‘Hangover 2′: Hair of the dog

I had considered possibly resubmitting my initial review for “The Hangover” for its sequel, since that is all the writers of the latest film had done. But then I realized everything I found fresh and funny the first go-round had gone a bit stale in this second serving. Plus, I don’t think the Cape Gazette [...]

‘Panda’: All gut, and glory

Despite a darker tone, Po’s fists of furry fury are just as engaging in “Kung Fu Panda 2,” a solid product from DreamWorks Animation, which has been milking its cash cow… or ogre, rather, churning out increasingly inferior “Shrek” sequels. DreamWorks nailed it last year with one of the year’s best animated films, “How to [...]

‘Priest’: Holy shit

Welcome, parishioners! Our reading today will be from the Book of Paul (Bettany). It’s the story of a young, striking, classically trained actor with a promising future led into temptation by the draw of the monetary gain of crappy genre films. It’s a familiar tale, originally found in the Book of Julian (Sands). Back in [...]

‘Thor’: It’s hammer time!

I must admit, for all the Avengers amassing, “Thor” was the character for whom I held the most doubt. For the uninitiated, Marvel Comics is toiling away at an epic comic concoction filled with its bankable superheroes. Over the past few years, it has been skillfully crafting the wildly diverse origin stories of these crusaders, [...]

‘Thor’: It’s hammer time!

I must admit, for all the Avengers amassing, “Thor” was the character for whom I held the most doubt. For the uninitiated, Marvel Comics is toiling away at an epic comic concoction filled with its bankable superheroes. Over the past few years, it has been skillfully crafting the wildly diverse origin stories of these crusaders, [...]

Saving the best for ‘Fast’

“Fast Five” is like “Inception” created for a“Jersey Shore” audience. What is more shocking than that union is that it’s not a bad move. It only took producers five tries, but it seems this one gets it right. For we are now in our fifth outing with the gears, girls and guns franchise known originally [...]

‘Scream’: Another stab at relevance

I was recently asked to participate in a “Scream” retrospective podcast in anticipation of the latest installment of the franchise. To brush up, I revisited the original and its two sequels after not having seen them for years. What I had noticed was that, after years of sequels, spoofs, sequels to those spoofs, rip-offs and [...]

My super-sweet assassination

Sorry Miley, but if I am looking for a heroine named Hanna for my little girl, I’m heading here. Isolated deep in a German forest with her father Erik (played by Eric Bana), the eponymous lead of “Hanna” is taught, in feral-like fashion, to defend herself in any possible situation and survive on her own [...]

Phoning it in for ‘Scream’ series

Since I have been rather preoccupied to record our own podcasts here, I’ve decided to leech onto others, so that they may do the heavy lifting (read: hours of editing). This coming week, head over to The Avod (http://theavod.blogspot.com/) and hear a rather lengthy dissection (which ultimately becomes a vivisection) of the ‘Scream’ series with [...]

Donnie Not-So-Darko

Director Duncan Jones deserves a lot of accolades for his attempt to resurrect old-school sci-fi. In 2009′s “Moon,” Jones took a minimalist approach to the genre, with Sam Rockwell as a lunar miner facing a tough final mission before returning to family on Earth. He was given a substantially bigger budget with “Source Code,” but [...]