Carrie

HORROR

Blood Red

7.75 out of 10 | Rental

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Rated: R Bloody violence, disturbing images. language and some sexual content
Release Date: October 18, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes

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Director: Kimberly Peirce
Writers: Lawrence D. Cohen, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, based on the book by Stephen King
Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Gabriella Wilde, Portia Doubleday, Ansel Elgort, Alex Russell, Judy Greer

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SYNOPSIS:  A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White, a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother, who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.

REVIEW: Kimberly Peirce, director of the acclaimed 1999 Boys Don't Cry, takes on the daunting task of remaking and re-imagining the classic tale from horror master Stephen King and the 1976 film with Piper Laurie and Sissy Spacek. Based on the screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen, a longtime Stephen King story adapter, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Dark Matters), Peirce tries to bring new life to a bloody tale of bullying and revenge.

Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz, Kick-Ass 2) is a shy and quiet outcast trying to survive her high school experience. Raised and home schooled by her religious zealot of a mother Margaret (Julianne Moore, Crazy, Stupid, Love.) Carrie faces sneers and ridicule from her classmates, desperate to fit in and be a normal teenage girl. When Carrie experiences her first period in the girls' locker room, she is belittled and mocked by the other girls, led by mean girl Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubeday, Youth in Revolt). Fellow classmate Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde, The Three Musketeers), trying to make amends for her part in Carrie's bullying, asks her boyfriend Tommy (Ansel Elgort) to ask Carrie to Prom. When Carrie accepts Tommy's invitation and starts enjoying her first social dance she finds herself the butt of another prank perpetrated by Chris and her boyfriend Billy (Alex Russell, Chronicle). After being pushed too far, Carrie unleashes her full vengeful telekinetic fury against the students, teachers and town.

In 1976 Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie embodied the unwieldy and strange relationship between a mother and her daughter - dreamed up and put to page by Stephen King. Should such an iconic film be remade for a new audience? If a new film is just a retread of the original, is it necessary to make at all? Director Peirce takes the original material and updates its in the right spots. Cyber bullying is included as an added insult. The story takes a moment more to explain how Margaret and Carrie come to have such an odd co-dependent relationship. And Carrie, played by Moretz, takes the character to the appropriate angst-ridden age.

When Sissy Spacek played the role of the teenage Carrie White, she was well into her twenties. She played the role with both an air of naive innocence and pent up anger. Chloe plays the age closer to age, still in her teens. She brings a fresh real perspective to the role, rivaling what Sissy portrayed. Piper Laurie, who dominated and put the fear of God into most of us as Margaret White, is given a run for her biblical money by the very talented Julianne Moore. The villains, in the form of Portia Doubleday and Alex Russell, bring modern day snark to Chris and Billy. Gabriella Wilde and Ansel Elgort bring more understated study to the desperate to do good Sue Snell and Tommy Ross. Judy Greer does gym teacher Mrs. Desjardin justice with an edge of her own.

Performances aside, the story follows a more modern version of the same tale brought to screen years ago. Most of the major plot points are the same as they were before, or twisted just a little bit to be just a little bit different. Peirce does bring a little more of the original source material back, but doesn't take enough license to make the iconic pop culture story something truly her own. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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Kick-Ass 2

ACTION/ADVENTURE, COMEDY

Super Reality

8.75 out of 10 | Movie or DVD

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Rated: R Strong violence, pervasive language, crude and sexual content, and brief nudity
Release Date: August 16, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 47 minutes

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Director: Jeff Wadlow
Writers: Jeff Wadlow, from comic book by Mark Millar, John Romita Jr.
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Morris Chestnut, Claudia Lee, Clark Duke, Augustus Prew, Donald Faison, Garrett M. Brown, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Yancy Butler, John Leguizamo, Jim Carrey

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SYNOPSIS: The costumed high-school hero Kick-Ass joins with a group of normal citizens who have been inspired to fight crime in costume. Meanwhile, the Red Mist plots an act of revenge that will affect everyone Kick-Ass knows.

REVIEW: Never Back Down and the upcoming X-Force writer/director Jeff Wadlow takes over the reins and returns to a world where superheroes are not super powered, just super dedicated to truth, justice, and the American way. Based on the comic series written by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr., the hero comic made successful by Matthew Vaughn, Taylor-Johnson, and Grace Moretz, Kick-Ass 2 promises to kick ass.

The Internet costumed sensation turned drug kingpin killer Dave Lizewski a.k.a.Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Savages) has hung up his tights, paving the way for other costumed adventurers and vigilantes to patrol the streets and keep the city's citizens safe. Mindy Macready a.k.a. Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz, Let the Right One In) has even given up her blue hair and butterfly knives to just be a normal teenage girl under the care of her father's former partner Detective Marcus Williams (Morris Chestnut, Identity Thief). A new hero, Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone), leads the cadre of heroes against the evils of the night. Meanwhile, the former Red Mist / Chris D'Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, The To Do List) seeks his own vengeance against Kick-Ass, leaving his innocence behind and taking the more brutal moniker of The Motherf%&*‏^r, and assembling his own legion of villains and criminals. Kick-Ass and Hit Girl must return to the fray as heroes in order to stop The Motherf%&*‏^r and his minions from destroying both their lives and the lives of those they love.

Taylor and Moretz brought the original comic to screen adaption to life to moderate box office, with greater success on DVD. Moretz's Hit Girl was brilliant, Nicolas Cage's Big Daddy was Adam west and William Shatner all rolls up into a vengeful, psychotic father, and Taylor managed to bring to screen a non-powered hero with all the hope of Peter Parker and all the heart of the caped crusader - without the gadgets or fighting prowess. It was faithful to the tone of Mark Millar's graphic limited series as best as it could be, changing things up with visuals and plot points that worked better on camera. Now we return to a non-powered superhero universe not unlike the real world, where a young hero like Kick-Ass can exist without much of a second look.

With Dave now a senior in high school and Mindy a freshman it seems that everyone is figuring out what to do next. Mindy struggles against wanting to help people as Hit Girl and Dave struggles with the mundane existence without being Kick-Ass. This film ups the ante like many sequels need to, with Kick Ass back out in the streets joining with other superheroes. Instead of being a couple heroes against a bunch of mobster, Kick-Ass 2 brings heroes and villains out by the dozens. No longer are Kick-Ass and Hit Girl the only masked avengers. More people have taken up the call to go to try to right the wrongs that they feel nobody else can – even the police.

From Colonel Stars and Stripes, to Kick-Ass girl Night Bitch (Lindy Booth, Dawn of the Dead), to Battle Guy (Clark Duke, The Croods) who ends up being unmasked as Dave's friend Marty, to Insect Man (Robert Emms, Mirror Mirror), to Dr. Gravity (Donald Faison, Pitch Perfect), the film fills the screen with ordinary people trying to do extraordinary things. In this world the bullets are real and people die, but fear of death does not deter the mission of these men and women. But Chris D'Amico has other plans for the lot of them, still brooding over the death of his father by the hands of Kick-Ass's bazooka.

Taking in both the Kick-Ass 2 and Hit Girl miniseries by Mark Millar, this film is funny, thoughtful, and utterly brutal. The fight scene scene end up being bloody melees, especially in the battle royale climax at the end. Hit Girl has some great choreographed scenes of action against D'Amico's thugs and against Mother Russia (Olga Kurkulina). What could have been considered a throwaway sequel actually has both teeth and something of a story backing it up.

Kick-Ass 2 is touted as this summer's last must-see film. Fans of the original film will get a kick out of watching Dave and Mindy trying to get on with their lives. Hit Girl may be less shocking than she was in the first film, but she is more grown up than ever. Sacrifices are made, blood is shed, and the reality of the wounds and scars collected are painful and deep.

Kick-Ass 2 is the perfect catharsis for the super powered summer blues. Snarky and comic-y, this film still holds a grain of humanity that the other genre films may have to marvel at.

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Dark Shadows (2012)

Blood is Thicker than Water

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Rated: PG-13  Language, comic horror violence, sexual content, smoking and some drug use
Release Date: May 11, 2012
Runtime:  1 hr 53 mins

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Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Seth Grahame-Smith, John August, based on the television series created by Dan Curtis
Cast: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Johnny Lee Miller, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee, Alice Cooper

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SYNOPSIS: Barnabas Collins rejects the love of a servant girl witch, resulting in the loss of his parents, his estate, his true love and his mortality. 200 years later the now vampiric Collins escapes a steel coffin tomb to return to the homestead he remembered, still plagued by the curse that affects him and his descendant family.

REVIEW: Tim Burton, director of Alice in Wonderland and Edward Scissorhands, returns with his go to lead actor Johnny Depp for another look at the bizarre and somewhat revolutionary late 1960s supernatural soap serial melodrama Dark Shadows. With its unique blend of Gothic mystery, romance and grim melodrama, the original Dark Shadows became one of the first 'must see' television series, causing many kids and adults to race home to see each episode in an era before DVRs or VCRs. Now, adding their own unique visions, Depp and Burton take a quirky and funny look at the source material that became a cult classic for a generation.

In 1750, Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland) and his parents moved from Liverpool, England to the wilds of America's Maine coast. Using their know how to build a fishing port, Barnabas' father and mother creates the town of Collinsport and amassed prosperity and wealth for the town and for themselves. As a young adult, Barnabas makes the mistake of spurning the lustful advances of servant girl Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green, The Golden Compass) in favor of his true love Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote, In Time). Unwilling to relent, the witch Bouchard curses Barnabas in a way that forces Josette to hurl herself to her death from the top of Widow's Peak. Barnabas follows after her, only to discover that he cannot die and has turned into a vampire. Trapped within a iron coffin, Bouchard buries Barnabas to rot in the ground. Nearly 200 years later, in 1972, Barnabas is accidentally released from his claustrophobic confines by construction workers. He finds himself as a strange monster in a strange new world, finally returning to the familiar surroundings of his ancestral estate, Collinwood. Barnabas finds the estate in ruin and the last remaining Collin clan a dysfunctional mess. The dusty and cracking Collinwood remains home to enduring family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer, New Year's Eve), her budding rebellious daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz, Hugo), Elizabeth's scheming brother Roger (Jonny Lee Miller, Endgame), Roger's 10-year-old son David (Gully McGrath, Hugo), a live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech), the long suffering caretaker of Collinwood Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley, Shutter Island), and David's new governess Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote). Realizing that Barnabas has returned from the grave, literally, the still powerful and now fish cannery successful Angelica turns her seductive charms toward the vampire in an attempt to win his love. Conversely, Barnabas looks to return his family's business, fortune, and family honor, as well as woo Victoria as she reminds him of his lost Josette.

From the start, Burton, his writers Seth Grahame-Smith (the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and John August (Corpse Bride), and Johnny Depp intended for their version of Dark Shadows to stray a little from the soap opera without sacrificing what the original material included. Still haunting the shores of Collinwood are vampires, ghosts, witches, and a community with its share of deep, dark dramatic secrets. What sets these summer's film apart is the additional sense of whimsy and fun. While Johnny Depp channels Jonathan Frid's always iconic performances of the protagonist blood sucker, Depp added in his own flare of "flowery language" and "vocal style" to the role. As an England-born man who is turned into a vampire and immediately set into a buried grave for 200 years Barnabas finds absurdity all around him as he prowls the streets before returning home to Collinwood. And while he finds strangeness in his surroundings, his new found Collins family finds strangeness in him and his mannerisms, most notably young Carolyn who finds him "weird". While Dark Shadows is not as campy as portrayed in the trailers, the film still lightens itself out the surreal, grim world from which it sprung.

In Dark Shadows, Collinwood is as if it is a character all on its own. Production designer Rick Heinrichs from Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow creates an elaborate and beautiful estate for the Collin characters to interact with. Costume designer Colleen Atwood from Burton's Alice In Wonderland takes a break from the the outlandish regalia of the patron beyond the looking glass to create detailed costumes and capes for Barnabas that are both fresh and familiar. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, under the guidance of Burton, creates a style and look that hearkens back to an earlier era. When Victoria Winters disembarks from the train in Collinsport, and when she first walks up the drive at Collinwood, the faded soft film and the sharp, obtuse angles is reminiscent of many shots from early seventies horror and dramatic films. And Burton retains some classic soap operatic style by framing camera shots in many scenes with Barnabas and Elizabeth delivering their dialogue faced fully and dramatically away from the other.

The look of the film transported me back to the days of miniskirts and free love. The score and song choices of longtime Burton collaborator and composer Danny Elfman did the same. From the always haunting Moody Blues "Nights in White Satin" that starts off the title sequence, to a dinner accompanying Donovan classic "Season of the Witch," to Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly," Elfman's choices epitomize the tone of the film throughout.

Johnny Depp is, well, Johnny Depp! Every role he takes on is an entertaining adventure to watch. With several pale skinned characters to his credit, he does tweak his portrayal of Barnabas Collins enough to make the part feel original and set it apart from the likes of the Mad Hatter and Edward Scissorhands. Captain Jack Sparrow does bubble under the surface a bit with Depp's use of an English accent, albeit, a clear voice you can understand. Pfieffer is radiant, strong and proud in her role as Elizabeth Collins. Chloe Grace Moretz, one of my favorite young actresses, channels in perfect pitch the troubled, angst-ridden teenager that just wants to come of age and move to New York to live life on her own term. Jackie Earle Haley, a versatile performer, takes on the drunkard curmudgeon of Willie Loomis with relish. The witch of the hour, Eva Green's Angelique, is a beautiful porcelain facade that provides a shell for a lustful emptiness that twists into a devoted vengeance against Barnabas. Helena Bonham Carter's Dr. Hoffman is a sassy, alcoholic psychiatrist fascinated by Barnabas and worried about her own mortality. And Bella Heathcote plays her duel roles of the 18th Century Josette and the haunted nanny trying to escape her past and find a place to belong with equal grace.

Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and the rest of the cast deliver a quirky and fun version of the cult classic long-running soap serial melodrama that had people of the day rushing home to watch each episode - years before Lost ever hit the airwaves. If you like Burton and Depp, then you would be remiss in passing on this new Dark Shadows. Clever, 70s cool, lightly dramatic with a touch of whimsy, Dark Shadows will entertain even if Barnabas's hypnotic gaze does not enthrall.

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WORTH:  Matinee or DVD