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2009 | 2001

18 articles from 2009

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From the Files of Fangoria: I Guess You Are My Real Stepfather

20 October 2009 8:42 AM, PDT | Fangoria | See recent Fangoria news »

From the Files of Fangoria is a regular feature with observations on content discovered during the process of digitally archiving 30 years of press releases and photos received by Fangoria and previously kept in storage.

After a near month hiatus, we are back for another installment of From The Files Of Fangoria.  I can’t think of any better way to come back then by revisiting a recently remade classic, The Stepfather. Rediscovered by Hollywood, this long-time only available on VHS film, has now been released on DVD from Shout! Factory and can now count itself among the long list of remade horror classics.  But before all the notoriety, The Stepfather was a quaint little horror film from 1987 that almost immediately achieved cult status.

Unlike most cult horror, The Stepfather earns its memorable status on the fact that it is a quality film and not because of its camp value.  The Stepfather opened to critical acclaim, »

- no-reply@fangoria.com (David McKendry)

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[DVD Review] The Children

18 October 2009 8:00 PM, PDT | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

I wanted to hate this movie, I really did; in fact, the first thing I did before I even watched the thing was brainstorm some high-larious jokes regarding the hokey tag line, which solemnly reads, "You brought them into this world...they'll take you out." How pleased I was with myself, chuckling quietly as I armed myself with a veritable battalion of besmirching, scathingly funny material. What a fool I was. All of that haughty posturing quickly slipped away after I got about half an hour into the film and was promptly Drop-kicked In The Face With Nausea-inducing Terror.

We're all familiar with the concept of creepy killer kids. It's done entirely too often (Joshua, The Good Son, Orphan, Children of the Corn, Village of the Damned) and only rarely is it done well (The Bad Seed, The Omen, Pet Sematary). Luckily, The Children manages to hold up amongst the best, »

- Inna Mkrtycheva

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10 Most Overrated Young Actors

13 October 2009 7:18 PM, PDT | The Movie Fanatic | See recent The Movie Fanatic news »

We've listed down our top 50 hottest young actors and would be coming up with the latest updates very soon. Yesterday, we discussed  about actors we believed to be quite underrated. How about the young actors we consider overrated? That's what this article is for...

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Who qualifies as overrated? Guys who seem to be getting lots of buzz, but has no real talent at all, or perhaps just a small amount of it. I have no issue if an actor gets the cover of GQ or Details or L'Uomo Vogue every month. They can even strut their stuff on the catwalks of Milan and Paris and gain additional media mileage. But to be considered the hottest actor on the planet with nothing to show yet? That is something totally absurd.

Anyway, here's our list of ten just after the jump!

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Updates! To »

- modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)

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Joseph Ruben Discusses The Stepfather

12 October 2009 8:32 PM, PDT | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »

Director Joseph Ruben was one of the go-to filmmakers for thrillers in the 90s with such hits as Sleeping with the Enemy and The Good Son, but before that he took a look at family values. with a late 80s cult classic. Ruben directed the film The Stepfather, which is finally available on DVD for the first time on October 13, just in time for the theatrical remake The Stepfather, which hits theaters on October 16. I recently spoke with director Joseph Rubin on the phone about his 1987 film and here's what he had to say.

Can you talk about how you first heard of this story and when you decided this would be the next film for you?

Joseph Ruben: Yeah. Well in most cases it starts with the scripts. I read an early draft and what hit me most is whenever you're looking at a thriller, the first thing »

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Weeds Session: The Season Five Finale Ends with a Splash! But What Will the Repercussions Be?

7 September 2009 12:45 PM, PDT | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »

Have you recovered from the shocking last scene of Weeds' season finale yet? In what appeared to us to be a grisly hat tip to Heathers, the show's entire family/criminal dynamic changed in a flash. It was a series-altering event that positions a certain character front-and-center for the sixth season. After the jump, we'll discuss the spoiler, thus concluding the last installment of our Weeds Sessions for the year. Let us know what you think in the comments. Moreover, what is your opinion on the character's action: justified, sick, or both? The Good Son The entire season has arguably been leading up to Shane Botwin (Alexander Gould) committing a horrific act of ultra-violence; an eerie and sudden manifestation of family strife, underworld home schooling, and growing psychological eccentricity. As the ever-nasty Pilar and an ever-desperate Nancy have a spit-spat poolside, trading death threats like beauty tips, a croquet »

- Hunter Stephenson

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Elijah Wood on '9,' 'The Hobbit' and Being a Child Star

4 September 2009 1:21 PM, PDT | Moviefone | See recent Moviefone news »

Elijah Wood first broke into movies at the age of 7 as "Video Game Boy" in 1989's 'Back to the Future: Part II' and quickly shot to stardom with leading roles in 'Paradise,' 'Forever Young' (with Mel Gibson) and 'The Good Son' (opposite fellow child ... Read more

Filed under: Celebrity Interviews

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- Thomas DiChiara

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That Dastardly Henry Fonda! When Good Cowboys Go Bad

28 August 2009 9:01 PM, PDT | amctv.com - Future of Classic: Westerns | See recent amctv.com - Future of Classic: Westerns news »

From Robin Williams playing a psycho in One Hour Photo to Jim Carrey playing, well... a psycho in The Cable Guy, actors have always enjoyed upending expectations with their roles. Home Alone's Macaulay Culkin? Check (The Good Son). E.T. cutie-pie Drew Barrymore? Check (Poison Ivy). But those role reversals are particularly jarring in Westerns, where the line between good and bad is so firmly etched in the sand. Which »

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It's Macaulay Culkin's Birthday, But Whatever Happened To Kevin McCallister?

26 August 2009 2:00 PM, PDT | MTV Movies Blog | See recent MTV Movies Blog news »

Although he's hardly as well known today as he was back in the '90s, Macaulay Culkin is nonetheless one of the most memorable child actors of our time -- but today is Culkin's 29th birthday, which makes it almost twenty years since "Home Alone" first hit theaters. Aside from feeling incredibly old, the time lapse got me thinking: whatever happened to Kevin McCallister?

No, I'm not talking about Culkin himself, who is still acting thanks to projects like "Saved!" and "Kings." Even if I don't know where he is specifically, I have an idea of where Culkin is as an actor -- but what I'd really like to know is, where would his "Home Alone" alter-ego be today? Whatever happened to Richie Rich? Where are these iconic characters on their 29th birthdays?

Sadly, we'll never know the answers... but that's not stopping me from wondering! If I had to guess, »

- Josh Wigler

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I Liked 'Orphan' Better When It Was Called 'The Good Son'

27 July 2009 10:32 AM, PDT | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

Actually, the headline is misleading. I didn't like either film. But if you saw the new thriller Orphan this weekend and it seemed familiar, perhaps you're remembering the 1993 Macaulay Culkin fiasco The Good Son. It's not just that they're both about evil kids; the similarities run deeper than that. Here's a list, which is slightly spoiler-ish for both films.

In The Good Son and Orphan:

The setting is New England in the winter. A mother mourns the death of her baby sometime earlier. A past tragedy occurred involving water. There is danger in a treehouse. Broken ice on a frozen pond leads to near-tragedy. A young boy is threatened with a sharp object (box-cutter or scissors) against his throat while he lies on a bed. A psychiatrist interviews the evil child, finds nothing wrong with him or her, and believes it is the child's main opponent who is the problem. »

- Eric D. Snider

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'G-Force' Takes Cake, 'Potter' Plummets

26 July 2009 1:12 PM, PDT | Box Office Mojo | See recent BoxOfficeMojo.com news »

Though G-Force and The Ugly Truth opened well, it was another down weekend at the box office. Driven by less compelling new and recent releases, business as a whole was down from last year for the third weekend in a row. With around $149 million, the drop was 18 percent from the $181 million of the same timeframe last year, when The Dark Knight was in its second session and Step Brothers debuted.

Following the playbook for the perennially popular talking animal sub-genre, G-Force scooted to an estimated $32.2 million on approximately 5,200 screens at 3,697 sites, grossing a bit more out-of-the-gate than Bolt, Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Cats & Dogs, though it was far from the next Alvin and the Chipmunks. In its marketing, the picture looked like it was stitched together from past like-minded movies, from the scatological and cutesy humor of Alvin and the Chipmunks to the gizmos of Cats & Dogs and others. While »

- Brandon Gray

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David Johnson: Father Of The Orphan

22 July 2009 9:29 AM, PDT | Fangoria | See recent Fangoria news »

Everybody loves a good 'Killer Kid' movie. Unfortunately, ever since Macaulay Culkin went off his nut in the dull flop The Good Son, Hollywood hasn't made any lately... Until now, that is. Dark Castle's Orphan is a dark, fun old school throwback to Killer Kid movies by a writer, David Johnson, who proves he knows these movies by topping it off with a third act surprise that inverts the genre and the film.

Esther comes into a warm but damaged family and proceeds to make things worse. Unlike previous killer kid movies, Orphan keeps surprising, avoiding some of the tropes of movies like The Good Son, Daddy's Girl and The Paperboy.

David Johnson: "I have been a fan of this genre, or sub-genre, for a long time. I saw and loved The Bad Seed when I was in college and I love this type of film. I love them, »

- no-reply@fangoria.com (Pat Jankiewicz)

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‘Matrix’ Producer Says His ‘Watchmen’ Would’ve Been Better

20 July 2009 2:09 PM, PDT | ScreenRant.com | See recent Screen Rant news »

Producer Joel Silver (The Matrix Trilogy) recently gave an interview at the premiere of The Good Son Orphan, in which he talked about how he would’ve done Watchmen differently (read: better) than director Zack Snyder did.

Now, we at Screen Rant are not trying to start any fire where there is no smoke: Silver was Not condemning either Watchmen or Snyder as a filmmaker - rather he was simply stating what his creative vision was for the film and how it was different from Snyder’s slavish recreation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original graphic novel.

If you’re interested to hear about the movie that would’ve been Joel Silver’s Watchmen, keep reading.

 

At the risk of starting a beef where there is none, I’ll simply pass on a quote Joel Silver gave to Cinematical:

I love Zack and I love his work, and I think he’s very talented, »

- Kofi Outlaw

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Orphan (2009)

20 July 2009 10:14 AM, PDT | Pretty/Scary | See recent pretty-scary news »

By Jim Hemphill

It’s hard to think of a recent American movie that’s as smart and ambitious as Orphan but has so little regard for its own audience’s intelligence. There’s a great horror film buried somewhere underneath the gimmicky sound design (in which the audio is either dead silent or pitched at the level of a Motorhead concert), false scares, and contrived plot twists, but clearly director Jaume Collet-Serra and writers David Leslie Johnson and Alex Mace don’t trust their viewers to appreciate it. They take a challenging, deeply unsettling meditation on the horrors of parenthood and marriage (among other things), and turn it into something so comforting and pat that it makes Ghosts of Girlfriends Past look like Taxi Driver...

Orphan tells the story of Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard), a couple whose marriage has been plagued with problems: Kate’s alcoholism, »

- Superheidi

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Director Joseph Ruben returns to The Forgotten

16 July 2009 12:03 PM, PDT | Fangoria | See recent Fangoria news »

Fango recently had a chance to speak to director Joseph Ruben, whose credits include Dreamscape, The Stepfather, Sleeping With The Enemy and The Good Son, and who revealed his current plans to do his first sequel: a follow-up to his 2004 paranormal thriller The Forgotten. (Spoiler Alert for those going forward who haven’t seen the original.)

Ruben is currently developing the project with screenwriter David Loughery. “I met him years ago on Dreamscape—he wrote the original draft on that—and we’ve been collaborating ever since,” the director tells us. “He did a production rewrite on The Stepfather and contributed a lot on Money Train and The Good Son. We’ve spent the last couple of months working up a script for a Forgotten sequel, which I really like. It’s very lively and very scary, and this one centers on the relationship between a young man and a young woman. »

- no-reply@fangoria.com (Michael Gingold)

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Some Movies You Forget on Purpose. The ‘Nostalgia Critic’ Reminds You Why.

15 July 2009 1:49 PM, PDT | Tilzy.tv | See recent Tilzy.TV news »

Does the internet need an archive for film executives’ marketing impulses gone awry? A last stop storehouse for crap movies, along with crap movies made from video games? Of course! And That Guy with the Glasses shows us that with a little deconstruction, Hollywood’s missteps can lead down a humorous and even profitable path. In his flagship online series, Nostalgia Critic (real name Douglas Darien Walker) rationalizes his role by telling us, “I remember it so you don’t have to,” but in truth he’s found, and is thoroughly committed to covering, a niche that no other critics would want. Averaging hits well into the 200,000s per episode, the Nostalgia Critic’s targets include obscure offerings such as Pokemon: The Movie, Super Mario Brothers: The Movie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movies (yes, I believe he reviews all TMNTs at once).  He’s also covered the recent Transformers 2, »

- Michael Shaw

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[DVD Review] TV Sets: Forever Funny

27 May 2009 11:44 AM, PDT | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

TV Sets: Forever Funny fetches a brilliant collection of shows to tickle the funny bone as a sampling of the comedic programs CBS has put out over time. Any collection that features Taxi, Cheers, The Odd Couple and Frasier is doing something right of the comedy front – but that’s only half the issue. Along with choosing the funniest shows possible, the funniest episodes of the series ought be selected as well. Instead, in an obvious attempt to encourage folks to start at the beginning, CBS has chosen the pilot episodes of each series. Once again, like in the TV Sets: Action Packed DVD, pilots are great for hooking an audience when the show is brand new – but these are classic shows that your average television viewer has seen at least a few episodes of.

There are two things more puzzling than the steadfast notion that the pilot episodes were »

- Lex Walker

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'The Children' UK DVD Review

20 April 2009 7:20 AM, PDT | FEARnet | See recent FEARnet news »

The annals of "killer kids" genre cinema is a long and colorful one indeed. Of course we have classics like The Bad Seed (1956), Village of the Damned (1960), and The Omen (1976), but the extra-caffeinated horror geeks will bring up solid little titles like It's Alive (1974), Devil Times Five (1975), Who Can Kill a Child? (1976), The Children (1980). Children of the Corn (1984), Pet Sematary (1989). And there's also The Other (1972), The Brood (1979), The Pit (1981), The Good Son (1993), The Plague (2006), Wicked Little Things (2008), and the French import Them (2006) to consider, so let's just say we're looking at a sub-genre that's certainly earned a spot in the horror hall of fame. Despite... »

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Trailer - This Summer's Creepy Kid Movie, 'Orphan'

5 April 2009 8:42 AM, PDT | GetTheBigPicture.net | See recent Get The Big Picture news »

Yeah, I realize that it's a bit like The Good Son, the 1990s flick with Macaulay Culkin as an evil kid, but I have a feeling Orphan might be a little more intense. Even though we don't have a rating for it yet, it could certainly get an R rating, although I don't know if Warner Bros. and DiCaprio's Appian Way are really looking to go down that road this summer.

That's not a necessity; after all, The Ring was a really good PG-13 frightfest with a young girl providing most of the scares. And if you look at the box office numbers this year, it's been better suited to PG-13 horror over those more graphic R-rated titles. I like the cast - Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard as parents who adopt nine-year-old Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) after an unsuccesssful pregnancy leaves a void in their lives.

So here's the trailer, »

- Colin Boyd

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2009 | 2001

18 articles from 2009

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