Movieline Online

MIRRORS: There isn’t a lot of hope for horror out there right now, what with the SAW franchise still running at full steam and most of the classic directors like John Carpenter and George Romero long past their prime. But Frenchman Alexandre Aja made a case for himself with High Tension and the better-than-it-should-have-been Hills Have Eyes remake. He returns with an original story about an ex-cop turned security guard (Keifer Sutherland) who falls victim to some haunted mirrors in the decrepit department store he’s been assigned to patrol. What lurks on the other side of the polished glass now threatens his friends and family unless he can find a way to break the curse. Aja’s film has fun with the endless possibilities of being killed by your own reflection - actress Amy Smart’s bathtub demise is particularly gruesome – and his camerawork shows his previous successes were no fluke. But he should have held a mirror up to the script, which was co-written with usual partner Levasseur. A...

AMUSEMENT: During their hey-day in the late ‘60s British film studios specialized in horror anthology pictures, gathering up four or five scary stories loosely tied together in a Twilight Zone-type package. And for half its running time, Amusement admirably carries the torch, putting fresh spins on urban legends like “The Hitchhiker” and The Babysitter” with the sort of class and style you’d never expect from a direct-to-video film. Then the script (by Jake Wade Wall of The Hitcher remake) just takes a 90-degree turn in favor of Saw-inspired torture and a cackling over-the-top villain right out of the Adam West Batman era. This inexplicable tonal shift from old-school scares to sado-horror is disappointing, but it doesn’t diminish the wet-your-pants effectiveness of the film’s first two chapters, including a particularly chilling “evil clown” sequence sure to inspire a few phobias. Even the acting by the typical troupe of too-good-looking teen actors is above par. All the more frustrat...

SUPERCOP: The Dragon Dynasty label has done a darn good job of bringing important and not-so-important Hong Kong flicks into the Region 1 market, doling out milestone releases from Shaw Brothers, Jet Li and Jackie Chan in sparkling new special editions. Supercop (aka Police Story 3) is at the top of many a fan’s list, so it’s a bit surprising to see what’s included here is only the Dimension re-edit job that was released in the US after Jackie became more of a household name. I’m not sure what’s missing, but it’s certainly not action scenes. Moving beyond his one-on-one fight films, Jackie works on a much bigger scale here; think Die Hard meets Buster Keaton with a truly spectacular finale involving cars, truck, helicopters and a moving freight train. But the film’s biggest asset is the chemistry between Chan and co-star Michelle Yeoh who match each other kick for kick and gag for gag. The best Jackie Chan films find a remarkable balance between punches and punchlines and Supercop is n...

DEXTER – THE FIRST SEASON: It goes without saying that only a pay-cable network would have the courage to adapt author Jeff Lindsay’s books about a serial killer who channels his evil urges for the good of mankind...or at least the greater Miami area. Actor Michael C. Hall imbues the role with singularly sinister appeal as a forensic investigator who moonlights under the radar of his cop co-workers. But when his bragging rights are threatened by a flashy rival sociopath, Dexter’s secret life is threatened with catastrophic exposure. Using large chunks of the book’s first-person narrative verbatim, Dexter retains the same “man-fiction” appeal by stretching out the mystery over all 12 first season episodes. Some of the subplots are a bit contrived, but the core relationship between Dexter and his deceased father (James Remar...played in flashbacks, obviously) who trained his son to prey on the scum of society is fascinating stuff. Without a doubt one of the best seasons of television eve...

The untimely demise of indie DVD distributor NoShame Films left a hole no other company has been able to fill. Specializing in Italian cult and classic releases, there were a plethora of titles still in the hopper when the curtain was drawn...titles few others would have the courage to release. So, like the miraculous happy ending of some breezy comedy, it comes as no small relief to see MYA Communications pick up the baton and race across the Region 1 finish line with four relatively obscure Italian titles, each with a great deal of niche appeal. Most notable is Dario Argento’s Door into Darkness, a 2-disc set that includes 4 episodes of the famous horror director’s foray into television production. Milking his international title as “The Italian Hitchcock,” Argento serves as the host of each story and directs (under a pseudonym) the episode entitled “The Tram” about a murder committed in plain sight on a crowded trolley car. Pushing the limits of acceptable TV violence, although far ...

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: Director Peter Berg’s spot-on adaptation of one of the better true sports stories of the last century is as much an anti-sports film as it is a monument to the politics of hard-nosed high school football in the great state of Texas. The film doesn’t pull any punches in its portrayal of the use and abuse of 17-year-old boys in a game that means more than just boosting school spirit. Between college scouts, local radio and TV news, the players have the weight of their entire careers riding on every single play. Berg’s approach captures the action on and off the field with the same high-energy documentary approach. The quick-cutting and whip pans could very easily have come off as overproduced Tony Scott visual dramatics, but the film stays honest throughout, riding on the shoulders of Billy Bob Thornton’s understated performance as a coach who feels just as much pressure as his players. Friday Night Lights trades the usual sports-movie inspiration for introspection i...

BABYLON A.D. – There’s something about flawed science-fiction films that appeal to my gentler nature. Like Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce or David Twohy’s The Chronicles of Riddick (which coincidently also starred Vin Diesel), Babylon A.D. is a patchwork of inspirations lifted from better films. Yet those individual parts are often captivating unto themselves. Such is the case with director Mathieu Kassovitz’s adaptation of Maurice G. Dantec’s novel, which blends cyberpunk, political commentary and old fashioned American action movie clichés into a distinctly European package. Kassovitz’s film is genuinely intriguing for the first hour, establishing Vin Diesel as a bald bad-ass ex-smuggler hired to escort a young girl to New York City, the lone technological bright spot in a world razed by war, poverty and corruption. Their journey to America is well-paced, well-shot and well-designed with enviable photography by Thierry Arbogast (The Fifth Element). But once our characters cross the border t...

RIGHTEOUS KILL: In his prime, Robert De Niro could elevate a curse world to the level of Shakespeare’s finest prose. The passion of his convictions was such that it didn’t matter what was being said, it was how the line was delivered. If nothing else Righteous Kill proves he can still swear like a truck driver when the script calls for it - and there’s even a glimmer of the old intimidating thug cemented in many a Scorsese movie. But truth is director Jon Avnet’s anonymous cop thriller could have starred any two actors and inspired about the same amount of apathy. De Niro and Pacino are longtime partners on a serial killer investigation; the victims, all criminal scum deserving of their fates. Played out in a video confession in the opening of the film, De Niro confesses to all the murders, explaining his vigilante justice as cop’s vengeance against a faulty system. Trouble is, he’s now been charged with investigating himself and jeopardizing his partner’s career in the process. Righte...