The Cinematheque Reviews: Hobo With A Shotgun

"Delivering justice, one shell at a time..."  This is the tagline that accompanies the quite fun new revenge-action flick, Hobo With A Shotgun (can we call this neo-grindhouse? -- of course we can! -- and I do in my review as a matter-of-fact).  This tagline, along with its outrageously pinpoint title, pretty much sums the film up rather nicely.  Sure the film is purposely over the top (can you believe this is a major critical concern for some!?) and the gore flies with a giddy and quite gruesome bravura (as it damn well should in such a genre) which scares many of the weaker set off, but in the end (and what a Grand Guignol ending it happens to be) Hobo With A Shotgun is a (pun very much intended) blast to watch. My review of said blast of a film is up and running over at The Cinematheque.  Read it at your own risk.

Read my review of Hobo With A Shotgun at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: John Carpenter's The Ward

John Howard Carpenter.  The man gave us Halloween, The Thing, Escape From New York.  He's been gone ten years now (except for a couple of TV episodes of some show nobody watches) and the world of horror cinema just hasn't been the same.  In his stead, we have gotten a thing called torture porn and about four thousand and fifty-eight crummy remakes of older horror films (including two based on Carpenter movies).  Granted he may not have been doing his best work the decade or so before the aforementioned missing decade, but nonetheless, he has been missed.  Well, guess what?  The man is back and his new film, The Ward, perhaps isn't in the range of the films I mentioned at the beginning of this post, but hey, it's still a welcome treat.  Oh yeah, and that new Grindhouse Princess Amber Heard (a body to die for and an attitude to kill with) is of course smokin' hot as ever in her slightly off, batshitcrazy way.

Read my review of The Ward at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Drive Angry

Overall, the silly-looking Drive Angry (gleefully advertised as being shot in 3D) has been getting mediocre reviews to downright pans.  I am not sure what my brothers-in-critical-arms are thinking though.  I quite enjoyed the movie.  It may not be great cinema (though one must certainly wonder what a guy like Tarantino could do with the same Grindhouse-like material) and it certainly does have its nonsensical plot holes (including a pretty fucking gigantic one at the end!) but as pulp cinema, it is quite a fun ride to take.  Perhaps those, let's say more artistically pretentious among we critics (those Bosley Crowthers among us), cannot see this fun pulp twist to the story, and that is why they have panned an otherwise well-structured one Hell of a ride kind of movie as Drive Angry.  Your loss bitches!

Read my review of Drive Angry at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Machete

Over at The Cinematheque, one will find a new film review.  This particular review is on Robert Rodriguez's Machete.  I may have called the film a Giddy Grindhouse Grand Guignol of a movie, but you are going to have to go over there and read it to make sure.

Read my review of Machete at The Cinematheque.