Over the course of its direct-to-video sequels, the Wrong Turn franchise has built an impressive cult following; starting with the fun 2003 original that gave viewers a surprising amount of thrills and kills. But, it also fell back on a genre stereotype that even Wrong Turn fans have deemed rote – mangy country folk will always be portrayed as villains. With 2021’s Wrong Turn, in an attempt to breathe life intro this outdated trope, director Mike…
By: Jessica Goddard From directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Way Way Back), Downhill is an English-language remake of Ruben Östlund’s European awards contender Force Majeure (2014). Having not seen the original, I can only speak to the quality of the new film – starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell – as a standalone film. And, it’s not bad! Truly, it’s not bad. It’s a little simple and unpolished, and uncertain of what it wants to…
By: Jessica Goddard In the delightful tradition of remaking films and gender swapping the leads – which no one is getting tired of at all – After the Wedding struggles to be convincing in its premise.
By: Jolie Featherstone Beautiful European locale? Check. Comedy that runs the gamut from social critique to slapstick? Check. Two smart and savvy women competing for the ultimate con? Check!
By: Nick van Dinther Bruce Willis is at his best when he’s playing the sarcastic, one-lining ass kicker. In Eli Roth’s Death Wish, that’s exactly who audiences get.
Marlon Wayans, Michael Tiddes, and Rick Alvarez take a break from spoofing horror flicks (the Haunted House series) and mainstream smut (Fifty Shades of Black) to present Naked, a Netflix Original (and remake of 2000’s Sweden comedy Naken) that borrows the framework of narrative-looping to make a funny and surprisingly sweet movie that you’ll want to watch over and over again.
By: Addison Wylie Lloyd Kaufman has proven with Return to Nuke ‘Em High Volume 1 that you can go “back to the well” and resurrect a bawdy riot that was started more than two decades ago. The filmmaking ringmaster returns to Tromaville to continue the story of plagued teenagers who are slowly mutating due to exposure of toxic waste. The nasty nuclear power plant (which was stationed beside the high school) has been torn down,…
By: Addison Wylie Remaking Sam Raimi’s horror cult classic The Evil Dead comes with a price. Much like the film’s killer Book of the Dead, such a task has consequences. The Evil Dead set a bar for low-budget horror when it crept into theatres in 1981. Some claimed it was one of the scariest films ever made while others were too busy howling at the screen. It was a film that obviously left a mark…
By: Addison Wylie LOL, a film starring Miley Cyrus directed by Lisa Azuelos, is wildly inconsistent. It’s consistently inconsistent. I didn’t think such a thing would be possible. But, what’s even more confusing, is how badly Azuelos has dropped the ball. LOL is the North American remake of a French film she made earlier in her career called LOL (Laughing Out Loud). Having not seen the original and only reading the plot synopsis online, LOL…