Out On DVD & Trailers: Upside Down, Evil Dead, Red 2, Dead Man Down, Side Effects, Sherlock Holmes 3 & Thor 2 News

The "Angelic Doctor," Thomas Aquinas.

Happy feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas to all my fellow Thomists!
If St Thomas is your patron, I wish his prayers and many blessings to you through his intercession! Let us always strive for wisdom through humility and make the most ardent prayers to God for complete holiness and submission to God's will. Amen.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has only a 5% approval rating. I truly felt this was a well-crafted film and for those interested in directing tricks, it would be worth your while.

Out on video this week, finally, is The Cold Light Of Day; I was probably the only person who saw this in the theater, but I was quite pleased. You might not consider it great entertainment, but it ascends beyond the capitalist-socialist debate to put the question to America about our role as defenders of democracy and Israel in the world. The acting was quite well done, but the detailed directing made the film worth my while (my review: Without Baggage: Erasure & Identity In the Cold Light Of Day).

This scene perfectly illustrates Count portraying business owners because he criticizes the job the Knight does and asks what he gets paid for, when the Knight replies he doesn't get paid, suggesting that all employers fail in properly compensating their workers and care about nothing except their personal lives which they deny to all others.

Also out this week is Hotel Transylvania which I consider to be a very anti-capitalist film. It was enjoyable, the animation was well done, it was fun getting to see and catch jokes about the old horror films, but it signals a reverse in culture: whereas the "unnatural" monsters once symbolized the unnatural systems American society fought and defeated, now people like myself (conservative, Republican, capitalist, Christian) are the unnatural ones, holding back society so vampires and humans can mate (my review Worm Cakes & Scream Cheese: Hotel Transylvania).

Seven Psychopaths is really impressed with itself.
I saw the film but didn't review it because it describes itself as a "bloody Buddhist film," or, in other words, a film that is against violence but not really as long as it's really violent. About the only good thing in the film, is an exercise in understanding what makes a film bad, because it's just as important to be able to articulate why you don't like something as why you do like something. The problem with Seven Psychopaths, like The Watch and The Campaign, is the "morals" of the film makers are so compromised and conditionalized, it ends up advocating a world of anarchy in every sens of the word. The acting was pretty good, and there were some funny parts, but there is no respect for human dignity nor is there any sufficient degree of personal integrity exhibited that makes the film choose one path over another, but remain perpetually in the fruitless realm of no man's land.

Released this week (but I haven't seen it yet) is The Awakening:  "In 1921, England is overwhelmed by the loss and grief of World War I. Hoax exposer Florence Cathcart visits a boarding school to explain sightings of a child ghost. Everything she believes unravels as the 'missing' begin to show themselves." Children who are ghosts are always symbolically problematic: as symbols of the future, children who turn into ghosts are a future that didn't happen, so the question--appears to be--what future post World War I might England had followed but didn't and why would it be showing itself now and reminding us of it? (Because historical films are never about history, they are always about the here and the now, the time period is just a vehicle). It looks like if you enjoyed The Woman In Black or The Innkeepers, this might be for you (it probably won't show up at Redbox--maybe--but you can watch it instantly now at Amazon).
To be released March 15 is Upside Down and about class conflict and mobility:

On the other hand, the new movie being billed as "The most terrifying movie you will ever see" (and even made my body-builder dad squeamish when he watched it, it's pretty gross) is awesome! Coming out April 12 is Evil Dead:

What book should be "left alone?" The Book Of the Dead is actually the Book Of Marx, the Communist Manifesto, because communism died with the Soviet Union so the demons being summoned are those from the graveyard of the Soviet Block. I tried explaining it to my dad, but he wasn't interested.
After several changes in release dates, GI Joe Retaliation is now set for March 28 and I will be watching this one in 3D:

 And out in August is Red 2:

Due out March 8 is Dead Man Down; this will be complex: at 2:35, see if that brief image invokes any thoughts in your mind (think implied reader, where have you seen/read something like this before?):

To me, that brief clip of the rats crawling over the man, invokes Winston from George Orwell's 1984. We'll have to wait and see if that's an accurate linking or not. Director Steven Soderbergh's newest film, Side Effects due out on February 8, invokes the drug usage we have been witnessing in films such as Dredd, Savages, The Bourne Legacy and Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters:

It would be tempting to say somethings now, but I am going to wait on this one. I think this is going to be done incredibly well, and I can't wait to see it. Speaking of Mr. Jude Law, aka Dr Watson, we have an update on his next collaboration with Robert Downey Jr: "Law says that the script for Sherlock Holmes 3 is still in development, but he hasn't heard anything yet. "But you know what it’s like, it’s going to be about scheduling, it’s going to be about the right time for the studio and it is about keeping the bar raised," says Law, "you know, coming up with something that’s really smart and making sure it keeps getting better."

Thespian Kenneth Branaugh directed the first installment of Thor but Game Of Thrones director Alan Taylor is taking over the sequel which will emphasize the mythology of Asgard, Thor's home land. "Kyle also said that Thor: The Dark World will begin with Asgard battered by war and The Nine Realms beset "by rag-tag invaders known as The Marauders," a race which could be a variation on the team of assassins employed by super-villain Mister Sinister that was first introduced in "Uncanny X-Men" #210 (Oct. 1986). This leaves Asgard in a weakened state ... which allows for the invasion of the Dark Elves, led by Malekith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston)." Thor 2 will be released in November.
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