The Family is a lot of things; a deliriously violent black comedy, the first real Luc Besson film Luc Besson has made since 2011’s The Lady (which was itself preceded by a string of children’s movies and fantasy fare), the latest entry in his filmography well beyond his retirement date, and further proof to fuel suspicions that the ever-lovely Michelle Pfeiffer keeps a magical painting hidden somewhere in her attic, to name a few. But it’s primarily a film that’s about Robert De Niro, not just in his capacity as its leading man but as a fixture in mob cinema iconography, so much so that The Family wouldn’t make a lick…
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G-S-T Review…Populaire
French writer/director Régis Roinsard makes his feature length debut with Populaire, the story of a young girl searching for her identity and purpose in the world during the late 1950s, and the man who pushes her toward stardom. Rose Pamphyle (Déborah François) is a naïve girl living in Normandy, the town where she grew up. Raised by her widower father, a stubborn and conservative man set in his ways, Rose looks to start a new life in Paris. Her rapid typing skills – using only two fingers no less – land her a job with Louis Échard (Romain Duris), a handsome but smug insurance agent. It’s her quick hands that…
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Sweet Trailer…'Escape From Tomorrow'
Scuttlebutt on Escape From Tomorrow started brewing during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, so those of you with your ears to the ground have probably been waiting for the most unusual Disney film of 2013 for quite some time. What makes Randy Moore’s picture so unique, though, is that Disney contributed nothing to its production save for location; Moore shot the entirety of his vision firmly within the bounds of both Disneyland and Disney World, and without securing a word of permission from the Mouse House. Is that dangerous? Not really. Is it subversive? Oh yes. And that’s what’s pulling attention to Escape From Tomorrow: that anarchic, guerrilla spirit. In…
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Sweet Trailer…'Grudge Match'
Busier and busier in recent years, Sly Stallone continues to show us he still has the eye of the tiger. He’s said goodbye to Rocky and Rambo but with films like this, the upcoming prison flick Escape Plan (which co-stars Schwarzenegger) and The Expendables 3 currently filming, there’s just no slowing down this iconic action hero/renaissance man. Have a look at the first trailer for Grudge Match. In Grudge Match, or as we like to call it The Adventures of Rocky & Bull Niro, Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro as a pair of aging boxing rivals who are coaxed out of retirement to fight one final bout – 50 years after their title…
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Off the Shelf…’Dredd’
The list of rules set in place for rebooting bygone films is relatively anemic; general wisdom dictates that such practices should be verboten, but movie studios rarely allow little niggling details like hindsight and foresight get in the way of a quick buck. So the reboot machine churns, plopping recycling garbage onto a conveyor belt that empties straight into your local multiplex year after year, producing little of interest or note and giving audiences very little reason to leave their homes and attend the theater. Wonder why VOD has become so popular? Wonder no longer. Yet even in the realm of rebooting – not quite the same as “remaking”, be assured,…
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G-S-T TV: Low Winter Sun (S1, Ep 5: Cake On the Way)
In the previous episodes of AMC’s Low Winter Sun, things have been quasi-interesting. Frank (Mark Strong) and Joe (Lennie James) have been trying to cover up the fact that they killed a corrupt cop who allegedly killed Frank’s hooker girlfriend Katia. On the other, darker side of the Motor City, Damon shot Billy, a low-level dealer, took his plentiful supply of narcotics and gave his up-and-coming crew an anonymous spring board into the local drug game. But the drugs in question are somewhat linked to the late corrupt cop Brendan McCann and Frank and Joe are using that key detail to its fullest potential. They think they can take this…
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First Look At ‘Horns’: Everybody Hates Daniel Radcliffe
Did anybody on the Internet ever peg Daniel Radcliffe, mostly grown up from his days of playing the boy who lived, as a potential horror icon? Admittedly, he’s done more than just pop up in films like The Woman in Black since 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 premiered, raked in enough money to fill several dozen Olympic-sized swimming pools, and happily liberated Radcliffe from his franchising duties; notably, he has Kill Your Darlings, the Beat Generation biopic, coming up later this year and The F Word set for early 2014, and he’s expanded his theatrical resume with How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and The Cripple of Inishmaan, as…
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G-S-T Review…Short Term 12
Winner of the Audience and Grand Jury Awards at SXSW in March, writer/director Destin Cretton’s Short Term 12 is a rare and beautiful film containing moments that will make you laugh, cry, render you speechless, take your breath away, and then leave you with a smile. The film’s title comes from the name of the group home that serves as the story’s central setting. The facility known as Short Term 12 serves as a foster home to troubled youth, victims of abuse, kids who have been forgotten, abandoned or otherwise left behind by their parents. On top of this many of the foster kids suffer from mental illness, making their behavior that more…
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G-S-T Review…Hell Baby
Dubbing Hell Baby as a funnier version of A Haunted House or any entry in the reprehensible (and apparently endless) Scary Movie franchise feels like a serious kick in the pants to The State and Reno 911! veterans Robert Ben Garant’s and Thomas Lennon’s dryly funny exorcism farce. That’s sour news for the film, especially since many critics might end up making the exact same comparison, but on the bright side of things, Hell Baby happens to be a legit comedy; it’s funny on its own terms, and not just as a superior – if slightly uneven – alternative to the recklessly terrible and laughter-challenged garbage that passes as parody in the mainstream.…
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Sweet Trailer…'Robocop'
Did you completely forget that there’s a reboot in the works for Dutch filmmaking master Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop? Full disclosure: I sure did, and ignorance definitely felt an awful lot like bliss. The first trailer hit the Interwebs last night, and after taking a look, I’d be grateful to return to that idyllic state of not knowing. Hachi machi, this looks like a tone-deaf dud. I’ll admit right off the bat that I’m not giving the movie much of a chance, but I’ll also quickly point out that my wholesale disinterest in the production and my immediately prickly reaction to the footage has more to do with the fact that…
