It's an interesting idea: they say human beings only use ten percent of their brains. What if there were a miracle drug that cleared the usual traffic, got the synapses firing, and allowed someone to use all of that potential? That idea is at the heart of Limitless, the new film from writer/director Neil Burger (whose last film The Lucky Ones was disappointingly underseen). Sadly, not only is the "ten percent" factoid actually a myth, but Limitless increasingly reveals a number of creative boundaries.

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a would-be writer struggling to get his first book out of his head and onto the page. After one of his usual early-morning bar check-ins, he runs into his former brother-in-law Vernon, whose expensive suit, fine watch and cutting-edge cell phone indicate a person of h...Read the entire review

"Take Me Home Tonight" has endured a bumpy ride on its way to theatrical distribution. Shot nearly four years ago, this comedy has been shoved around the release schedule, handled gingerly by studios that didn't exactly know what to do with a comedy aimed at twentysomethings about the 1980s. Their hesitance is understandable, with the feature trapped between traditional coming-of-age sympathy and brazen nostalgia, presumably aimed at a generation that's stopped going to the movies.

A bright student who lost his way after college, Matt (Topher Grace) doesn't know what to do with his life, hiding from the demands of adulthood by working at a Suncoast Video store in the mall. Into the shop comes Tori (Teresa Palmer), Matt's high school crush. Looking to impress her through lies a...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Written and directed by none other than Wes Craven, the man who gave us visceral, gut churning horror classics like A Nightmare On Elm Street and Last House On The Left, 2010's My Soul To Take looked like it could be a return to form for Craven. Once again playing in the R-rated field his early stuff was known for, this picture once again let Craven tell a story in a small town with a secret, the kind that worked so well when he unleashed Freddy Kruger on the masses. Sadly, this film is not a return to form at all, it's one misfire after another and the end result is one of the worst movies to come out of 2010.

Set in Riverton, Massachusetts, the film begins when a man named Able Plinkton (Raul Esparza) snaps thanks to the conflicting personalities residing inside him. He calls his shrink for help, but it's too late - he cuts his pregnant wife up with a...Read the entire review

THE FILM:

Director Wes Craven must be pulling some elaborate hoax with My Soul to Take, a shockingly awful horror film that plays like a parody of the director's better work. The man who jump-started a floundering horror genre with Scream and whose last major film was the accomplished Red Eye is so far above this tone-deaf schlock that My Soul to Take has to be a joke. Perhaps, with Scream 4 on the horizon, Craven wanted to lampoon his standard mix of horror and social commentary to illustrate how bad such fusion can be when crafted by the wrong hands. This has to be a joke, because ...Read the entire review

Recently, Roger Corman's Deathsport made its way across my desk. A weird mash of medieval sword-and-sorcery nonsense with more futuristic motorcycle mayhem, this low-budget David Carradine vehicle was mildly grating and wholly unoriginal, yet, to some, the schlocky familiarity is part of the appeal. Corman made what were eventually defined as popcorn movies: go to the theater, buy some snacks, and see a little spectacle. They don't make many movies like that these days, but Season of the Witch fits the bill perfectly, spinning a familiar road trip story around a group of wildly uneven performances and some reasonably polished visuals.

Nicolas Cage plays Behmen, a knight who, with his loyal friend Felson (Ron Perlman), becomes disillusioned with the Church's increasingly bloody reign, and ta...Read the entire review

It's difficult to take Nicolas Cage seriously these days. The former madman has been forced into a series of paycheck gigs for reasons obvious to anyone enjoying access to the internet, with "Season of the Witch" a solid representation of Cage's new career direction. Unchallenged and over-wigged, the actor is merely biding his time with this serving of horror hooey, obviously more interested in hearing the sweet sound of "cut!" than trying to make a tepid screenplay shuffle with restless energy Cage is more than capable of summoning. The material needed his special sauce. Instead, Cage barely raises an eyebrow.

Disillusioned knights of the Crusades, Behmen (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) have ditched their duty, taking off to find a safe haven, looking to cleanse thei...Read the entire review

"The Warrior's Way" is an odd one. Wedged somewhere between the furious imaginations of Tsui Hark and Sergio Leone, the feature is an idiosyncratic ode to pure screen heroism thwarted by the junky instincts of its untested writer/director, Sngmoo Lee. I was never outright bored by the picture, but there's much to jeer in this overwrought action film, which spends so much time reminding the audience of its artificiality, it forgets to have some spaghetti western fun with the limitless potential of CGI.

A brilliant swordsman for the Sad Flutes squad of assassins, Yang (Jang Dong-gun) has slaughtered most of his enemies, left with only a royal infant standing between him and military glory. Taking the young prince and fleeing the land, Yang heads to find a friend in the forgotte...Read the entire review

Alien invasion movies don't need an excessive amount of encouragement to succeed. Sure, the finest features put in the time and effort to give audiences a rowdy ride of chills and spills, but as long as aliens furiously attack and some screamy humans are dutifully riled up, basic genre requirements are taken care of. "Skyline" seeks to prove that theory wrong, taking an enthusiastic premise of intergalactic war and reducing it to glimpses of chintzy CGI-laden chaos sandwiched between lengthy stretches of tedious, amateurish dramatic filler.

Arriving in Los Angeles to visit old friend/hip-hop partner Terry (Donald Faison), Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) are immediately impressed with his swank high-rise digs. After a night of heavy partying, res...Read the entire review

In 2005, Wes Craven directed "Red Eye," a ripping assassination thriller that allowed the filmmaker a rare chance to step away from horror and attack the challenge of generating chills from a different genre. The experiment didn't last, and now Craven is back to dismal fright films with "My Soul to Take," a particularly confused and wooden slasher feature that drags the director's once mighty name back into the mire.

16 years ago, a terrible killer known as the Riverton Ripper was shot dead, revealing a supernatural presence that could carry on past the limitations of the flesh. Now it's the anniversary of the killing, with seven teens born the night the Ripper was killed gathering to commemorate the end of his deadly reign. One of those youngsters is Bug (Max Thieriot), a shy...Read the entire review

Catfish is half a documentary. Yes, it's an interesting, well-done half, but filmmakers Ariel "Rel" Schulman and Henry Joost are too passive to go as deep as the discoveries they make are asking them to go. Obviously, given that the whole marketing campaign hangs on the tagline "Don't let anyone tell you what it is!", I'm not going to break my usual spoiler-free policy and reveal what those discoveries are, but as one of the subjects says, "this is just the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to what Schulman and Joost could theoretically say on the subject at hand.

At first, that subject is Nev Schulman, Ariel's brother. Nev is a photographer who takes pictures of dancers in New York City, and one of his photos catches the eye of a young girl named Abby, who creates a painting of Nev's photo and sends it to him. Over the course of six months, Ariel and Abby form a friendship in which he sends h...Read the entire review

The fact of the matter is, if you can see Catfish without knowing anything about it--without seeing the trailer, without perusing the back story, without hearing about its controversy--you should just do that. It's just impossible for us to talk about the picture or any of its secondary concerns without giving away more than, frankly, I wish I'd known going in; if you have an interest, then yes, it's worth your time, so go see it and read this later.

You back? Good. We'll stay spoiler-light, in case anyone hasn't heeded the warnings. It is the story (as you well know, reader who has already seen it) of New York photographer Nev Schulman, who strikes up on an online friendship with a Michigan family--first through youngest daughter Abby, an eight-year-old painting prod...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Another swing and a miss for SNL feature films

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Lonely Island, Val Kilmer
Likes: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, the MacGruber sketches
Dislikes: Half-hearted parodies
Hates: Being bored

The Movie
Movies made from recurring sketches on Saturday Night Live don't have the greatest track record in cinemas, delivering bombs like It's Pat and A Night at the Roxbury, when they aren't legendary outings like Wayne's World or The Blues Brothers. The main problem is in attempting to extend a concept that works for a few minutes to feature length. Most of the time, it results in a bloated mess, because the concept can't support the length. <...Read the entire review

"Saturday Night Live" has produced several peculiar motion pictures based on popular skits over the last three decades, but nothing has been more unlikely than a feature film pulled together from the likes of "MacGruber." A spoof of the popular '80s adventure series "MacGyver," "MacGruber" started life as brief nuggets of absurdity airing between skits, rarely lasting more than a minute at a time -- hardly the foundation for 90 minutes of action cinema satire. Against all odds (including a studio fearful to show the film to the press), "MacGruber" actually snaps together quite agreeably thanks to a thunderously filthy screenplay and a game cast, who heroically taffy pull a slender concept to a pleasing consistency of comedic madness.

Supervillian Dieter Von Cunth (Val K...Read the entire review

A few years back, writer/director Dito Montiel crafted "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints." It was a flawed but beautifully impassioned picture that isolated a feisty independent film spirit, embroidered with improvisational acting and Montiel's commitment to emotional authenticity. "Saints" came from the heart. "Fighting" is the more studio-minded follow-up, which also attempts to deploy Montiel's gritty sense of emotional honesty, only this time it's in service of a brain-dead motion picture that blends the filmmaker's aesthetic interests with an insultingly formulaic screenplay, and it's all frosted with overwrought performances that should've been tightly leashed from the get-go.

A homeless kid with a laundry list of troubles, Shawn (Channing Tatum, "Step Up") is recogni...Read the entire review

I hate the term "torture porn". As an avid (but not hardcore) horror fan and all-around movie lover, the phrase denigrates my interest in the latest Saw flick without requiring its detractors to see it. For me, a slasher like that is a gory magic trick, a twisted prank experience designed to make the audience squirm and gasp. I go to see them and laugh when the audience goes "oh, gross!", because I know ten guys in a warehouse worked tirelessly to score that exact reaction. Wes Craven's 1972 flick The Last House on the Left is not like that. Similar to the original Texas Chain Saw Masscare, Craven's movie (produced by Sean Cunningham) looks like something someone dug out of a dirty basement. It's brutal, unrelenting, and unpleasant to watch. The 2009 ver...Read the entire review

Over time, director Wes Craven has claimed that his seminal 1972 film, "The Last House on the Left," was a veiled commentary on Vietnam-era violence and the redaction process of news footage. It was intended as shock in a time that wasn't equipped for such explicit content and grim storytelling. With viewers stunned into submission, the film became a cult hit, leading to the inevitable remake, albeit 37 years later. What was once an intolerably uneven, crude stunner has now been glossed up, stripped of even the smallest crumb of palatable intention, and pointed directly at the "Saw" and "Hostel" fans that just can't get enough of that funky suffering stuff.

Arriving at their remote lakeside vacation home for a weekend getaway, John (Tony Goldwyn) and Emma (Monica Potter) Colli...Read the entire review

I respect that David S. Goyer desires to pen eccentric genre pieces that both conform to traditions and enjoy a few unique perspectives on scares. I just wish he would stop directing these movies. After three feature films of discouraging quality, Goyer suits up in a beret and jodhpurs again for "The Unborn," which holds the miserable distinction of being the most dreadful film he's fashioned to date. With past achievements such as "Blade: Trinity" and "The Invisible" to his name, it's clear Goyer's work is getting worse, and his imagination slowing to a crawl.

Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) is having trouble unlocking the meaning behind her violent dreams. Sensing a demonic force in the guise of a child (named "Jumby") is after her, Casey turns to the clues left behind by her...Read the entire review

Y'know, if Doomsday didn't look so damned slick, I really wouldn't have any trouble buying that this was some obscure Avco-Embassy grindhouse action flick from 1982. After tackling werewolves and spam-in-a-cave, Neil Marshall hammered out this homage to his favorite '80s post-apocalyptic B-movies...a valentine scrawled in blood to Escape from New York, Mad Max, The Warriors, and, Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34086 Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:00:14 UTC Rent It

The Product:
Has any other filmmaker pissed away his genre goodwill quicker than Neil Marshall? After the unique werewolf deconstruction of Dog Soldiers and the universal acclaim for his spelunking scarefest The Descent, the UK fear master had the opportunity to make any film he wanted. It's the kind of creative carte blanche that anyone in his position would crave. So what did he decide to do? The lame and very lackluster Doomsday is the answer. While not quite inherently original, the post-apocalyptic thriller does have its entertainment allure, especially when you bring some new ideas to your dystopia. Sadly, Marshall's vision was so retro as to be retarded. He simply borrowed the premises from several '80s action films and fused them together in an unsuccessful motion picture mash-up. The results were regressive, to say the least.

The Plot:
Eden Sinclai...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33976 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:40:43 UTC Recommended

The Movie

Say what you will about writer/director Neil Marshall's bloody, bleak Doomsday, but as follow-ups to successful, break-out films go, it's certainly unpredictable. Marshall, who turned heads with Dog Soldiers and grabbed moviegoers around the world by their throats with The Descent, is back with this crazed cinematic cassoulet, a go-for-broke thrill ride that mashes the gas pedal and doesn't let up until the credits hit the screen. (Or as Marshall describes it in the commentary track, "a post-apocalyptic action movie with an edge.")

It's 2037 and the United Kingdom has been ravaged by the Reaper virus, a particularly nasty pathogen that renders folks not unlike those pustule-ridden, supremely aggressive types populating Danny Boyle's now-iconic 28 Days Later. The government discovers, after a period of relative calm, that London is being th...Read the entire review

]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/32652 Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:52:36 UTC Rent It

After creating "Dog Soldiers" and the mesmerizing horror bonanza "The Descent," writer/director Neil Marshall has built up quite an impressive reservoir of good faith with both fans and critics. He's a smart filmmaker; a fresh talent working the levers on genres that need every ounce of intelligence they can possibly vacuum up. However, "Doomsday" is a misfire for Marshall; a vivid production giving him a plump budget to pursue his deepest widescreen dreams, yet he loses control of this violent free-for-all immediately after takeoff.

When the Reaper virus rears its ugly head in 2008, it threatens to wipe out Scotland, forcing government officials to do the unthinkable: wall off the country to isolate the infected. 25 years later, the virus has returned, and the secret of a potential cure is locked away in the quarantined country now populated with the tattooed and cannibalistic dregs of ...Read the entire review

]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30146 Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:09:40 UTC Skip It

I'm honestly stunned to consider how dreadful "Balls of Fury" actually is. This picture had the potential to be the break-out sillyfest of the year, yet nothing comedic sticks to the screen. The film just stumbles around, without any personality or direction, looking for laughs in all the wrong places.

After blowing the 1988 Olympics due to parental issues, Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) ditched competitive Table Tennis to work the seedy nightclubs of Nevada. When an FBI agent (George Lopez) offers the slob a chance for redemption at evil warlord Feng's (Christopher Walken) underground Ping-Pong tournament, Randy quickly agrees and heads to Master Wong (James Wong) for training. With the help of fellow pupil Maggie (Maggie Q), Randy starts to find his old paddle mojo again, setting him loose in Feng's secret palace where danger lurks everywhere he steps.

Clearly "Fury" is abusing the template from 200...Read the entire review

]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/27663 Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:37:26 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

As much as it teeters on the thin line of absurdity, "Hot Fuzz" is no parody. It's a valentine to blockbuster Hollywood action film posturing and unrelenting violence, strained through the generous wit and perfect execution of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg.

Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is London's finest police officer and a great pain to his fellow, and far lazier, cops. Transferred to the small, peaceful village of Sandford, Angel discovers his co-workers are a group of complete boobs, led by an Inspector (Jim Broadbent) who seems more concerned with ice cream than crime. Partnered with goofball Frank Butterman (Nick Frost), Angel is aghast to find the village an absolute bore. His interests are soon piqued when a series of accidents turn out to not be accidents at all, but a string of murders nobody but Angel is prepared to deal with adequately.

2004's "Shaun of the Dead" introduced this filmmak...Read the entire review

]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/27649 Fri, 20 Apr 2007 02:12:11 UTC Highly Recommended

The clever Brits who merrily deconstructed zombie movie with "Shaun of the Dead" have now applied their considerable talents to "Hot Fuzz," a loving and faithful comic homage to the Buddy-Cop Action Flick. Can I put in a request now for these guys to do this for every major film genre?

Parodies are a dime a dozen. Lame spoofs like "Epic Movie" and "Date Movie" pop up now and then, grab a couple cheap laughs, then evaporate as soon as their jokes become dated (usually in a matter of days). "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" feature some satiric elements, but their central purpose is to express affection for the movies that inspired them, not derision. What's more, these homages are funny, exciting, and shrewd. Just as "Shaun" was both a gentle spoof of zombie movies and a very good zombie movie, "Hot Fuzz" is equally adept at repurposing the elements of a "Lethal Weapon"-type flick while also...Read the entire review

]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/27638 Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:38:55 UTC Highly Recommended

There's a scene in an episode of the British TV series Spaced where Simon Pegg lets his baffled roommate in on the secret code between all men. Essentially, when one man makes a fake light saber sound in the direction of another, they have to have a mock light saber duel. It's biological law.

Since Spaced, writer/performer Pegg and his writing partner and director, Edgar Wright, have gone on to make two major motion pictures--Shaun of the Dead and the subject of this review, Hot Fuzz. Both movies have been built on that principle, and I, for one, say thank God for that!

Hot Fuzz stars Pegg as Nick Angel, a policeman--sorry, police officer man--who is so good at his job, his superiors exile him from London to a rural village because his showboating is making the rest of the force look bad. Naturally, Nick has a hard time adjusting to country life, where the most ...Read the entire review

]]> Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/24983 Mon, 13 Nov 2006 20:39:49 UTC Skip It

Traveling to Texas to close an important business deal, Joanna (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is haunted by disturbing images she doesn't understand. Compelled to stop in a small town to feed her curiosity about the nightmarish visions, Joanna soon uncovers clues that she might have a higher purpose during this trip than she previously believed.

No matter what "The Return" does to kill its running time, the only goal it has is to stay ahead of the audience at all costs. This is a "supernatural thriller" about murder, ghosts, and the vagaries of the afterlife. With that unsophisticated recipe, it's too bad we're not watching an old "X-Files" episode, because as a feature film, "The Return" is a horrendous stab at spooking an audience.

The troubles start with the screenplay by Adam Sussman, which furiously cheats and cautiously sidesteps basic narrative information to deliberately keep the audience in...Read the entire review

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