REVIEW: Hocus Pocus [1993]

“Winnie, do you want to hit me? Will that cheer you up?” What began as a script for a made-for-TV Disney Channel movie, Hocus Pocus found its way onto the right desk at the right time for the increased level of support necessary to transition it into a bona fide theatrical release. Sadly for all involved, though, the critics more or less hated it and the box office barely squeaked by its production budget. Yet somehow everyone I knew who had seen it as a child possessed a strange affinity…

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Posterized Propaganda November 2013: ‘Ender’s Game,’ ‘Nebraska,’ ‘Frozen,’ ‘Oldboy’ & More

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” is a proverb whose simple existence proves the fact impressionable souls will do so without fail. This monthly column focuses on the film industry’s willingness to capitalize on this truth, releasing one-sheets to serve as not representations of what audiences are to expect, but as propaganda to fill seats. Oftentimes they fail miserably. Summer is here! Well, at least the summer we hoped to have when the sun was still shining out my window. Yes, the requisite Oscar bait arrives with a few…

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Never give a Cuban a microphone … Babel’s Richard Blanco

The 2013-2014 season of Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Babel series start a tad late as the largest contingent of audience members since Salman Rushdie (or perhaps ever) shuffled into Kleinhans to see Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco talk about his career and inspiration. Even after a nice poem written and read by one of the artists who use the Genesseo Migrant Center to hone her artistic skills and the usual introduction from Just Buffalo Artistic Director Barbara Cole (one that brought Blanco to the verge of tears) push the evening farther,…

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REVIEW: Die Wand [The Wall] [2012]

“There is no impulse more reasonable than love” There is something to be said about an allegory that doesn’t feel the need to beat you over the head with one “true” interpretation. Isn’t the point of such veiled metaphorical introspection that we experience it on our own terms and take what we will whether right, wrong, or conflicted? This is the type of journey director Julian Pölsler’s adaptation of Marlen Haushofer’s 1963 novel Die Wand [The Wall] takes us, one with deliberate questions devoid of the concrete answers necessary to…

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REVIEW: Last Love [2013]

“I’m an old fool, darling. Just an old fool.” Do not watch the trailer for writer/director Sandra Nettelbeck’s Last Love (formerly Mr. Morgan’s Last Love). For many that shouldn’t be a problem because like me they hadn’t known it existed until sitting down to watch, but I implore those who have to go in blind. Between its two-and-a-half minute runtime showing way too much information about certain relationship evolutions and its decision to end on one of the few jokey moments that somehow has descriptions putting the word comedy next…

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REVIEW: Big Sur [2013]

“The circle’s closed in on the old heroes of the night” I’ve never read a novel by Jack Kerouac—the only Beat Generation tome I have leafed through is William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch—but I imagine the experience is similar to that of watching director Michael Polish’s adaption of the author’s 1962 work, Big Sur. About eighty-five percent driven by voiceover narration assumedly being read directly out of the book to be heard above a sprawling Explosions in the Sky-lite score from The National and gorgeously composed images of the On…

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REVIEW: 毒戰 [Du zhan] [Drug War] [2013]

“Bad for the brain. Hahaha.” The first action film prolific Hong Kong director Johnnie To shot exclusively in Mainland China shows that locale has little to do with his ability to achieve the level of entertainment international audiences expect. 毒戰 [Du zhan] [Drug War] sticks with the gangster genre he’s most associated with by pitting an undercover narcotics police force against drug kingpin Uncle Bill (Zhenqi Li). Involved in a multi-faceted sting operation, cops from Jinhai, Yuejiang, and Erzhou join together after syndicate general Timmy Choi (Louis Koo) is captured…

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REVIEW: Notre jour viendra [Our Day Will Come] [2010]

“How long can you stay a dumb, dull redhead?” Europe possesses a couple vocabulary words that we Americans wouldn’t take seriously if heard uttered in conversation. There’s a prejudice across the Atlantic—especially in England—against redheads that has coined the terms “gingerphobia” and “gingerism” as a form of hate crime. While the Middle Ages designated the “affliction” as the sign of a witch, werewolf, vampire, or other evil creature with mystical powers and insatiable sexual desire to be feared and disparaged, one would think such assumptions laughably impossible today in the…

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REVIEW: Escape From Tomorrow [2013]

“Dad, why are we following those girls?” If you ever thought about going to Walt Disney World with the intention of shooting a dark psychological horror film on the sly about the multi-billion dollar corporation’s way too pristine façade hiding a seedy underbelly of prostitution, disease, and scientific espionage, I’m sorry but you’re too late. First time writer/director Randy Moore might not be the first person to film underneath Mickey’s nose without permission, but he’s definitely become the most famous for his audacity to twist iconic rides and visuals into…

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REVIEW: Toy Story of Terror [2013]

“And if something does happen to the potato—I don’t want to miss it!” While Disney/Pixar has dove into children’s television with Cars-centric offerings and a Buzz Lightyear spin-off, it’s surprising it’s taken this long to craft a primetime special. With what used to be a flawless feature film enterprise bolstered by award-winning shorts, perhaps they believed themselves above the small screen until now. But as Pixar evolves from luxury brand to simply one more animation arm of Disney proper, good press and high ratings aren’t something to ignore out of…

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REVIEW: Broadway Idiot [2013]

“I can’t act. I can’t dance. Compared to a lot of these people I can’t even sing” I remember picking up Green Day’s American Idiot with trepidation in 2004. Dookie is without a doubt a classic while Insomniac proved to be a worthy follow-up to its greatness. Nimrod came with a few good tracks, but Warning possessed all the mainstream earmarks to earn the dreaded “sell-out” chant by fans of a once prominent punk rock band turning soft. (Hell, if you ask true blue punks from the 70s, they never…

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