Finally a week in which I have plenty of options to choose from! The last several have left me grasping at straws in order to supply even a halfway decent recommendation, both DVD releases and theatrical releases are giving me a few options to pass on.

In theaters this week is the latest work of genius from Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York, which I’m sure will leave everyone scratching their heads while simultaneously praising it. So you know, a typical Charlie Kaufman film, only this time on a far grander scale.

As for DVD releases I had a bit more of a struggle in trying to choose which film to recommend. As you can probably imagine Hellboy II: The Golden Army was calling to me, but while I loved Hellboy II, I have instead decided to go in another direction and select a film I haven’t seen yet, and no one else has either. This particular film has taken seven years to make, and is just beginning to make a run as a midnight movie here in the US, and for those of you living in the Minneapolis metro area, you will be able to see it at The Uptown Theatre on November 22nd. It should be a great midnight show, so hopefully you will be in attendance. But for those of you who can’t wait, The Flaming Lips: Christmas on Mars will be released on DVD this Tuesday.

As always trailers are after the break!

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Next week’s film is one I have wanted to see for some time, only its limited release and subsequently falling out of print made this film incredibly difficult to find. But why do I want to see this film? Well, because it is the second film in history (the first being Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope) to attempt shooting the entire film in one continuous shot. Not only that, it stars the immortal Bruce Campbell. That’s right, next week’s movie is the elusive, immortal, Running Time.

I must admit, I wasn’t expecting much from Turkey Shoot heading into my screening of it. I figured it would merely be a terrible little film that would be easy for me to skewer and as a result a good laugh would be had by all. I certainly wasn’t expecting a film that would somehow perfectly represent the goals of this site, and as a result somehow turn into a minor obsession.

I have always had a bit of a soft spot for Australian films. While it is probably due to my early introduction to the Mad Max films, as I slowly discovered others I realized that their was something about their visceral delivery along with their kinetic visual style that appealed to me even then , and has continued ever since.

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I am totally a day late and a dollar short. I had to work early yesterday and I also wanted to finally swing by the comic book shop to pick up my comics for the past month. I really just wanted to pick up a trade from Top Shelf called Veeps, but evidently it isn’t coming out until next week.

For the second week in a row the theaters are flooded with 50,000 new releases, all of the potentially crappy. That being said, I am still interested in seeing Clint Eastwood’s latest effort Changeling, even though his last film was so awful it almost put me off his movies for good.

DVD releases are even tougher as they are limited AND crappy. I don’t care what buzz you heard about Transsiberian, it is truly terrible. Avoid it like the plague. Thus my DVD recommendation is for When Did You Last See Your Father, a film that I heard was good, but looks far too sappy for me to ever watch it for fear of crying like a 32 year old me tends to cry, in bunches.

As always trailers are after the break!

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Since it’s Halloween, I figured it would be fun to take a look at some of the moments that have scared, frightened and unnerved me, either in a book or a movie. We’ll be looking at two short stories, two novels, and some movies. Let’s get started.

“BEST NEW HORROR”

I’ll start with this one since I’ve mentioned this short story by Joe Hill once or twice already, and I’ll try not to repeat myself too much here. ”Best New Horror” is the story of a jaded horror editor who receives a terrifying short story submission that renews his faith in horror stories. The editor’s interest in the story leads him to seek out the author, a meeting that fans of horror will see coming a mile away, followed by a twist they won’t. (more…)

The Most Dangerous Game is an outstanding film, not only because of how good the actual movie is, but because it presented a theme that has been rehashed again and again in various films ever since. That theme being class warfare. And not just metaphorically, but the actual hunting of the poor by rich individuals with simply too much time on their hands. The Most Dangerous Game has been remade so many times I’d challenge anyone to try and keep count. But rather then do that, I’ve done my best to try and find the worst remake of The Most Dangerous Game. It seemed more sporting that way. That’s why next week I am reviewing Escape 2000. Though our international readers might know it better by its original title, Turkey Shoot.