We’ve enjoyed an influx in strong horror movies in the past year or so, spearheaded by The Cabin in the Woods, but also including the likes of The Innkeepers, The Woman in Black and Sinister, just for starters.  The Awakening definitely constitutes a step down from those efforts, but it also demonstrates the ways the genre as a whole has benefitted from them.  After years of cynical torture porn and empty shock tactics, horror movies have finally remembered what it means to properly scare people. The Awakening does far better than it might solely by keeping that equation in mind. Hit the jump for my full review.

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.  The Awakening opens today in limited release.]

You can keep your modern ghost stories. I understand why they would terrify some people, but those films tend to leave me cold. They use modern science to find something which cannot be scientifically explained, but trying to find ghosts the same way special ops teams try to find terrorists diminishes the illusion. You can only shake the camera so much before I wonder if the ghosts have access to a tripod. The stories also tend to lack any subtext and generating scares is their sole mission. I prefer my ghost stories gothic and foreboding and that’s why I adored Nick Murphy‘s The Awakening. The film still uses the same conceit of using the scientific to explore the paranormal, but does so with early 1920s technology and it’s far more exciting to see an investigator who uses cameras which rely on a trip-wire and a magnesium flash than someone who went down to the local Best Buy and asked for a quality camcorder. In addition to its creativity, Murphy paints a gorgeous picture that delivers the thrills, chills, and terrific performances from Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, and Imelda Staunton.

The first 10 minutes of director Nick Murphy’s horror film The Awakening have been released online for your viewing pleasure.  The story takes place in England shortly after World War I, and centers on a hoax-buster (Rebecca Hall) who is called in to investigate the recent death of a student at an all-boys boarding school.  When she gets there, she discovers that there might be something truly supernatural going on around her.  Matt caught the film last year at TIFF and called it “a damn fine piece of gothic horror,” and this clip promises a great deal of moody atmosphere.

Hit the jump to watch the first 10 minutes of the film.  The pic also stars Dominic West and Imelda Staunton.  The Awakening opens on August 17th.

The trailer and poster for Nick Murphy‘s The Awakening have gone online.  I caught the film last year at the Toronto Film Festival, and thought it was a damn fine piece of gothic horror.  The story takes place in England shortly after World War I, and centers on a hoax-buster (Rebecca Hall) who is called in to investigate the recent death of a student at an all-boys boarding school.  When she gets there, she discovers that there might be something truly supernatural going on around her.  Part of what makes The Awakening great is the atmosphere and pacing, and the trailer foregoes that in favor of creepy photographs, hands on doorknobs, and other clichéd imagery that does Murphy’s film a disservice.  The trailer doesn’t outright spoil anything in the movie, but it does take a lot of moments from the third act, so consider yourself warned.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and poster.  The film also stars Dominic West and Imelda Staunton.  The Awakening opens August 17th.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the fifth season of The Wire.  Click on the corresponding links for my reviews of Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, and Season 4.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the fourth season of The Wire.  Click on the corresponding links for my reviews of Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the third season of The Wire; here are my reviews for season one and season two.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the second season of The Wire, and click here for my review of season one.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

And we couldn’t think of a better kick-off to this feature than HBO’s The Wire.  Hit the jump for my review of the groundbreaking drama’s first season.

Johnny English is solely an international phenomenon. The first Rowan Atkinson-starring vehicle made $28 Million stateside and its sequel made $8, but the first made $132 Million internationally and its sequel made $152 Million. Even if the third film goes straight to DVD stateside, it’s likely more is in order. In the second film, Atikson plays against Dominic West, Gillian Anderson and Rosamund Pike in another parody of the 007 legend. It’s all very good for Atkinson fans, but there’s thin gruel here for everyone else. Our review of Johnny English Reborn on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

I’ll use this week’s opening paragraph to offer a bit of foreshadowing. There’s a great chance that I’m going to be talking about 21 Jump Street here next week. Now, I’ll admit, I’ve never been one to laud the work of Channing Tatum. For the first time ever, though, I’m going into a film with high expectations for his performance. I think that everything I’ve seen of the film thus far looks terrific and Matt’s review and this NSFW extended trailer are just icing on the cake at this point.

On tap in this week’s “Top 5″ is a plethora of John Carter coverage including interviews with Taylor Kitsch, Andrew Stanton and more, a video blog recap of Topher Grace‘s Star Wars prequels edit, new images and a new trailer for The Cabin in the Woods, Silent House interviews with Elizabeth Olsen and co-directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, and the first image of Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in The Lone Ranger. Per usual, a brief recap and link to each await after the jump.

There’s a special place in my heart for big, bold adventure movies like John Carter.  In an age where detached irony seems to permeate every recess of our lives, John Carter throws out names like “Zodongan”, “Therns”, “Tharks”, and “Barsoom” and doesn’t blink an eye.  This is the world of John Carter and co-writer/director Andrew Stanton mostly lets the world open up at its own pace.  The conflicts are laid out cleanly, the lead characters are compelling, and eventually you’re not wondering about the difference between Zodongans and Heliumites and how a guy from 19th-century Earth was drawn into their conflict.  You’re too enraptured by the majesty of the red planet.  You’re also too busy laughing at the good-natured humor and being sucked into the exhilarating action.

While Dominic West has been acting for two decades, I’ll admit that he only got on my radar when I started watching HBO’s amazing series, The Wire.  Over the course of the series, West did an amazing job portraying the complicated life of detective James ‘Jimmy’ McNulty.  While the show was never a ratings bonanza for HBO, it will go down as one of the best TV shows ever produced, and it provided a launching pad for its excellent cast to take bigger projects.  For West, that bigger project is John Carter.  In Andrew Stanton‘s film, West plays the leader of an alien race who is obsessed with taking over Barsoom (Mars).

The other week, Disney held a big press junket in Arizona, and I landed an exclusive video interview with West.  During our extended conversation we talked about how he got involved in John Carter, the challenges of the production and working with green screen, his reaction to the finished film, the reshoots, how he might do an upcoming HBO series, and more.  In addition, as a huge fan of The Wire, I made sure to ask about his work on the show and how it opened the door to other things.  Finally, we talked about West’s little-known but crucial part in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.  Hit the jump to watch the interview.

I’ve heard good things about John Carter from people who have seen it, but sadly the film’s marketing has been a mess.  A recent featurette finally showed off the film’s scope and so does the final trailer.  But none of the trailers (except one that was fan-made, and far better than any of Disney’s trailers) took a single moment to explain who John Carter is, how he got to Mars, and why he has special powers.  Does any audience member who is unfamiliar with the source material, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel A Princess of Mars, know anything about the character beyond “Shirtless Dude Who Fights Weird Creatures”?  The movie is titled “John Carter” and Disney never took the time to tell us anything about him.

Hit the jump to check out the final trailer.  The film stars Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, Thomas Haden Church, and Willem Dafoe.  John Carter opens in IMAX and 3D on March 9th.

The international trailer for director Nick Murphy’s period psychological/supernatural thriller The Awakening has been released. The film stars Rebecca Hall as a woman bent on exposing all séances and ghost stories as exploitative shams following the death of her husband. However, when she’s called to investigate a disturbance at an all boys’ school, she’s forced to rethink her conceit. I’m really digging this trailer. The scares come from a genuine Gothic creepiness, and the mood and feel of the period really shines through. The performances don’t look too shabby either. Matt caught the film at the Toronto Film Festival and really liked it, so I’m definitely looking forward to checking it out when it hits theaters.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The Awakening also stars Dominic West and Imelda Staunton.