This straight-to-video sequel establishes a tonal shift from the relatively serious Wrong Turn in its opening scene. A young starlet spouts hammy dialogue into her mobile, speeding along country roads in a red convertible, before a deformed hillbilly literally splits her in two with a hatchet. The scene is far broader – and more enjoyable…
Wrong Turn begins with a tense, understated mountain climbing scene, competently shot and edited. It’s an encouraging start. The credits are comparatively lazy, using a Se7en-esque sequence to flash a bunch of silly exposition – shots of headlines with “Inbred-induced psychosis” etcetera. Yes, it’s one of those: another hillbilly horror film. Wrong Turn is populated…
Orlando Higginbottom, better known as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, has an ice-blue sterility on record, detached electro paired with simple yet heartfelt adolescent lyrics. I’d expected a warmer sound live, but instead his live set accentuated the aloofness. He performed in ornamental regalia, bordered by dancing girls who intermittently cavorted to the music. They seemed…
Wreck-It Ralph is the best Pixar film in years, and it’s not even released by Pixar. Its characters aren’t quite as well-realised as Pixar classics like Monsters Inc, Toy Story or Wall-E, but has the other attributes of those films: a creative, original world that feels complete, fully-formed. an impressive attention to detail. Every scene…
The underlying concept of Cabin in the Woods is nothing special. It’s a horror movie that’s also a satire of/commentary on horror movies, but that’s not uncommon after Scream (and April Fools’ Day and Friday the 13th Part Six before then) – in fact, it’s got to the stage that mediocre horror movies can be…
My favourite live shows in 2012 were… 5. Regurgitator (The Hi-Fi): I’ve seen the ‘Gurge a bunch of times, but this gig was truly outstanding, featuring performance of both “Unit” and “Tu-Plang” in full (plus a surprise Devo cover!). 4. Dan Deacon (Coniston Lane): Dan Deacon makes fun music, but his live show practically defines…
Looper seems to upset dedicated nerds; people who’ve read The Silmarillion from cover-to-cover, people who like “hard sci-fi” – think Roman from Party Down. Rian Johnson’s time-travel flick annoys these people because it doesn’t play fair with the rules of time-travel, and isn’t interested in explaining or caring about those rules. I’m also a gigantic…
I’ve mentioned before that P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia doesn’t do much for me. But I really enjoy his work: There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights are both incredible films. I was expecting a masterpiece from The Master and, instead, found another Magnolia… a well-made, well-acted film: great scenes that never had a combined effect on…
Watching Cabin in the Woods, this guy (Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain) made me wish there was a film about him: it seemed like it would be a classy gothic horror flick. Turns out he’s a direct reference to Hellraiser, but Hellraiser wasn’t exactly classy: in fact, it’s the best kind of B-movie. Pinhead,…
On Christmas Eve Eve Eve, I watched Elf for the first time with my partner, over an assortment of antipasto (as is traditional in the Carbon Copy household). Elf is not particularly original, but what family-friendly Christmas film is? The plot concerns Buddy (Will Ferrell), a human adopted by the Elves of the North Pole.…
ccpopculture 