Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/01/2006

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It’s not the scary hit that The Ring was in 2002, but The Grudge makes a similarly convincing case for American remakes of popular Japanese horror films. Barely a year passed between the release of Takashi Shimizu’s creepy ghost story Ju-On: The Grudge and the production of this American remake, set in Tokyo and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar in her first post-Buffy horror film. About the only significant difference between the two films is the importing of a mostly-American cast (including Bill Pullman, Clea DuVall and Grace Zabriskie), but The Grudge was reconfigured (by screenwriter Stephen Susco) to allow Shimizu to refine and improve the spookiest highlights of his earlier version, which enjoyed previous incarnations as a short film and two made-for-Japanese-video features. Surprising box-office analysts with a $40 million opening weekend, The Grudge may disappoint hard-core horror fans because it lacks gore and graphic violence, but as a creepy tale abo (more…)

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2002’s popular video-game-derived hit Resident Evil didn’t inspire confidence in a sequel, but Resident Evil: Apocalypse defies odds and surpasses expectations. It’s a bigger, better, action-packed zombie thriller, and this time Milla Jovovich (as the first film’s no-nonsense heroine) is joined by more characters from the popular Capcom video games, including Jill Valentine (played by British hottie Sienna Guillory) and Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr, from 1999’s The Mummy). They’re armed and ready for a high-caliber encounter with devil dogs, mutant “Lickers,” lurching zombies, and the leather-clad monster known only as Nemesis, unleashed by the nefarious Umbrella Corporation responsible for creating the cannibalistic undead horde. Having gained valuable experience as a respected second-unit director on high-profile films like Gladiator and The Bourne Identity, director Alexander Witt elevates this junky material to the level of slick, schlocky entertainment. –J (more…)

OUR ‘HERO’ HAS TWO LAST JOBS TO COMPLETE: LOCATE THE JUNKIE DAUGHTER OF A CHUM OF HIS VOLATILE GANGSTER BOSS & BROKER THE SALE OF AN ENORMOUS LOAD OF ECSTASY. IN THE PROCESS, HE MUSTABANDONED HIS SELF-STYLED RULE OF CRIMINAL CONDUCT DESIGNED, OF COURSE, TO KEEP HIM REMOVED FROM THE DIRTY WORK.

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So here’s the deal: A bunch of sassy scientific types, who all look as though tey’ve spent just as much time lifting barbells as they have beakers, head out into Borneo to find some rare flower that’s the “pharmaceutical equivalent to the fountain of youth”–and end up dodging the digestive system of several mutant snakes during mating season. You gotta hate when that happens. If you don’t, you soon will, because this in-name-only sequel to Anaconda, 1997’s now seminal guilty pleasure, is proof that more does not necessarily mean merrier. The thing isn’t even good-bad; it’s cheap and completely unmemorable even as popcorn fodder. Director Dwight Little and his posse of his screenwriters have neither the budget nor the imagination to come on like a rip-snorting Aliens clone–it’s pretty much one snake at a time, and frankly more concerned with the conniving British baddie (Matthew Marsden) who really, really wants that orchid. The cast of no-names is destined (more…)

From the director of The Brotherhood and Ring Of Darkness! Seventeen-year-old Angela (newcomer Nicole Cavazos) suffers from a recurring dream about a 16th century witch burned to death on a dark and mysterious beach. To find an explanation and reclaim her life, Angela takes a two-week retreat for troubled teens on the Caribbean island of Matau, run by a noted child psychologist (Joanna Cassidy). Little does Angela realize that Matau hides a horrific secret history…and her nightmares are about to come to life! An exotic descent into witchcraft and revenge from director David DeCoteau (Ring of Darkness, Leeches), where even the most desirable tropical paradise can turn into a realm of inescapable evil.

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A young man struggling to access sublimated childhood memories finds a technique that allows him to travel back to the past. Occupying his childhood body, he is able to change history. But every change he makes has unexpected consequences.

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More than a few critics hailed Spider-Man 2 as “the best superhero movie ever,” and there’s no compelling reason to argue–thanks to a bigger budget, better special effects, and a dynamic, character-driven plot, it’s a notch above Spider-Man in terms of emotional depth and rich comic-book sensibility. Ordinary People Oscar®-winner Alvin Sargent received screenplay credit, and celebrated author and comic-book expert Michael Chabon worked on the story, but it’s director Sam Raimi’s affinity for the material that brings Spidey 2 to vivid life. When a fusion experiment goes terribly wrong, a brilliant physicist (Alfred Molina) is turned into Spidey’s newest nemesis, the deranged, mechanically tentacled “Doctor Octopus,” obsessed with completing his experiment and killing Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) in the process. Even more compelling is Peter Parker’s urgent dilemma: continue his burdensome, lonely life of crime-fighting as Spider-Man, or pursue love and happine (more…)