Reviews

CREATURE CORNER BOOK REVIEW: OFF SEASON

Written by Jack KetchumPublished by LeisureBuy it from the Creature Co! Review by RJ Sevin I first encountered Jack Ketchum ten years ago: Overlook Connection Press founder Dave Hinchberger told me about his upcoming limited edition of The Girl Next Door, a novel both notorious and, for many years, nearly impossible to find. Devotees of … Continue reading

MEDIA REPORTS – 11.23.06

1. HOLLYWOOD LIFE – NOV/DEC 06 – $3.99 – Subscribe Once known as Movieline, a pretty good magazine at one point which featured some pretty ballsy articles. Now it’s much more geared towards fashion and the lifestyle of stars and the people who want to emulate them. To say that this magazine took an assdive … Continue reading

REVIEW: CASINO ROYALE

I won’t lie to you – I usually don’t like Bond films. I can stomach the older ones because they tend to be campy, but in general I find Bond dull – a collection of clichés and conceits instead of characterization. It isn’t any secret that your hero will always triumph at the end of … Continue reading

REVIEW: BORAT

A good critic should react to a movie, not to the movie’s poster or trailer or Fox’s seeming desire to burn the freshness out of the movie months before it’s even released. It’s that last one that has given me some trouble with Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. … Continue reading

BOOK REVIEW: BLONDE, THE

Buy it!: Amazon.com: The Blonde: Books: Duane Swierczynski Publisher: St. Martin’s Minotaur Pages: 240 pages AUTHOR WEBSITE: Secret Dead Blog Duane Swierczynski’s The Blonde is a crazy kick in the face chase action comedy. It took me by the balls and threw me against the wall again and again with each development and twist. Jack … Continue reading

BOOK REVIEW: CASINO ROYALE

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!PUBLISHER: PenguinMSRP: $13.00PAGES: 192 There’s great fun to be had in reviewing an icon of literature. Especially if one, like me, has somehow managed to never read that piece of literature before. I don’t know how I’ve done it, but despite a childhood of reading and a series of creative … Continue reading

REVIEW: RUNNING WITH SCISSORS

Running With Scissors reminded me a lot of Terry Gilliam’s Tideland in that it’s about a group of mostly repulsive characters and how they collectively abuse a child, and how it’s supposed to be funny and/or uplifting and meaningful. I blame The Simpsons – they’ve so moved the goal post when it comes to dysfunctional … Continue reading

REVIEW: PRESTIGE, THE

I figured out the ending of The Prestige about halfway through the movie. I don’t tend to be the brightest guy when it comes to solving cinematic puzzles like this, so this probably means that either the film is incredibly obvious or that it just plays extremely fair, giving real clues and not pulling the … Continue reading

REVIEW: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS

I wonder when Clint Eastwood decided to make a companion film for Flags of Our Fathers, his movie about the famous photo of the flag raising at Iwo Jima in WWII. Did he decide to make the other film (Letters From Iwo Jima, a look at the bloody battle from the Japanese point of view) … Continue reading

REVIEW: MARIE ANTOINETTE

Sofia Coppola’s movies are open and sparse, focusing on the things unsaid and the moments in between the momentous. It’s almost as fascinating to see what effect this sparseness and openness has on the audience; Coppola’s films end up being as much about what the viewer brings to the experience as what’s going on up … Continue reading