Posts by Brent Lorentson

From the opening title card, Mafia does its best to fit in with the blaxploitation films of the 70’s, and even with Pam Grier in one of the key roles the film just doesn’t hold up.  It seems a lot of filmmakers and fans have on rose-colored glasses to the exploitation era (I’ll lump myself in with this group as well), but the filmmakers who attempt these films forget a lot of these films of the past had a strong political or sociological message they were trying to send.  Just making a film set in the 70s and throwing on some filters doesn’t mean you made an exploitation film; it simply means you captured the cheap low quality of the pictures they made back then.

I remember watching Heavenly Creatures and believing Melanie Lynskey would break out and become a star.  I never would have guessed her co-star Kate Winslet would be the one to emerge from the film and be the A-list actress she has become.  After all, when you watch Heavenly Creatures, it’s hard to believe this was the first role Lynskey had in front of a camera; I would have imagined she was destined to play some great roles through her career.  Unfortunately that’s not the case, but I’m glad to see at the very least she has a career up on the screen.

When this DVD found its way into my hands, I felt  this could go one of two ways; either this is going to be awful, or this is going to be fun as hell.  I have to admit I had a little more concern when I saw that the show aired on Cinemax and had never even heard of the show.  Despite my concern, the idea of an anthology series inspired by pulp novels and film noir revolving around badass chicks simply sounded too good to resist.  The result is a late-night trashy blend between The Twilight Zone and The Red Shoe Diaries.

What makes the horror genre so unique is that it doesn’t have any rules, but it has one goal: to scare us.  And the weirdest thing I find about horror is that so many people enjoy being scared, and, well, some of us have watched some pretty rotten things all in the name of a cheap thrill (my reasoning for watching A Serbian Film).  Lately the trend in horror is to be in the world where our heroes on the screen are put through some very “real” situations and it kind of poses the question: how far is too far? 

When being handed this title to review I have to admit my expectations were rather low, but as with every other title I was going to give it a chance.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy cartoons or kid-friendly television; I was simply more concerned that perhaps I had reached an age where I simply wouldn’t be able to connect to the material I had to watch.  By the time the credits to the first episode rolled, I quickly moved on to the next episode. 

Warwick Davis many may remember as the dwarf that played Wicket the ewok in Return of the Jedi or as the leprechaun in the Leprechaun franchise.  The role younger audiences may be more familiar with is that of Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter franchise.  In the new HBO series Life’s Too Short, Davis steps away from the fantasy world and into a faux reality show about none other than Warwick Davis. I have to admit Davis is far from the top of my list of celebrities I’d like to see star in their own “reality” show.  Seeing the show is produced by and co-stars Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (both also worked together on Extras and The Office) did ignite my interest.