Movieline Online

THE FLICK: There’s a delicate balance between “erotica” and plain ‘ol “porn.” Kind of like the difference between Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue and the magazines your dad ordered that arrived by mail covered in a brown paper bag. And while today the internet serves up gigabytes worth of hardcore perversion on demand, there’s something to be said for the softcore films of the ‘70s; grindhouse fare that at least attempted to package their lascivious thrills in an artful fashion. Vanessa features one scene in particular that stands out from the hundreds of Emmanuelle knock-offs: a slow-motion striptease performed under a cascading waterfall of rice falling from a punctured container. It only lasts about 2-minutes, but the handheld photography by DP Franz X. Laderle is almost hypnotically erotic. And the scene itself is a prime example of the rewards of improvised filmmaking, an off-the-cuff inspiration that defines an otherwise predictable pile-on of softcore clichés. During the ext...

THE FLICK: Actor’s love to act. And they love directors who give them sort of free reign (and egotistical reinforcement) that the Hollywood system tries to crush with extravagant sums of money. Take Steven Soderbergh for instance; a mediocre director who’s managed to become an “A”-player almost purely by means of his thespian networking with the new-millennium rat pack of Clooney, Pitt, Roberts and the rest. One could view this cynically as a play for financial success riding the coattails of one’s betters or more generously as the natural interplay between artists in the mutual best interest of the film. Scott Frank, Soderbergh’s screenwriter on Out of Sight and another successful Elmore Leonard adaptation, Get Shorty, quite obviously subscribes to the latter theory. And his debut film as a director, The Lookout, makes remarkable use of both fresh talent and seasoned pros, navigating them through a series of noir conventions made fresh mostly through the conviction of their performanc...

THE FLICK: In 1969 Easy Rider put the hopes and dreams of an entire generation on the back of a Harley and rode off to find America. Almost 40 years later, Wild Hogs is as far as they got. Pretty depressing, isn’t it? It’s also more than a little unfair to judge a shallow, inconsequential studio comedy against the full force of a counter-culture heavyweight, but the correlation is there to be made as a foursome of over-the-hill baby boomers rev up their courage for a road trip to the West Coast in hope of recapturing their youth. Starring some big name talent (John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy) stuck in the sort of safe, predictable scenario that doesn’t require any real acting, just periodic overreacting to groin hits, gay jokes and some awful stunt fighting, Wild Hogs was a success in theaters despite being an almost constant embarrassment to watch. The biggest laughs in the film come during the closing credits during an Extreme Home Makeover spoof as gues...

THE FLICK: Call it “torture-porn” or “sado-horror,” the genre pioneered by folks like Eli Roth, James Wan and Rob Zombie might have finally run its course with the poor box-office returns for Hostel 2. Still, there are a few movies left in the pipeline, like Saw VI this Halloween, and the debut of director Nimrod Antal’s hardcore Hitchcock-inspired thriller that puts name actors Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale in the sort of compromising positions you’d expect only desperate TV actors from the CW to accept. Stranded on a lonely backroad and arguing over their broken relationship, David and Amy are forced to stay the night at a questionable motel run by an unquestionably creepy manager (Frank Whaley). A stack of unlabeled video tapes on the dresser turns out to be a collection of snuff films, filmed in the very same room the unlucky couple now occupies. Monitored by cameras from every angle and cornered by a trio of masked psychopaths, husband and wife now have to work together to survi...

THE FLICK: From the very first early peeks at the trailer, 300 looked too good to be true: Impossibly ripped Greek heroes launching themselves across swirling orange skies...half-nude women floating on currents of air...monstrous wolves, masked demons and an endless army of Persian warriors advancing on a meager band of Spartan warriors. It literally made every man in the theater gasp in anticipation. And despite those enormous expectations, director Zack Snyder actually delivered on his promise of a faithful translation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel, pushing CGI technology to create a fully-realized world where only a green-screen existed before. Of course, George Lucas foretold all of this was coming. His Star Wars prequels were to be an entire CG universe of wonders, fulfilling the promise of a digital medium in which anything was possible. But the result was a trilogy of Playstation cut-scenes, abusing the technology more than it celebrated it. It took a new generation of filmmak...

THE FLICK: There’s no use trying to explain one’s affection for the “rubber monster” genre. Like true love, it’s just a connection you feel deep in your soul. And the more misguided, corny and downright goofy the movie, the more fans tend to embrace it. Case in point, Frankenstein Conquers the Word (aka Frankenstein vs. Baragon on the international circuit), a true oddball even within the cannon of Toho Studios other giant monster films, whose final battle consists of a 100-foot tall Frankenstein monster in a loin cloth battling a one-horned, fire-spewing dinosaur. Who the hell wouldn’t pay to see that? Producer Samuel Z. Arkoff, who bought U.S. theatrical rights, thought it could use a little help, so he chopped off a few minutes here and there, including a final fight between Frankenstein and a giant octopus – the footage of which became as legendary as the supposed alternate King Kong vs. Godzilla ending where the big lizard walked away the winner. Now, Media Blasters comes through ...