Shameless Self Expression

Inspired by the real-life American crime case of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez (AKA The Lonely Hearts Killers) in the 1940s, this story is actually set in present day Belgium. Lola Duenas is a Spanish divorcee and mum living in Belgium. A friend suggests the clearly lonely Duenas try internet dating. This leads to a date with shoe salesman Laurent Lucas, and perhaps because Duenas is lonely and needy, things progress very quickly between the two. Things seem great, until Duenas loans a panicked Lucas money for a business deal. He never returns. Later, Duenas manages to track him down and he immediately fakes a headache, to earn sympathy. Again, because Duenas is lonely and needy, she immediately forgives him and the two take up together again. It’s here, though that Lucas makes a confession: He’s a hustler of women. Rather than kick him to the curb (because she’s lonely and pathetic), Duenas accepts Lucas’ way of earning money (also conveniently overlooking some seriously fucke...

Anton Yelchin stars as the title character, who has the ability to see dead people. He can also see vulture-like creatures called bodachs (invisible to everyone else), and wherever bodachs hover, death is on the horizon. Lately he’s been seeing them all over his small town, which means he’s got a helluva lot of work to do if he’s gonna save everybody from an impending disaster. Addison Timlin plays Odd’s supportive girlfriend Stormy, while Willem Dafoe plays the friendly chief of police.   Based on a novel (the first in a series) by horror writer Dean R. Koontz (whose “Intensity” made for an impressive mini-series), this 2014 film feels like a supernatural indie comedy-horror flick. Written and directed by the not very indie-friendly Stephen Sommers ( “The Mummy” , “Deep Rising” , “The Jungle Book” , “Van Helsing” ) it doesn’t quite come off (It was shot in 2011, and, well…there have been issues. Many. It’s a long story), but there’s definitely something here. I think my...

After being sued by a man he rescued, Bob Parr, AKA Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) gets married to fellow superhero Helen, AKA Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter) and agrees to a life of work-a-day, 9-to-5 normalcy. It’s not just Bob, though, as superheroes all around are finding themselves in similar legal hot water and after a government order, taking off the spandex to find ‘real’ jobs. Cut to 15 years later and Bob and Helen have the American domesticity thing down pat, even siring three kids. Of course the kids are born with special powers including invisibility, super-speed, and well, you need to see baby Jack-Jack’s power for yourself. Bob has been keeping a secret from his family, however. He and former superhero Lucius, AKA Frozone (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) sneak out every night listening to police radar to find people to save and crimes to stop. Bob is contacted one night by a secret government organisation that requests his super-heroic services. However,...

***** SPOILER WARNING ***** Best save this review for after you’ve seen the film. I think most of you will have seen it by now, but if you haven’t you can save this for later, and even read one of the many spoiler-free reviews out there on the web if you’re mildly curious. With one exception that I’ll precede with another warning, I really only hint at spoiler-y stuff here, unless you count plot synopsis and basic character mentioning as spoilers. If so (and regardless of that), you’ve been duly warned. On to the review… Set 30 years after “Return of the Jedi” , farm boy turned hero Jedi Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is nowhere to be seen, but is very much sought after by those on the side of good, but also evil. Evil here is represented by the First Order, led by the looming large Supreme Leader Snoke (A motion-captured Andy Serkis), whose number two is the black mask-clad Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who seems somewhat familiar, yet also distinctly his own. Also on the villain sid...

Tony Martin plays a singer who wants to sell his half of a department store inheritance to pursue his musical dream and marry store employee Virginia Grey. His rich aunt, played by Margaret Dumont has the other half of the inheritance, and figures into the scheme of store manager Douglass Dumbrille. When thugs attack Martin, Dumont hires a private detective, played by Groucho Marx. Chico plays Martin’s good buddy, with Harpo playing Chico’s brother (how imaginative!), but more importantly, Groucho’s assistant. Directed by Charles Reisner (Buster Keaton’s “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” ), this 1941 Marx Brothers flick is truly the pits. Even fans surely can’t defend this complete waste of time. As per their other films, Chico talks-a with-a the funny accent-a, Margaret Dumont plays Margaret Dumont, Harpo plays the harp (twice!), and Groucho refuses to act like he’s genuinely part of the film’s plot. In fact, sometimes Groucho is so defiantly smart-arsey here that he doesn’t even bother t...

Robert Downey Jr. stars as a slick big city lawyer who comes home to Carlinville, Indiana for his mother’s funeral. He reunites with his somewhat estranged brothers Vincent D’Onofrio (a former baseball hopeful until an incident involving he and Downey saw an end to that) and the slightly intellectually disabled Jeremy Strong, as well as his cranky, emotionally distant father Robert Duvall, a local judge of great experience but precious time for Downey. If mother dying isn’t bad enough, things get even worse when Duvall turns murder suspect, accused of deliberately running over a long-time foe with his car. The old man swears he remembers nothing of the incident, and forbids Downey from representing him (The old man is honest, Downey is sneaky, thus he doesn’t want that kind of help). These two seriously don’t get on, and no they don’t want to talk about it, OK? Downey sticks around anyway, as a hopelessly hapless local furniture store owner and attorney (a priceless Dax Shepard) ta...

The title character (played by Marki Bey) is incensed when her club owner fiancé Langston (Larry B. Johnson) is beaten to death by thugs in the employ of white drug lord Morgan (Robert Quarry). For some reason, Sugar’s solution to all of this is to visit the ‘old voodoo priestess (Zara Cully), who gets Sugar in touch with top hat-sporting, maniacally laughing Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley), lord of the undead. He unleashes a horde of previously dead African-American slaves conveniently buried in the swamp land, to help Sugar do her bidding. His help, of course, comes with a price, and apparently that price is tang. Anyhoo, on Sugar and her zombie army march to seek revenge against Morgan and his cronies. Richard Lawson plays Valentine, a cop and old acquaintance of Sugar’s, who is worried for her. Betty Ann Rees plays Morgan’s bitchy, racist moll who loathes Sugar (I guess she doesn’t have a sweet tooth).   No, not the 1994 urban drama, but a 1974 blend of “Coffy” , “Fox...

Kuzko (voiced by David Spade) is an insincere, egotistical Aztec emperor who is targeted for assassination by his scheming underling Yzma (voiced by the legendary Eartha Kitt), after he fires her. She tries to poison him, but in some kind of toxicological mix-up, she ends up turning him into a llama! Now he needs the help of a humble peasant farmer (voiced by John Goodman), who unfortunately doesn’t trust the emperor given he was all set to callously demolish the man’s village to build himself a swimming pool. This is a tenuous partnership to say the least. Meanwhile, Yzma and her idiot bodyguard Kronk (too dopey to be truly villainous, as voiced by the great Patrick Warburton) are still trying to kill Kuzko. Wendie Malick voices the farmer’s wife.   It’s a bit of a shame that I waited so long to watch this Disney animated film from 2000, because it’s actually pretty good. I normally loathe angular animation, it’s something that helped ruin “Pocahontas” and “Hercules” , ...