Author: Jason Zingale

Martin McDonagh’s “In Bruges” is an interesting little film. It’s one part action-comedy, one-part Shakespearean tragedy, and no matter how fucked up that may sound, it completely works. Arranged like an off-Broadway production of “Sexy Beast,” the film lives and dies by McDonagh’s words (no matter how explicit) and star Colin Farrell’s ability to make you sympathize with a bigoted hitman. Amazingly, they both succeed in their respective tasks, and in doing so, deliver one of the most original films in years. Farrell stars as Ray, a hitman whose latest job hasn’t gone as planned. Forced to hide out with…

It’s not very often that you see a movie so bad you’d rather watch the Paris Hilton rom-com “The Hottie & the Nottie” a second time, but that’s exactly the case with “Strange Wilderness,” the latest from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company. Not even Rob Schneider would dare associate himself with this humorless garbage heap of a film, and he’s loyally served as a Happy Madison bottom feeder for years. Instead, that honor has fallen to more talented B-listers like Steve Zahn, who looks so far out of his element that he couldn’t save this sinking ship if he…

It’s been a strange month at the movies. During a time when every new release is typically guaranteed to suck, this January has proved otherwise. With memorable surprises from the innovative “Cloverfield” to the crowd-pleasing “Rambo,” things were looking up for moviegoers everywhere – that is, until “Over Her Dead Body” quickly reminded us that it’s still winter, and that bad movies go hand-in-hand with the chilling cold. Strangely reminiscent of the 1945 film “Blithe Spirit” (albeit with a slight twist), “Over Her Dead Body” doesn’t have a single original idea throughout its mercifully short 93-minute runtime. Worse yet, the…

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (otherwise known as the duo of talentless hacks whose shitty parody movies continue to get financed by idiot moviegoers) are surely Angels of Death sent from Hell to destroy American cinema. It’s the only plausible explanation – not even Uwe Boll can make a terrible movie that still turns a profit – and it only seems to get worse with each passing year. “Date Movie” may have been bad by most people’s standards, but it was nothing compared to the far worse (and less coherent) “Epic Movie.” “Meet the Spartans,” on the other hand, may…

There’s something horribly amiss in Hollywood if studios think the moviegoing public is just going to gobble up anything even remotely related to the “Saw” franchise. I mean, call me crazy, but wasn’t the torture porn genre, like, so 2006? One would have thought the studios had learned their lesson after commercial failures like “Hostel: Part Two” and “Captivity,” but Screen Gems remains absolutely clueless (and about five years behind the curve) on what America wants. Their latest film, the techno thriller “Untraceable,” is a sloppy genre flick that’s equal parts good (“Se7en”), bad (“Saw 3″) and ugly (“Feardotcom”). What…

Innovation be damned, the Nintendo Wii has quickly fallen victim to its own brilliance. Despite the fact that it’s still selling like hotcakes, the little white box has seen very few genuinely great titles since launch. With the exception of best-sellers like “Super Mario Galaxy” and “Twilight Princess,” most games currently being developed for the system have been targeted towards the motion control-obsessed crowd. It’s with great pleasure, then, to discover a title like “No More Heroes” – a unique, ultra-violent, M-rated experience designed for hardcore gamers, but easily enjoyed by all. You play as Travis Touchdown, a hipster wrestling…

Sending someone like myself to cover a film like “Henry Poole Is Here” is kind of like sending a vegetarian to a meat processors convention. You can deliver the greatest sales pitch in history, but you’re not going to convince that person to bite into a cow, nor will you convince me that God really exists. A pro-religion dramedy about rediscovering one’s faith, “Henry Poole Is Here” isn’t necessarily a bad film – in fact, it features one of Luke Wilson’s best performances to date – but unless you’re willing to buy in to its ridiculous premise, you probably won’t…

There are good directors (Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese) and there are bad directors (Gus Van Sant, Brett Ratner). And then there’s Uwe Boll, a man so despised by moviegoers for his low-budget adaptations of second-tier video games that the guy had to literally beat up a bunch of unruly film critics just to regain a little self-respect. Shameless promotion aside, the German-born filmmaker has actually shown signs of improvement over the last few years, and though his latest film, “In the Name of the King,” is a blatant clone of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, it still ranks…

No doubt jazzed that Katherine Heigl tied the knot only a few weeks before the release of her wedding-themed comedy “27 Dresses,” the executives over at 20th Century Fox have something to be even happier about. In a season where most trips to the movies result in a malicious verbal lashing on the behalf of critics everywhere, “27 Dresses” manages the impossible: it doesn’t suck. Better yet, it takes an incredibly formulaic setup and creates one of the more enjoyable romantic comedies of the last few years. Heigl stars as Jane, the owner of the titular dresses and a self-proclaimed…

2007 was a good year for gaming giant Electronic Arts. New editions of “Madden” and “FIFA” were some of the best yet, while the impossibly realistic skateboarding sim, “Skate,” helped redefine an industry already overflowing with fresh, innovative ideas. Of course, it was only a matter of time before one of the company’s franchises would exit the annual re-branding process worse off than its previous incarnation, and while the “NFL Street” series was never anything special, it did offer fast-paced arcade football for those who were interested. Its replacement – the like-themed “NFL Tour” – may deliver a similar experience,…