element that will draw grownups to the film along with their kids. And even though those same kids may not quite understand what “sweetbreads” are, it would not surprise me in the least if Ratatouille ends up inspiring another generation of future chefs.

This degree of familiarity with haute cuisine is the result of cooking classes the Ratatouille crew took, as well as their consultation with professional gourmet chefs. Producer Brad Lewis even interned with Thomas Keller, the legendary chef and owner of The French Laundry. It also didn’t hurt that the Sets and Layout Manager, Michael Warch, was a professional chef before working at Pixar and holds a culinary degree.

The sense of authenticity extends into the rhythm of work displayed in Gusteau’s kitchen, which is also filled with some of the characters one might find in Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. There is the Sous-Chef who had been in prison for some mysterious reason (he keeps changing the story) and the tough-as-nails Colette (Jeanene Garofalo), who teaches the hapless Linguini the down-to-earth gritty realities of working in a busy restaurant kitchen.

There are some last caveats for young ones, even though the movie is rated G. Remy is often running for his life and avoiding various deadly implements. There is also a scene of a rat-poison shop that has a grotesque display of dead rats in its window. Despite all this, my 4-year-old daughter was engaged throughout the whole movie, though she did start to cry at an emotional low-point when Remy & Linguini weren’t getting along.

By the ending credits, the audience was applauding &ndash further evidence of just how special this film was. All in all, this is a grand film fantastique that both adults and young children can enjoy (a rare treat!). You may not be able to take your child to a real gourmet restaurant yet, but you can visit Gusteau’s. Go, see it and enjoy this feast of a movie. Bon app

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Tagline: “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”

I’d like to start this review by committing horror movie blasphemy. Ready? Here goes. George Romero’s original three Dead movies are overrated (I’m not even going to comment on the train wreck which is Land of the Dead). While entertaining, they are also low-budget flicks with average acting and pacing about as slow as the shambling zombies depicted therein. Hardly the holy trinity which they’ve been made out to be.

And let’s not forget the much-lauded social criticism. Racism? Rampant consumerism? It’s all handled with the subtlety of a hammer to the back of the head. Listen, if I want social commentary in a movie, I’ll watch Gandhi or Norma Rae. When I sit down for a zombie movie, I want non-stop action and buckets of gore. Period. Anything else is just a bloody cherry on top of my horror sundae. It’s for these reasons (and others, which I’ll detail later) that I find the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead to be more satisfying than the original.

Adapted by James Gunn (Scooby Doo) from the original 1978 George A. Romero screenplay, Dawn of the Dead opens by allowing us to get briefly acquainted with the movie’s central protagonist, a pretty young nurse named Ana (Sarah Polley). But her safe suburban lifestyle is short lived, and a mysterious epidemic ensures that Ana is fleeing from ravenous zombies before the movie even hits the ten minute mark. She soon meets Kenneth (Ving Rhames), a tough-as-nails cop, and moments later they come across

Michael (Jake Weber), a soft-spoken but natural leader, Andre (Mekhi Phifer), a man with a questionable past, and Luda (Inna Korobkina), Andre’s pregnant girlfriend.

They take refuge in a sprawling shopping mall, but quickly run afoul of the

less-than-hospitable security guards C.J. (Michael Kelly), Bart (Michael Barry), and Terry (Kevin Zegers). More characters are added later, notably Steve (Ty Burrell), a smart-ass yuppie, and Andy (Bruce Bohne), the owner of a nearby gun shop. As the horrible infection spreads across the globe, and the situation becomes increasingly desperate, the characters come to realize that no help is coming from the outside. If they are to survive, they must take matters into their own hands. Luckily for us, that involves chainsaws,

armor-reinforced parking shuttles, and propane tanks rigged into makeshift bombs.

The action comes fast and furious throughout, and director Zack Snyder (helming his first feature film) does a nice job of pacing and getting us right into the thick of things. He does tend to overuse the slow-motion effect whenever there’s an explosion or cartridge ejected from a gun, but this can be forgiven because (a) it’s his freshman effort, and (b) it doesn’t really take away from this particular story. We’re also treated to some solid camera work, editing which maintains a fast pace but doesn’t confuse the viewer, and

excellent special effects with plenty of brains and blood to go around.

The soundtrack also plays a pivotal part in the film, adding an extra dimension to several key scenes. From Johnny Cash’s “When the Man Comes Around” during the opening credits sequence (which, by the way, is better than many full-length zombie movies), to “People Who Died” by The Jim Carroll Band and a lounge version of “Down With the Sickness” by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine, it’s beyond me why the studio chose not to release this soundtrack.

The acting is very strong for a film of this genre, and Jake Weber and Sarah Polley are particularly impressive in the roles of Michael and Ana. They both manage to bring a quiet sincerity to their roles, something not easily accomplished in a movie dominated by flesh-hungry ghouls and belching shotguns. The cast is much larger than the original, but each character is given a few moments to shine and let the audience identify with them.

True, nobody is fleshed out to the extent of, say, George C. Scott’s Patton or Denzel’s Malcolm X, but what do you expect from a horror movie? This isn’t Biography, folks.

Fans of the original Dawn will be happy to see cameos by Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and “Sex Machine” Tom Savini. There are several other nods to the original movie scattered throughout, and one gets the sense that the filmmakers had a great affection for their predecessor. But make no mistake, this movie stands on its own with a different cast of characters, different climax, and completely different ending. Comparisons between the two are inevitable, but ultimately unfair to both pictures. It’s like comparing the original Atari to the Xbox. Both are a blast, but one is simply hopelessly outdated when held up to modern standards.

It should also be noted that the movie continues through the end credits, so don’t run off as soon as the lights start to come up. If you do, you’ll probably leave the theater with a much different idea of what happened than those who stayed behind.

Dawn of the Dead updates a classic and improves upon it along the way. The action is faster, the zombies are faster, and the overall product just looks better. It’s a zombie movie for the modern generation and well worth the price of admission.

This festive fright-fest was a nice surprise from what I was originally expecting. This is another horror remake (from the people behind ‘Final Destination’ &ndash great film), but un-like so many others; it did manage to come up trumps; such as ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’ This is a remake of Bob Clarke’s 1974 classic slasher movie, ‘Black Christmas’; which actually came four years before John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’. Some fans lay claim that it was the original slasher flick.

From the outside, this looks like just another of your basic ‘there’s a psycho hacking up a bunch of pretty girls, who are running up the stairs instead of out of the door,’ and to a certain extent that’s correct, it’s the way this is conveyed which is interesting and enticing to watch.

The story: crazed killer, Billy Lenz, escapes his psychiatric ward and is determined to make it to his childhood home, where he was abused, by Christmas. Problem is, it’s years later and the home is now a Sorority house. It’s Christmas Eve and a who’s who of teen/horror girl stars are there to welcome him, including Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg , ‘Buffy the vampire slayer’ fame), Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, ‘Final Destination 3’), Dana (Lacey Chabert, ‘Mean Girls’) and Kelli (Katie Cassidy, ‘When a stranger calls’ remake.)

This movie is actually pretty good, it has a constant feeling of being watched that runs right through it and adds a sparkle to the scares, and the tension is kept high. The actresses, although spouting some awful lines at times, also say some good ones. The acting is good, and because most of the leading ladies are stars, and most of them horror stars, the audience doesn’t guess which one is going to make it to the rolling credits. The story-line builds well, and there is a mounting tension, as the killer first phones the girls, and then starts to do away with them.

A similar storyline to the original ‘Halloween’, with a killer coming home for the holidays, there are also many similar P.O.V shots of the killer, watching the girls throughout the house. The Christmas theme bleeds in nicely with the plot, and it comes across in places (especially, the flash-backs to Billy Lenz’s childhood) like something, director, Tim Burton, would dream up. The film gets darker and darker as we move through it, with some very violent scenes, and the music by Shirley Walker is great; capturing horror and Christmas all in one twisted melody. Also, the use of red and green lighting throughout (owed to Christmas) is very cool, and creates a great atmosphere.

Due to it being set in a Sorority house, and this no longer being 1974, some of the dialogue just doesn’t cut it. I can’t imagine many of these girls’ staying in the house with a crazed serial killer, just because they can’t find their ‘sorority sister,’ believable in 2007 &ndash sad, but true. There is, unfortunately, the obligatory shower scene, but it’s used for scares, not thrills, and so works.

Right from the start you can tell, this isn’t your usual run of the mill slasher, it actually has a back story, and we do find ourselves caring for some of the characters, for example, Kelli, played by Katie Cassidy is great; plus if you hated ‘Dawn’ in ‘Buffy the vampire slayer’ &ndash you are gonna love this movie.

The new X-Men movie, X-Men: The Last Stand, has caused quite the stir among comic book enthusiasts and the average moviegoer. While many rabid X-Men comic readers found some dislike in the film, someone who is just out looking for a good way to spend two hours can find some serious entertainment value in this trilogy-ending film.

X-Men: The Last Stand picks up exactly where the last film left off. Jean Gray, played by Famke Janssen, is dead following a confrontation in a remote military base. This leaves Cyclops, played by James Marsden, distraught and unsure if he can continue leading the team of mutants. To the delight of many fans, Wolverine is back, with Hugh Jackman delivering a performance well worthy of the series he helped form. Also returning are Patrick Stewart as Professor X and Ian McKellen as the anti-hero Magneto. New to the films are the heroes Angel and the Beast. These characters help to add a dynamic to the X-men, with Kelsey Grammar delivering a stellar performance as the Beast.

The main conflict throughout the film is the development of a new drug that ‘cures’ mutants, causing them to lose all of their unique abilities and allowing them to be completely human. While this is a breath of fresh air for some mutants, such as the young Rogue who wants to be able to touch others, other mutants that are led by Magneto feel that there is no need for a cure, and that they, in fact, are the cure for humanity. This ignites a war over the philosophy of whether or not the drug should be an option for mutants. It is a rather deep underlying theme for a film that you would expect less from. Action-packed, the film weighs in at under 2 hours, which may be one of its few short-comings. There’s barely any slow parts to the film, and you are instead barraged by scene-after-scene of high intensity. There’s a lot going on in this film; the filmmakers could’ve easily stretched it into a 3 hour epic. A standout performance is given by McKellan, since through his acting you can truly see the struggle that the villain faces, showing that Magneto’s ideals truly do have some consideration underneath them. While the movie isn’t perfect, its as close to perfect as you can hope for from a series that only seems to get better each and every film.