Movie Reviews

Ah, prom. A time for memories. And friends. And high school girls in hot dresses. Also a time for power drills to the head, torture and insane stalkers. Just when you thought the torture porn subgenre was dead, along comes The Loved Ones, an Australian horror film that is simultaneously forgettable and satisfyingly screwed up.

Read FilmJabber’s full The Loved Ones movie review.

Just when I thought I had found a slam dunk – a documentary about one of my favorite films of all time, The Shining – I quickly realized that Room 237 was not the film I expected and wanted to be.  Room 237, so titled for the infamous room from The Shining, takes an interesting approach to the subject matter, gathering an assortment of eccentric lovers of the film who all have various theories on its deeper meanings.  Like the film being about the oppression of the Native Americans to Hitler’s persecution of the Jews to even stranger interpretations.

Read FilmJabber’s full Room 237 movie review.

Limbs will be removed. Tongues will be cut. Heads will be chainsawed. The Evil Dead remake is here, and it is one of the goriest movies ever put to film. But is it, as the marketing has so boldly promised, "the most terrifying film you will ever experience"? The answer is a clear "no," but it still serves as a mildly entertaining splatterfest – as long as you find limbs being forcibly removed, tongues getting cut and chainsaws impaling heads entertaining.

Read FilmJabber’s full Evil Dead movie review.

I don’t know what Upstream Color is about. You don’t either. The difference: I’ve seen the movie. There is a woman and there is a thief. There is a maggot that people inhale that does stuff to them. There is a pig farm. And a pig farmer. And pigs. I’ve got that much down.

Read FilmJabber’s full Upstream Color movie review.

Ah, the classic story of an old man and his friend robot. A tried and true tale that has been told through the centuries. And even yet, Robot & Frank is a surprisingly endearing drama-comedy about two unlikely friends, starring Frank Langella and the voice of Peter Sarsgaard.

Read FilmJabber’s full Robot & Frank movie review.

Katie and her favorite demonic soul buddy are at it again, this time tormenting a Facetime-loving piece of jailbait and her family because they made the mistake of adopting a boy who is marked by the Devil. Common problem, and it usually doesn’t result in the number of deaths that occur here. It’s Paranormal Activity 4, folks, and it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.

Read FilmJabber’s full Paranormal Activity 4 movie review.

What makes a son like his father? Is a son doomed to make his father’s mistakes? These questions are explored in the sweeping yet personal epic from director Derek Cianfrance The Place Beyond the Pines, which reunites him with his Blue Valentine star Ryan Gosling. At times captivating, at other times longwinded, The Place Beyond the Pines is the first good drama of the year. Unfortunately, it’s also far from perfect.

Read FilmJabber’s full The Place Beyond the Pines movie review.

When is an exorcism not an exorcism? And when is an exorcism movie not at all an exorcism movie? In Beyond the Hills, writer/director Cristian Mungis (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) takes a raw and sparing look at the true story of a failed Romanian exorcism that occurred in 2005. You’ll find no green vomit or flying objects here, as Beyond the Hills is less about exorcism and more about how dangerous blind faith can be.

Read FilmJabber’s full Beyond the Hills movie review.

Uh-oh, it’s a love triangle! Or is it a love square? Either way, Stephenie Meyer’s post-Twilight novel is now a major motion picture, and it is pretty much exactly what you’d expect it to be. The Host presents an intriguing premise and better overall production values than Meyer’s much maligned blockbuster franchise, but suffers from the same aimless and anticlimactic storytelling – and pathetically dopey romances.

Read our full The Host movie review.

You know you’re in trouble when the best line of dialogue in an entire movie is a Jay Z quote. Then again, I don’t know if I was in trouble. The new G.I. Joe: Retaliation is leaps and bounds better than its predecessor, with fast-paced action sequences and the charisma of The Rock pulsing through every scene, but it’s also absurd, absurdly absurd and fucking ridiculously absurd. Whether that’s good or bad… I just don’t know.

Read our full G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie review.

With Snow White And The Huntsmen and the abysmal Mirror Mirror, the past year has seen its fair share of Snow White projects.  By a mile the most unique offering to the category is Blancanieves, Spain’s official entry into this year’s Academy Awards.

Read FilmJabber’s full Blancanieves movie review.

Denzel Washington got the glory, Mary Elizabeth Winstead deserved it. Flight won the box office ($161 million worldwide), while Smashed didn’t even register ($376 thousand… total). And yet Smashed, another 2012 movie about alcoholism, is a much more earnest and engaging drama than Flight ever was.

Read FilmJabber’s full Smashed movie review.