2009 in review
Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 2:13 pm
And here we are again—another year come and gone. I truly wish I could have spent more of 2009 focusing on the movies themselves—instead, I was hugely preoccupied by just how many representatives of my formative past (and indeed, present) said goodbye. We ended 2008 (and thus began 2009) by bidding farewell to Uncle Forry. Then it was my original horror host, Bob Wilkins. Then it was my first theatrical director (and teacher), Professor John Steven Paul. Then it was the inspiration behind my first published articles (Paul Naschy) and one of my very first publishers (Chas. Balun), both of whom were also close personal friends.
So, movies? Yeah, there were a bunch, all right. But I didn’t see them all, and let’s get the ones I deliberately skipped (or reluctantly missed, or never got a chance to see) out of the way first. Unseen by me: THE UNBORN, THE UNINVITED, UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS (look, if it starts with “UN,” let’s just forget it, apparently), THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT, JENNIFER’S BODY, THE FOURTH KIND, THE BOX, CIRQUE DU FREAK, ANTICHRIST, HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, and the STEPFATHER remake. Oh yeah, also missed TRANSYLMANIA with the rest of the world. But beyond that?
THE GOOD
The horror year of 2009 began with so many “skippables” that the first film I considered worthy of the genre was a PG-rated animated fantasy. Yes, CORALINE was that good—reminiscent of David Lynch, unafraid to be legitimately frightening, but thoughtful, considerate and respectful of its young viewers, all the same. Keep your 3-D superspy guinea pigs and your flatulent chipmunks—here’s a truly excellent dark fantasy for all ages.
I can’t let this section go by without reminding you that I was lucky enough to see Shawn “Smith” Lewis’s BLACK DEVIL DOLL on the big screen and that it delivered on every one of its raunchy, offensive, hilarious promises. If you wanted more from it, I want to know exactly WHAT!
Lost in the generic wasteland of disposable, so-called “torture porn” ripoffs and seen by virtually nobody was a genuinely nerve-wracking tension-fest known as THE COLLECTOR. The device which cast a professional burglar as the only person capable of detecting and counteracting the various sadistic traps of the title character made this every bit as much a battle of wits as an exercise in horror and gore—and it worked.
Even more surprising was just how good the remake of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT turned out to be. I was completely prepared to dismiss what was almost certainly going to be a watered-down travesty (come on, Mari LIVES in this version??)—and I was completely wrong. This hit all the right buttons when it came to acting, direction and audience manipulation… even though it chose not to end quite when it should have.
TRICK ‘R TREAT was meant to finally hit theatres last year (we even saw the trailer), but it never quite happened for us. Nevertheless, this was a delightful Halloween-themed anthology, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the glory days of Amicus.
THIRST was a superlative follow-up to Park Chan-Wook’s “revenge” trilogy and his first trip into the unequivocally supernatural. A reluctant vampire gradually loses his grip on his former humanity, spirituality and morals, all the while urged along by an enthusiastic female recruit in a film which offers as much food for thought as it does on-screen outrage (and that means plenty of both).
I will happily declare to anyone who cares that SAW VI ended the series on a high note… so long as it really ENDED the series. Enough said (except that love or hate the series, pretty much everybody will tell you that VI was a lot better than V).
And then there was the film that sneak-attacked SAW VI into oblivion… PARANORMAL ACTIVITY was a masterpiece of marketing, undoubtedly—but it was also a very effective display of minimalism, slowly-building tension and a well-chosen coup de grace (as you know, NOT the one that first hit the Internet). Though I never came close to falling for the “it’s the real thing” hype, I was suitably impressed.
It was very hard for me to choose an actual “Best Horror Film of 2009.” It could easily have been CORALINE or the LAST HOUSE remake… but I’m going with ORPHAN. This is the film that fulfilled the promise Dark Castle made way back with HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, and it’s proof of the directorial skills of Jaume Collet-Serra (who, in my opinion, did some praiseworthy work in Dark Castle’s HOUSE OF WAX. ORPHAN acknowledges its roots in THE BAD SEED and comes perilously close to mimicking JOSHUA (which even starred Vera Farmiga), but it thunderously comes into its own with confrontational moments, bold performances and stellar orchestration of even the most preposterous material. Even as you recognize where it comes from, this film still HAS you—and for me, that’s worth the top prize. (And it may be the last prize Dark Castle ever gets from me—this was a great rebound from THE REAPING, all right, but then they had to go and expunge all of my good will by advertising the dreary murder “mystery” WHITEOUT as a horror film. As for NINJA ASSASSIN, at least they didn’t pretend it was horror—it had some vivid gore and an excellent villainous turn by Sho Kosugi, but had precious little else to recommend it.)
THE MIDDLE GROUND
Don’t get me wrong—I wanted to LOVE Sam Raimi’s DRAG ME TO HELL. Yes, I was disconcerted and put off when the so-called “return to REAL horror” popped up with a PG-13 rating, but that, in the end, wasn’t the problem. There was a lot to admire here, particularly the spot-on acting and a bravura fight scene in a parking garage. And we can debate the “cat” business and the unworthiness of the heroine all we want. In the end, I wearied of the “boo” scares, wished Raimi had taken the séance sequence much further, and was particularly and utterly unimpressed with a final “twist” so glaringly, groaningly obvious that I saw it coming from the first scene and spent the film silently begging Raimi to prove me wrong. It’s not a “bad” film, but it could and should have been so much more.
MY BLOODY VALENTINE and THE FINAL DESTINATION both made excellent use of 3-D. Without that, I’d drop them both down a category, but FD would fall farther. MBV was quite well-acted and used its 3-D advantageously (to the point where the film would still be viewable flat), but I thought the momentum wore off around the halfway point, and I have a problem with films that deliberately cheat (you know, make you witness to things that don’t actually take place) to throw you off the track. As for THE FINAL DESTINATION? There was an utter abundance of 3-D fun here, but we already knew that this formula was played out, and this one doesn’t even try to come up with anything additional or interesting to do with it. No Tony Todd, either.
ZOMBIELAND was the best zombie comedy of all time? Ummm… no. It WAS cute. It WAS fun for the most part, and I DID like the characters. And yes, the Bill Murray cameo itself was inspired—but it was wrapped up with uncharacteristic stupidity, and the movie never quite recovered after that.
Okay, we all know the drill with NEW MOON. Most of you don’t consider TWILIGHT when it comes to “real” horror—but it’s vampires, it’s werewolves, and it’s phenomenally popular… This particular entry (book and movie) struck me as a less-than-inspired rehash of the first one (with a knock-you-over-the-head Romeo and Juliet theme), but Taylor Lautner has successfully shucked “Shark Boy” with his Jacob, and Michael Sheen was a terrific addition to the cast. If the book’s any indication, ECLIPSE ought to be fairly nifty (and BREAKING DAWN will stink on ice).
And popping up with no fanfare at all was the “stranded spaceship” sci-fi/horror/psycho thriller PANDORUM, which played a few too many cards and cluttered its claustrophobic setting, but which also held my attention and actually managed to surprise me here and there.
THE BAD
Look—I’m betting that I never actually saw the truly worst horror film of 2009. Odds are it was THE UNBORN—or maybe that STEPFATHER remake. Yeah, I was curious enough to see PROM NIGHT in 2008—because the original didn’t mean much to me at all, I knew the remake would be “big,” and I wanted to see just what they were going to come up with. But there’s no way I’d contribute so much as a dime to see this same director go at it with a film I genuinely admire. With that in mind…
…and speaking of remakes, there was the new FRIDAY THE 13TH. Yeah, the first twenty minutes or so were pretty nifty. But the momentum wore off incredibly quickly, and I experienced nothing but painful boredom as Jason went through the typical teenkill motions (and wasted time with a girl chained in the basement. And oh, that wretched ending, which raised character stupidity to heights previously undreamed of…
Did the world really need a dull-as-dirt, old-fashioned return to ‘innocent’ 50s science fiction? The makers of ALIEN TRESPASS apparently thought so. Was the fact that nothing ever actually HAPPENED in this movie supposed to be the point?
One genuinely shocking kill scene that actually resembled primo Argento raised my hopes for even SORORITY ROW. But one good scene does not a good movie make. Sure, you have to expect a series of clichés in a slasher film, but the good ones make them seem new (see THE COLLECTOR or ORPHAN) even when you know better. This nominal remake offered us nothing but reprehensible characters, horrendous acting and even sloppy visuals to boot.
And then there was the latest film Rob Zombie said he didn’t want to make. Originally, the INSIDE guys were going to take on HALLOWEEN II when Zombie’s remake (which was NOT designed to carry a sequel) proved as popular as it did. But money apparently talked, as it will. So what did we get? A full twenty minutes of hospital stalking before the REAL movie started (gotcha, it was all a dream). New heights in ugly, intense brutality (we get it, Rob, murder is ugly and not ‘cool’). A genuinely appealing take on Laurie subjected to non-stop cruelty, and a once-intriguing new version of Loomis turned into a ridiculous parody. In other words, everything that was already done quite well enough the first time around—plus a symbolic white horse that needs to be explained before the credits even run.
I’ve been told (and by that, I mean by people I respect) that I failed to find the good movie trying to get out of this bad one. And I’ve also been told that the “director’s cut” is a distinct improvement and that I really ought to check it out. So you know what? I WILL check it out before I offer a full-on DVD review. But nothing will change the fact that the version of HALLOWEEN II that I saw on the big screen was the single worst film I saw in 2009.
Okay, a few more quick notes. My favorite film of the year wasn’t a horror film—it was Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, an equally effective meditation on World War II and on the movies themselves. We all know that Christoph Waltz is going to walk away with an Oscar for his mesmerizing work, and I enjoyed every word, every reference, and even every musical cue throughout the film.
There was also some excellent science fiction to be had (no, I still haven't seen AVATAR as I just can't get terribly interested in it, but I suppose I'll force myself eventually). DISTRICT 9 was a grungily effective “you are there” political satire with convincing effects and a dynamic central performance (you can keep your TRANSFORMERS films). STAR TREK defied my every expectation by breathing new life into all of the classic characters—I’m an Original Series fan from childhood and could find absolutely nothing to carp about here. Oh, all eyes may be on Zachary Quinto as Spock, but it’s Karl Urban who steals it as McCoy. And then there was MOON—a claustrophobic character drama with a tour de force performance by Sam Rockwell, aided immeasurably by the voice of Kevin Spacey. I say this study of loneliness, isolation and identity is worthy of Rod Serling himself. Mick LaSalle says it’s one of the year’s ten worst. Make up your own mind. (Oh, let’s be fair to Mick—he, too, said INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS was the best film of the year—indeed, one of the decade’s best, though he still couldn’t resist the opportunity to bitch about KILL BILL VOLUME ONE yet again.)
And then there was TERMINATOR: SALVATION, which, while watchable and entertaining enough on its own terms, was utterly unnecessary as far as the once-profound series itself was concerned.
PUNISHER: WAR ZONE was one of the best comics-derived films I’ve ever seen—the character has finally been done justice, the villains were amazing, the gore was creatively hysterical… and nobody saw it.
I'd hate to think of WATCHMEN as a "comic book" film, but it's certainly one of the finest explorations of the "superhero" concept I've ever seen. I saw the film before I read the graphic novel and still think they're both utterly excellent and worthy of each other.
Not quite “horror” were A PERFECT GETAWAY (great scenery, good cast, less than challenging mystery that became utterly predictable) and LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, which took a huge page from the SAW and DEATH WISH franchises before spinning off into sheer caper/conspiracy insanity.
Heck, even though I didn’t mention it in my original review (for fear of giving anyone the wrong idea about this PG-rated film), there’s even a rather unmistakably Jigsaw-inspired trap sequence in the wonderful new SHERLOCK HOLMES movie! Now as I suggested, don’t let that put you off—there are overtones of horror and the supernatural in this adventure, but they’re handled intelligently, believably, and NOT at the expense of the lunch of the viewer! One of the best times I’ve ever had at the movies.
And now, a special prize for a film that won’t sit comfortably no matter WHERE you try to put it.
I’ve seen lousy Jason Statham films (that would be WAR—Statham himself was just about the only saving grace of TRANSPORTER 3, and not even I have seen IN THE NAME OF THE KING).
And I’ve seen inferior work by Neveldine and Taylor (that would be GAMER, which I thought was every bit the chaotic mess people accuse their other films of being). So I DO have standards of comparison.
That said, CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE was the single most outrageously, offensively, entertaining madhouse of a movie that 2009 ever threw at me… just about the only series entry that had me champing at the bit for just ONE more. I have no idea where on earth they could take CRANK 3-D… but dammit, I want to SEE it!
On to 2010—enjoy and report back—I’ll do the same!
All best,
Remo D.
So, movies? Yeah, there were a bunch, all right. But I didn’t see them all, and let’s get the ones I deliberately skipped (or reluctantly missed, or never got a chance to see) out of the way first. Unseen by me: THE UNBORN, THE UNINVITED, UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS (look, if it starts with “UN,” let’s just forget it, apparently), THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT, JENNIFER’S BODY, THE FOURTH KIND, THE BOX, CIRQUE DU FREAK, ANTICHRIST, HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, and the STEPFATHER remake. Oh yeah, also missed TRANSYLMANIA with the rest of the world. But beyond that?
THE GOOD
The horror year of 2009 began with so many “skippables” that the first film I considered worthy of the genre was a PG-rated animated fantasy. Yes, CORALINE was that good—reminiscent of David Lynch, unafraid to be legitimately frightening, but thoughtful, considerate and respectful of its young viewers, all the same. Keep your 3-D superspy guinea pigs and your flatulent chipmunks—here’s a truly excellent dark fantasy for all ages.
I can’t let this section go by without reminding you that I was lucky enough to see Shawn “Smith” Lewis’s BLACK DEVIL DOLL on the big screen and that it delivered on every one of its raunchy, offensive, hilarious promises. If you wanted more from it, I want to know exactly WHAT!
Lost in the generic wasteland of disposable, so-called “torture porn” ripoffs and seen by virtually nobody was a genuinely nerve-wracking tension-fest known as THE COLLECTOR. The device which cast a professional burglar as the only person capable of detecting and counteracting the various sadistic traps of the title character made this every bit as much a battle of wits as an exercise in horror and gore—and it worked.
Even more surprising was just how good the remake of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT turned out to be. I was completely prepared to dismiss what was almost certainly going to be a watered-down travesty (come on, Mari LIVES in this version??)—and I was completely wrong. This hit all the right buttons when it came to acting, direction and audience manipulation… even though it chose not to end quite when it should have.
TRICK ‘R TREAT was meant to finally hit theatres last year (we even saw the trailer), but it never quite happened for us. Nevertheless, this was a delightful Halloween-themed anthology, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the glory days of Amicus.
THIRST was a superlative follow-up to Park Chan-Wook’s “revenge” trilogy and his first trip into the unequivocally supernatural. A reluctant vampire gradually loses his grip on his former humanity, spirituality and morals, all the while urged along by an enthusiastic female recruit in a film which offers as much food for thought as it does on-screen outrage (and that means plenty of both).
I will happily declare to anyone who cares that SAW VI ended the series on a high note… so long as it really ENDED the series. Enough said (except that love or hate the series, pretty much everybody will tell you that VI was a lot better than V).
And then there was the film that sneak-attacked SAW VI into oblivion… PARANORMAL ACTIVITY was a masterpiece of marketing, undoubtedly—but it was also a very effective display of minimalism, slowly-building tension and a well-chosen coup de grace (as you know, NOT the one that first hit the Internet). Though I never came close to falling for the “it’s the real thing” hype, I was suitably impressed.
It was very hard for me to choose an actual “Best Horror Film of 2009.” It could easily have been CORALINE or the LAST HOUSE remake… but I’m going with ORPHAN. This is the film that fulfilled the promise Dark Castle made way back with HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, and it’s proof of the directorial skills of Jaume Collet-Serra (who, in my opinion, did some praiseworthy work in Dark Castle’s HOUSE OF WAX. ORPHAN acknowledges its roots in THE BAD SEED and comes perilously close to mimicking JOSHUA (which even starred Vera Farmiga), but it thunderously comes into its own with confrontational moments, bold performances and stellar orchestration of even the most preposterous material. Even as you recognize where it comes from, this film still HAS you—and for me, that’s worth the top prize. (And it may be the last prize Dark Castle ever gets from me—this was a great rebound from THE REAPING, all right, but then they had to go and expunge all of my good will by advertising the dreary murder “mystery” WHITEOUT as a horror film. As for NINJA ASSASSIN, at least they didn’t pretend it was horror—it had some vivid gore and an excellent villainous turn by Sho Kosugi, but had precious little else to recommend it.)
THE MIDDLE GROUND
Don’t get me wrong—I wanted to LOVE Sam Raimi’s DRAG ME TO HELL. Yes, I was disconcerted and put off when the so-called “return to REAL horror” popped up with a PG-13 rating, but that, in the end, wasn’t the problem. There was a lot to admire here, particularly the spot-on acting and a bravura fight scene in a parking garage. And we can debate the “cat” business and the unworthiness of the heroine all we want. In the end, I wearied of the “boo” scares, wished Raimi had taken the séance sequence much further, and was particularly and utterly unimpressed with a final “twist” so glaringly, groaningly obvious that I saw it coming from the first scene and spent the film silently begging Raimi to prove me wrong. It’s not a “bad” film, but it could and should have been so much more.
MY BLOODY VALENTINE and THE FINAL DESTINATION both made excellent use of 3-D. Without that, I’d drop them both down a category, but FD would fall farther. MBV was quite well-acted and used its 3-D advantageously (to the point where the film would still be viewable flat), but I thought the momentum wore off around the halfway point, and I have a problem with films that deliberately cheat (you know, make you witness to things that don’t actually take place) to throw you off the track. As for THE FINAL DESTINATION? There was an utter abundance of 3-D fun here, but we already knew that this formula was played out, and this one doesn’t even try to come up with anything additional or interesting to do with it. No Tony Todd, either.
ZOMBIELAND was the best zombie comedy of all time? Ummm… no. It WAS cute. It WAS fun for the most part, and I DID like the characters. And yes, the Bill Murray cameo itself was inspired—but it was wrapped up with uncharacteristic stupidity, and the movie never quite recovered after that.
Okay, we all know the drill with NEW MOON. Most of you don’t consider TWILIGHT when it comes to “real” horror—but it’s vampires, it’s werewolves, and it’s phenomenally popular… This particular entry (book and movie) struck me as a less-than-inspired rehash of the first one (with a knock-you-over-the-head Romeo and Juliet theme), but Taylor Lautner has successfully shucked “Shark Boy” with his Jacob, and Michael Sheen was a terrific addition to the cast. If the book’s any indication, ECLIPSE ought to be fairly nifty (and BREAKING DAWN will stink on ice).
And popping up with no fanfare at all was the “stranded spaceship” sci-fi/horror/psycho thriller PANDORUM, which played a few too many cards and cluttered its claustrophobic setting, but which also held my attention and actually managed to surprise me here and there.
THE BAD
Look—I’m betting that I never actually saw the truly worst horror film of 2009. Odds are it was THE UNBORN—or maybe that STEPFATHER remake. Yeah, I was curious enough to see PROM NIGHT in 2008—because the original didn’t mean much to me at all, I knew the remake would be “big,” and I wanted to see just what they were going to come up with. But there’s no way I’d contribute so much as a dime to see this same director go at it with a film I genuinely admire. With that in mind…
…and speaking of remakes, there was the new FRIDAY THE 13TH. Yeah, the first twenty minutes or so were pretty nifty. But the momentum wore off incredibly quickly, and I experienced nothing but painful boredom as Jason went through the typical teenkill motions (and wasted time with a girl chained in the basement. And oh, that wretched ending, which raised character stupidity to heights previously undreamed of…
Did the world really need a dull-as-dirt, old-fashioned return to ‘innocent’ 50s science fiction? The makers of ALIEN TRESPASS apparently thought so. Was the fact that nothing ever actually HAPPENED in this movie supposed to be the point?
One genuinely shocking kill scene that actually resembled primo Argento raised my hopes for even SORORITY ROW. But one good scene does not a good movie make. Sure, you have to expect a series of clichés in a slasher film, but the good ones make them seem new (see THE COLLECTOR or ORPHAN) even when you know better. This nominal remake offered us nothing but reprehensible characters, horrendous acting and even sloppy visuals to boot.
And then there was the latest film Rob Zombie said he didn’t want to make. Originally, the INSIDE guys were going to take on HALLOWEEN II when Zombie’s remake (which was NOT designed to carry a sequel) proved as popular as it did. But money apparently talked, as it will. So what did we get? A full twenty minutes of hospital stalking before the REAL movie started (gotcha, it was all a dream). New heights in ugly, intense brutality (we get it, Rob, murder is ugly and not ‘cool’). A genuinely appealing take on Laurie subjected to non-stop cruelty, and a once-intriguing new version of Loomis turned into a ridiculous parody. In other words, everything that was already done quite well enough the first time around—plus a symbolic white horse that needs to be explained before the credits even run.
I’ve been told (and by that, I mean by people I respect) that I failed to find the good movie trying to get out of this bad one. And I’ve also been told that the “director’s cut” is a distinct improvement and that I really ought to check it out. So you know what? I WILL check it out before I offer a full-on DVD review. But nothing will change the fact that the version of HALLOWEEN II that I saw on the big screen was the single worst film I saw in 2009.
Okay, a few more quick notes. My favorite film of the year wasn’t a horror film—it was Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, an equally effective meditation on World War II and on the movies themselves. We all know that Christoph Waltz is going to walk away with an Oscar for his mesmerizing work, and I enjoyed every word, every reference, and even every musical cue throughout the film.
There was also some excellent science fiction to be had (no, I still haven't seen AVATAR as I just can't get terribly interested in it, but I suppose I'll force myself eventually). DISTRICT 9 was a grungily effective “you are there” political satire with convincing effects and a dynamic central performance (you can keep your TRANSFORMERS films). STAR TREK defied my every expectation by breathing new life into all of the classic characters—I’m an Original Series fan from childhood and could find absolutely nothing to carp about here. Oh, all eyes may be on Zachary Quinto as Spock, but it’s Karl Urban who steals it as McCoy. And then there was MOON—a claustrophobic character drama with a tour de force performance by Sam Rockwell, aided immeasurably by the voice of Kevin Spacey. I say this study of loneliness, isolation and identity is worthy of Rod Serling himself. Mick LaSalle says it’s one of the year’s ten worst. Make up your own mind. (Oh, let’s be fair to Mick—he, too, said INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS was the best film of the year—indeed, one of the decade’s best, though he still couldn’t resist the opportunity to bitch about KILL BILL VOLUME ONE yet again.)
And then there was TERMINATOR: SALVATION, which, while watchable and entertaining enough on its own terms, was utterly unnecessary as far as the once-profound series itself was concerned.
PUNISHER: WAR ZONE was one of the best comics-derived films I’ve ever seen—the character has finally been done justice, the villains were amazing, the gore was creatively hysterical… and nobody saw it.
I'd hate to think of WATCHMEN as a "comic book" film, but it's certainly one of the finest explorations of the "superhero" concept I've ever seen. I saw the film before I read the graphic novel and still think they're both utterly excellent and worthy of each other.
Not quite “horror” were A PERFECT GETAWAY (great scenery, good cast, less than challenging mystery that became utterly predictable) and LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, which took a huge page from the SAW and DEATH WISH franchises before spinning off into sheer caper/conspiracy insanity.
Heck, even though I didn’t mention it in my original review (for fear of giving anyone the wrong idea about this PG-rated film), there’s even a rather unmistakably Jigsaw-inspired trap sequence in the wonderful new SHERLOCK HOLMES movie! Now as I suggested, don’t let that put you off—there are overtones of horror and the supernatural in this adventure, but they’re handled intelligently, believably, and NOT at the expense of the lunch of the viewer! One of the best times I’ve ever had at the movies.
And now, a special prize for a film that won’t sit comfortably no matter WHERE you try to put it.
I’ve seen lousy Jason Statham films (that would be WAR—Statham himself was just about the only saving grace of TRANSPORTER 3, and not even I have seen IN THE NAME OF THE KING).
And I’ve seen inferior work by Neveldine and Taylor (that would be GAMER, which I thought was every bit the chaotic mess people accuse their other films of being). So I DO have standards of comparison.
That said, CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE was the single most outrageously, offensively, entertaining madhouse of a movie that 2009 ever threw at me… just about the only series entry that had me champing at the bit for just ONE more. I have no idea where on earth they could take CRANK 3-D… but dammit, I want to SEE it!
On to 2010—enjoy and report back—I’ll do the same!
All best,
Remo D.