Hunter Duesing

Zach Braff’s Garden State is the embodiment of everything that was awful about American indie movies in the last decade. Cute color schemes, fashionable twenty-something alienation, Natalie Portman’s mentally-ill male hipster fantasy construct causing everyone to decide they liked a terrible

Dark Skies is the latest outing from Scott Stewart, the guy who essentially remade Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive with pissed-off angels in the place of homicidal 18-wheelers in Legion. Stewart does some more borrowing in Dark Skies, but with more well-known

Christophe Gans’ adaptation of Konami’s Silent Hill video game was a bit like an Italian horror film from the early ’80s: compellingly surreal, yet muckily plotted (think Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond). Its sequel, Michael J. Bassett’s Silent Hill: Revelation, is more

Rob Halford, the iconic banshee behind the metal mic of Judas Priest, articulated his thoughts on the Chick-Fil-A controversy over at Noisecreep while promoting the upcoming 30th anniversary re-release of his group’s celebrated album, “Screaming for Vengeance.” Halford, who himself is

Criterion is re-releasing two of director Whit Stillman’s gems thats decorate their prestigious collection on Blu-ray this week, “Metropolitan” and “The Last Days of Disco.” “Metropolitan” is a film that feels as though it could’ve been written by J.D. Salinger, with its preppy debutante

Discourse is something that is always changing, but not necessarily evolving. I think of television footage I’ve seen of one of my heroes, William F. Buckley, engaging in discussions with people from the other side of the aisle like Saul Alinsky, Huey

You’ve got to hand it to Tyler Perry, whether you want to or not.  He’s done what few have been able to achieve by carving a successful filmmaking niche, a prolific studio with his name and face-in-drag as the brand,

The film that pops to mind when seeing “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” is another Marvel Knights effort, “Punisher: War Zone.” Like “War Zone,” this movie isn’t necessarily a sequel, but it doesn’t entirely ignore its predecessor either. Both are

In my initial review of Disney’s “John Carter,” I said it suffered from the “‘Dune’ Syndrome,” in that it’s a film that may have a tough time penetrating an audience outside the one built-in, which was quite small for this

Alexandre Aja’s “Piranha 3D” is a trash movie that understood what it was and joyously reveled in its ridiculous garbage vibe. It was a remake with roots in B-movie cheapies, as it comes from the sans-3D Roger Corman/Joe Dante “Jaws”

Creepy kids have been a staple of horror movies for some time, almost all of them being manipulative little monsters masking themselves under a veneer of innocence. Despite the clever ruse, usually an honest kid or a suspicious adult sees

“The Secret World of Arrietty,” the latest film from Studio Ghibli, comes from the tradition of films like “The Secret of NIMH” and “Ratatouille” in which small creatures survive in a big world, taking what they can from humans without being

When “Chronicle” came to theaters earlier this year, it instantly drew comparisons to Katsuhiro Otomo’s landmark anime film, “Akira.” Despite their deeper cultural differences, both films invite comparison, as each of them features an unstable character who is bestowed with

While I enjoy “Gremlins,” I actually prefer “Gremlins 2: The New Batch.” The first one is a bit on the mean-spirited side, luring the kids in with a cute little creature before blindsiding them with disturbing violence, as well as

Bravo, Soderbergh. Too often do action directors feel compelled to get in the middle of the mayhem and jiggle the camera around in a half-assed attempt to put the audience “in the action.” The result is almost always muddy, confused

You know a family film is doing it right when they make it look effortless-yet-awe-inspiring, and when it makes the parade of mediocre sequels and spin-offs to a certain fractured fairy tale look that much worse. Aardman’s “The Pirates! Band

It never bodes well when directors revisit one of their classics to mine more material from it decades after the fact, and it’s especially bizarre when it happens in the low-budget world of cult horror. A recent example is Dario

I saw Steve McQueen’s “Shame” in a theater full of elderly couples. I knew going in the movie was a nice, hard NC-17, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the onslaught of wall-to-wall screwing that followed. I felt almost as uncomfortable

There is a good movie to be made about the remarkable life and career of Margaret Thatcher. Unfortunately that film has yet to be made, as “The Iron Lady” certainly isn’t it. “The Iron Lady” suffers from incompetent direction by

There will be no HomeVideodrome podcast this week, we shall return next week. Normally films that have the premise of a bond between a person and an animal make me wretch.  I loved Disney’s “Old Yeller” as a kid, and cried every

Because I was on vacation, there will be no podcast this week. I don’t have any strong feelings of nostalgia for the Muppets. Like most kids, I watched “Sesame Street,” occasionally caught “The Muppet Show,” and I even remember seeing

On this week’s HomeVideodrome podcast, Jim talks about the upcoming headache that is SXSW, Hunter reviews “John Carter,” and we run through this week’s considerable line-up of releases.  Head over to The Film Thugs to listen! “The Three Musketeers” is a book

Due to scheduling conflicts, there will be no HomeVideodrome podcast this week.  Head on over to The Film Thugs for other shows and update. Adam Sandler movies are my comedy comfort food. Ever since the one-two punch of “Billy Madison”

This week on the HomeVideodrome podcast, Hunter and Jim talk about the results of the Oscars as well as run-down this week’s releases.  Head on over to The Film Thugs to give it a listen. George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” set the standard

Once again, due to scheduling conflicts, the HomeVideodrome podcast is once again cancelled for the week, but next week we should be back in top gear. Go visit The Film Thugs for updates, and be sure to subscribe on iTunes. It’s rare

Due to a technical snafu, there will be no HomeVideodrome podcast this week.  We’ll back in full swing next week, so be sure to check The Film Thugs for updates. Jessica Chastain had the best year of any actress this year, turning