CineRik

This movie was viewed using iReel streaming.  Watch movies online.

I’m going to step back and revisit a blast from my past with this review.  I remember being a big fan of Ridley Scott’s Black Rain when it came out, a time when I was too young to have actually been watching it!  So I’m risking tarnishing an old memory now that I’m (hopefully!) a more astute and cultured viewer.    Thankfully, while it certainly doesn’t inhabit the same hallowed ground as Scott’s masterpieces, this is a great looking, though sometimes fairly dumb, member of the 80s buddy-cop genre. (continue reading…)

The strength of this film’s story is diluted by the cartoon-like characters and the unnecessary melodrama.  But the inevitable climax packs a hefty punch.  Find my full review here.

Reviewed at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival

This Mexican film offers a rare insight into the lives of the families left behind by workers who make the dangerous journey into America.  The lack of opinion or preaching from the film-makers is refreshing, but the refusal to look into the underlying causes frustrated me.  I get up on my soap-box here.

Reviewed at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival

The third in the Coffin Joe horror series from Brazil, although separated from its predecessors by over forty years. The film is too rampantly misogynistic for my tastes, but delivers all and more of the expected gore.  I sink my teeth in here.

Reviewd at the Los Angeles Film Festival

This beautifully shot film about a woman who spends her life making bad decisions, the latest of which sees her abandonned by her husband, meanders in the second act and left me unfulfilled.  Take a break and read my review here.

Starting today I’ll be attending the Los Angeles Film Festival.  Over the next 10 or so days I’ll be posting reviews on the best, and worst, that I discover.  Wish me luck!

Thanks to SBCC Film Reviews for securing my press pass for the event.

A sequel with no connection to the original.  Poor acting, worse effects and the dullest car ‘chase’ I can remember.  I wonder what was going on in the minds of all involved here.

This movie was viewed using iReel streaming.  Watch movies online.

Often films have elements whose sole purpose is to move the real story forward.  Legendary thriller director Alfred Hitchcock called them MacGuffins.  Think of the stolen money in Psycho, or the possible murder in Rear Window, which only serves to propel the relationship between James Stewart and Grace Kelly’s characters.  In Cloverfield, the MacGuffin is unfortunately far more interesting than the actual story and we end up focusing for far too much of the film on the relationships between six twenty-something friends, while something BIG tears New York apart. (continue reading…)

Too many ideas spoil the plot in this schizophrenic homage to the 70s road movies.  Interesting, but too few signposts for viewers to negotiate its complexities.  I map out the reasons here.

My prediction, right now – worst film of the year.  Surely nothing released will be worse.  Hates men, women, children and audiences.  A rom-com with neither romance or comedy. Find out why this film treats you like a baby treats a diaper here.