Everybody’s Fine

Welcome to the end of Robert De Niro’s career, which just so happens to dovetail rather coincidentally with the demise of Miramax, the little studio that became a major player in the 1990s. However, with the departure of its founders, Harvey and Bob... 

The Last Days of Disco: Criterion Collection

With The Last Days of Disco (1998), Whit Stillman completed his loose-knit trilogy of films about doomed Preppies in love. Much like vintage Woody Allen, the characters in Stillman’s films exist in a hermetically-sealed world on the Upper East Side... 

Underworld: Evolution

The first Underworld movie (2003) was a modest box office hit but enough, apparently, to spawn a sequel (2006) that continues the war that rages between vampires and werewolves. Director Len Wiseman pillaged visuals from both The Matrix and The Crow movies... 

The Aviator

For years, Martin Scorsese has been unfairly overlooked by the Academy Awards (GoodFellas losing out to Dances with Wolves?!). He is the perennial Hollywood outsider. In recent years, the veteran filmmaker seems to become aware of this slight and, like... 

Van Helsing: 2 Disc Special Edition

After his financial success with The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, director Stephen Sommers was given free reign by the studios to make anything he wanted. He went off to write a small scale film but came back with the script for Van Helsing which, with... 

Underworld: The Unrated Extended Cut

Underworld (2003) is a comic book movie in search of a comic book. It is not actually adapted from an existing one but it looks and sounds like it could be and, more obviously, influenced by other movies. Like many big budget studio offerings, it is written... 

Van Helsing

The veritable assault and battery that Universal Pictures marketing department have bestowed in recent weeks is now all abundantly clear. Realising the celluloid travesty they have on their hands the powers that be have invested as much money as possible...