James Woods

It appears, therefore, that 1998, when Vampires was released, was right around the time when John Carpenter’s limelight began to dim. It would be harsh to mindlessly lump Vampires in the same category as films such as Escape from L.A. and The Ward however. The reality is that the picture is a decent romp, one that juggles obligatory vampire movie tropes with a more modern twist or two and some action scenes befitting of a western, incidentally a genre Carpenter himself is on record for being quite fond of.

In the Sci-Fi realm of Videodrome, and within the design of Cronenberg’s fertile imagination, the technologies at the heart of the film are so much more than mere devices.

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau Directed by David Gregory USA, 2014 Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) is a documentary that tells the secret story behind Richard Stanley’s involvement, as the uncredited director and extra, in the cult movie The Island …

Once Upon a Time in America is a gangster film of the highest order, and, at the same time, it recalls so many of its predecessors

With “Road Trip,” Ray Donovan attempts to draw a Shakespearean parallel between its twin protagonists- Ray and Mickey. Both are tied by family. Both seek to destroy the other, by violent and/or underhanded means. Both tout that they’re holding the family together, but in reality Ray and Mickey are the two biggest fault lines that all the Donovan cracks and crevices stem from.

Eight episodes in and Ray Donovan has a decent level of emotional weight behind its characters. When Ray and Bridget share a tender moment at the close of “Bridget,” there’s real warmth onscreen. The same goes for nearly anyone else- no matter what the situation, these characters are not hollow. They’re people; and despite the show’s continual mistakes, the mere fact that we’ve spent eight hours with these people means we’ve made some tenuous connection with them.

Subtlety is a skill Roland Emmerich has not mastered. Subtlety is not, nor ever will be, in his repertoire; it is likely as alien a concept to him as opposable thumbs are to all non-human creatures. Most of the time, his thudding portentousness doesn’t serve him well as a director, with previous misfires like The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, and 2012 lining his filmography, movies that are big and loud enough to make money despite being massively, unpleasantly stupid.