Movieline Online

David Cronenberg’s battle cry “Long live the New Flesh!” didn’t makes much of a dent in mainstream cinema. But for a select few filmmakers, the director’s unique take on human evolution – or de -evolution, as the case may be – echoed and amplified their own ideas about body horror. Joji Iida’s Cyclops (1987) is a V-cinema showcase of practical effects, teenage telepaths and misunderstood mutants that carries on Cronenberg’s biological revolution into distinctly Japanese territory. Continuing his mentor’s secret experiments, Tooru Takamori protects his adopted “sister,” Miyuki, from clandestine operatives while caring for his pregnant wife. As Miyuki begins to suspect a larger conspiracy, she becomes the focus of a menacing stranger hiding behind oversized sunglasses. But exactly what he’s hiding behind those shades is only the tip of the evolutionary iceberg. Cyclops drops viewers into a story that seems to be missing its opening chapters, forcing you to untangle a complicated ...

Few films embrace the hedonistic nihilism of the Y2K phenomenon better than Go , director Doug Liman’s 1999 post- Pulp Fiction era comedy that shifts perspectives and narrative gears with giddy cinematic energy, sending its characters on an ecstasy-fueled bender…only to have them wake up and face another day of suburban monotony. Forget the run-on sentence, this is run-on filmmaking at its most frantic, flawed and fashionable. Facing impending eviction, grocery store cashier Ronna (Sarah Polley) recruits her fellow employees to score some X from a local drug dealer (Timothy Olyphant) in hopes of making a quick sale to two prospective buyers (Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr). But the plan goes awry, putting each character in a predicament that only seems to get worse as the night progresses. Using a Run Lola Run format, John August’s script starts over from the same spot every 20 minutes or so, following a new protagonist – and a new series of misadventures – that neatly weave together in ...

An obscure part of the John Carpenter multiverse, 1982’s Tag: The Assassination Game was written and directed by Carpenter collaborator Nick Castle, who also had the honor of playing “The Shape” in the original Halloween . And, despite being marketed as an ‘80s college comedy, it’s obvious Castle picked up a trick or two from his proximity to the famous slasher franchise as TAG is a surprisingly effective thriller that aims for Hitchcockian suspense way more often than laughs. A reporter on the school paper, Alex (Robert Carradine) proposes a feature on the campus “assassination” game in hopes of scoring with one of its star players, Susan (Linda Hamilton). But while they’re busy firing rubber darts, one competitor is really playing to win, racking up a body count not just on paper…but hidden in the back of his closet! Lifting several crew members from his Halloween days, Castle does a terrific job balancing the copious film noir references, relatively tame kill sequences and co-e...