Capsule Movie Review – The Raid: Redemption (2012)
by HELEN GEIB
The setting of The Raid: Redemption is the Indonesian version of the projects: a decaying housing block dominated by thuggish criminals and the crime lord who runs the place like his personal fiefdom. Read more 
Movie Review – The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
by NIR SHALEV
It’s literally impossible to review The Cabin in the Woods without revealing the tiniest spoiler. Therefore I issue a tiny warning, but then again if you’ve seen the trailer you already know that this is not the typical ’80s slasher horror film. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex in Indiana (April 20, 2012)
by HELEN GEIB
Two very promising foreign films open in Indianapolis at the Keystone Art Cinema, while in Bloomington it’s a silent Dickens weekend. What makes your list this week? Read more
Keeping Track (April 19, 2012)
by HELEN GEIB
Last Week at the Movies
Lockout
The Raid: Redemption
Last Week at Home
Now that I have free time again I’ve been using it to check out the Hong Kong movies on Netflix streaming. It’s a disappointingly small number and even smaller when you take out the ones I’ve already seen, but I’ve found some to try. The best of this week’s batch were Eye in the Sky, another top-notch Milkyway crime drama with some nice variations on the usual cops and robbers scenario, and recent Hong Kong film awards best film winner Bodyguards and Assassins. Read more
On DVD/Blu-ray – Death and Taxes
This post was originally published for Tax Day 2010. It is being reprinted in observance of Tax Day 2012.
by HELEN GEIB
The annual day of reckoning is upon us. Soon we Americans will be released from the prolonged agony that inevitably precedes every April 15. In recognition of Tax Day, I’ve decided to devote this week’s DVD post to movies about death and taxes.* The spotlight shines on three films that revolve around the two great inescapables. To set the stage and for the edification of my lucky readers who do not have to prepare their own tax returns, I’ve also included a few representative tidbits from the 2009 Form 1040 and accompanying 100-plus page Forms and Instructions.
42 Exemptions. If line 38 is $125,000 or less and you did not provide housing to a Midwestern displaced individual, multiply $3,650 by the number on line 6d. Otherwise, see page 37.
The Untouchables
Photo Play: Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
by HELEN GEIB
This month on Photo Play: April showers bring… umbrellas.
Capsule Movie Review – Lockout (2012)
by HELEN GEIB
Roger Ebert likes to use the term “Idiot Plot” to describe stories where the characters act like idiots at key plot junctures because if they didn’t, the movie would be over. Lockout has an Imbecile Plot: every person involved in the design, construction, and operation of the easily almost instantaneously irretrievably hijacked maximum security space station prison must have been a total imbecile. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex in Indiana (April 13, 2012)
by HELEN GEIB
Lots doing again this week, headlined by Indonesian actioner The Raid: Redemption opening all over the state and documentary Bully at several Indianapolis-area theaters. What looks good to you? Read more
Keeping Track (April 12, 2012)
by HELEN GEIB
Last Week at the Movies
Last Week at Home
a movie called Kung Fu Dunk really shouldn’t be the best thing you watch in a week Read more
On DVD/Blu-ray – Review of King of Devil’s Island (2011)
by NIR SHALEV
Based on true events, King of Devil’s Island takes place at Norway’s Bastøy Boys Reformatory School in 1915. The movie shows that it was much more of a labor camp for boys of all ages than it was an actual school. The boys had reading classes and Bible studies but most of the time they were chopping down and stripping trees, digging, cleaning up the place, and so forth. Read more
