AlienTrespass Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I Love You, Man
Bro-mance, schmo-mance, this is a funny movie, centered by a very good performance by Paul Rudd as a befuddled "ladies' man" in search of a best man for his upcoming wedding to Rashida Jones. He starts awkwardly 'man dating' until he stumbles across the happy-go-lucky bachelor Jason Segal, and an unlikely triangle is formed. "A sweet, amusing, and perfectly acceptable comedy all around," wrote Eugene Novikov. Also on Blu-ray. Buy it.

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17 Again
Personally, I have zero interest in seeing this movie, but if you're a devoted fan or even curious about the star, help yourself. 17 Again is "a run-of-the-mill family comedy that would be tiresome," Jette Kernion opined, "if not for [Zac] Efron and a few of the other cast members." Also on Blu-ray. Skip it.

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The Class (Entre les Murs)
Laurent Cantet directed this adaptation of a semi-autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau, an inner-city Paris school teacher. James Rocchi observed: "Begaudeau's interactions with his students are so nuanced and smart that it doesn't feel like the heavy hand of drama when various incidents and events escalate as the film progresses; they feel natural, lived in, human." Also on Blu-ray. Buy it.

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Also out: Chaos (from 2006, with Jason Statham, Ryan Phillippe, and Wesley Snipes); Road Trip: Beer Pong (the sequel, directed by Steve Rash); I Do, I Did ("One man, two women, too much!").

More Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and Collector's Corner, all after the jump!

After a long flight on my part and a far longer drive for both of us, Scott Weinberg and I have finally arrived in Montréal for the FanTasia International Film Festival (their thirteenth, our first). The genre-heavy festival lasts for nearly three weeks; alas, we've but one to spare, so without much further ado, here's a look at what I've seen already and what I hope to see before Scott tips his own hand with a title or two to recommend.

Of the features playing, I can highly recommend Michael Paul Stephenson's Troll 2 doc, Best Worst Movie; the Aussie revenge thriller, The Horseman (not to be confused with the barely-seen Dennis Quaid vehicle, Horsemen); and Paul Solet's beautifully bloody baby horror, Grace. Those looking for something a bit stranger might end up being a bit more fond of Black and The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle than I was, though I also seemed more easily pleased by the Nazi zombies of Dead Snow than most, so I guess it all balances out. My enthusiasm for the ultra-kitschy likes of Alien Trespass and Lesbian Vampire Killers, not to mention the admittedly boundary-pushing Deadgirl, is all a bit less than what's already been mentioned, so let's just leave those at that.

Read the rest at HorrorSquad!

The 18th annual Florida Film Festival ended a week ago last night, and do you want to know why our coverage of the fest is going up just now? Because I'm selfish and wanted to catch up with as many of the forty or so features as possible, even after the awards had been announced and everyone had gone home (for the record, I managed to miss each and every winning film -- Prince of Broadway, The Garden, Prodigal Sons, Neil Young: Don't Be Denied, and the exceedingly popular Poundcake -- and am kicking myself still).

However, between the appearances by Ken Russell, Glenn Close, and Jon Voight (oh, my!), I did manage to catch my fair share of world, regional, and local premieres at this celebration of Original Cinema, and you can see what we saw after the jump.

Welcome back to the Indie Spotlight, in which we list the new limited-release films being released today. Keep an eye out for when they come to your local art house or Netflix queue.

• Alien Trespass (pictured), opening on about 40 screens nationwide, is a loving, non-parody homage to the cheesy invaders-from-space B-movies of the 1950s. For me, the style wears thin too quickly; the fact that the '50s films were corny out of necessity while this one is doing it on purpose makes it feel insincere. Indeed, it has a low 31% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

• Bart Got a Room is a comedy about a nerdy Jewish teenager trying to find a date for the prom. Cinematical's Erik Davis loved it at Tribeca last year, and the 71% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes backs him up.

• C Me Dance combines the world of evangelical Christianity with the world of dancing. Sold! It's opening on about 150 screens nationwide. No reviews are up yet, but I would suspect it's a preaching-to-the-choir sort of thing, aimed at people who are already evangelical Christians.

• Sugar comes from the Half Nelson team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and is finally hitting theaters after premiering at Sundance last year. It's about a young Dominican Republic baseball player who is recruited by scouts and brought to the U.S. to train for the majors. Cinematical's Kim Voynar liked it quite a bit, calling it a coming-of-age story more than a baseball movie, and as beautiful as "a painting brought to life" -- and hey, check out that 88% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes!