Tag: Julie Benz

REVIEW: Answers to Nothing [2011]

Jared Mobarak

“Why should I wait six months to be happy?” So much happens in Matthew Leutwyler’s Answers to Nothing, but how much is actually relevant? An adulterous husband with a rockstar mistress and lawyer wife, a police detective best friend and her key suspect in a child kidnapping case, a recently graduated police officer and his grade school teacher neighbor, a racist black television writer and the soundboard mixer she meets while walking their dogs, and a recovering alcoholic caring for her brain dead brother all cross paths in Los Angeles.…

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REVIEW: The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day [2009]

Jared Mobarak

“Who ordered the whoop-ass fajitas?” I really didn’t think it would ever happen. Maybe, somehow, Troy Duffy would have finished a script for the oft-rumored The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, but no way no how would he be directing it. After his well documented exercise in bridge-burning—Overnight—I’m surprised he was even able to set foot in Hollywood. Here is a guy that really had things going for him, getting the surprising opportunity to actually helm his first script with an actor like Willem Dafoe involved. While The Boondock…

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REVIEW: Punisher: War Zone [2008]

Jared Mobarak

“Slipping through the raindrops” The original Punisher—I don’t mean the Dolph Lundgren installment—was one of those films that I saw, thought was ok, and subsequently forgot all about. It wasn’t bad and I like Thomas Jane, however, there was nothing in it that begged for a second viewing, nor the necessity for a sequel. With that said, we are talking Avi Arad and Marvel here, (or is it Marvel Knights as the new, pretty much the same, opening animated sequence shows), and if he can try his hand a second…

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REVIEW: Saw V [2008]

Jared Mobarak

“Everybody deserves a chance” Wow, did a Saw film get beat out by a bunch of Disney tweeners for the top spot? Maybe the tide has changed and the blood and gore doesn’t quite hold up on the scare factor versus singing and dancing kids … hey that scares me more too. Saw V has arrived anyways, though, and it continues the intricate storyline very well. While that story ties together nicely, the film itself is not up to par. I believe this is the first of the series that…

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REVIEW: Rambo [2008]

Jared Mobarak

“Live for nothing, die for something” In what must be the most awkward sequencing of titles for a film franchise, the fourth installment, titled as though it was the first—Rambo, shows the side of the character that I was expecting while watching the first film. We get John Rambo in all his Green Beret glory, taking no prisoners and killing all in his wake; quite the departure from his introduction as a misguided ex-pat pushed too far into exploiting the bigotry and weakness of a local sheriff and his deputies.…

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