The latest George Clooney movie The American is not a kick-ass Bourne style action flick as the trailer would have you believe. It is however a kick-ass modern western made with superior skill and filled with great performances. It’s a film that uses the clichés of the hitman genre with refreshing restraint while making them seem new again.

The movie was made by Ductchman Anton Corbijn, the same director of the best music biopic you never saw, 2007’s Control. A sleek black and white piece about Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, that makes Walk the Line look like an episode of American Idol. Corbijn uses more of his minimalist stylings and deliberately slow pacing present in that film here. While the general audience may dismiss this as boring, the rest of us will be entertained as the film slowly builds to it’s conclusion. (more…)

When it comes to a movie like Avatar I’m a firm believer that it is a film that should only be seen in theaters. After seeing the re-release of the movie in IMAX 3D earlier today, I have only become more opinionated in this matter. This was the first time I have revisited the film since it’s original theatrical run and it was truly worth the wait. While the jury is still out whether or not Avatar is the Star Wars of it’s generation, the pure cinema of it is still just as impressive as it was the first time around.

One of the big selling points of this re-release was the nine or so minutes of extra footage added back into the picture. Do the scenes help or hurt the film? Why not just wait for the recently announced DVD of the film which will have even more footage? Well, the truth of the matter is that unlike Cameron’s other extended cuts of his films such as Aliens and Terminator 2, which added many controversial scenes (among fans) this is more of an enhancement to some minor plot threads. With some extra Pandora goodness thrown in the mix. Below are the highlights of the added bits, with commentary. (more…)

Piranha 3D delivers on what it promises better than any movie I’ve seen this year. It knows exactly what it is, and what you the audience wants from this type of B picture. I even had to create a special split rating for the movie in light of it’s insanity.  However, you might be thinking you could just watch the equivalent of this film on the SyFy Channel. Well, you are both right and so, so wrong. So here is list of reasons why you should see this movie in theaters, and a list outlining why you should stay as far away as possible. I’ll leave the final choice up to you.
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With Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Edgar Wright has now been crowned the undisputed King of the action/comedy. The film is an innovative and kinetic visual feast on the level with such films as Speed Racer and Kill Bill Vol 1. Not only that, it also tells a funny and impactful story of 20 something romance.

I haven’t read the comics upon which the film was based, and I have to admit to not really understanding what the movie was trying to achieve in it’s onslaught of advertising. So the action transpires like a video game? What’s the reason? So there’s heavy dose of sight gags, yet the film doesn’t quite fit the tone of a straight up comedy. One particularly bad TV spot stated something like, “in a musical, characters break into song when they feel the need. In Scott Pilgrim’s world they break into fights.” Even that simple explanation doesn’t even begin to grasp the concept, but all I can say is that the movie will make complete sense to anyone who’s owned an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). (more…)

Roman Polanski is a master of thematic suspense. He knows exactly what to show you, and how to utilize tension that is barely there. Take for instance a scene where a character (who is in over his head) goes for a drive. The audience keeps looking around, waiting for the release that will never come. The Ghost Writer is the perfect example of the overused saying; it is not what we see that scares us, it is what we don’t. (more…)

The Stream is a new column that acts as a venue for Filmdogs writers to post shorter reviews of movies they have watched on streaming video services such as Netflix, Hulu, or even YouTube. Let’s get started.

Black Narcissus (1947)

Written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Black Narcissus is a film so spectacular, I am saddened that it has taken me this long to watch it. Deborah Kerr plays Sister Clodagh, the head nun in charge of leading a group of her fellow sisters to a palace in the Himalayas and setting up a school. Black Narcissus has heavily influenced both Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and in Scorsese’s Shutter Island there is a fantastic reference to this film. In 1947, the flashback scenes of Kerr’s character were banned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and I am still amazed that this film was made at all. Watching these nuns questioning their faith and sanity is quite unnerving and the tension drips in every scene. Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron as Sister Ruth are exceptionally great as rivals of good and evil. This is an amazingly haunting film.
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For those of you who didn’t check out our extensive podcast review of Predators, I decided I still felt I had enough to say about this film to warrant a written review. Yes, I loved Predators, there, I said it…and you should too.

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With the 3rd and what could very well be the final installment of the Toy Story series, Pixar Animation Studios have, once again, created one of the finest animated films ever made.
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The Stream is a new column that acts a venue for Filmdogs writers to post shorter reviews of movies they have watched on streaming video services such as Netflix, Hulu, or even YouTube. Let’s get started.

This time around I will be reviewing three excellent modern noir films. All are available on Netflix watch instantly. First up the is the best of the bunch, John Dahl’s Red Rock West.

Red Rock West (1993)

Michael (Nicolas Cage) is a down and out drifter who arrives in Red Rock, Wyoming looking for work. What transpires is an amazingly (and at times hilarious) complicated turn of events, where everyone is playing each other and nothing is what it seems. This movie is fantastic. John Dahl uses his locations to absolute perfection, making the setting yet another great character. The scenery is amazing to look at, and the prefect place for Cage to get stranded. It is a treat to watch him struggle to leave Red Rock. I, on the other hand, didn’t want to leave. I could watch this film everyday.

Also, the late Dennis Hopper gives a crazy as hell performance like only he could. (more…)

The Stream is a new column that acts a venue for Filmdogs writers to post shorter reviews of movies they have watched on streaming video services such as Netflix, Hulu, or even YouTube. Let’s get started.

Goodbye Solo

Two men form an unlikely friendship that will change both of their lives forever.

Sometimes a film is so much more than it’s synopsis, such is the case with the indie masterpiece Goodbye Solo. The story, which takes place in Winston-Salem NC is simple. An old and weathered man named William pays a cab driver from Senegal named Solo to pick him on up a certain date and take him to a mountain peak outside of town. Yet, he never mentions being driven on a trip home. This fact immediately bothers the curious and friendly Solo who begins to take an interest in William’s life. William warms to Solo and his family, and you can see he harbors some great pain, but can he be saved? (more…)