Peculiar Reviewer

Apparently CBS doesn't need the Power of Three to reboot a series that has only been off the air for 7 years. The original Charmed Halliwell sisters, Piper (Holly Marie Combs), Prue (Shannon Doherty), and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) discover they are descendants of powerful witches, and use their powers to fight against demons, warlocks, and anyone that sought to harm their unit. Charmed was created by Constance M. Burge and produced by Aaron Spelling. The supernatural drama ran for 8 seasons on The WB (1998-2006). The CBS reboot is currently being written by Christopher Keyser ( Party of Five ). With so many reboots happening in film, and now TV, it seems very little will be left fully untouched by the near future. I will check the Book of Shadows for a spell to stop this. 

I debated this past week whether or not I wanted to write a review for the Carrie remake. Because I hold Brian De Palma's original 1976 horror classic (based on Stephen King's first novel) so near and dear to my black heart, my feelings were strange even before the Kimberly Peirce ( Boys Don't Cry ) remake was released. First, a remake of Carrie is about as unnecessary as a remake of Jaws . Second, both Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie's performances will be cemented in time on the horror wall of fame. So, if you already have cinematic perfection, why give it a facelift? Well, Peirce's version of Carrie does not even do that. Chloe Grace Moretz ( Let Me In , Kick-Ass ) is a good teen actor, but she did not succeed in capturing the bullied and abused telekinetic high schooler's naivety and pain, justifying her rise to bloody revenge on prom night. Moretz's Carrie White is also much more vengeful than Spacek's, without accomplishing the believabilit...

Tim Burton has only done a sequel to one of his films - Batman Returns - and we liked it. We really, really, liked it. Now, after several years of Beetlejuice 2 rumors, speculations, and calculations (fear of treading on sacred ground), Burton is indeed reopening the doors of Dante's Inferno Room. Beetlejuice was released in 1988, and has since become one of the quintessential cult classics because of the stellar comedic performance from Michael Keaton (the bio-exorcist with impeccable fashion sense), making death look like the life of the party, and a great screenplay. Beetlejuice had a budget of $15M and racked in $73.7M. Everybody took a number from Miss Argentina.  There was already supposed to be one Beetlejuice sequel that didn't happen in 1990 titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian (part beach movie, part German Expressionism). One thing is for sure: original cast members are most likely not to return without Burton directing. Given Burton's recent comeback wi...

It has been 7 years since Alfonso Cuarón has graced us with a movie ( Children of Men , 2006). Cuarón 's new sci-fi Gravity follows a medical engineer and an astronaut on a heart thumping journey to survive being adrift in space after their mission on the STS-157 has been aborted. Dr. Ryan Stone ( Sandra Bullock ) and Matt Kowalski ( George Clooney ) are given no time to prepare for the evacuation, as they desperately try to grab onto one another, gravity keeping them up in the vast nothingness. Alfonso Cuarón sets the solitary tone and wastes no time commanding our attention with the breathtaking opening shot of Earth from space. The entire film is filled with space shots which cannot be described by any words, but must be visually experienced, leaving sci-fi lovers breathless and in awe. Cuarón sends the viewer deep into space . The camera is shaky only when it needs to be, and the suspense it held throughout. Since George Clooney has already done sci-fi in Steven Soderberg...

From the trailers one can tell that Jon of Don Jon is not a fan of happy ending rom-coms. So you know not to expect one in the directorial debut from Joseph Gordon-Levitt . Don Jon tells the story of Jon Martello, a cocky boy from Jersey who is a bonafide porn addict that favors putting up a facade rather than dealing with the now. The character of Jon seems like he would be friends with the cast of Jersey Shore , but instead of GTL, for Jon it's GPC: gym, porn, church. Jon goes through life like a daily checklist as if he is programmed, which is shown through Gordon-Levitt's quick cut editing; even Jon's voice over narration is in control. Anytime something real (an actual woman in his bed, a comment from someone that he is not expecting, etc) is happening to Jon, that thought is juxtaposed with images of porn scenes which are going through Jon's mind. This doesn't change when Jon thinks he has met his match in Barbara Sugarman ( Scarlett Johansson ), a "1...