I don’t mind a vampire hunter revenge piece, but in light of other vampire hunter themed films, this non-linear tale tends to drag more than it should. Rise : The Blood Hunter starts off on the wrong foot, but only when we get into the events that lead up to a reporter’s transformation into a vampire, the film becomes curiously interesting. If only the film kept up with that story, instead of going off in a direction of been there and done that. Question: how do you keep a scene together? Answer: loads of neon, lots of chit-chat and Lucy Liu’s upside down nude scenes. (more…)

Technorati tags: chokingonpopcorn movie Reviews Rise : The Blood Hunter

People, the Boston Society of Film Critics has spoken.

Film: "No Country for Old Men" (Runner up: "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly")
Director: Julian Schnabel for ?The Diving Bell and the Butterfly? (Joel and Ethan Coen for "No Country for Old Men")
Foreign-Language Film: "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly?; (that vote was almost unanimous; some people's two cents went to "Syndromes and a Century" and "4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days")
Actor: Frank Langella in "Starting out in the Evening" (Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood")
Actress: Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" (Julie Christie in "Away from Her")
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" (Ben Foster in "3:10 to Yuma" and "Alpha Dog" -- my favorite almost-winner)
Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone" (Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There")
Screenplay: Brad Bird for "Ratatouille" (Ronald Harwood for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly?)
Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly? (Roger Deakins for ?The Assassination of Jesse James,? ?No Country for Old Men,? and ?In the Valley of Elah?)
New Filmmaker: Ben Affleck for "Gone Baby Gone" (Tony Gilroy for "Michael Clayton")

Every year, the society recognizes the best rediscovered films. This year's winners were ?Girl with a Suitcase,? ?Killer of Sheep,? ?The Pumpkin Eater,? ?White Mane,? and ?Entre la Mer et L?eau Douce.?

The year?s best film series were also cited: the Films of Charles Burnett, the New Romanian Cinema, Independents Week: New American Independent Cinema 2007 at the Harvard Film Archive; Michael Haneke: A Cinema of Provocation at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Harvard Film Archive; Signore & Signore: Leading Ladies of Italian Cinema 1941-1977, at the Museum of Fine Arts; and Welcome to the Grindhouse at the Brattle Theater.

Toward the end of the meeting, there had been some talk about giving something to Jonny Greenwood's horror soundscape for "There Will Be Blood." (The music is as awesomely nuts as the two main characters.) It didn't come to pass. The vote was relatively quick, and some people learned how to say "Apichatpong Weerasethakul." And any day someone can learn to do that is a good day.

Aware that Steven Seagal has reduced himself poorly to the straight to DVD market, , I will confess that in spite of it all, I’ll always give the sensei a chance at redemption. This time around, there is some good news in that there is a decent attempt to show an aging Seagal still has some moves in him, and that he doesn’t need a stand in all the time. Urban Justice also has cliche overload, which can be excusable in some of Seagal’s films (I wasn’t expecting a film version of Sophocles’ Antigone, I’ll put it that way) but I am a self proclaimed martial acts action film junkie, and when I don’t get me fix… (more…)

Technorati tags: chokingonpopcorn movie Reviews Urban Justice