Random Film of the Week(end): Death By Invitation

Posted on January 19, 2014 by geelw

I’ve sat through no fewer than four films featuring witches and demons as a central theme over the past week and not all of them were good times, no siree, ma’am. Granted, 1971’s slow-moving sort of creepy Death By Invitation isn’t the best of the bunch and for modern horror fans with short attention spans or those looking for non-stop scares and CG blood gushing everywhere (blech!) this one may be Death By A Thousand Cuts.

That said, while it’s going to be more bore than gore to the younger ADD set, those who like slow-burning slightly cryptic fires should check this one out if only for Shelby Leverington, the sassy young thing playing the lead. Director David Friedman drags out this revenge tale that may only interest those who appreciate thinking a bit as they watch a film that pretty much sets up its entire plot during the opening moments and slowly gets to the point as it crawls along to the finish line…

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Random Film of the Week(end): It Should Happen To You!

Posted on January 19, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, KaninFamily!)

The lovely Judy Holliday soars as a sort of ditzy but shrewd former girdle model who ends up becoming an instant celebrity thanks to a few simple billboards with her name on them George Cukor’s 1954 gem that shows off some fantastic looks at the New York City of the era. This film is also famous for being the movie debut of Jack Lemmon and here, he’s perfectly cast as Pete Sheppard, a documentary maker who shoots Holliday’s Gladys Glover in Central Park and of course, falls in love with her after some amusing assorted ups and down.

There are plenty of laughs in this classic to spare, many at Gladys’ expense as her sudden celebrity goes other head and she thinks her new found fame means all that attention is positive. While some elements are dated, the film does a very good job at foreshadowing today’s fame-crazy celebrities who do a heck of a lot more than simply toss their names up on a billboard to get attention…

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Deception IV: Blood Ties Teaser: Tricks, Treats and Traps Make A Comeback!

Posted on January 19, 2014 by geelw

About fifteen years ago, Tecmo’s Deception became a cult classic on the original PlayStation and eventually spawned three sort of sequels (two on the PlayStation and one on the PlayStation 2). Eight years after the last game, Tecmo Koei is bringing the action/strategy (and formerly RPG at least for the first game) series back with Deception IV: Blood Ties, headed for the Vita and PS3 on March 25 (March 28 in Europe). This new game adds more playable characters and thematically, seems to go back to the first game’s more demonic themes. Granted, while the developers allow you to have fun creating and using traps to kill of a wide range of poor saps, there’s a very good bet that the series tradition of making you feel lousy for dispatching some of the people trying to hunt you down. On the other hand, the focus shift from somewhat timid and reluctant leads forced to do bad things seems to have changed to the “Bad Girls Go To Hell” version of Deception, so we’ll see how players take this shift. If anything, the grim humor the game is also know for will be intact (some of the kills here are pretty darn silly). We’ll see where this goes, but color me intrigued…

VOD Review: Hide and Seek

Posted on January 19, 2014 by geelw

Jung Huh’s excellent, unsettling thriller Hide and Seek (available now on VOD) is a solid and very well made first film that offers up some surprising twists and turns that sweep the film into a few genres during its tidy 107 minute running time. At first, it seems as if it’s just one more Asian horror flick with an urban legend come to life, an opening murder that seems to go unresolved and some strange hallucinatory moments that will give easily frightened viewers a nice case of the chills. But as the film progresses, things take a turn into the unexpected action thriller genre that may disappoint those looking for another Ring or Grudge-like clone. On the other hand, Huh’s assured direction keeps you on the edge of your seat as the film whips your expectations about on its wild ride to the finish…