![]() | Viy (Spirit of Evil)
Buy used from: $25.98 (B-) Bizarre Russian horror film, a mix of Hammer style gothic and folk tales. It's a little slow, but the major scenes make up for this, and it has some surprisingly good makeup and effects.
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![]() | Resident Evil - Extinction (Widescreen Special Edition)
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $3.49 (C+) I must admit to more or less enjoying the two earlier RE movies, and the same must be said here. It's quite ridiculous, of course, but it's got a certain entertainment value. Possibly the best of them, for what that's worth, largely due to the post-apocalyptic setting.
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![]() | The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $5.99 / Used from: $0.95 (B) Quite funny but this just runs too damn long. And yeah, it does get a bit plotty at the end.
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![]() | Shoot 'Em Up
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $3.99 (B) The recent string of ultra over-the-top action movies has finally resulted in an out and out spoof. It still has some cool action, though, is fairly funny at times and Owen is brilliantly deadpan in the lead.
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![]() | The Quiet Earth
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $5.30 (B+) Tragically underappreciated Sci-Fi pic from New Zealand. Here a man wakes up one day to see everyone has disappeared. It's moderately budgeted, but they make the most of these limitations and it has plenty of neat ideas and a strong human element.
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![]() | Superbad (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $19.99 / Used from: $5.99 (A-) Staggeringly filthy and often riotously funny. It would probably be a classic were it not for an overly long second act with about 20 minutes of dubious material. Still, the rest of it is great.
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![]() | Sunshine
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $3.79 (A-) Garland and Boyle follow up the great "28 Days Later" with one of the best sci-fi movies of the decade. It has stunning visuals, affecting performances all around and creates a genuine sense of awe often lacking in sci-fi. Too bad the last 25 minutes can't quite match the opening, but it's all excellent.
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![]() | Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Unrated) [HD DVD]
Buy new: $11.95 / Used from: $7.99 (B-) For the most part this is just reasonably amusing rather than truly funny, but it maintains good will from the viewer through out. It's worth a watch.
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![]() | Death Sentence (Unrated Edition)
Buy new: $15.49 / Used from: $3.44 (B-) Wan follows "Dead Silence" with another throwback, this time to 70's crime/action exploitation films. It's got a sort of cheesy earnestness that most will giggle at, but that I rather appreciate. Also, Bacon is excellent and it has plenty of entertaining violence. It's cheesy, yeah, but it's fun.
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![]() | 3:10 to Yuma (Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $19.99 / Used from: $2.45 (B+) Very solid contemporary western. It kinda stands between revisionist and classical westerns in terms of tone and theme. It has plenty of good action, and both Crowe and Bale are excellent, as usual.
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![]() | Knocked Up (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $6.50 (B) Like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" this is often very funny, but it leans on the romcom stuff a bit too much. Apatow may have found the perfect commerical mix, though, as it's got enough guy humor and chick crap to satisfy each w/o alienating either.
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![]() | When Worlds Collide
Buy new: $5.49 / Used from: $4.50 (B-) Has got some kinda lame, standard characters and acting, but it makes up for it with charming old-time effects and a brisk pace.
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![]() | Little Miss Sunshine
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $2.85 (B+) The hype was a bit extreme but this is still a very good comedy. The script is solid, but it's the pitch-perfect performances which really carry the film. Also, the climax, while predicatable in its general nature, is still great.
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![]() | A Boy & His Dog
Buy new: $18.99 / Used from: $7.99 (B-) Cheap but effective and sometimes rather funny post-apocalyptic sci-fi. It's marred by a lame addition of some heavy-handed, inexplicable satire, but the better elements carry it, and the last scene is quite amusing.
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![]() | Assault on Precinct 13 [HD DVD]
Buy new: $13.95 / Used from: $9.50 (B-) This old-fashioned action movie is made of 100% postconsumer parts, but it's entertaining enough. A bit cheesy at times, but it has solid action, nice icy visuals, and it isn't afraid to knock of the characters unexpectedly.
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![]() | National Lampoon's Animal House (Widescreen Double Secret Probation Edition)
Buy used from: $5.14 (B-) This is a dated but reasonably endearing and often rather funny comedy. I wouldn't call it a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but it's fun.
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![]() | Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $1.02 (B) Quite a funny film, but the hype surrounding it is truly baffling. It's not innovative or transgressive or revolutionary, it's just pretty funny.
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![]() | The Orphanage [Theatrical Release]
(B+) An often remarkably eerie classically styled ghost movie with strong characters. This is a good antidote for those who hate most contemporary horror. I don't, as a matter of fact, but I definitely appreciate this kinda film.
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![]() | He Was a Quiet Man
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $2.34 (B+) Black Comedy/Drama about an alienated office worker who plans on going on a killing spree, but is beaten to the punch by someone else and kills the other maniac, thereby becoming a hero. You gotta love that premise, and washed-up Slater gives a shockingly good performance. This deserved a wider release.
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![]() | The Big Sleep
Buy new: $17.99 / Used from: $9.99 (B+) This one is a bit confusing, but Noir films are ultimately more about mood, visuals and character, and these are all solid. Bogart is particularly good here, he's a better Marlowe than Spade.
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![]() | The Matador (Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $12.99 / Used from: $0.01 (B+) Very entertaining comedy/drama with Brosnan as an aging hitman who befriends average-guy Kinnear. I'm no Brosnan fan generally, but he's great fun here and the film is even a bit touching at the end.
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![]() | Just Before Dawn
Buy new: $17.99 / Used from: $10.99 (B-) Early slasher/rural massacre film. Has a genuinely ominous score and scenery, though it's a bit slow.
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![]() | Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $5.99 (A-) A terrifically entertaining, beautifully crafted and unrelenting period-action film. It's ultimately just an action movie, but that's no drawback and it's extremely sharply done. Also, the unusual setting adds a lot.
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![]() | Intacto
Buy new: $9.98 / Used from: $2.09 (B-) Has an intriguing, bizarre premise about the idea of luck as a sort of power which is transferable. It also has a number of cool, goofy set-pieces, but it never entirely comes together into a truly compelling narrative. It's got enough interesting points to be worth a look, though.
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![]() | Cloverfield [Theatrical Release]
(B+) I was skeptical, but it won me over. The first 25 minutes of chaos are simply astounding, easily the most convincing portrait of urban destruction I've seen. The latter half isn't as good, though, as the monster is less impressive than its effects, and it focuses on the blah characters.
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![]() | Rocky Balboa
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $0.72 (B+) After a bunch of goofy, if often entertaining, sequels, Stallone takes the series out in style. It's mostly a human drama, as it should be, and a genuinely touching one at that.
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![]() | 3:10 to Yuma (Special Edition)
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $5.98 (B+) Unlike the remake, this is a slow, less than action oriented western, but it has great dialogue and performances, particularly from the leads Ford and Heflin.
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![]() | Faust
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $13.92 (B+) Often visually stunning silent film from Murnau, easily superior to the better remembered Nosferatu, though it drags a bit in the second half.
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![]() | Rambo [Theatrical Release]
(B) The story and characters are even more cheesy and 80's-y than anticipated, which sits oddly against the hyper-brutal action. It's an uncomfortable mix, but I judge an action movie by its action, and it's a success on this level.
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![]() | Event Horizon (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $5.20 (C+) Gothic horror in space. Much of it is pretty cheesy and doesn't totally work, but the surreal, Argento/Barker make a sci-fi-horror movie visuals are so intriguing that I can't help but recommend it for horror buffs. Also, it has some decent gore, and does generate a certain campy-creepy atmosphere at times.
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![]() | The Girl Next Door
Buy new: $21.99 / Used from: $7.95 (A-) This torture and sadism-filled film isn't fun-time horror, but those looking for legitimate, gut-punch horror find a lot to admire here. This is a genuinely unsettling, uncomfortable movie, and I'm a bit surprised they'd allow it to get by with an R rating.
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![]() | Vengeance Is Mine - Criterion Collection
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $19.49 (C+) The first 45 minutes make it look like this will be truly masterful picture of a sociopath, but bland reality takes over, and the rest of it ranges from moderately interesting to boring. That said, if you want a seemingly truly accurate, detailed picture of a sociopath you may really like this, but I prefer my pics a bit more sensationalistic.
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![]() | The Invasion
Buy new: $16.49 / Used from: $2.50 (C) This fourth adaptation of the classic novel has got too many small problems to name here, all of which add up to a lot of mediocrity. Most specifically, the pod people themselves are poorly done and cheesy, and they unwisely have the invasion practically done early in the film, killing any suspense.
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![]() | Rambo: First Blood, Part 2
Buy new: $8.49 / Used from: $2.15 (B-) Definitive 80s action film, both for good and bad. It's fun enough, though it could stand to be either more or less cheesy than it is.
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![]() | In Dreams
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $3.98 (D) Some have claimed this is an underrated gem. Couldn't disagree more. Some of the visuals are nice, but the script is laughable and hackneyed even by serial killer film standards, and Bening chews scenery with wild abandon.
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Listmania!







![Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Unrated) [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Q3ZofV0WL._SL75_.jpg)






![Assault on Precinct 13 [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z5QE67TXL._SL75_.jpg)


![The Orphanage [Theatrical Release]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/nav2/dp/no-image-no-ciu._SL75_V46836203_.gif)






![Cloverfield [Theatrical Release]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Wm5GO98oL._SL75_.jpg)



![Rambo [Theatrical Release]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51x%2BRE9kUkL._SL75_.jpg)








