The Proposal

Take a road trip to CinemaSpy where you can read my (surprisingly positive) review of The Proposal.

Drag Me to Hell

There's a fine line between terror and laughter--at least as far as movie-watching is concerned--and Sam Raimi treads that line well. After jumping out of your seat or gasping at the horrors on screen, a natural reaction is to giggle nervously or in relief. His horror comedies--the Evil Dead films and now Drag Me to Hell--capitalize on these bordering reactions with glee, placing a scary moment right next to one that could have audiences falling out of their seats with laughter.

Alison Lohman stars in Drag Me to Hell as Christine Brown, a pretty, likable loan officer up for a promotion at her bank. But a cutthroat coworker(Reggie Lee) is vying for the same job, and their boss (David Paymer) advises her to make the tough decisions. Her next client is an elderly Hungarian woman (Lorna Raver), who begs Christine to give her more time on her house loan. With her promotion in mind, Christine denies the request, setting her off on a road to, well, hell. Despite her fragile appearance, the woman is a powerful gypsy, and she saddles Christine with a curse that will first torment her, then it will claim her soul.

There are shocks and scares aplenty in Drag Me to Hell, but it's most horrifying when Raimi goes for the gross-out. It's easy to imagine him consulting his young sons for advice here; the ideas are so disgusting that it seems they could've only come from boys used to being as creatively crude as possible. But that's not to say the scenes aren't perfectly executed: Raimi and his crew use excellent techniques, and it all looks far too real for the audience's good.

Though the marketing makes Drag Me to Hell look like a traditional chiller, the film is far more comic than we've been led to believe. Fans of Raimi's past work in Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness will be happy to see their director returning to the genre, and they'll be glad that he hasn't lost his taste for flying eyeballs.

Land of the Lost and Moon reviews

You'll have to travel to CinemaSpy.com for my reviews of Moon and Land of the Lost.

The Hangover

My review of The Hangover can be found on CinemaSpy.com.

Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation is exactly what you'd expect a post-apocalyptic action film from the direction of Charlie's Angels to be like. There are plenty of nicely choreographed action sequences, some rather attractive people (Moon Bloodgood, Christian Bale, Sam Worthington), and more silliness than you should find in any film whose budget tops nine figures. The silliness might have worked (to a point) in McG's Charlie's Angels, but that was a remake of a '70s cheesecake TV show. Terminator Salvation is a film about the end of the world, hardly an occasion for giggling (unless, of course, you're Brian K. Vaughn, and then, please, go ahead).

All that said, Terminator Salvation isn't a miserable moviegoing experience. Director McG knows how to craft a jaw-dropping set piece; it's just crafting a coherent narrative that people care about that gives him trouble. If your expectations are low (think Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines levels), you might have a good time. Of course, alcohol could only help in the experience.

Or you could just see Up or Star Trek again.

Up

My review of the new Pixar film, Up, is on this website: http://www.cinemaspy.ca/article.php?id=2470.

DVD Review: Revolutionary Road

If the recent upholding of Prop 8, the gray weather, or some bad news at your job isn't enough to get you down, there's always today's DVD release of Revolutionary Road to do the trick.

What begins as a briefly sweet romance between Kate Winslet's April and Leonardo DiCaprio's Frank Wheeler quickly descends into relationship hell. Like the film version of He's Just Not That Into You (and I'm guessing the book, too), Revolutionary Road behaves like a how-not-to handbook for romantic interaction. These reluctant suburbanites fight dirty, making sure that each verbal barb is a lethal one capable of killing any self-esteem or satisfaction.

Based on Richard Yates's oh-so depressing (and far superior) novel, Revolutionary Road is set in the 1950s. Frank wastes his time at a New York City job, then he makes the dreaded commute home to Connecticut, where his wife labors at a job she never wanted: housewife. An unplanned pregnancy forced the pair into the suburbs, and neither is happy with where they've ended up, geographically or career-wise. Their attempts at escape don't remove them from their situation, and they brutally take it out on one another.

Like Yates's book, Revolutionary Road is cold and detached, but unlike the book, it seems to want to be more. Directed by American Beauty helmer (and Winslet's husband) Sam Mendes, the drama rants about the evils of suburbia, but it's not a very effective denouncement. Of course, DiCaprio and Winslet deliver fantastic, grimace-giving performances, but the highest praise should go to Oscar nominee Michael Shannon, who plays a neighbor's son who is a fantastic combination of mental patient and highly astute observer.

Though the novel came out decades ago, the adaptation seems to be nipping at the heels of TV's Mad Men. Both the film and the series explore the same themes, but the AMC drama does it with far more style and success.