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 Steven Soderbergh’s alleged “last movie” Side Effects is one half murder mystery and another half docudrama about the pharmaceutical industry. It only truly excels at being one of these, but the film is interesting nonetheless from start to finish. Emily Taylor, an often distraught wife played by Rooney Mara, greets her hubby (played by Channing Tatum) after he’s been incarcerated for a lengthy prison term. Life is seemingly back to normal, but…
By: Addison Wylie For a comedy about two buds who take their birthday boy pal on the night of his life filled with partying, copious amounts of booze, and flirtatious girls, I expected 21 & Over to be a somewhat obnoxious ride through unsupervised adolescence with some cheap shots that wouldn’t have the film feeling as if it was devoid of all laughs. I’m glad to report that my expectations were wrong. 21 & Over…
By: Addison Wylie Movie 43 is an anthology film with a stacked cast. It’s been pushing its alleged “audacity” and “outrageousness” in order to get YOU in that theatre seat. However, there is something to be said about how much the marketing has pushed that angle in our faces. When a movie is urging moviegoers to focus on an element about the movie (in this case, its sheer outlandishness) instead of the actual movie itself…
By: Addison Wylie With his first feature film, director Colin Trevorrow (with the help of screenwriter Derek Connolly) has conjured up this gem that pokes fun at, while still embracing adolescence and growing up. It all starts with our lead female played by character actor Aubrey Plaza – who has always had a certain quality to her presence and to her line-reading that can be summed up in one word: pubescent. In Safety Not Guaranteed,…
By: Addison Wylie The following is an unofficial transcript of how I imagine Director McG addressed his cast and crew before a shoot day on the set of the dismally empty romantic comedy-slash-action flick, This Means War. ********** DATE: Undisclosed TIME: Undisclosed LOCATION: Undisclosed…..but very glitzy. McG: Alright, everybody! Can I get everyone gathered over here around me before we get this show on the road? Beautiful, great! Everyone is here. My trusty crew and…
By: Addison Wylie It’s unfortunate to report that Hotel Transylvania is a disappointment. Even young children will pick up on how often this neat set-up is treated as a one-note joke. Hotel Transylvania has everything a kid could want from a timely Halloween release including oodles of monsters. Frankenstein (voiced by Kevin James), the Invisible Man (voiced by David Spade), a talking werewolf (voiced by Steve Buscemi), and a mummy (voiced by CeeLo Green) all…
By: Addison Wylie It’s hard to make a solid judgement on the indie hit Beasts of the Southern Wild. On the one hand, it deserves praise for doing what it does so well. On the flip side, it does what it does so well, that it becomes frustrating. Based on her one-act play called Juicy and Delicious, Lucy Alibar and director Benh Zeitlin adapt the story of survival after a tremendous flood for the big…
By: Addison Wylie Everyone has their own guilty pleasures when it comes to movies. I’m just glad mine also looks pretty and has a great soundtrack. I feel bad calling Dredd 3D a guilty pleasure because I don’t feel guilty for liking it. I liked it a lot, in fact. My affection for Pete Travis’ revamping of Judge Dredd isn’t solely rooted in its visuals – although they certainly are a strong point. Same goes…
By: Addison Wylie I must come clean. I stopped watching the Resident Evil flicks after the second, Apocalypse. I didn’t think the first two outings were bad movies – decent at best – but I stopped watching because they never really appealed to me. Mind you, this was a time where I didn’t have aspirations to be a film critic and I could be more choosey with what I wanted to indulge in. Now that…