CELLULOID BURNING

Repo Men is Blade Runner (1982) running with scissors into Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008), but with a better soundtrack.
(continue reading…)

Kick-Ass is Spider-Man (2002) meets Ichi the Killer (2001), but minus the disturbing psycho-sexual violence and set in high school.

There are those exceedingly rare times in life when something actually lives up to the hype. This is one of these times, and I am now the kind of overjoyed that Stevie Wonder would compose a song about. I have been eagerly awaiting this film since the first hand-held camera footage leaked from a preview from San Diego Comicon last summer. I felt then and absolutely know now that we have something very, very special on our hands.
(continue reading…)

The Crazies is Outbreak (1995) meets 28 Days Later (2002), but based on a 1973 George Romero film.
(continue reading…)

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief is Clash of the Titans (1981) meets The Goonies (1985), but all shiny and new.

Even as a film fan, I don’t tend to watch a lot of PG-rated fare. In fact, the last kids film I watched was Hayao Miyazaki’s quite charming and G-rated Ponyo last summer. In general, I expect PG-films to be blandly inoffensive and sterile affairs, and tiresomely appropriate for people of all ages. Imagine my surprise when I go watch The Lightning Thief and get something that is more like a throwback to the ballsy fantasy movies for kids we got in the 80’s than anything in recent memory.
(continue reading…)

Edge of Darkness is Taken meets The Big Sleep, but stars Mel Gibson.
(continue reading…)

Legion = Terminator + Night of the Living Dead + Dogma – any sort of political/social satire
(continue reading…)

The Book of Eli= The Road + The Road Warrior, but minus the intensity of either.

The Book of Eli is entertaining enough, and certainly pretty enough, but it strikes me as a paint-by-numbers-production. All the pieces are there for a great film, but it all adds up to something that is decent rather than outstanding.
(continue reading…)

Youth in Revolt = The Graduate + Superbad, but not nearly as homoerotic.
(continue reading…)