Showing items 1 - 25 of 1,620
Mania Review: Star Trek Into Darkness
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(May 16, 2013)
So now we well and truly understand what a reboot means. Star Trek: Into Darkness further pushes the envelope that director J.J. Abrams established four years ago, at least in terms of sheer white-knuckle suspense. Having established the fact that he could
The Summer of '83: Blue Thunder
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(May 13, 2013)
The most interesting thing about Blue Thunder, I think, is watching 70s everyman Roy Scheider anchor the bells-and-whistles flash of an 80s blockbuster. Scheider’s appearance in Jaws helped usher in the bells-and-whistles era, of course, but he always be
Mania Review: The Great Gatsby
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(May 10, 2013)
Can a filmmaker love his source material too much? Baz Luhrmann appears to with his bold new version of The Great Gatsby. He clearly adores the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel; more importantly, he profoundly understands its dark message about the excesses of th
The Summer of '83: Doctor Detroit
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(May 06, 2013)
I suppose we should forgive Dan Aykroyd for the well-intentioned misfire that is Doctor Detroit. It was his first effort after the death of his partner/blood brother John Belushi, and Aykroyd had yet to carry a film on his own. You can sense him going for
Mania Review: The Iceman
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(May 03, 2013)
First of all, I have to hand it to The Iceman for opening opposite Iron Man 3; they can make a half-hearted counter-programming argument, but frankly its particular brand of Serpico-esque 70s nostalgia appeals to the same demographic ready to throw down wi
Mania Review: Iron Man 3
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(May 03, 2013)
Iron Man 3 has a fairly monumental task before it. For starters, it’s the opening salvo of Marvel’s ambitious Phase Two… which means, among other things, that it has to follow up the triumph of The Avengers. It’s also the first Iron Man without Jon
The Summer of '83: The Hunger
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(April 30, 2013)
Vampire movies were always cool, but it took The Hunger to make them modern. Before that, film bloodsuckers tended to ooze around in Rudolph Valentino capes, using their ungodly charisma to compensate for their dated fashion sense. The few exceptions – G
The Summer of '83: Something Wicked This Way Comes
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(April 29, 2013)
Vampire movies were always cool, but it took The Hunger to make them modern. Before that, their bloodsuckers tended to ooze around in Rudolph Valentino capes, using their ungodly charisma to compensate for their rather dated fashion sense. The few exceptio
Mania Review: Pain & Gain
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(April 26, 2013)
Pain & Gain gives us a glimpse into Michael Bay’s soul. It’s not for the faint of heart. The music is dark and often terrifying. There are dildos. And severed toes. And night vision goggles. All the women are strippers, all the men are steroid-laden me
A Monster in Paris Blu-ray Review
by Kimberly McCall, Critic
(April 24, 2013)
With all the exciting spring releases, it was easy to miss a little French film titled, “A Monster in Paris.” Personally, I make it a point to keep an eye out for the less publicized gems that occasionally slip through all the hype. Being both a foreig
Mania Review: The Lords of Salem
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(April 19, 2013)
Pertinent anecdote: the sparse crowd at the screening for The Lords of Salem I attended included a gaggle of sorority girls – perhaps six – who came ready to rock. They painted their faces like Sheri Moon Zombie’s on the poster. They bounced in their
Mania Review: Oblivion
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(April 19, 2013)
You need to take a few leaps in order for Oblivion to work. Questions pop up that the film blithely refuses to answer, trusting us to either go with it or check out entirely. I can’t say what they are because it would give away some major spoilers, and O
The Summer of '83: The Evil Dead
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(April 15, 2013)
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the summer of 1983, and while it can’t help to match the summer of ’82 for the sheer staggering number of classics… well, you guys really dug our film-by-film coverage last year, and we’d love to follow it up
Mania Review: Scary Movie V
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(April 12, 2013)
Films like Scary Movie V rank among the most relentlessly depressing experiences an audience can undergo. There are awful movies that nonetheless fill us with energy, that evoke the kind of twinkle-eyed glee that makes people love them despite their badnes
Mania Review: Jurassic Park 3D
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(April 05, 2013)
I confess that we probably don’t need the 3-D treatment of Jurassic Park. Like so many of these re-issues, the new bells and whistles fail to improve upon the original, which didn’t need any extra help getting people into the theaters. On the other han
Mania Review: Evil Dead
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(April 05, 2013)
There’s plenty of reasons for Evil Dead fans to worry about the new version hitting theaters this Friday. The era of superior horror remakes (The Thing, The Fly) vanished over two decades ago, and while we’ve had our share of decent ones lately (Dawn o
The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part II Blu-Ray Review
by Tim Janson, Columnist and Critic
(April 01, 2013)
No matter how you might feel about sparkly vampires and the silliness that was Team Edward vs. Team Jacob, you can’t deny the Twilight Saga’s place as one of the most successful film franchises of all-time. In fact it seems to be that very idea that a
Mania Review: Wrong
by Chuck Francisco, Columnist and Critic
(April 01, 2013)
You have to hand it to Quentin Dupieux, he really sticks to his guns. If you'd have told me that he could up the ante after Rubber and take his "no reason" cinematic philosophy to greater heights, I'd have scoffed then bet money you were joking. Yet here c
Mania Review: Room 237
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 29, 2013)
Stanley Kubrick ranks as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Part of that stemmed from his obsessive dedication to detail: planning each shot like an epic campaign and charting every square inch of onscreen space down to the tiniest fragment. That
Mania Review: G.I. Joe: Retaliation
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 29, 2013)
I can’t call G.I. Joe: Retaliation a good movie – they don’t come much more messy and incoherent – but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t put a smile on my face. After the flat-out disaster of the first film, the sequel’s efforts to actually ac
Mania Review: The Host
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 29, 2013)
Stephenie Meyer is worse than a bad writer. She’s an anti-writer. At least bad writing features things like conflict and rising action: hackneyed, silly or poorly rendered perhaps, but by God things happen in bad writing. Meyer’s writing, on the other
The Blob Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review
by Robert T. Trate, Columnist and Critic
(March 27, 2013)
There comes time when all horror fans or Sci-Fi B-Movie fans discover The Blob (1958). It’s disarming opening theme song by Burt Bacharach and Mack David makes us think that any true danger is far away. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
Mania Review: The Croods
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 22, 2013)
You won’t hate yourself for sitting through The Croods. It doesn’t shame cinema by its existence, it won’t turn your children into deviant sociopaths (unless they were that way already) and its lessons, while trite and one-note, certainly merit atten
Mania Review: Olympus Has Fallen
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 22, 2013)
Your ability to enjoy Olympus Has Fallen stands in direct relation to the amount of scenario-based poppycock you can tolerate. On a nuts-and-bolts level, the film works just fine. A bit derivative, perhaps, but one can’t deny the innate appeal of watchin
Mania Review: Upside Down
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 15, 2013)
Steve Martin once said, “If you want to get into show business and you don’t have any talent, you become a magician.” That dynamic makes for a potential comedy gold mine, as Will Arnett proved so marvelously in Arrested Development. Any profession wh
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