Aug 30, 2010

Tijuana, Mexico. The Federales were hot on my trail as I ducked into the movie theater. It was only when my eyes adjusted to the darkness that I felt the icy cold hands of fear around my throat as Marmaduke dubbed in Spanish with no subtitles loomed ominously above on the silver screen. And in short, I was afraid. The story of my exile is not for the faint...

Aug 10, 2010

Ip Man is the latest martial arts epic to kick and punch its way onto Blu-Ray this year. Starring Donnie Yen (Dragon Inn, Iron Monkey, Hero) as the titular Wing Chun Grandmaster and early mentor of the legendary Bruce Lee, Ip Man delivers an action packed semi-biographical account of Master Ip’s early life in the Fo Shan province during Japan’s...

Aug 7, 2010

Sweetgrass is a cold portrait of the lives of sheep. Don’t let the advertisements or advocates of this documentary tell you otherwise. They’ll have you believe that the film is an “unsparing and unsentimental” look into the lives of the last modern-day cowboys as they herd huge flocks of sheep from a ranch in Montana to the...

Jul 30, 2010

When I see a film like Don’t Look Up sitting on its fabricated shelves, a slight glare from the accent lighting sheering across the new plastic surfaces, my first thought generally regards what needs to be accomplished to make a cheap movie work. “You’d better compel me on a few levels,” I think to myself. Sometimes I even mutter a simile...

Jul 29, 2010

Batman: Under the Red Hood, the dark and disturbing new animated feature from Warner Bros. Pictures, brings the Caped Crusader face to face with his greatest failure: the death of Jason Todd a.k.a. the second Robin.  This story arc, Death in the Family, serves as the foundation for Under the Red Hood and the mysterious identity of this new criminal stalking...