Every summer we are introduced to some incredible blockbuster movies. Some are memorable and others, not so much. Some fly under the radar and surprise us at a time when we need a refreshing change. There is always a big push during the final weeks of the summer as movies fight for box office attendance. This summer has been nothing less than stellar with some of the blockbuster hits delivering in spades. But what about the smaller budget films, that aren’t Indie flicks, but aren’t of the $200 million dollar variety. Premium Rush falls somewhere in the middle of everything with a modest budget, by Hollywood standards. It’s a refreshing…
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G-S-T Review…ParaNorman
In the vein of iconic monster/adventure properties like The Monster Squad, Scooby-Doo even The Iron Giant comes Laika’s follow-up to their hit film Coraline. ParaNorman, is a fantastically intricate stop-motion (or “stop-frame” to you film fans in the UK) animated film that follows Norman, a young boy who is more than a little obsessed with the macabre…he can actually see and communicate with ghosts. He takes it all in stride but is most definitely an outcast but like all great outcasts, he’s destined to save the day because of his eccentricities. It’s a common story but from the mind of Chris Butler, this more or less familiar theme is spun just enough and is ‘wonky’ enough…
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G-S-T Review…Klown
Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen, the stars and writers of Denmark’s Klown, should find themselves in good company among the most prominent members of the raunchy comedy pantheon. Alternately, the remorselessly profane Danish duo might repulse their peers just as easily. Klown, the cinematic evolution of the television show Hvam and Christensen created and featured in together for four years, pushes every boundary of good taste with a smirk and a cackle; there’s gleeful deceit to how the film frequently builds toward redemptive kindness before pulling the rug out from under our feet. But if the film’s primary interest lies in taking the mickey out of Frank, Casper, and the audience, its…
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G-S-T Review…The Odd Life of Timothy Green
If you stop and think about the impact that Disney has had on all of our lives, it’s simply staggering. It would be almost impossible to find someone you know who has never seen a Disney film or TV show. Disney’s formula for success is often imitated, but there is only one Disney. With The Odd Life of Timothy Green, you have a Mary Poppins tale of sorts. You understand it’s a Disney family film and you suspend disbelief, just long enough to allow yourself to get sucked into the movie. You put the Disney name on a film and it’s almost guaranteed to make a profit. But, does Odd…
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G-S-T Review…The Campaign
For a film enjoying its theatrical run as the 2012 presidential election race draws closer and closer to the finish line, The Campaign feels supremely out of date. It’s worth mentioning right away that regardless, the film is frequently hilarious; from little, quiet, unexpectedly odd moments to much grander and more orchestrated fits of pure lunacy, The Campaign works on a strictly comic level. That’s half the battle, of course, maybe more depending on how you like your comedies, but it’s impossible to shake off the frivolity on full display right next to the movie’s prominent absurdities. How does one make a picture about politics in a politically aware era and at…
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G-S-T Review…The Bourne Legacy
We’re at a point in franchising history where three films will no longer do. Series from Die Hard to Indiana Jones have been expanded beyond their trilogy borders to include a fourth entry; meanwhile, the future third film in the Hunger Games saga is already being split into two parts. Traditionally, conventional wisdom marks the third film in a trilogy as the lesser installment of the series, but as three-parters get expanded to four, so too is that adage stretched out– and if The Bourne Legacy has anything to add to the discussion, then the fourth film is the new third. Call it tepid, call it slack, call it pointless;…
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G-S-T Review…Ruby Sparks
Ruby Sparks is the first screenplay from star Zoe Kazan and the film features the highly anticipated return of the husband/wife filmmaking duo who brought us 2006’s mega hit Little Miss Sunshine. Similar in style to their Oscar-nominated feature, this highly original and delightful concept is a rare thing in Hollywood. It’s a sweet, emotional and enjoyable flick that, free of pretense and a visible Hollywood hand, legitimately pulls the audience in without tropes or trite concepts that would unfairly cause many to blindly and inaccurate lying label this as just another “rom-com”. Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) found immense literary success at a young age and like any artist who hits it…
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G-S-T Review…Total Recall
In the film world, remakes get a bad rap and it’s mainly because most of them don’t offer anything new. Just the word “remake” can make people irk. Sometimes a remake comes along that can beat the odds, gain a new audience and impress existing fans with the update; sadly, this is not one of them…but it’s not like anyone was holding their breath. Len Wiseman (the Underworld series, Live Free or Die Hard) gives us a new spin on both the 1990 Paul Verhoeven action-classic and the Phillip K. Dick short film which inspired it. But what do we get with this face-lift? Not very much, which is disappointing because Wiseman has assembled some of…
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G-S-T Review…Step Up Revolution
There’s really not much to say about a picture like Step Up Revolution, the fourth of its name. If anything, I admire it for daring to be anything more than a movie about Kids With Dreams striving to realize those dreams, though that’s not saying much. Like the other Step Up films, and last year’s remake of Footloose, Step Up Revolution has one raison d’êtere, and that’s to thrill audiences with great dancing in increasingly elaborate dance numbers. Judged on that criteria alone, the film succeeds as a light, well-intentioned but charmingly dopey crowd-pleaser. Just don’t go in expecting the elements of civil disobedience captured in the marketing to add…
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G-S-T Review…The Watch
A sincere question for my readers: is it worse for a movie to be derivative or lifeless? The Watch, the second feature by The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaeffer, borrows liberally from science fiction cinema classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (take your pick between the ’56 and ’78 versions) as well as contemporary greats like last year’s excellent Attack the Block, but the film’s worst transgression isn’t its unapologetic mimicry. Calling on decades-old genre traditions is one thing; turning out an embarrassingly brainless, thoroughly bland, and criminally unfunny attempt at sci-fi comedy is another entirely. The Watch shows as little interest in its aliens as its punchlines. Not to mention its characters. Like the best…