More Articles By Ed Hulse

• Mirrors
  FOX Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: Dec. 17 > So-so remake of Asian chiller uses gory effects to advantage but drags. Yet another American remake of an Asian horror film, Mirrors follows former policeman and recovering substance abuser Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) who, separated from his wife (Paula Patton) and temporarily living with his sister (Amy Smart), takes a night-watchman job in an old,... More
  
• Palo Pinto Gold
  MONARCH Street: Jan. 20 Prebook: Dec. 29 > Cheap but ambitious horse opera that tries to emulate such westerns as Open Range. Although this low-budget oater aspires to be another Open Range, it more closely resembles the grade-B westerns of yore: unpretentious formulaic actioners with clearly defined heroes and villains. More
  
• Yeti
  GENIUS Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: Dec. 9 > Corny but fun Sasquatch movie. In this cheesy Sci Fi Channel original, college students are stranded in the snow-covered Himalayas when their plane crashes. With the possibility of rescue becoming remote, the survivors turn to cannibalism. But they aren’t the only hungry ones in the area—a massive hairy beast stalks and kills them one by ... More
  
• Choose Connor
  STRAND Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: Dec. 18 > Promising political drama gets sidetracked by a sleazy plot turn. After a promising start, this political drama becomes so unnecessarily tawdry that it dilutes its powerful message about the perils of youthful idealism. Socially awkward but bright 15-year-old Owen Norris (Alex Linz) impresses local politician and Senatorial candidate Lawrence Connor... More
  
• Bangkok Dangerous
  LIONSGATE Street: Jan. 6 Prebook: Dec. 10 > Remake of decade-old thriller will please Nicolas Cage fans but seem old to others. Hong Kong-based sibling filmmakers Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang have retooled their 1999 hit thriller for American audiences by casting Nicolas Cage in the lead. Cage plays a dour hit man named Joe, who arrives in Bangkok to commit a series of killings. More
  
• Towelhead
  WARNER Street: Dec. 30 Prebook: NOV. 25 > Provocative drama about a beautiful 13-year-old has off-putting sequences. In his incendiary directorial debut, American Beauty scripter and Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball serves up a spicy mix of political satire, racial sensitivity and sexual exploitation. More
  
• Ghost Writer
  GENIUS Street: Jan. 6 Prebook: Dec. 2 > Over-the-top comedy has the makings of a cult item. Tony-winning actor Alan Cumming directs and stars in this rather arch black comedy, which boasts a stellar supporting cast but might be a bit much for mainstream viewers. Gay music teacher and aspiring composer John Vandermark (Cumming) takes into his home a handsome but untrustworthy young man, Seba... More
  
• Kung Fu Killer
  GENIUS Street: Jan. 6 Prebook: Dec. 2 > Martial arts action film finds David Carradine back in “Grasshopper” mode. Kill Bill co-stars David Carradine and Daryl Hannah re-team in this martial arts opus, which was shot in China and aired on Spike TV. As a thinly disguised version of his Kung Fu TV character, Carradine romps around ’20s Shanghai in search of the gangster over... More
  
• Skins: Volume 1
  BBC/WARNER Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: Dec. 9 > British TV series offers keen insights into the lives of modern-day teens in the U.K. Anybody who thinks trifles such as Gossip Girl are the last word on teenage travails should look at this exceptionally well-written and well-acted British TV series. Skins follows a group of Bristol-based 16- and 17-year-olds led by handsome, manipulative and ch... More
  
• All Roads Lead Home
  ANCHOR BAY/STARZ Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: Dec. 11 > Bolstered by strong performances, this heartfelt family drama deals with love and loss. After losing her mother in a car accident, 12-year-old Belle Lawlor (Vivien Cardone) rebels against her grief-stricken father (Jason London) and goes to live with her maternal grandfather (Peter Coyote) on a small farm. More
  
• Traitor
  ANCHOR BAY Street: Dec. 19 Prebook: Nov. 16 > Superb Mideast-set thriller makes a great vehicle for talented Don Cheadle. In this suspenseful thriller, Don Cheadle plays a devout American Muslim and Special Forces explosives expert working deep undercover to penetrate an Islamic terrorist group planning a series of high-profile bombings. More
  
• Death Race
  UNIVERSAL Street: Dec. 23 Prebook: Now > Adrenaline-charged film boasts good cast and sequences. A reworking of the Roger Corman-produced 1975 schlocker Death Race 2000, pedal-to-the-metal popcorn movie Death Race establishes a new record for high-octane, pyrotechnic thrills. It’s 2012, and with the U. More
  
• Peter & the Wolf
  MAGNOLIA Street: Dec. 9 Prebook: Nov. 11 > Highly stylized, animated film of Sergei Prokofiev’s musical fairy tale. Sergei Prokofiev’s musical fable is strikingly re-imagined in a short film that combines traditional stop-motion animation with current CGI technology. The story will be familiar to adults: Peter is a lonely boy who comes to grips with his fears in order to defeat ... More
  
• Fly Me to the Moon
  SUMMIT/UNIVERSAL Street: Dec. 2 Prebook: Now > Eye-popping design and 3D effects trump thin plot and hackneyed jokes. The first-ever animated feature film in 3D boasts wonderful visual effects (two pairs of 3D glasses are included) but also a thin story line and lame gags. It stars three adolescent flies (voiced by Trevor Gagnon, Philip Daniel Bolden and David Gore) who foil an attempt by R... More
  
• Horror Effects
  SUB ROSA STUDIOS Available now > Fascinating how-to guide for aspiring gory-movie makers. In this relatively short documentary, makeup and FX specialist Tom Savini—whose work dominated the early splatter-film era—gives step-by-step lessons in creating gory, realistic special effects. Savini, whose credits include Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow and Friday the 13th, is a living legen... More
  
• Flashbacks of a Fool
  ANCHOR BAY/STARZ Street: Nov. 4 Prebook: now > Conventional rites-of-passage yarn tinged with a little A Star Is Born. Faded movie star Joe Scott (Daniel Craig), dissipated by a life of excess, reflects on his early mistakes following the death of an old friend. Joe’s reverie takes him back to ’70s Britain, where, as an ambitious young man, one of his complex romantic relationsh... More
  
• Chill
  LIONSGATE Street: Nov. 4 Prebook: now > Slowly paced H.P. Lovecraft adaptation delivers just enough visceral thrills. Funereally paced but sufficiently creepy to attract shudder-film fans, Chill is loosely adapted from H.P. Lovecraft’s often-anthologized short storyCool Air. An aspiring writer (Thomas Calabro) goes to work for a former scientist (Shaun Kurtz) who suffers from a rare d... More
  
• Dear Me
  OCEAN PARK Street: Nov. 4 Prebook: now > Innocuous rom-com maintains brisk pace but delivers few laughs. This too-cute-by-half romantic comedy tries hard—very hard—to score but just misses the net. Gardener-cum-advertising copywriter Samantha Billows (Sarah Thompson) copes with anxiety by describing all her feelings in a supposedly anonymous blog. More
  
• The Other Half
  BFS Street: Oct. 28 Prebook: now > Bland British comedy has picturesque locations but low laugh quotient. This British rom-com probably won’t make a dent on American home viewers, who won’t recognize stars Danny Dyer and Gillian Kearney and don’t share the U.K.’s passion for soccer, which drives the plot. More
  
• The Polar Express Presented in 3D
  WARNER Street: Oct. 28 Prebook: now > 3D element adds another plus for this recent Christmas classic. First released as an Imax 3D attraction during 2004’s holiday season, this imaginative adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg’s children’s book has become a Christmas perennial, earning tens of millions with each successive reissue. More