'Interior. Leather Bar.' A Pseudo-Breakdown of the James Franco Film

September 19, 2013 in Film, Reviews, Robbie Imes

If you haven’t heard of Interior. Leather Bar ., it’s James Franco and filmmaker Travis Mathews’ re-imagining of the lost 40 minutes of the Al Pacino starring, William Friedkin created film Cruising. The film bleeds the lines between documentary, mockumentary, and cinematic narrative, and is an exploration of sexual and creative boundaries and freedoms put upon the creator and the observer. Needless to say, the film thoughtfully pushes lines far beyond expectation, and to various degrees of success.

Look at His Shit: A Review of 'Spring Breakers'

August 08, 2013 in Film, Reviews, Robbie Imes

Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers is a bizarre, highly stylized piece of cinema, and a minor masterpiece, of sorts. It stars the media machine known as James Franco, the man who seemingly cranks out more projects than anyone. There’s not a time when he’s not doing SOMETHING – besides driving everyone crazy with that face. This movie is one of his highlights in 2013.

The film is about four college girls who lose their minds on spring break in South Florida (where else?). When they are arrested for partying, they’re bailed out by the mysterious gangster/rapper/crazy man, Alien (Franco). What happens next is raging spree of sex and crime and Britney Spears, and it’s mesmerizing.

Review: ‘Kiss of the Damned’

July 08, 2013 in Film, Reviews, Robbie Imes

The legend of Nosferatu never ceases to amaze, though it’s rare that a vampire movie is exciting anymore. The genre has been handed over to tweens and housewives and rabid bastions of non-taste in favor of safe-bets and box office revenue. The raw sex appeal, style, and yes, horror, three key factors that make these tales so alluring, have systematically been stripped away in favor of puppy-love and cutsie PG rated innuendoes. The vampire, it seems, has finally died.

But fans of this horror subgenre know that the vampire never really dies, it just goes back into the coffin for a while. It lurks beneath the floorboards, brooding and waiting, dreaming up new ways in which to fascinate and terrify a new generation. And good thing, because the best stories of the erotically undead come out of this brooding period.

One of those films is the curious, awesome Kiss of the Damned. It stars the inappropriately hot Milo Ventimiglia as Paolo, a successful writer who has escaped the city to a cottage in a small, upstate town. He’s sought tranquility from the crazy New York streets to focus on writing his next big hit, a film that everyone back home seems to be eager for.

Redefining America: A 'Man of Steel' Review

June 17, 2013 in Film, Reviews, Paul Florez

In the very multicultural Miami, one would think they were in another country. People speak Spanish first and English later; the caffeine of choice is not ice coffee from Starbucks, but café con leche purchased from a no name bodega on calle ocho; and Spanish music blasts from the rolled down windows of cars with a Cuabn flag on its bumper. Miami is another world and in many profound ways, separate from the rest of the United States.

Yet as you drive through Miami you see some of the hallmarks that makes this country so great: freedom, hard work, and family. Miami is full of people who immigrated to the USA for political reasons and they want to relish in our values. You even notice the feats of American business and achievements: Fords, Best Buys and McDonalds. I don’t say this in a scolding, diminishing way. Rather I want to convey a sense that no matter how foreign Miami may seem, it’s adopted many core American values and franchises. It may not be America in the conventional sense but it is still America.

Alien Block Party

July 07, 2011 in Film, Reviews, Randall Lotowycz

When a strange alien creature falls from the sky, a group of inner city kids in South London react they only way they know how—they kill it and plan to get rich off their find. The group, lead by the stoic Moses (John Boyega), are soon in over their heads as more aliens, larger and fiercer than the first one they encountered, begin encroaching on their apartment complex. Soon, the teens are in a fight for their lives, forced to partner with Sam (Jodie Whittaker), a nurse they just mugged earlier that night if they’re going to survive, not just the aliens, but also cops who are out to arrest them and Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter), a spurned local drug dealer who wants them dead.

Welcome to Attack the Block, a debut feature by British comedian Joe Cornish.

‘Your Highness’ Is a Royal Laugh

April 04, 2011 in Film, Reviews, Randall Lotowycz

For his entire life, Prince Thadeous (Danny McBride) has been overshadowed by his older brother, the handsome and heroic Fabious (James Franco). He’s held in little esteem by his father King Tallious (Charles Dance). Never to become king, he squanders his time getting stoned and causing trouble, joined by his loyal servant Courtney (Rasmus Hardiker). After Fabious’s bride-to-be Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) is kidnapped by the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux), Thadeous is ordered by King Tallious to join Fabious on his quest to rescue her, or face exile. Woefully unprepared for the dangers of the journey, Thadeous and Courtney are more of a hindrance to Fabious than an asset as they race to get to Leezar before the wizard sleeps with Belladonna in a ritual to birth an all-powerful dragon. Along the way, they are joined by the mysterious and beautiful Isabel (Natalie Portman), who seeks Leezar herself, aiming to exact revenge for the death of her family.

The Limits of New Movie ‘Limitless’

March 18, 2011 in Film, Reviews, Randall Lotowycz

The film “Limitless” begins with struggling fiction writer Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) having a chance encounter with Vernon (Johnny Whitworth), his former brother-in-law and a onetime coke dealer who now claims to be a pharmaceutical consultant. Wanting to help Eddie with his writer’s block, Vernon gives him a sample unregulated drug called NZT, which allows its users to take advantage of 100 percent of their brain. Popping the pill, Eddie goes from average Joe to Good Will Hunting in thirty seconds, finishing his novel and then setting his sights on amassing a great fortune in the stock market, a meteoric rise that puts him on the radar of Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro), a titan of the energy industry who wants to utilize Eddie’s genius thinking to aid in a very difficult merger with another industry giant. Along the way, Eddie must smooth things over with his on-again/off-again girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish), deal with Gennady (Andrew Howard) the Russian gangster who provided him with start-up capital for his fortune, and figure out he’s going to get his next fix of NZT when his supply starts running low.

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