Tim Burton's Dark Shadows (2012) My beloved Collinwood. What have they done to you?
Posts
Hesher
You know, I kind of looked at Hesher as a primal scream towards life. Mundane Life. Lives dealing with loss. Lives dealing with bullying. Lives dealing with the throngs of aging. Lives dealing with hurt. Lives dealing agony. Lives dealing with miscommunication. ****
Babblings of The Host and Hanna
The Host (2013) My wife and I were on our way home from seeing The Host (2013), and I mentioned Hanna (2011) because we were getting HBO & Cinemax this week free on DirecTv . I happened to think and said to her that I thought the star of The Host looked awfully similar to the blond child highly-trained assassin in Hanna . And whatta ya know, it is the same actress, Saoirse Ronan. Beautiful girl, Saoirse, and she has a cinematic, highly photogenic beauty that, when magnified, is even more captivating on the theatrical screen. Funnily enough, we got home, I sat down and sure enough, Hanna is on Cinemax. The Host was exactly as I suspected it would be while Hanna wasn’t. Not sure why both films are being mentioned here, besides Ronan’s connection, but just the same, Hanna was so European, and so atypical of those “trained assassins with an objective”, as if directed by Tom Tykwer. I always felt Hanna had designs not to be boxed into such limited s...
Puppet Master III
The Nazis, in 1941 Berlin, take a particular interest in the animation fluid that brings Toulon's marionettes to life, but when they are responsible for the death of the master puppeteer's wife, there'll be hell to pay. ***½
The Bates Motel - Nice Town You Picked, Norma
Just off the top. I'll add pics later. There’s this one particular scene, late in the episode, which pretty much solidifies why I think Farmiga is absolutely perfect in this show and will be so compelling for the duration of Bates Motel. I think it is a brilliant piece of acting. Max Theriot’s character shows up on Norma’s doorstep, having called her in the previous episode. I was indifferent towards him when he first turns up in the episode, but when we get to the brilliant piece of acting from Farmiga, I knew he would add a unique spin to the formula involving Mama and Son Bates. Max Theriot is Norma’s other son, Dylan Bates. He’s a bad dude the moment you see him. I thought to myself, one word, when he pops up for the first time on screen, “Trouble.” But you know, there’s something to him. He’s not just some troublemaker who wants to cause nonstop misery. He seems to be on a certain mission (besides his being broke and no place else to go…) to rescue Norman from No...
Invisible
The Chronicles of Benjamin Knight A mad scientist wants radioactive crystals located in the lab of a wheel-chair scientist, his scientist lover, and their colleague who is plagued by invisibility caused by radiation. **½
Trancers II
The Return of Jack Deth It came to my mind as I was watching the sequel to Trancers that you can have the lowest of budgets, not be able to afford the effects and such you would love to have available to accompany a grand vision in script, and must unfortunately deal with the lack of funds at your disposal the best ways possible, but if the film has a cast with a genuine chemistry and some really fun characters that are reasonably developed, it can work wonders. ***
The Bates Motel - First You Dream, Then You Die
The Bates Motel I just wanted to throw some quick thoughts up here since the show’s pilot was on my mind since I have advertised it on my blog, considering I’m such a fan of Hitchcock’s Psycho and the subsequent films thereafter. I really, really love the casting of Vera Farmiga as Norma Bates. I will loyally follow this series as long as she’s in the picture; I thought she was damn good. I didn’t think the scene with the rape from the former owner of the land, house, and motel was necessary. It was, for cable television not premium, pretty potently awful, but her reaction to it all, Farmiga excels. She is obviously shaken, but because she’s such a fierce character, so forward-thinking, the rape scene at least shows how Norma can respond to a crisis of severe magnitude. First You Dream, Then You Die opens with Norman finding his father’s dead body. Not overly explained, but it seems as if he might have committed suicide. That, or Norma killed him. Thi...