Gus Van Sant is one of the more interesting writer/directors around working in film today. He’s able to go mainstream with hits like Good Will Hunting and then do more personal and artsy indie films like Gerry and Elephant. He’s in a real experimental phase lately and Paranoid Park is another aimless wander from Van Sant. An artsy, pretentious void of nothingness. There’s no emotional resonance, character development (or story) at all in Paranoid Park. Van Sant’s pretty images and stylish cinematography are even spiraling into cliche. There’s endless shots of a teen brooding in a hoodie walking along a grassy …

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Fall is looming large, time for cooler weather and brooding to some awesome DVDs.  It’s kind of a slow month for blockbusters…..mostly its a time to upgrade your old DVDs, or just pick up some that you never owned in the first place.  Here’s an early week by week rundown of the best DVDs coming out in October:

October 7th

Beetlejuice: 20th Anniversary Edition:  Despite my feelings about recent Timmy Burton films, I really liked Beetlejuice and I’m glad its getting a new edition.

Boy A:  This disturbing looking indie from the UK came and went quickly through theatres, so I’m …

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Top 10 Superhero Films

1.  Batman Begins (the definitive Batman origin film with Christian Bale as the best ever Bruce Wayne/Batman, the film also has strong support all around, especially from Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Cillian Murphy, who plays the creepy Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow)

2.  The Dark Knight (In many ways this is a better film than Begins and I considered making it number 1 on my list, it has a brilliant ensemble cast, better action scenes, a sleeker story, and career best performances from Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart…..for the moment though I still prefer Batman Begins because of …

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Sarah Landon and The Paranormal Hour is reminiscent of RL Stine’s “Goosebumps” mixed with a bit of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. The premise and concept have promise but they are hampered by a tiny budget, bad acting, and a mediocre storyline with too much babbling and not enough action. It’s hard to imagine anyone but kids and tweens finding much to enjoy about this film. Even they may prefer the slicker, bigger-budgeted films and television series around like the recent Nancy Drew update. Sarah Landon will appeal mostly to kids and adults nostalgic for Goosebumps and other cheesy kiddie …

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Out of all the Transformers toys that I have collected when I was a kid, my favorite was Devastator.   For Transformers toys, it was already cool enough to be able to transform from a car to a robot. Then they released the Constructicons, six transforming contruction vehicles, that when combined together, creates one giant robot called Devastator.

From tfw2005.com, Devastator has been confirmed for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the sequel to last year’s summer hit.  I for one, am excited to see the Constructicons and Devastator devastating Earth. 

For those of you that have noticed in the first movie, …

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Smallville is one of my favorite series on the air.  It’s just about to start its 8th (and most likely, final) season on Thursday, September 18th on The CW Network.  I wanted to take the time to do a top ten list.  These are my ten favorite episodes of the series in order, and as a longtime fan, it wasn’t easy.

Top 10:

1. Run- Clark meets a young version of The Flash in this flashy and fast-paced episode written by Jeph Loeb.  Smallville at its most fun.

2. Red- Clark is exposed to red kryptonite and it changes his personality …

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In the mid 1990’s horror was king for quite a while.  Thanks mainly to Scream (and to a lesser extent its two sequels), slasher films were back in vogue.  Kevin Williamson’s sharply funny and ground-breaking script for the original Scream film combined with Wes Craven’s stylish direction made slasher films cool again.  Williamson himself scripted the above-average I Know What You Did Last Summer, which became a sleeper hit due to some clever marketing and a popular young cast of Gen X favorites.  There were other decent slasher films during that cycle (Urban Legend comes to mind) but after that horror …

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I decided to start a monthly rundown (week by week) of my DVD picks.  Yes, I know it’s not quite September yet, but with this advance heads-up, you’ll have some time to save up some cash…..so here we go !!!!!!!!!

September 2nd

The Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow:  I really enjoyed the Ultimate Avengers animated films and this latest DVD release has the kids of the original Avengers in it and looks well-worth checking out.  Some nifty animation on the trailer, which can be found on youtube.com.

Fist of Legend:  Jet Li classic is being released again, this time by the …

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Star Wars: Clone Wars is being released in theatres today.  Checking in on the latest reviews for the new Star Wars CG movie just puts a damper on this nerd’s face.

I’m going to watch it regardless, but just seeing George Lucas’ trend on movies lately, like the latest Indiana Jones movie and the Star Wars prequels, has made me lose “a new hope” on future Lucas film projects.…

These are the best and the worst films I’ve seen in 2008 (so far):

My Fav 5:

1.  The Dark Knight- Dark, dazzlingly complex and one of the best (along with Batman Begins and Spidey 2) comic book films ever made.  As soon as Heath Ledger’s darkly funny and utterly amazing Joker pops up on screen, you can’t take your eyes off him.  The whole cast is amazing and this is the rare film that will stay with you long after you’ve forgotten the latest popcorn flick you saw to escape a blazing hot day.

2.  Wanted- A new high watermark …

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