Showing items 26 - 50 of 1,622
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
Mania Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 15, 2013)
People like to talk about big-budget movies getting swallowed up by the visual effects; the same holds true with more modest projects. Case in point: Upside Down, a would-be intellectual sci-fi film more interested in dazzling our senses than telling us a
Ministry of Fear Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review
by Robert T. Trate , Columnist and Critic
(March 15, 2013)
The chance to watch, let alone review, any film selected by The Criterion Collection should be considered a treat. The painstaking lengths to which they go, not only preserve a film, but put all the bells and whistles on it, are amazing. When I saw that th
Zero Dark Thirty DVD Review
by Tim Janson, Columnist and Critic
(March 15, 2013)
When a film is dealing with a specific historical event, one in which we already know the outcome, the trick is in finding another avenue in which to captivate your audience. That was Director Kathryn Bigelow’s challenge with Zero Dark Thirty, detailing
Willow 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review
by Robert T. Trate , Columnist and Critic
(March 15, 2013)
If you can believe it, the Ron Howard and George Lucas fantasy epic is 25 years old this year. Yes, the adventure of Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) is a quarter of a century old.
Mania Review: The ABCs of Death
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 08, 2013)
Anthology films can be tough to review, since they often constitute a mixed bag in the best of times. Unless all of the entries are uniformly good (or bad), you have to mine the highlights with care and sit through some pretty forgettable fare in the meant
Mania Review: Oz the Great and Powerful
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 08, 2013)
Early reviews of Oz the Great and Powerful keep comparing it to the Judy Garland film. Stop that! Yes, director Sam Raimi and the folks at Disney posit it as a prequel to the iconic Wizard of Oz, and make a number of sly nods to their predecessor along the
Phantasm II Collectors Edition Blu-ray Review
by Chuck Francisco, Columnista and Critic
(March 05, 2013)
When it comes to new releases from Scream Factory (Shout! Factory's horror releasing arm), reviews have begun to sound like a broken record of repeating praise. Words like quality, passion, care, and effort are commonly applied to their DVD and Blu-ray rel
Mania Review: Stoker
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 01, 2013)
Stoker is forty kinds of fucked up… and I mean that in the best possible way. We shouldn’t expect anything different from Park Chan-Wook, the brilliant, devious mind who brought us Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy. For his first English-language e
Mania Review: Jack the Giant Slayer
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(March 01, 2013)
Jack the Giant Slayer demonstrates the perils of too many cooks in the kitchen. Oft-delayed and interminably second-guessed, it arrives with groupthink plastered all over its milquetoast surface. It’s a project with a sound concept that needed an extra
Alex Cross Blu-ray Review
by Tim Janson, Columnist and Critic
(February 25, 2013)
Alex Cross is the third film to feature the title character and star of the best-selling mystery and thriller series of novels written by James Patterson. In the first two films the character was portrayed by Morgan Freeman and this time around he is play
Mania Review: Snitch
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(February 22, 2013)
I’m not sure how to say this, but The Rock is really turning into quite an actor. Former pro wrestlers rarely figure into Master Thespian contests, but even early in his career, Dwayne Johnson showed signs of sticking around. Once again I am forced to ac
Mania Review: Dark Skies
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(February 22, 2013)
There’s a good movie somewhere in Dark Skies. You can see it trying to get in, and those moments when it does display a surprising amount of power. The same thing happened with writer/director Scott Stewart’s previous film, Priest, a disappointing effo
Silent Hill: Revelation Blu-ray Review
by Tim Janson, Columnist and Critic
(February 19, 2013)
Silent Hill: Revelation is a sequel to the 2006 film Silent Hill. Perhaps had they waited another dozen years they might have got it right. Silent Hill: Revelation tries to follow the old adage that if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance you baffle t
Mania Review: Beautiful Creatures
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(February 14, 2013)
Beautiful Creatures owes its meager amount of goodwill to the Twilight saga. The studio clearly greenlit it in hopes of riding Twilight’s sparkly, sparkly coattails, and the inevitable comparison can’t help but make it look good. The story sprang from
Mania Review: A Good Day to Die Hard
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(February 14, 2013)
John McClane has a way of elevating any script he’s in. No matter how threadbare the scenario, no matter how many times we’ve seen it before, tossing that old grizzled icon in the middle of it suddenly makes it work. Without him, A Good Day to Die Hard
Best of Warner Bros. 20 Film Collection Best Pictures Review
by Tim Janson, Columnist and Critic
(February 11, 2013)
As Warner Bros. celebrates its 90th anniversary, this boxed set collects the twenty films that the studio has won the Academy Award for best picture. As one would expect it’s an eclectic collection featuring musicals, comedies, dramas, action, and even
Mania Review: Top Gun 3D
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(February 08, 2013)
“I think this is a film for women,” my wife commented quietly after our screening of Top Gun 3D, and in the ensuing conversation, it became increasingly hard to deny. For all the thundering shots of fighter planes in their jingoistic glory, for all the
Mania Review: The Sorcerer and The White Snake
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(February 08, 2013)
Americans aren’t the only ones who can deliver limp, emotion-free spectacle. Or, to put more succinctly, just because it’s foreign doesn’t mean it’s any good. The Sorcerer and the White Snake isn’t the worst film I’ve seen this week (Identity T
Mania Review: Bullet to the Head
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(February 01, 2013)
To paraphrase the man himself, he had me at “fuck you.”
Even after all these years, Sylvester Stallone remains something of an acquired taste. You have to feel his vibe to get past the less-than-stellar acting, the frequent caves to vanity, and the fa
Mania Review: Warm Bodies
by Robert T. Trate, Columnist and Critic
(February 01, 2013)
I’ll be honest. The first time I saw the trailer for Warm Bodies, I immediately thought: the next Twilight. That could be a good thing or bad thing, depending on your preference, but a knock off nonetheless. Star crossed lovers from two different worlds
Deadly Blessing Collectors Edition Blu-ray Review
by Robert T. Trate, Columnist and Critic
(January 28, 2013)
Shout! Factory’s new horror label, titled appropriately Scream Factory, released a Collector’s Edition Deadly Blessing. This little known horror film from 1981 was directed by none other than Wes Craven.
Mania Review: Movie 43
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(January 26, 2013)
I didn’t laugh a lot at Movie 43, but I saw the movie with someone who did, and I have to admit it could be infectious. It’s a total mess and it gets worse as it goes along, but here and there, some good dumb fun pops up. Most of it comes from Peter Fa
Mania Review: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
by Rob Vaux, Mania Critic
(January 26, 2013)
“I can make it last,” Famke Janssen purrs midway through Hansel and Gretel, and we the audience have the horrifying suspicion that she means it. You can see what the movie wants to be – a Raimi-esque lark with tons of fun-filled anachronisms to spice
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