goryverbinski

Writer/Director Tony Giglio is a heavyweight action filmmaker who is rapidly rising to the ranks of comparable greats like John Woo (FACE/OFF), John McTiernan (DIE HARD), Simon West(CON AIR), Andrew Davis (UNDER SIEGE) and many others. In 2005, He made his presence in the action genre known with an explosive little movie entitled CHAOS starring a powerhouse Jason Statham, a dynamic Ryan Phillippe, and Wesley Snipes in the return to form role of his career. If you missed this one I'm not surprised. Tragically, due to budget complications, the film failed to receive the release it deserved and was seldom seen by US audiences. Fortunately however, Tony Giglio is back and finally getting the recognition he deserves as his new film, EXTRACTION, starring Danny Glover, Sean Astin, and Vinnie Jones, just to name a few, made a groundbreaking online Premiere on CRACKLE.COM. An extremely popular film streaming website owned and operated by SONY that only recently (EXTRACTION being the first) started producing its own line of feature films and on going series(not unlike Netflix). Naturally, thanks to some halfway decent advertising this time around, the film opened with a bang, earned stellar reviews from numerous critics, and was received very well overall in the United States, and the reason for this is simple...EXTRACTION IS THE BALLS. It is macho brilliance fueled by an endless supply of testosterone coupled with bravado. It is gleefully brutal, refreshingly fun, and most importantly of all, unapologetically masculine. Good guy movies are few and far between nowadays. Speaking as a twenty-four-year-old male and a true connoisseur of half-baked, hard-boiled, ham-fisted action films from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I say with full confidence that real action movies, the kind designed for men, correction, boys, are virtually impossible to come by in this era of cinema. Until now that is. For those of you out there like me, starved for a blood-spattered, bone shattering, head-busting good time, well, to you I say, look no further. EXTRACTION is here. It has been sent from Hollywood Heaven. Delivered by the action Gods themselves to rescue us from yet another PG-13 family adventure most likely starring Will Smith, Paul Walker or possibly even...Jamie Fox!...booooooooooooooooo! So what is it exactly that makes Extraction so great? Two words. The works. The intricately choreographed fight sequences, the real stunt performances, the countless explosions, the impressively high body-count, the shootouts, the hand-to-hand stuff, and I could keep going. See, that is the best this about Extraction. It feels like a 90 minute trailer because in a trailer they always show you the best parts. The only difference is that normally the trailer makes promises that the film often fails to keep. Don't worry though, this baby delivers the goods, and I mean all of them. Plus, the cast is just too perfect for words. Vinnie Jones is so good at being bad, Sean Astin (in true Rudy fashion) might be little but still just tries so damn big its astounding, and as for Danny Glover, I mean, come on. If the man isn't officially a legend in the business at this point in his career, then who the hell is? Suffice it to say, CHAOS needs some serious attention, EXTRACTION kicks some serious ass, and TONY GIGLIO makes some serious action movies.

Warm Bodies is one of the worst films I have ever seen. I was praying for a zombie to jump out of the screen and eat my eyes, but that would be way too graphic for a shamefully hindering PG-13 rating. I could barely get past the opening credits before I started to wish I was dead. Ironically enough, the script was so excruciatingly awful that after my brother and I made it about 10 minutes in, it started to hurt our braaaaaaaaaaaaaains! All kidding aside, because I don't want this review to come off as cutesy and nauseatingly candy-ass as Warm Bodies itself, one has to wonder if this entire god awful production/crap-fest was completely funded in secrecy by Hot Topic in a desperate attempt to sell more hoodies. It is one thing for a movie to be stupid, but when it is pretentious to boot, I just can't stomach garbage of that magnitude and in this regard, Warm Bodies is by far the greatest offender of all. In all seriousness, the synopsis/tag-line to this film should just be "zombies are like so adorable." I mean chances are that was the pitch the director gave to the studio. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the screenplay as well. George A. Romero's poops should have more credibility in the realm of Zombie cinema than this debacle. It could have been a Disney film, but there wasn't enough blood. Never mind that it was so boring, predictable, wrote, and hackney that I was doing more moaning and groaning than the freaking zombies as I struggled to watch it. If there is one positive thing that can be said about Warm Bodies, assuming you take it out of context, I guess it would be that watching it truly is a zombifying experience.

P.S. Shame on you, John Malkovich!

Part one was amazing. Parts two and (to a lesser extent) three were solid. Part four was God Awful on every level, and that was why when it came to part five, I admittedly went in to it with a severe bios. That being said, Final Destination 5 actually works. Granted, it was mostly just a by the numbers rehashing of everything that made the first one great, but there was also a dash of something extra. The direction, though completely mechanical, is not without joy here. The kills in this movie are staged so amusingly that I started to feel as though the film was interactive. The filmmakers just screw with you so much leading up to the demise of every character in the film. Which by the way is practically all of them. The script is so gleeful in its antagonizing approach that after a while you stop feeling annoyed and start having a blast. Also, the ending is so cheap, and yet, the greatest way to wrap up the franchise...and hopefully for good this time.