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Showing posts with the label dog

CABIN FEVER (2016) - REVIEW

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I take a look at the remake of Cabin Fever .

A BOY AND HIS DOG - VIDEO REVIEW

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L.Q. Jones' cult sci-fi film A Boy And His Dog gets its own video review.

A BOY AND HIS DOG - REVIEW

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Review available on the new website .

TURNER & HOOCH - REVIEW

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Some time before the Beethoven movies took the whole slobbering dog movie concept to mindless levels while, at the same time, making an immortal musical icon synonymous with drool, we got both K-9 and Turner & Hooch  the same year. Produced by Disney, the 1989 film starred Tom Hanks as a neat police investigator stuck with taking care of rambunctious dog Hooch after its owner is suddenly murdered. Turner (Hanks) sets off on a search for the culprits but, first, he has to turn his life upside-down looking after his new slobbering pet. Of course, this leads to several scenes in which the dog destroys every inch of Turner's house much to the cop's horror. Hanks is reliably good as Turner and he elevates a role that, in lesser hands, could have easily fallen flat. Hooch (real name Beasley) is every bit as destructive and messy as you'd expect but the titular characters still bond and the movie makes that relationship convincing. In fact, we spend probably a bit too mu

JOHN WICK - REVIEW

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Keanu Reeves is back with John Wick , a new thriller in which the titular badass comes back for one last revenge mission against the mob after the puppy his late wife gave him posthumously is brutally killed. Yes, I said puppy. Not his daughter, not his wife: a puppy. It's almost like the movie itself isn't taking its own genre seriously. And that's what's so refreshing about John Wick: it wants to have its cake and eat it too and... it kinda does just that. Effortlessly, no less! While the puppy thing and the fact that Wick is such a myth that everyone is terrified at the very mention of his name are obviously tongue-in-cheek pokes at the revenge thriller clichés, the film never flat out makes fun of its main character or turns into a spoof. In fact, you do get attached to that darn puppy and its relationship with Wick so when it does check out early, you do feel for the guy. It helps that Reeves gives a genuine performance and nails the more emotional moments

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS - REVIEW

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Here's a movie the trailers and posters really didn't help. Quite the opposite, in fact. The trailer passing the film off as some kind of Farrelly Brothers-style farce mostly involving Sam Rockwell laughing his ass off and the posters misrepresenting the psychopaths in question and giving us one of the worst taglines you'll ever hear: "They Won't Take Any Shih Tzu" Urgh... The film itself is actually closer to something like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang : a clever, sharply written, funny little dark comedy with an almost poetic look at its seemingly cartoonish characters. Colin Farrell is a depressed alcoholic writer trying to write a script for a film incidentally called "Seven Psychopaths", but he's stuck and needs to find several more psychos before he can finish it. His dog-kidnapping friend, played by a scene-stealing Sam Rockwell, is very keen to help, though, by ANY means necessary. By stealing a nutty Woody Harrelson's dog, this begin

FRANKENWEENIE - REVIEW

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Tim Burton's own short Frankenweenie certainly had potential so a remake sounded good but risky. After all, Burton is being criticized these days for doing the same type of thing over and over and his work gets it in the neck for lacking originality altogether so an adaptation of his own short was always going to provoke critics. Not this time, though. Dark Shadows was enjoyable enough but there really wasn't that much to it, Alice In Wonderland did really well at the box-office but the feedback wasn't exactly positive. Well, it's Disney time again and, believe it or not, they finally got it right! And the irony is they got it right with a film based on a short they rejected back in the day for being too dark. If anything, this slick new stop-motion Frankenweenie is darker and infinitely more twisted than its low-budget little brother. Burton has assembled a vintage Burton cast this time with the likes of Martin Short ( Mars Attacks! ), Catherine O'Hara ( B

FRANKENWEENIE - CHARACTER POSTERS

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FRANKENWEENIE - OFFICIAL TRAILER

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Need I say more?

FRANKENWEENIE - NEW POSTER

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Tim Burton's latest stop-motion venture gets a new poster: A return to form? We shall see...

IDIOT DOG FAIL - HARRY & THE HENDERSONS

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DUE DATE - REVIEW

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Had I been informed years ago, pre- The Hangover , that a (sort of) remake of John Hughes' classic Trains, Planes and Automobiles was in the pipeline, I would have no doubt called for Todd Phillips' head on a stick whilst sharpening my trusty pitchfork. However, after Robert Downey Jr's glorious comeback and Zach Galifianakis' impressive bearded breakthrough the prospect of seeing these two travel across America together feels like a real treat to say the least. And that's just what Due Date is: a treat. Sure it's derivative and reminiscent of countless other road movies ( Tommy Boy , Dumb & Dumber ) but it can stand proudly next to the best of them as a hugely entertaining, very funny little gem that's frankly hard to resist. Steve Martin may have been uptight back in the day but here, Downey Jr is one angry, cynical guy and is never shy of punching kids in the stomach or spitting in dogs' faces. As for Zach, our John Candy, his retarded buffoon