Blogcritics Author: Iloz Zoc

Movie Review: The Dark Knight - Darkest Before the Dawn

Iloz Zoc — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:17:09 EDT

The Dark Knight is why superheros in comic books were created in the first place.
Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plans are horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will get blown up, nobody panics. But when I say one little old mayor will die, everyone loses their minds! Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order, and...

Movie Review: Diary of the Dead

Iloz Zoc — Thu, 3 Jul 2008 20:45:21 EDT

When the dead won't stay dead will they want MySpace pages, too?
It was a gloomy scene both inside and out. Gloomy inside because outside it was sunny-bright and barbecue-hot, and "perfect beach weather" as the saying goes, making it all the more depressing for those of us who cherish the cooler Autumn months.Inside the library, not even the sombre and ominous strains of Midnight Syndicate's The...

Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk--A Smashing Time

Iloz Zoc — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:02:43 EDT

Mean, green, and still incredible.
By the time the Incredible Hulk bellows his signature "Hulk Smash!" in-your-face taunt to the Abomination, he's already done quite a bit of it in director Louis Leterrier's successful return to the comic book and television roots that made the rampaging, green (with purple pants), behemoth a colorfully melodramatic composition of...

Movie Review: The Strangers

Iloz Zoc — Tue, 3 Jun 2008 14:19:20 EDT

Home is where the heart-pounding terror is.
The message director Bryan Bertino seems to be implying in The Strangers is not to misuse technology; doing so can get you killed. Two misused cell phones, one misused house phone, and a misused car and ham radio later, he clearly illustrates why in this latest iteration of the home-invading stalker movie. With similarities to 2006's European...

They're Tearing Down My Coney Island

Iloz Zoc — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:06:03 EDT

Where will the analog fun go?
I don't know why I'm crying, but I am. I don't know why there's a lump in my throat, but there is. Astroland is closing. They're shutting down Deno's Wonder Wheel Park. They're tearing down my Coney Island, the one seen in fading Polaroid and Kodachrome snapshots blurring into history, and watched on YouTube snapcasts...

LOTT D Roundtable: Torture Porn in Horror Today

Iloz Zoc — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:34:27 EDT

Torture porn is dehumanizing and disgusting. But it sells. Why?
Cinema tends to reflect either the banality, the sanctity, or the immorality of our times, and patrons of movies promote the ones they like most by buying more theater tickets, more DVDs, and more Netflix rentals for them. The popularity of a movie will invariably foster more movies with similar storylines, similar characters and action themes, and...

Movie Review: Night of the Demon

Iloz Zoc — Fri, 9 May 2008 16:08:07 EDT

It's in the trees! It's coming!
Iconic Demon in Unabashed Supernatural Horror Makes GoodSo...this guy, Hal Chester, messed up the screenplay quite a bit. It was so good, the screenplay, that it couldn't be completely destroyed, only half destroyed. It's still considered a good movie. I think the job Jacques Tourneur did with what Hal Chester gave him was awfully good. Hal...

Movie Review: Iron Man

Iloz Zoc — Fri, 2 May 2008 12:42:24 EDT

This superhero's greatest powers are his brain and his heart.
Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow make Iron Man more than the sum of the boilerplate screenplay by Mark Fergus, and the cover-the-basics villains and action directed by Jon Favreau. As Tony Stark, playboy billionaire (and former Long Island native), and Pepper Potts, his personal assistant handling his professional and personal affairs with...

Movie Review: The Forbidden Kingdom

Iloz Zoc — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:42:19 EDT

Jet Li and Jackie Chan on screen together for the first time generate entertaining chopsocky mayhem in this light-hearted actioner fantasy.
Jet Li and Jackie Chan on screen together for the first time generate entertaining chopsocky mayhem in this light-hearted actioner fantasy from director Rob Minkoff and writer John Fusco. Get a big bucket of popcorn, add liberal amounts of salt and butter flavor, and just enjoy this fairytale story that's short on logic but long on fun and...

Movie Review: Prom Night

Iloz Zoc — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:33:13 EDT

Finding an escort for the prom is more terrifying.
Prom Night's life-size promotional cardboard standup of a door, strategically placed in theaters to pique the potential audience for this teen thriller, is a good indication of how much effort went into this movie. Opening the door produces a half-hearted, single scream. A hearty laugh would have been more appropriate.My mind wandered a bit...