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From watching this film one would not expect that it was made by the same director who made THE FRENCH CONNECTION and THE EXORCIST. William Friedkin’s name in the credits lured me into watching the film on a lazy vacation day afternoon. Mr. Friedkin must have made the film on a lazy vacation day afternoon.

Phil (Dwier Brown, FIELD OF DREAMS) is an ad man from Chicago who gets a job in L.A. He and his wife Kate (Carey Lowell, LICENSE TO KILL) find a house in the hills to rent, where the famous architect Ned Runcie (Brad Hall, TROLL) who designed the house even drops by to make repairs. Kate drops the news on their first night in the house that she is pregnant. When the baby is born, Kate needs to go back to work, so they decide to hire a nanny. Camilla (Jenny Seagrove, MOONLIGHTING) came with great references, but Kate is worried that this English woman is too good looking to be a governess. Turns out she’s really a druid priestess who travels the country stealing babies and offering them up as sacrifices to an ancient tree in the forest. When I think of the Santa Monica mountains, I always think of ancient druid trees that imbed babies into their trunks like ghastly sculptures.

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While the original SCOOBY-DOO series has to be looked upon with nostalgia to really enjoy, there is still a charm to Scooby-Doo that people relate to. The series has been remade endless number of times, whether on film, TV or direct-to-video. I must admit that the first DTV, SCOOBY-DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND, had a satirical that I enjoyed. But productions like this latest, GOBLIN KING, just harkens back to so many of the bad, cheapo 1980s theatrical 2D animated releases like TOM & JERRY THE MOVIE and THE CHIPMUNKS ADVENTURE. You take established characters stick them in a random string of adventures and throw in some songs to fill up time.

This time Scooby and the gang are at the Coolsville Halloween carnival where they go to see the second-rate magician Amazing Krudsky (Wayne Knight, TV’s SEINFELD). To get back at the dog-hating snob, Scooby and Shaggy reveal Krudsky as a fraud — a magician with no real magic powers. Does anyone over five really think they’ll find real magic at a Halloween carnival? But I digress. Later Krudsky captures the Princess Fairy Willow (Hayden Panettiere, TV’s HEROES) and steals her power in an effort to con the Goblin King (Tim Curry, LEGEND) out of his scepter, which would give him unbelievable magical power. So Scooby and Shaggy have to venture into the spirit world to stop Krudsky and save Halloween. Along the way they’ll run into ghosts, goblins, fairies, witches, the headless horsemen, and a talking Jack O’Lantern, who sounds just like Jay Leno.

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For those who do not know the work of Italian horror master Dario Argento, one could describe it as a cross between Alfred Hitchcock and George A. Romero. He was a chief architect in the giallo film movement in Italy. Thrillers with a penchant for blood. (Giallo is yellow in Italian and refers to the yellow covers of pulp novels.) In 1977, he began a trilogy of horror films about three powerful black witches confined in buildings in Germany, the U.S. and Italy. The first film, SUSPIRIA, with its dark fairy tale quality, is considered by many Argento’s best film. It was liked by me, not loved. He followed that film with INFERNO in 1980, which is not very good at all. Now thirty years later, Argento has a chance to complete his Mother trilogy.

Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento, XXX) works at a museum in Italy where an ancient urn has been brought in for examination. That evening, the assistant curator is brutally murdered by four black-cloaked men and Sarah must flee for her life. In the urn was a talisman that will awaken the power of Mater Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears (Moran Atias, TV’s CRASH). Soon suicides and murder start plaguing the streets of Rome. Sarah, with the help of her lover, the museum curator Michael Pierce (Adam James, TV’s BAND OF BROTHERS), begins to look into the legend of the Three Mothers, discovering that she’s involved more than she might have known. However, police investigator Enzo Marchi (Cristian Solimeno, HIGHLANDER: THE SOURCE) is keeping a close eye on Sarah, thinking she might be mad when she claimed that while escaping from the museum a voice came to her and unlocked the doors.

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Exodus Film Group has unveiled its first animated feature production, distributed by MGM. It puts a twist on the classic horror movie tale, giving the hunchbacked Igor a starring role and painting the mad scientists as frauds. The story satirizes classic horror films, Hollywood and politics, but doesn’t do so in an organic way. Each theme is full of wonderful chances for nice satirical jabs and the film hits on some of them, but it often makes the film seem like its changing gears abruptly.

In the world of Malaria, the skies are always cloudy and the denizens are encouraged to act evil. Each year the Evil Science Fair becomes the focal point of the community. Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard, OCEAN’S THIRTEEN) has won the contest every year and King Malbert (Jay Leno, TV’s TONIGHT SHOW) wants the arrogant showboat to get knocked down a few pegs so he won’t threaten the ruler’s hold on power. Each mad scientist has their own Igor, a hunchbacked assistant who slurs their speech and pulls the switch. Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese, A FISH CALLED WANDA) is preparing his next monster for the science fair. Last year’s evil lasagna was not that scary. Turns out his Igor (John Cusack, HIGH FIDELITY) is a good inventor, but as an Igor he must keep his inventions under wraps. Already he has created a living Brain (Sean Hayes, TV’s WILL & GRACE), the name doesn’t match his IQ, and reanimated road kill who he named Scamper, a now suicidal talking rabbit who has been cursed with ever lasting life. Igor’s next experiment is to discover the evil scientist holy grail — creating life. However, his creature Eva (Molly Shannon, TV’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE) turns out to be far from an evil monster.

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One of David Cronenberg’s early low-budget horror films, SHIVERS establishes what would go on to be the trademark of his work — a mix of sex and violence. Throughout all his work, there is an unsettling preserve line that is crossed between horror and sexual perversion. It makes his films haunting. SHIVERS does just what its title advertises.

Roger St. Luc (Paul Hampton, LADY SINGS THE BLUES) is a doctor at a new exclusive Canadian apartment complex. He’s having an affair with his nurse Forsythe (Lynn Lowry, CAT PEOPLE). Some of the men in the complex, including businessman Nicholas Tudor (Allan Kolma, upcoming W.), are complaining of painful abdominal lumps. When the gruesome scene of a murder-suicide is discovered in one of the apartments, Dr. St. Luc discovers the unorthodox experiments of Emil Hobbes (Fred Doederlein, SCANNERS), who believes the human race has become too rational and needs to tap into its primal side, making him develop a parasite that turns its hosts into sexual fiends.

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Based on Scott B. Smith’s much-lauded horror novel, THE RUINS appears to be just another HOSTEL-like dead teenager film. Though it never rises to greatness, it is a solid entry within the dead teenager sub-genre. It’s a horror story that doesn’t rush into its gruesome moments, allowing use to meet its character before they start descending into madness.

Jeff (Jonathan Tucker, HOSTAGE) is a medical student who has gone on vacation to a Mexican resort with his heavy partying girlfriend Amy (Jena Malone, SAVED!), her best friend Stacy (Laura Ramsey, LORDS OF DOGTOWN) and Stacy’s boyfriend Eric (Shawn Ashmore, X-MEN). When German tourist Mathias (Joe Anderson, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE) present them with the proposition to travel to an off-the-map Mayan ruin, Jeff jumps at the chance to get some culture into their trip. However when they arrive, they encounter hostile natives, who surround them, forcing them to flee onto the summit of the ruins, where they discover why the villagers are so scared of the ancient temple.

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Director Frank Darabont previously made two good adaptations from Stephen King stories, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and THE GREEN MILE. Now he makes it a third, however this is the first time he tackles a King horror story. Like many of King’s more haunting tales, this film doesn’t force us into pleasant messages about humanity. This is horror done darkly, but not sadistically like recent torture porn where gore is the main subject. Like a great B-movie, Darabont taps into primordial human fears, allowing the real monsters to be the humans.

David Drayton (Thomas Jane, THE PUNISHER) paints movie posters in a small New England town. After a storm destroys parts of his house, he heads into town for supplies with his young son Billy (Nathan Gamble, BABEL) and his next-door neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher, FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER), who he hasn’t gotten along with previously. While they’re at the supermarket, a strange fog rolls in from which Dan Miller (Jeffrey DeMunn, THE MAJESTIC) comes running, screaming that there is something in the mist. When David sees something push against the loading dock doors, he gets frightened, but hick Jim (William Sadler, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) doesn’t believe until it’s too late. As things gets worse, Bible-thumping Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden, MYSTIC RIVER) starts stirring up fire and brimstone. This makes the situation even more dangerous for the non-true-believers like David, his son, Dan, school teacher Amanda Dumfries (Laurie Holden, SILENT HILL), sure-shot grocery clerk Ollie Weeks (Toby Jones, THE PAINTED VEIL), sassy senior citizen Irene Reppler (Frances Sternhagen, MISERY), pretty check-out girl Sally (Alexa Davalos, THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK) and army private Jessup (Sam Witwer, TV’s BATTLESTAR GALACTICA).

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I was reminded of another Pennsylvanian filmmaker while watching M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film — George A. Romero. The apocalyptic storyline where an unknown event makes humans act strange reminded me of Romero’s zombie films or THE CRAZIES. Being that THE HAPPENING is Shyamalan’s first R-rated film, the gory bits and “big kill” moments felt like the touch of Romero as well. However, the weak acting, which never truly undermines Romero’s work, does undermine Shyamalan’s attempt at the supernatural paranoid thriller. Additionally, Romero knows how to set up a scare to make it frightening and when he adds in humor we know we’re supposed to laugh with Shyamalan the two become interchangeable.

As the story begins, some phenomenon has begun in New York City, which causes humans to become disoriented, freeze and then kill themselves. Over in Philadelphia, Science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg, THE DEPARTED) is discussing the recent decline in bees on the planet when they receive word of a terrorist attack in NYC. As they evacuate the school, Elliot’s fellow teacher and best friend Julian (John Leguizamo, SUMMER OF SAM) plans to leave the city with his wife and young daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez, CRASH), inviting Elliot and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel, ALMOST FAMOUS) to come along with them to his parents house. But the “event” follows them and Elliot begins to wonder if plants have something to do with the strange happening.

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This anthology film is a love letter to Paris and to love itself. Twenty short films were commissioned for the feature-length project set in the 20 arrondissements of Paris. Only two of those films did not make the final cut. Directors such as Gus Van Sant (GOOD WILL HUNTING), Joel and Ethan Coen (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), Walter Salles (CENTRAL STATION), Sylvain Chomet (THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE, Alfonso Cuaron (CHILDREN OF MEN), Wes Craven (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), Tom Tykwer (GO) and Alexander Payne (ABOUT SCHMIDT) all helmed sections. Stars such as Steve Buscemi, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands and Gerard Depardieu (who also directs) provide the film with their acting talents. Altogether it works as a joyous experience.

Director and star Bruno Podalydes begins the film with a hate story to Paris parking, which ends in a lonely man having a pretty passerby (Florence Muller) fall for him. Gurinder Chadha (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) brings us a tale of a young white man (Cyril Descours) who meets a young Muslim woman (Leila Bekhti) at the park, but what will her grandfather think when he follows her to their mosque? From Gus Van Sant, there is a tale of a print shop customer (Gaspard Ulliel, HANNIBAL RISING) who is smitten instantly with the young worker (Elias McConnell, ELEPHANT), but there is a hidden obstacle to the customer’s bold declaration of his affections. In a typical Coen Brother unsentimental fashion, their “love story” finds an American tourist (Buscemi, FARGO) trapped in the middle of a lovers’ spat between a pretty young girl and her hotheaded boyfriend.

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This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

The more I see this short, the less it works. The satire of the war between 2D hand-drawn animation and 3D computer generated animation creates its world and characters as single multicolored lines. Bob is running late to pick up Diane for their movie date. Diane jdoesn’t want to see any films that have spaceships, aliens, hillbillies, chainsaw killers, gators or ghosts. Bob reassures her that they’re going to see the latest 2D cartoon with a subtitles of “An Adventure in Ma$$ Merchandi$ing.” After the movie, Bob and Diane go up to lookout point and their worst nightmares come true.

The design joke is very funny at the start and has flares throughout, but wears out its effectiveness, because it turns out to be the punchline for the entire film. Director Mike Grimshaw actually says very little about the 2D/3D animation debate. The brilliant stroke of the design makes the story seem weightier, but once the novelty wears off there isn’t much left. The second half is a satire of genre conventions, having very little to do with animation. It’s a shame because the design works so well. Grimshaw gets some nice laughs from the two bouncing circles that float in front of Diane’s chest especially. But this is a case where style cannot create substance when the underlying story doesn’t match up with the style’s theme.

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