Horror Thoughts ‘15—Dracula Untold (2014) ***

PG-13, 94 min.

Director: Gary Shore

Writers: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Bram Stoker (characters)

Starring: Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Art Parkinson, Charles Dance, Diarmaid Murtagh, Paul Kaye, William Houston, Noah Huntley

“I’m so sick of origin stories.” That seems to be becoming a mantra from filmgoers in this age of the comic book movie where origin stories are everything. I’ve never been much of a mind to think that way. A story is a story, origin or otherwise. What people are sick of is the same superhero origin story over and over again. How many times have we seen the origin stories of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man? Now, Dracula… that’s one we haven’t seen before.

Of course, one of my big problems with so many of today’s vampire stories is that the storytellers have forgotten what the vampire mythology is all about. All too often vampires are turned into superheroes, which is just wrong. Unfortunately, this is just that type of vampire movie. It lacks all the classic themes of the vampire mythos. Considering that those tropes seem all but forgotten today, I’m willing to give into the fact that this is going to be a vampire superhero origin story. Once you give yourself up to that fact, it’s not such a bad movie. It ain’t scary, but it’s enjoyable.

Penny Thoughts ‘15—Dazed & Confused (1993) ****

R, 102 min.

Director/Writer: Richard Linklater

Starring: Jason London, Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Shawn Andrews, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Sasha Jenson, Marissa Ribisi, Deena Martin, Michelle Bruke, Cole Hauser, Christine Harnos, Wiley Wiggins, Mark Vandermuelen, Esteban Powell, Jeremy Fox, Ben Affleck, Jason O. Smith, Christin Hinojosa, Parker Posey, Matthew McConaughey, Catherine Morris, Nicky Katt, Parker Brooks, Rick Moser, Terry Mross, Richard Dillard, Fred Lerner, David Blackwell

I recently decided to start a vinyl record collection. It all came about from an article (that has since been lost in the vastness of the web) about collecting music. I was an avid music collector throughout high school and college. I collected cassettes and then reluctantly moved on to CDs as they were beginning to change the music soundscape. I remember the debates about analog and digital recording and mastering. Who remembers when CDs would sport a letter code of three letters consisting of ‘A’ and ‘D’ to distinguish which part of the production process was done analog or digitally? ADD, or DDD or different variations of such.

Holiday Thoughts ‘14—Die Hard (1988) ****

R, 131 min.

Director: John McTiernan

Writers: Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza, Roderick Thorp (novel “Nothing Lasts Forever”)

Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald Veljohnson, Paul Gleason, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, James Shigeta, Alexander Godunov, Bruno Doyon, De’vereaux White, Andreas Wisniewski, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Joey Plewa, Lorenzo Caccialanza, Gerard Bonn, Dennis Hayden, Al Leong, Gary Roberts, Hans Buhringer, Wilhelm von Homburg, Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush, Bill Marcus, Rick Ducommun

It’s a Christmas movie! OK??!!!!

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Dumb & Dumber (1994) **½

PG-13, 107 min.

Director: Peter Farrelly

Writers: Peter Farrelly, Bennett Yellin, Bobby Farrelly

Starring: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Lauren Holly, Mike Starr, Karen Duffy, Charles Rocket, Victoria Rowell, Teri Garr, Hank Brandt, Cam Neely

Tonight, the 20 years in the making sequel “Dumb and Dumber To” will open with early screenings across the country. While the original “Dumb & Dumber” may be responsible for the wave of what I call “stupid” comedies that populated the 90s and launched the careers of Bobby and Peter Farrelly, it really wasn’t all that impressive. I remember thinking that when I saw it at that time, and I wondered if maybe I just wasn’t in the right mindset for it then. Nah. That wasn’t it.

Horror Thoughts ‘14—Dark House (2014) ***

R, 102 min.

Director: Victor Salva

Writers: Charles Agron, Victor Salva

Starring: Luke Kleintank, Alex McKenna, Anthony Rey Perez, Zack Ward, Lacey Anzelc, Ethan S. Smith, Lesley-Anne Down, Tobin Bell

Well, we get an unplanned Horrorfest entry with “Dark House”, which is a good thing since I like it better than any of the final three films I watched as official festival entries.

“Dark House” is a unique horror flick. It has some of the signature standbys of the genre, like and isolated location and a select number of cast members to be taken out one by one in bloody fashion. However, its story is a little more unique than the cookie cutter elements that generally inhabit most horror flicks these days.

Horror Thoughts ‘14—Dark Mountain (2014) **

NR, 80 min.

Director: Tara Anaïse

Writers: Tara Anaïse, Tamara Blaich

Starring: Sage Howard, Andrew Simpson, Shelby Stehlin

Can we all agree by now that going out into the wilderness with cameras to make a visual record of a ghost story is a bad idea? Not only does this movie reference “The Blair Witch Project” in concept and exact plot, but also it actually mentions it by name in one of its lines. It tries to add some new elements, like aliens and time travel, but never really takes them anywhere.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Dark Passage (1947) ***

NR, 106 min.

Director: Delmer Daves

Writers: Delmer Daves, David Goodis (novel)

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead, Tom D’Andrea, Clifton Young, Douglas Kennedy, Rory Mallinson, Houseley Stevenson

Earlier this week, we lost two Hollywood legends. While Robin Williams dominated the media coverage, it was quietly announced the next day that Lauren Bacall had also passed away. She was 89. She died in New York of an apparent stroke.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Jodorowsky’s Dune (2014) ***

PG-13, 90 min.

Director: Frank Pavich

Featuring: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Michel Seydoux, H.R. Giger, Diane O’Bannon, Jean-Paul Gibon, Nicolas Winding Refn, Brontis Jodorowsky, Gary Kurtz, Chris Foss, Amanda Lear

I always felt that David Lynch was a very strange choice to direct the 1984 sci-fi epic “Dune”, an adaptation of the lauded novel by Frank Herbert. Now, I’ve never read the book, but it would seem that anyone attempting to capitalize on the success of “Star Wars” would place Lynch’s name on the bottom of the list. Well, maybe not the bottom. I would think his name would be placed only above Alejandro Jodorowsky’s.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Dark Knight Rises (2012) ***

PG-13, 165 min.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writers: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer, Bob Kane (characters)

Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Matthew Modine, Alon Moni Aboutboul, Ben Mendelsohn, Burn Gorman, Nestor Cabronell, Brett Cullen, Reggie Lee, Chris Ellis, Juno Temple, Thomas Lennon, Rob Brown, William Devane, Joey King, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Hines Ward

I was one of the disappointed when I originally saw the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, “The Dark Knight Rises”. I know that much of that had to do with the tragic events that occurred in Colorado, which I found out about as soon as I got home from the screening. It was also due to the fact that the movie seemed to meander to me.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes / **** (PG-13)

Caesar: Andy Serkis

Malcolm: Jason Clarke

Dreyfuss: Gary Oldman

Ellie: Kari Russell

Koba: Toby Kebbell

Alexander: Kodi Smit-McPhee

Carver: Kirk Acevedo

Blue Eyes: Nick Thurston

20^th Century Fox presents a film directed by Matt Reeves. Written by Mark Bomback and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver. Based on characters created by Jaffa & Silver and inspired by the novel “Le Planéte des Singes” by Pierre Boulle. Running time: 130 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief strong language).

For the past two weeks we’ve watched as the Gaza Strip has once again blown up in conflict with innocents dying on both sides and both sides claiming the righteousness of their causes. I would not claim to know enough about either side of this never-ending conflict to judge whether anyone is right or not. I do believe that after a certain point the righteousness of such conflicts fades in comparison to the cost in human life. War is just war after a while. Is it just an inevitable aspect of the human existence? The new film “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”, in the same tradition of the original series of films inspired by Pierre Buolle’s novel “Le Planéte des Singes”, argues that it may be the nature of any dominant species, be it man or ape.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Dark Knight (2008) ****

PG-13, 152 min.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writers: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer, Bob Kane (characters)

Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Monique Gabriella Curnen, Ron Dean, Cillian Murphy, Chin Han, Nestor Carbronell, Eric Roberts, Ritchie Coster, Anthony Michael Hall, Keith Szarabajka, Colin McFarlane, Joshua Harto, Melinda McGraw, Nathan Gamble, Michael Vieau, Michael Stoyanov, William Smillie, Danny Goldring, Michael Jai White, Matthew O’Neill, William Fitchner

I recently called “Iron Man 3” “…possibly the best superhero movie yet.” I wrote that with full awareness of the “Dark Knight” issue. And I stand behind that. “Iron Man 3” is not better than “The Dark Knight”, however. Oh, “The Dark Knight” is far better than “Iron Man 3”. It isn’t really a superhero movie, though. Yes. It has superhero elements. It has action. It has spectacular special effects. It has a broadly conceived villain, however delicately portrayed by the late Heath Ledger. It has a message. It comments on our society. These are all elements of a good superhero movie. And yet, “The Dark Knight” transcends all of these elements to become something more.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Django Unchained (2012) ****

R, 165 min.

Director/Writer: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, David Steen, Dana Gourrier, Nichole Galicia, Laura Cayouette, Ato Essendoh, Sammi Rotibi, Clay Donohue Fontenot, Escalante Lundy, Miriam F. Glover, Don Johnson, James Russo, Tom Wopat, Don Stroud, Russ Tamblyn, Amber Tamblyn, Bruce Dern, M.C. Gainey, Franco Nero, Cooper Huckabee, Doc Duhame, Jonah Hill, Lee Horsley, Zoë Bell, Michael Bowen, Robert Carradine, Jake Garber, Ted Neeley, James Parks, Tom Savini, Michael Parks, John Jarratt, Quentin Tarantino

Django!

Django, have you always been alone?

Django!

Django, have you never loved again?

Love will live on, oh oh oh...

Life must go on, oh oh oh...

For you cannot spend your life regretting

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Delivery Man (2013) ***½

PG-13, 105 min.

Director: Ken Scott

Writers: Ken Scott (also screenplay “Starbuck”), Martin Petit (screenplay “Starbuck”)

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders, Andrzej Blumenfeld, Simon Delaney, Bobby Moynihan, Dave Patten, Adam Chanler-Berat, Britt Robertson, Jack Reynor, Amos VanderPoel, Matthew Daddario

“Delivery Man” is a pleasant film that proves that sometimes the execs at Hollywood can make good decisions. The film is a remake of the Canadian movie “Starbuck”, which caused a bit of a stir with its good-hearted charm in a story about a man who through sperm bank deposits fathers over 500 children. Only a man without much sense of responsibility could possibly even donate enough sperm to father over 500 children; however, when he’s sued to reveal his identity to a large group of these children, he learns the responsibility of fatherhood.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Do the Right Thing (1989) ****

R, 120 min.

Director/Writer: Spike Lee

Starring Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Paul Benjamin, Frankie Faison, Robin Harris, Joie Lee, Miguel Sandoval, Rick Aiello, John Savage, Samuel L. Jackson, Rosie Perez, Roger Guenveur Smith, Steve White, Martin Lawrence, Leonard Thomas, Christa Rivers, Frank Vincent, Luis Ramos, Richard Habersham, Gwen McGee, Steve Park, Ginny Yang

I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but since it speaks to the vast misunderstanding a good deal of people have about racism, I think it bears repeating. The first time I saw Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” I didn’t like it. I couldn’t understand Mookie’s choice in the end to throw the garbage can into the pizzeria and start the riot that destroyed a family institution that for the most part only served the community around it. I thought it was a betrayal of that community to allow racism to get the upper hand on one ethnic group by another, no matter which group it was. Mookie’s action seemed just as fueled by racism as Pino’s and the cops’ action against Radio Raheem. Of course, Mookie really was doing the right thing by letting the anger out before more people died.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay (2013) ***½

NR, 88 min.

Director: Molly Bernstein

Narrator: Dick Cavett

Featuring: Ricky Jay

I haven’t really been fascinated by magic since I was a kid. I remember being extremely fascinated as a child, however. It seems anytime there was a magic special on TV, I was sitting in front of it. That was when the networks used to put things like magic specials on TV. I’m not sure just what it was that disinterested me in magic. I think it was the discovery that it truly was a trick. I think I wanted magic to be real. Once I knew it wasn’t, I looked for magic in different places.

Draft Day / *** (PG-13)

Sonny Weaver, Jr.: Kevin Costner

Ali: Jennifer Garner

Coach Penn: Denis Leary

Anthony Molina: Frank Langella

Vontae Mack: Chadwick Boseman

Chris Crawford: Sean Combs

Bo Callahan: Josh Pence

Tom Michaels: Patrick St. Esprit

Earl Jennings: Terry Crews

Ray Jennings: Arian Foster

Barb Weaver: Ellen Burstyn

Summit Entertainment presents a film directed by Ivan Reitman. Written by Scott Rothman & Rajiv Joseph. Running time: 109 min. Rated PG-13 (for brief strong language and sexual references).

Oh man, do I love football! I just can’t get enough of it. I wasn’t always this way. As a kid, I remember watching my father and his zeal for the game. He brainwashed us. We watched the New York Football Giants every Sunday in the fall. He plastered our walls with posters. The Super Bowl was a family event every year. He taped games and watched them over again. It’s the only reason he knew how to work the VCR.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Dallas Buyers Club (2013) ***½

R, 117 min.

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

Writers: Craig Borton, Melissa Wallack

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Denis O’Hare, Steve Zahn, Michael O’Neill, Dallas Roberts, Griffin Dunne, Kevin Rankin, Donna Duplantier, Deneen D. Tyler, J.D. Evermore, Ian Casselberry

Last year, I watched the Oscar nominated documentary “How To Survive a Plague”, about the battle to find a workable treatment for people infected with the HIV virus. I learned a great deal about the disease and the struggles of getting workable drugs to fight infectious diseases in this country. “Dallas Buyers Club” gives us a dramatization of a real story from the front lines of that battle. It is both heartbreaking and inspirational.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Dirty Wars (2013) ****

NR, 87 min.

Director: Rick Rowley

Writers: Jeremy Scahill, David Riker

Narrator: Jeremy Scahill

Featuring: Jeremy Scahill, Nasser Al Aulaqi, Saleha Al Aulaqi, Muqbal Al Kazemi, Abdul Rahman Barman, Sheikh Saleh Bin Fareed, Andrew Exum, Abdul Gahfoor, Philip Giraldi, Matthew Hoh, Patrick Lang

Rarely a week goes by that I don’t see a post on Facebook proclaiming support for the troops. Everybody with a heart posts these. It doesn’t matter if they support our ongoing wars or not. The American public universally supports their troops. The problem is how long we’ve been supporting them in our current conflicts. At almost twelve and a half years our “War Against Terror” has now outlasted our involvement in the Vietnam Conflict by two and a quarter years. It’s nearly double the time we’ve spent in any other war, and more than doubled the length of time we were involved in both World Wars combined.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Down Terrace (2009) ***½

R, 89 min.

Director: Ben Wheatley

Writers: Robin Hill, Ben Wheatley

Starring: Robin Hill, Robert Hill, Julia Deakin, David Schaal, Tony Way, Kerry Peacock, Michael Smiley, Mark Kempner

“Down Terrace” is the debut film of British writer/director Ben Wheatley, who has proved to be a unique and original voice with a tendency toward the strange and the macabre. His latest movie is called “A Field in England” and involves soldiers of England’s 17^th century civil war, who enter some sort of drug-induced treasure hunt for an alchemist. His previous film, “Sightseers”, followed the exploits of the most everyday serial killers ever portrayed. I suppose in its way, “Down Terrace” is Wheatley’s version of “Downton Abbey”.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Day Watch (2006) ***

R, 132 min.

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Writers: Timur Bekmambetov, Aleksandr Talal, Sergey Lukyanenko (novel), Vladimir Vasiliev (novel)

Starring: Konstantin Khabenskiy, Mariya Poroshina, Vladimir Menshov, Galina Tyunina, Viktor Verzhbitskiy, Zhanna Friske, Dima Martynov, Valeriy Zolotukhin, Aleksey Chadov, Nurzhuman Ikhtymbaev, Aleksey Maklakov, Aleksandr Samoylenko, Gosha Kutsenko, Irina Yakovleva, Egor Dronov

I’m glad I got the chance to see this series of movies again. Beginning with “Night Watch”, “Day Watch” is the conclusion of the story about the battle between the Dark Others and the Light Others. In the first film, the hero Anton, an agent of Light, lost his son to the Dark Others. His son is what is known as a Great Other, one who can change the balance of power and the war between the two sides will begin again. In the process of trying to save his son, Anton discovered another Great Other, who is a woman with great power. Should the two Great Others meet the war will begin. Now, Anton seeks an artifact that will allow him to change all this, return his son to the Light and save the world from a war of the Others.