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‘Dracula Untold’ seems destined to be unsold

Dracula Untold is one of those misfires that’s not even memorably or enjoyably poor, just a monotonous distraction for an admittedly brisk hour and a half. The revisionist Maleficient-like interpretation of Dr. Acula as a heroic figure just doesn’t work with material like this that’s so miserably solemn and lacking in any stirring entertainment value. Only in one brief part of the final act does the film gain some goofy spark, and it’s fittingly when the film actually embraces its horror roots as a fully vampire Vlad turns a bunch of his people and they all go sharp-toothed upon the Turk forces. Of course, that’s all for naught as Gary Shore’s feature debut goes back to neutering Dracula’s bite in making him the lone ‘good guy’ among his suddenly all evil people, and concluding with a likely far too optimistic franchise tease: ending a film with “Let the games begin” almost feels like mockery when there’s been so little incentive offered to come back and play.

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‘Maps to the Stars’ Movie Review – never quite comes together

Hollywood could easily be the perfect fantasy world of Cronenberg’s obsessions. The themes associated with body horror, from the fascination with decay to the battle between body and mind, are staples of the torrid extremes of Tinsel Town. In 2012, David Cronenberg’s son, Brandon, tackled these ideas with his feature debut Antiviral. That film explores a dystopian future in which the obsession with celebrity is taken to extremes of consumption. In Antiviral, the masses purchase meat grown from their favourite celebrity’s cells and head to a special clinic in order to be infected with the same venereal strain as their Hollywood Idol. The film externalizes the growing cultural obsession with fame, and concentrates that obsession through corporeality and sex.

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‘Enemy’ an unnerving, perplexing thriller toplined by Jake Gyllenhaal

Enemy Written by Javier Gullón Directed by Denis Villeneuve Canada and Spain, 2013 Enemy belongs to a subgenre of cinema known roughly as Well-Made Movies That Should Only Be Consumed Once. No doubt, this nightmarish suspense thriller is designed as something of a puzzle box, offering up clues as to what’s really going on to …

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Too much of ‘Cosmopolis’ feels like lifeless posturing

Cosmopolis Written for the screen and directed by David Cronenberg Canada/France/Portugal/Italy, 2012 Though dissimilar in regards to thematic or narrative content, Cosmopolis bears a noticeable similarity to David Cronenberg’s last film, A Dangerous Method, in that both are heavily packed with lengthy, slow-moving conversation sequences that are predominantly free of sound outside of the spoken …

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‘Cosmopolis’ aims to challenge but may alienate in the process

Cosmopolis Directed by David Cronenberg Written by David Cronenberg Canada / France, 2012 A new David Cronenberg movie is a cause for excitement for many a film fanatic. The filmmaker’s oeuvre has earned him the respect and admiration from self described connoisseurs, officially recognized experts and over the past 10 years or so, the mainstream. …

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