Antiviral

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Antiviral
  • IMDB: link

AntiviralWritten and directed by first-time feature director Brandon Cronenberg, Antiviral is an unusual look at mankind’s obsession with both celebrity and germs in a not-too-distant future where the combination of both becomes the world’s most highly sought after commodities.

Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) has an unusual job. He works as a salesman for the Lucas Clinic, a company that specializes in the world’s most bizarre fetish. Lucas harvests diseases from celebrities and injects a non-contagious version of them into paying clients who wish to feel closer to the people they see on television and in magazines.

Syd’s problem starts with his personal use of the viruses and his willingness to sell them on the black market to a local butcher (Joe Pingue). After extracting the latest illness from the firm’s biggest celebrity (Sarah Gadon), Syd decides to sample it before turning it over to the lab. However soon he discovers the celebrity has died of the mysterious illness, and he has started to exhibit the same symptoms.

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Pain & Gain

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Pain & Gain
  • IMDB: link

Pain & GainBased on a somewhat unbelievable true series of events, Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne “It’s Okay to Call Me The Rock Again” Johnson, and Anthony Mackie star as a trio of bodybuilders who decide to kidnap and rob a local businessman (Tony Shalhoub). Played to the hilt, the insane over-the-top Pain & Gain embraces the ridiculousness of the situation to deliver some truly funny sequences. Sadly, it delivers almost as many groan worthy moments and some disturbing violence that doesn’t always mesh well with the zany tone of the movie. The true story the film is based on is so unbelievable director Michael Bay even stops the film at times to remind the audience that (some form of) these events really occurred.

The characters, who don’t seem smart enough to remember to breathe, aren’t even caricatures so much as full-blown cartoons. There’s a scene from Michael Bay’s first awful Transformers flick where a group of giant robots tiptoe around a suburban house hoping no one will see or hear them. That plan is near genius compared to those of Daniel Lugo (Wahlberg) and his confederates.

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The Numbers Station

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Numbers Station
  • IMDB: link

The Numbers StationDirected by Kasper Barfoed, The Numbers Station looks and feels every bit the low-budget thriller that it is. Set almost entirely in an underground bunker, the thriller somehow finds a way to make the setting feel empty and endless rather than claustrophobic. Mixed with what appears to be an extremely low budget and a circumspect screenplay that can’t find a way to make the idea of numbers stations exciting in 2013, The Numbers Station is the kind of straight-to-DVD B-movie that fizzles more than it entertains.

Our protagonist is Emerson (John Cusack), a government assassin with an acute case of conscience sent to Suffolk, England, after failing to murder a young woman (Hannah Murray) who was witness to his latest kill. Emerson’s new assignment is to protect Katherine (Malin Akerman), a cryptographer at a small numbers station used to relay encrypted codes across Western Europe. Haunted by his failure, and the death of the witness, Emerson tries to put the situation behind him, at least until the facility comes under attack by an organized group of terrorists.

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Psych – Juliet Wears the Pantsuit

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Psych – Right Turn or Left for Dead
  • tv.com: link

“Only psychos answer ads on Craigslist. You might as well as posted it on murdermethisinstant.com.”

Psych - Juliet Wears the Pantsuit

After their break-up, Shawn (James Roday) becomes suspicious of Juliet’s (Maggie Lawson) new roommate Laura (Rachel Blanchard) who he believes is not only a crazy identity thief but may also be a murderer. With Rachael (Parminder Nagra) and Max (Mateen Devji) staying with Gus(Dulé Hill), Shawn moves in with Woody (Kurt Fuller) which doesn’t go well for anyone involved.

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The Shadow: Year One #2

/ / Comics

The Shadow: Year One #2The Shadow saves Margo Lane from a pair of gangsters who attempt to throw her off the roof of the Cobalt Club by riddling the pair with holes and throwing their bodies off the rooftop for the cops to find. Who says chivalry is dead?

The Shadow’s plans begin to take effect as his attack begins a gang war between the rival families fueled by Massaretti’s paranoia, the death of his men, and a little hypnotic suggestion courtesy of the vigilante. As the mobsters begin killing each other The Shadow just sits back and laughs that creepy laugh of his.

I have mixed feelings about Margo recognizing Lamont Cranston as The Shadow so easily. I know she’s to become his Girl Friday, but the series of events feels a tad rushed for my tastes. There’s also an interesting scene during the party concerning the new Bela Lugosi movie which Cranston overhears and uses to help form the look and theatrics of the vigilante who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]

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