Bad Kids Go To Hell (2009)

Bad Kids Go To Hell isn't stupefyingly bad but it is dull as it plods along at a snail's pace with no scares, shocks or even laughs. It picks up a little steam towards the end when the somewhat complicated plot is wrapped up but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone...although I see there is now a sequel. Go know.

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Scourge (2008)

Scourge doesn't trod any new ground but it's decently involving and the titular corrigia, created using CGI, was well-done. For this type of B-movie the script could've been worse and the acting was decent; when the femme lead was fighting the corrigia she actually looked like she was fighting the corrigia - in spite of the fact that she was fighting nothing. It might've been better had the movie answered some of the questions asked by the characters themselves regarding the corrigia (which means shoelace while scourge means whip) but you can't have it all.

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Survivors (2008)

Survivors is a thrilling post apocalyptic BBC series with fascinating characters, some bizarre scripted motivations (Samantha and Greg - really?) and dramatic, action scenes that are nail-biting. The United Kingdom setting thoughtfully affords us a relatively gun free source of violence - which is an absolute pleasure! Only two seasons ran before the show was cancelled with (from what I read) many loose ends so I stopped watching after Season 2, Episode 4 which has a satisfying-enough series finale.

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Life With Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows (2001)

Kudos to writer/producer Lorna Luft, actresses Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis and director Robert Allan Ackerman for creating a poignant portrait of Frances Gumm and her doppelgänger in Life With Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows. The 45 years go by in three hours as you're immersed in the glamour, angst and humanity of the iconic entertainer. Be sure to listen to the informative DVD commentary in concert with the film; Luft and Ackerman (among others) offer information about Garland and how her real life was dramatized for television.

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Alien Trespass (2009)

It's amazing that some one somewhere found the 1957 presumed-destroyed film Alien Trespass and was able to release it in 2009. This pastiche of every 50s science fiction B movie you might have seen before it has not much more than that premise except a charming performance by Eric McCormack ... and color film! The movie is prepended with the newsreel that had been placed before it in 1957 which, coupled with Robert Patrick, gives the whole thing a family feel - although I'm not sure why.

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Zoolander (2001)

I thought Zoolander (in essence, a comic take on The Manchurian Candidate) was an Adam Sandler movie so I never saw it. When I was informed that it was Ben Stiller and not the aforementioned, I found it immediately, watched it, and loved it! All white guys look alike.

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The Happiness Of The Katakuris (2002)

The Happiness Of The Katakuris begins as claymation and ends as a wonderfully imaginative zombie musical. The musical works because the central characters are developed and the story (of a family trying to market their bed and breakfast) is not an afterthought to the zombies. Director Takashi Miike (of Audition and The Ichi Killer) has created an entrancing mashup of The Sound Of Music and Night Of The Living Dead; its surreality is beyond mere description and deserves a look.

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Anna Nicole (2013)

Although looking more like Jenny Garth than the eponymous star, Agnes Bruckner injects empathy (and really good intoxication!) in Anna Nicole, a 2013 Lifetime biography that manages to be classy AND tawdry. Procuring the services of Martin Landau, Virginia Madsen and Cary Elwes helped round out a good ensemble as did procuring the prosthetics team that worked on Bruckner's tits - which look spectacular! Not as bad/good as Valley Of The Dolls or good/bad as Mommie, Dearest but it's watchable and involving and Anna Nicole Smith, the woman, would be proud.

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The Women (2008)

Jungle Red, the fashion show and an all female cast are still part of The Women, a remake of the 1939 film version of the Clare Booth Luce play; unfortunately, humor, catty remarks and the original cast are missing. The movie is not unwatchable - it's just dull watching stock characters play out a one note script. Writer/director Diane English's fifteen year journey to remake the classic should've ended before it began.

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Dance Of The Dead (2008)

Had John Hughes (Pretty In Pink, The Breakfast Club) directed Return Of The Living Dead, it might have been similar to Dance Of The Dead, a sometimes over-the-top zomedy about teens kicking some dead ass. The script by Joe Ballarini is fun, the acting (by no one I've ever seen) is uniformly entertaining and it's got some original zombie moments. I'd go to director Gregg Bishop's dances any time.

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Romy and Michelle: In The Beginning (2005)

OMFG, Romy and Michele: In The Beginning puts Katherine Heigl (blech!) and Alex Breckinridge (who?) screen center as younger and paler imitations of the characters from the beloved original who move to Los Angeles (again). This claptrap was written (and directed) by the same author (Robin Schiff) but has none of the intelligence or heart. Paula Abdul shows up for a paycheck as did, it seems, everyone ese.

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The Invasion (2007)

Despite my distaste for Nicole Kidman and her plastic face, my desire to see The Invasion, the remake of two previous classic body snatcher films, was very high. There are slight differences to the story that does not detract and the first two thirds of the film was involving. But the last third contained action sequences that came out of nowhere and had a tacked on happy ending that snatched the whole movie-going experience from my body.

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The Thaw (2009)

The Thaw is surprisingly creepy with bugs crawling out of people's skin, hypodermic needles and hatchet amputations. It's also an involving treatise on global warming offering a good and plausible story. It's also really creepy.

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EdgePlay: A Film About The Runaways (2004)

Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways is a fascinating documentary on The Runaways (produced and directed by former member Victory Tischler-Blue) made even more fascinating by Joan Jett's refusal to appear, or to allow her songs to be used. Sandy West's final scene in the film is a heart-breaking tale of her post-Runaways life; filmed a couple of years before her death from cancer, it seems this musical portion of her life was its nadir. Lita Ford, Cherie Currie and Kim Fowley are all here and tell a worthwhile tale of excessive rock and roll in big bad Los Angeles of the 70s.

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Dead Set (2008)

You don't have to know the reality show Big Brother (or be British) to relish the five hour E4 television series Dead Set. It's a comedic (but not too comedic) and horrifying (blood and guts...yum!) take on the zombie apocalypse that rivets you to the tube. Watch it right now...for free...online; I'm not kidding.

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Orphan (2009)

Orphan needed a script parent to reel in some of the trite and ridiculous plot points but taut direction by Jaume Collet-Serra did keep me entertained and wondering how it would all play itself out. Vera Farmiga and most especially Isabelle Fuhrman are exceptional as the mother and titular child she and husband Peter Sarsgaard adopt; in fact, Fuhrman is so good she should have been rewarded with an Oscar nod. The ending is a tense-fest (with a classic line to end it all) but, when all is said and done, it seems more a lost opportunity than a good film.

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MacGruber (2010)

I decided to watch MacGruber for one reason: Kristen Wiig. Wiig is fun to watch and here she took a slight characterization and made it her own. Whenever she was off-screen though I sat stone-faced and wondered how a movie can be so humorless, and its implication that gay sex was a punishment was just distasteful.

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Låt den rätte komma in (2008)

The Swedish film Låt den rätte komma in (Let The Right One In) tells what might happen to Bella and Edward (of Twilight fame) if their vampiric roles were reversed and they were about five years younger. Unlike that film though, Tomas Alfredson has directed a dark, fascinating story (set in 1982 Sweden) with incredible acting from the two preteen leads, Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson. It's not a fast-moving (or particularly bloody) horror film but it grabs you with its sympathetic characters, compelling cinematography, and the surprise inclusion of Försonade, a 1968 recording from future ABBA member, Agnetha Fältskog.

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Mr. Deeds (2002)

Any charm that Mr. Deeds musters is directly related to the Frank Capra original Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. Although both earn their pay by acting, Adam Sandler is no Gary Cooper and Winona Ryder is no Jean Arthur. Do yourself a favor and watch the 1936 classic instead; you'll be pixilated.

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The Descent: Part 2 (2009)

Neil Marshall was the executive producer on The Descent: Part 2 which (like this review) picks up right after The Descent (depending on which of the two endings you saw). Although this story about the rescuers who enter the cave system to find the original spelunkers often strains credulity and mires in some broad characterizations, it is still claustrophobic and pretty scary. Krysten Cummings and Anna Skellern (new to the story) deserve special recognition for outstanding acting but anymore information than that would ruin the unexpected.

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