Cult Classics: Ginger Snaps Discussion, Part 2 of 3

Now we turn out attention to Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed with more Katharine Isabel and Emily Perkins! This installment of the Ginger Snaps series was released in January of 2004 and directed by Brett Sullivan, the film editor for Ginger Snaps.

 

Lara’s Jurassic Party

I recently turned the super ancient age of 24. Scary, I know. But the silver-lining (besides the gray hair) is that 24 is the DINOSAUR BIRTHDAY. Or so fate would make it seem. You see, merely days after birthday Jurassic Park was screened at my favorite place in the whole world, The Alamo Drafthouse. What a nice present from the Drafthouse! So, thanks to the genius of my friend, Aaron, it became very apparent that a JP themed meal was in order to celebrate the Life of Lara (despite the Death of Dinosaurs). I pulled together some ideas from Jurassic Park fanatics; Tyler, Brent, Daniela, Juliet, Laura, Aaron, and my own clever brain, put some of them to work (thanks be to Mitch, Jenny, Claire, Laura, Aaron, Beth, Stephanie, Juliet, Brittany, Nic, and mostofly, Tyler Boyfriend) and had the Jurassic Party of a lifetime. Hold on to your brunch.

Cult Classics: Ginger Snaps Discussion, Part 1 of 3

This Halloween, I watched a lot of horror films, as people often do around Halloween. Netflix Instant Play was awash with them (although regrettably only Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning is on Instant Play right now. I had to find the other two movies elsewhere). I got the idea to talk about the Ginger Snaps movies because I pretty much marathoned them the week before Halloween. And so I begin with Ginger Snaps, the John Fawcett directed movie that began it all in 2000. I apologize if this takes a turn for the obnoxious. Graduate school is ruining me/making me awesome.

LINKS!!!

Its been a long time coming, but we here at Lara and the Reel Boy have finally added links to the side of our page.  Have you ever wondered what we read when we’re not posting fascinating thoughts for you to read?  Well, wonder no more.  Now, you can simply look to the right side of your computer screen to find the best news, opinions, and bizarre insights into film available on the internet.  And not only that, you can also find other blogs that we write for!  Who cares that there is only one entry in that category right now!  Everyone starts somewhere!

So, look through the links.  Expand your horizons.  You’ll love it!

Timothy Dalton loves to expand his horizons!

Cult Classics: Streets of Fire

I have wanted to see Streets of Fire for several years now.  As soon as I discovered that was written and directed by Walter Hill, the same man who gave us The Warriors and 48 Hours, I was hooked.  Then I watched a trailer for Streets of Fire and noticed that it looked like a 1950s version of The Warriors, but with Willem Dafoe and Rick Moranis added in.  Color me intrigued.

Fantastic Fest Review: Karate-Robo Zaborgar

Karate-Robo Zaborgar was one of the movies I was most anticipating seeing while I was at Fantastic Fest.  I am a huge sucker for Japanese tokusatsu television from the 1970s—giant monsters and/or robots played by men in rubber suits fighting over miniature versions of Tokyo.  I mean, come on.  So, when I heard that one of the classics of this genre, Denjin Zaborger, was getting the remake treatment by the same director who brought us The Machine Girl and RoboGeisha, I was understandably intrigued and excited.

Fantastic Fest Review: The Day

Somehow, in the past few years, post-apocalyptic movies have been running a close second to vampire films.  Maybe it’s the general sense that there is very little hope for this society to continue at the pace we have set for it.  Maybe it’s just that post-apocalyptic movies are usually pretty fun to watch.  And maybe it’s just the guarantee that you are not going to have a glamorous male model posing as a monster showing up at any point.  But regardless, the rift left by the end of the original Mad Max trilogy seems to have been closed.  We had The Road and The Book of Eli, the announcement that Mad Max himself will be making a return, a handful of other films, and now we have The Day.

Fantastic Fest Review: Milocrorze – A Love Story

Milocrorze:  A Love Story is a surrealistic fever dream about the futility of love.  Maybe.  This was definitely one of the most bizarre movies I watched at Fantastic Fest.  But it was also one of my favorites.  Why?  Well, it’s hard to explain, but, as always, I will try.

Fantastic Fest Review: Let The Bullets Fly

Let the Bullets Fly, the story of a bandit (Jiang Wen) posing as the new mayor of a village and then fighting for control with the local godfather of crime (Chow Yun-fat), is the highest grossing domestic film in Chinese history.  It broke all of the records there when it was released in 2010. Grossing $111.1 million actually.  I knew that before I went to see it.  I knew that both Chow Yun-fat and Jiang Wen are two of the greatest actors to ever come out of China.  And I knew this was a historical action movie, which is often what Chinese filmmakers do best.  So, needless to say, I went into this movie with some pretty high expectations.

Fantastic Fest Review: El Narco

El Narco, or El Infierno as it was originally called in Mexico when it was released last year, is the story of a man being slowly and deliberately sucked into the drug game in Mexico.  It begins with Benny García (Damián Alcázar) being deported back to Mexico from the United States after a stay of 20 years.  He arrives back in his hometown to find the city almost unrecognizable, and his younger brother dead.  This is all thanks to the wars between the drug cartels that are ripping Mexico apart.

What follows is the downward spiral that becomes Benny’s life.  We see him get sucked into the cartel in an ill-advised attempt to protect his brother’s widow and teenage son.   And then we watch his life slowly unravel in what would be an extremely tragic movie if it wasn’t broken up by so much humor.