Posts by Brent Lorentson

When it comes to haunted house films, despite how often the plots seem to be retold time after time, it is still hard for me to say no to giving them a shot. After all, you never know when you may stumble upon a gem.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say Altar is a gem or a groundbreaking entry in the genre, but for some late-night thrills the film has all the ingredients to deliver a case of the late-night creepy crawlies. The Hamilton family arrives at a large country house in Yorkshire, where Meg (Olivia Williams) is tasked with restoring the home to its original condition.  With her husband, Alec (Matthew Modine), an artist, the pair tries to make the best of their situation along with their two kids, Penny (Antonia Clarke) and Harper (Adam Thomas Wright).  The major takeaway I found with the film from the start is that clearly the director Nick Willing is a fan of the Stanley Kubrick version of The Shining. As a fun drinking game, any time you catch reference to the film, take a drink, and you’ll be snookered out before the film reaches the final act.

It’s a simple prick of a nail that seems to awaken the spirits trapped inside the home.  Alec pays little attention to this trivial wound at first, but as time passes we see a change come over him as he obsesses over his own blood, which he later incorporates in a sculpture that he is working on.  He becomes obsessed with his work in a very Jack Torrance sort of way, but Modine manages to keep his character relatively likeable while becoming creepier as the film progresses.

For as long as I can remember I’ve been in love with film.  Growing up in the 80’s, getting to understand the process of how films were made wasn’t very accessible unless you were lucky to catch a behind-the-scenes special on HBO or Showtime for some big new release.  It wasn’t till laserdisc and eventually DVD where the fans would be able to look beyond the magical curtain of cinema and get to see the process of how a film was made.  I still get giddy with excitement watching some of my favorite directors getting to work their magic behind the scenes. One of my favorite behind-the-scenes features Full Tilt Boogie (the making of for From Dusk Till Dawn) I credit for getting me to take a stab at filmmaking, and after all, they make it look so easy.

Over the years companies have been trying to cash in on the process of documenting the process of making a film.  When Project Greenlight emerged as a competition show about a lucky screenwriter getting a chance to make his script into a feature film, I couldn’t help but watch with fascination and the slightest twinge of jealously.  After all, anyone who’s ever attempted to write a script or make a movie would do just about anything to have that opportunity.  It’s that foot in the door that so many dream about but so few ever get the chance even to see.  Personally I was a fan of Project Greenlight, but after a couple seasons, it seems it never could quite pull in the viewers the producers had hoped for.

Imagine if in the not too distant future you could have the opportunity to be young again, and for the right price you could possibly never have to worry about ever growing old ever again.  RPG looks into this possibility and the chances people are willing to take for this chance to indulge their youth once again.  But like with anything that seems too good to be true, there is a catch, and in this game there are actually two catches.  First you need to have the millions of dollars in your bank account to even play the game, and the second catch is that you have to be the lone survivor of the game to receive the award of lasting youth. 

It didn’t take me much to get hooked. The idea alone had me engaged in the film, but what worried me most is how well this film would work with such a meager budget. After all, this is virtually a straight-to-DVD release.  Well, my hat’s off to the filmmakers not just for crafting a fun story but also doing a great job at executing the film successfully.

The days of Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff are long gone, but Hollywood refuses to give up on the classic monsters these men and others once brought to live on the big screen.  Despite how many years have passed since these monsters of the night first terrified audiences, filmgoers continue to fork over their cash to see these stories rehashed again and again. In the new release of Frankenstein vs The Mumny, we see the revival of two classic monsters and the opportunity to see them battle head to head.  Without the big budget to support this monster smackdown, is it still worth watching, or is this a battle that should have remained dead?

The film dives in on a modern take of the Mary Shelly story we are all more than familiar with. Now Professor Frankenstein (Max Rhyser) spends his days teaching at the local college, while his nights are spent in his lab trying to restore life to the dead.  Simultaneously at the same school an Egyptologist is studying the find of her career. After an excavation in Egypt, a newly discovered mummy is brought to the university.  This lovely Egyptologist is Naihla (Ashton Leigh), who seems to be also smitten with Professor Frankenstein.

Consider that we are in a golden age of television, where it is just about impossible to keep up with all the good television shows, even with the luxury of DVR.  That being said, the notion of taking on watching a show that is broadcast overseas can seem a little daunting (yes, I know there are still legions of loyal Doctor Who and Sherlock fans, just to name a few).  When the offer came along to check out a comedy from Germany I was more than a little hesitant, but upon hearing the title Crime Scene Cleaner, well, my interest was piqued. 

The show is centered on Heiko “Schotty” Schotte (Bjarne Madel), who is your typical middle-aged single guy, that is, until you discover that he is a crime scene cleaner.  In case you were wondering, his job is to come in after the police have completed their investigation of a possible homicide and clean up whatever mess is left behind.  Despite the gruesome nature of the job, the show avoids going for cheap gross-out moments and instead focuses on Schotty’s interactions with those connected to the deceased.

I have to admit, seeing Ralph Macchio in any role other than in The Karate Kid is a bit jarring for me.  Growing up in the 80’s, it’s hard to see Macchio and not hope for him to randomly balance on one leg and do a crane kick, but alas, decades have passed and Macchio has come a long way.  Now we get to see Macchio all grown up step into the role of dad in his new film A Little Game.  While Macchio may share the headlines of this all-star cast that includes F. Murray Abraham, Janeane Garofalo, and Olympia Dukakis, the real star of the film is a name many would be unfamiliar with, Makenna Ballard.  You may not know her name now, but after this debut performance I’m willing to bet this is only the first step in a bigger and promising career.

Max (Ballard) goes through the unfortunate hurdle of being removed from her school where she was once surrounded by her friends to being thrust into a new school so she can get a “better” education.  Though the school may look good on transcripts when applying for ivy league schools, right now Max is simply a 10-year-old girl who simply wants to be accepted by her classmates and have fun like any other 10-year-old girl would.  Unfortunately being the new girl at school attracts the attention of a rival classmate who sees Max as nothing more than competition.