May 21
This Means War is one of the most abrasive, frustrating, mind-numbingly terrible films of 2012. It presents itself as a romantic comedy action flick, but it fails on all fronts and winds up a blubbing mess “highlighted” by foolish characters, awkward lightning and set design, and Chelsea Handler’s nauseating attempts at humour.
You can check out the rest of this review at This Means War DVD Review: A Blubbing Mess at Cinema Sentries
Directed by Scott Sanders, Black Dynamite is a Blaxploitation homage flick that nails it down and knocks it out. Where some attempts at the genre fail, like the hopelessly mediocre Father’s Day, Black Dynamite excels because of one critical thing: commitment.
Produced by the famed Troma Enterainment, Father’s Day is a pretty middling affair. The flick comes written and directed by Winnipeg-based filmmaking collective Astron-6and attempts to slap itself headlong into the grindhouse and late-nite movie genre, using resolute cheese, bad effects, and exaggerated sex and violence to plead its case.
You can check out the rest of this review at Father’s Day (2011) Movie Review: Too Modern and Too Hip for Its Own Good at Cinema Sentries
Ah, the mighty apex of Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman series of films. Batman & Robin is a flick that is almost universally reviled among Bat-fans, those dark denizens of comic book mischief. Some might say that the revulsion over Schumacher’s colourful, homoerotic, innuendo-laced tale of woe and latex is well-placed, but – holy campfest, Batman! – I actually kind of like this movie.
When Guy Ritchie uncorked the bottle on Sherlock Holmes in the form of a 2009 blockbuster, I was surprised at how fun the whole shebang was. The sequel, released in December of 2011, attempts to capture the same energy and amusement but the pacing is off and the plot is beyond convoluted. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is, as a result, a messy bore of a detective film.
