Mystery & Suspense »

We have two trailers and the first clip from Buried, the Ryan-Reynolds-in-a-coffin suspense-thriller, Due Date, a comedic road movie starring A-lister Robert Downey, Jr. and the ubiquitous Zach Galifianakis, and the first clip from Let Me In, Matt Reeves' (Cloverfield) remake of the 2008 Swedish horror film with Chloe Moretz (Hugo Cabret, Kick-Ass, (500)Days of Summer) as a preteen who may not be what she appears to be.

1. Buried: A bidding war erupted this past January at the Sundance Film Festival for this suspense-thriller set entirely inside a coffin. Reynolds plays an American contractor in Iraq who, post-kidnapping by persons unknown, awakens in a coffin with only a cell phone, a lighter, and enough oxygen to last 90 minutes (conveniently the length of an average feature film). Reynolds received kudos at Sundance for his intense performance as the increasingly desperate contractor.

[After the break, the international trailer awaits.]

What's that old Klingon proverb again? I believe it's "Revenge is a dish best served cold." The proverb is meant as an admonishment to revenge seekers to use intellect and rationality and not passion and emotion in seeking vengeance. It's also not a Klingon proverb (it dates back several hundred years). When it comes to cinematic vigilantes, revenge is usually best served with blood-drenched, bone-crunching fury. The subject of today's Cinematical Seven, vigilantes on/in film, has been written to coincide with the release of Michael Caine's turn as a retiree-turned-cold-blooded vigilante Harry Brown (out on DVD/Bu-Ray today for your viewing pleasure).

First, we'll start with one bright-line rule: masked avengers, costumed superheroes won't appear anywhere in this Cinematical Seven. So no Batman, no V (as in V for Vendetta), no Kick-Ass, or any other vigilante who wears a cape and cowl (or a mask and costume) will appear on this list. By refusing to hide their faces behind a mask, non-costumed vigilantes are closer to the real world and, consequently, farther away from the fantasy world of masked crime-fighters like Batman or his many imitators.

We also won't count the expansive cops-turned-vigilantes sub-genre that kicked off the 1970s with Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. Cops in this sub-genre willfully break the law, usually tossed away with a glancing, derogatory mention of "legal technicalities," supposedly in the service of a higher, natural law. They, of course, get to decide (moral) right and wrong and act accordingly to the detriment of evildoers in their path, but again, it's the righteous (self-righteous?) non-law enforcement vigilante who I find offers the most to think and write about.

[Insert the usual "Spoiler Alert" before the jump.]

In order to hold on to their Hellraiser rights, Dimension is cranking out yet another direct-to-video sequel for the series, making this outing #9 (by my count) for good ol' Pinhead and the Cenobites.

Whither the big-budget remake of the original, though? The last that we heard, Martyrs director Pascal Laugier was just leaving the project (a pity, considering his experience with gruesome make-up and generally f**ked-up situations). Now, THR is reporting that more recent talks with Christian E. Christiansen (next February's The Roommate) fell apart as well, essentially leaving the film in limbo.

I can only wonder what's keeping Dimension from settling on a helmer. Is it a matter of the budget? Consistent creative differences? Even Doug Bradley, who's played Pinhead for eight films in a row, won't be back for the DTV nine-quel, let alone a remake. Other than the prospect of some grislier modern effects, are any of you really aching for this series to continue or be rebooted? (If you own a share of Dimension, please put your hand back down.)

John Cusack's Tweets are infamous for being somewhat hard to decipher (or, some would say, grammatically incorrect and full of typos, but these people need to chill a little), but they're always pretty entertaining and occasionally political. Now we can turn to them for breaking news as well. Earlier yesterday he confirmed he will be joining the film The Raven: "officiali- will play edgar allen poe in fall-a-film called the raven, send any poe- gold - my way as i begin this journey into the abyss".

That would be James McTeigue's The Raven; the director began discussing his film during press for last summer's Ninja Assassin. At the time, he told Cinematical that it "is about the fictionalized last five days of Edgar Allan Poe. There's a serial killer loose in 1850s Baltimore who's killing people in the manner Poe kills people in his stories. And it's a race against time for Poe and a detective to find the killer. I'm in the middle of casting at the moment, I was scouting in Europe and just got back." Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare (Loverboy) penned the screenplay.

It was previously reported that Jeremy Renner and Ewan McGregor would star in the movie -- perhaps with McGregor as the killer? -- but for now, it's anyone's guess who will be opposite Cusack. Of course, I'm assuming that he'll be playing Poe, but perhaps he'll be the killer? In any case, it will be great to see Cusack on the big screen again. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go rewatch Hot Tub Time Machine again.

[Thanks to the kind commenters who pointed out the misspelling of Allan.]

Cannibals, crooks, vampires, aliens and geeks galore are all lined up to invade Austin for Fantastic Fest next month, and if you think that we harp on this particular film festival a bit, A) you're right and B) it totally deserves every effusive word.

We've got the whole list of newly announced titles after the jump, but right off the bat, I can tell you that we're looking at the U.S. premiere of crime drama Stone (starring Robert De Niro, Edward Norton and Milla Jovovich), the world premiere of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, North American premieres of Hatchet 2 (which just received a warm reception at Frightfest over in the U.K.) and Ong-Bak 3 (just please have less dancing than 2), and a double bill of a restored print of 1960's The Housemaid and its recent remake.

All of this on top of Opening Night Film Let Me In and a slew of super-secret screenings in the mix? You bet your ass that we're gonna be there covering it from September 23-30.

When last we left James Wan, the one-time wunderkind who directed Saw six years at the relatively young age of 27, he was at the helm of two commercial and critical failures, Dead Silence (21% on Rotten Tomatoes), and Death Sentence (19% on the Tomatometer). Wan directed Saw seven years ago from a screenplay by one-time Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology classmate Leigh Whannell. A significantly bigger success than either Wan or Whannell had anticipated (both smartly took gross points), Wan moved to the producer's chair for subsequent sequels in the still ongoing Saw franchise, but since then, his directing career has taken a step back with each release.

Wan hopes to change his fortunes, commercially, if not critically, with his next horror-themed film, Insidious, premiering in several weeks time as part of the Toronto Film Festival's Midnight Madness program. Insidious reunites Wan with Whannell for their third collaboration (Whannell also wrote Dead Silence). Wan, however, already has his next project lined up. According to Deadline, he's set to direct Nightfall, the big-screen adaptation of a little-known graphic novel published three years ago by Platinum Studios (Cowboys & Aliens). Written by Scott O. Brown with art by Ferran Xalabarder, Nightfall has a simple premise with some potential: a Texas prison secretly run by vampires and a lead character, David Paxton, described as an "industrious, right-wing survivalist" on Amazon.com, who finds himself imprisoned with said vampires and attempts to escape the prison before he becomes their next meal.

After I pitched my Cinematical Seven about films that might've slipped under the radar so far this year -- to tie in with today's DVD/Blu-ray release of The Square, an Aussie noir that I really dug at SXSW '09 -- I grew a little worried that David Ehrlich's list of "The 5 Best Films You've (Probably) Missed This Year" would beat me to the punch. However, only his pick of the wonderfully off-kilter Dogtooth overlapped with my own selections, so without any further ado, here's seven (more) movies to keep an eye out for.

1. The Good, The Bad, The Weird (now on DVD/Blu-ray) - As I wrote elsewhere... "From the trio of spot-on lead performances to the prevalence of practical stunts, from the relentlessly lush color scheme and period details to the often sweeping cinematography, not to mention the constantly energetic soundtrack, every last aspect is dedicated to making the most of this heady showcase of glorious excess, the bastard child of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and Kung Fu Hustle."

Just before we begin I want to make very clear that at no point will I be making any jokes about movies that are 'no Gouda' or any other cheese related puns (if I can help it.) -- and now that I got that off my chest I can get on with the business at hand. In honor of Piranha's glorious return to theaters, Alexandre Aja's remake of Joe Dante's 1978 comedy-horror about a swarm of killer piranha has inspired the folks over at Wired to compile the 24 Cheesiest Sci-fi films of all time. It's a comprehensive list that showcases the best of the worst in sci-fi -- even if I disagree with their inclusion of Cloverfield among chessy classics like The Creeping Terror and Troll 2 (you can read the entire list here). But one of the advantages of my job is that I don't have to rant and rave about someone else's list, I can just make my own.

So what makes a move go from downright un-watchable to the elevated status of 'cheese'? Well, it's a personal choice, but for me the calling card of any cheesy classic is the feeling that everyone involved really seems to be trying to make great cinema, but either through a lack of budget or talent, you wind up with a movie that is so laughably awful or over the top that it becomes more than bad -- it's entered the great tradition of 'Cinema Cheese'

Unless you're new to these parts, you have probably noticed that I never like to play by the rules of a movie list, so I'm not going to confine myself to the world of sci-fi, because as we all know, cheesy movies come in all shapes and sizes. So let's get started...

Reshoots, Hollywood or otherwise, are more the norm than you might think. Directors, sometimes on their own, sometimes at the behest of the respective studios financing their films, will return months after principal photography for reshoots, replacing preexisting material with new shots or scenes, or, due to edits in post-production, shooting new scenes to bridge preexisting material. It's rare, however, for a director and the cast of a film to reteam, not for reshoots exactly, but to film an all-new scene.

According to the Heatvision blog, that's exactly what Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, and director Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler's Wife, Flightplan, Tattoo) are doing this weekend for their upcoming action comedy, Red, the big-screen adaptation of Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner's comic-book miniseries for Wildstorm Comics (a DC Comics imprint). They're back in Louisiana, where parts of Red were shot earlier this year for Summit Entertainment. Willis, Malkovich, and Schwentke are shooting a new post-credits tag or "button" (in the parlance of some critics and industry types) as a treat for moviegoers who decide to sit through the end credits. Willis' other co-stars, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and Mary-Louise Parker, weren't mentioned in Heatvision's report, so presumably they won't appear in the new scene.

In 1977, a science-fiction/fantasy/action film written and directed by George Lucas, Star Wars, grabbed the pop culture zeitgeist like few films before or after. While I saw Star Wars several times that summer, another film held my imagination and interest until its November release date. The film in question? Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg's follow-up to Jaws, the blockbuster adaptation of Peter Benchley's bestselling 1974 novel. Long production delays and massive overruns were quickly forgotten as Jaws became the all-time box-office leader, if only temporarily (Star Wars took the title two years later). Post-Jaws, Spielberg could pick any project to direct, ultimately deciding to return to a long gestating project that began with a screenplay written by Paul Schrader (Mishima, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver) originally titled Watch the Skies (after the last line from 1951's The Thing from Another World).

J. Allen Hynek, a scientific consultant and advisor who worked with the Air Force advisor Project Blue Book, wrote a serious book on UFOs that sparked Spielberg's imagination (mine too). Hynek served as a consultant on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. As thanks, Spielberg gave Hynek a cameo in the last scene (he's smoking a pipe). More importantly, Hynek developed the UFO classification system (i.e., first encounter: sighting of a UFO; second encounter: evidence of a UFO; third encounter: physical contact with aliens) that gave Spielberg the final title of his film. A decade earlier, Star Trek: The Original Series' mission statement explicitly called for visiting other worlds, not to conquer, but to explore. It was that message of hope and optimism that profoundly affected me at an early age.