Cloverfield (2008)

Filed Under BBT, New York, Soylent Screen, Jef Taylor, hideous amphibians | 3 Comments

 

 

BBT critic Jef Taylor braves the shakycam for your pleasure!

 

Imagine, if you will,  a televised major league baseball game, but instead of a director and dozens of cameras catching the most important and exciting parts of the game, there’s a single camera mounted on the pitcher’s head.  Now that would create a feeling of immediacy and drama like no other televised major league baseball game!  That appears to be the logic at work in Cloverfield, a giant-monster-on-the-rampage movie, shot with one camera, held by one character for almost the entire movie.

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The Descent (2005)

Filed Under BBT Magazine, Insane People, Soylent Screen, Jef Taylor, CHUD.com, broken bones, Gollum, horror, Eyes pecked out | 2 Comments

 

BBT critic Jef Taylor goes spelunking for a good horror movie and gets more than he bargained for!

 

With Dog Soldiers, director Neil Marshall proved that he can scare the crap out of us with really foolish looking wolf masks.  Imagine what he could do with the very real life scariness of exploring, and getting trapped in, a cave.  There wouldn’t  even have to be monsters in it for it to be really terrifying.   But there are.

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The Fly (1986)

Filed Under BBT Magazine, Science Fiction, Soylent Screen, Jef Taylor, horror, Cronenberg, The Fly, Jeff Goldblum, Insects, Notice I didn't say Kafkaesque?, Mad Scientists, Transformation | 3 Comments

BBT’s film critic Jef Taylor’s column has spoilers this time around! Fortunately, you’ve probably already seen the movie.

 

If you work with animals, or food made of animals, or trash made from food made from animals, now is the time of the year to start dealing with flies.  At my job I’m charged with purchasing and providing many different fly control products to different animal caretakers.  I’ve even been making an effort to identify the different fly species that are found in my region.  I’ve gone a little fly crazy, which is why I’ve finally decided to watch David Cronenberg’s The Fly.

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The Beast in the Cellar (1970)

Filed Under Insane People, Soylent Screen, Jef Taylor, The Simpsons | 2 Comments

Movie reviews with BBT critic Jef Taylor

 

It’s a familiar story.  The black sheep of the family is bricked up in the basement for a few decades, but inevitably escapes.  The trail of savage, animal-like killings will eventually lead to the ruin of the family.  Can we expect a happy ending?

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The Prestige (2007)

Filed Under Fight Club, Soylent Screen, Jef Taylor, Hugh Jackman, Magic, Christian Bale, Tesla, Big surprise endings | 1 Comment

Movie reviews with BBT’s critic Jef Taylor

Magicians are jerks.  That’s the take home message of this high profile period piece.  They are jealous, ambitious, and petty, and don’t care who they hurt in order to perfect their craft and defeat their rivals.  Thuggish Christian Bale and whiner Hugh Jackman leave a trail of crushed birds and severed fingers on their quest to outdo one another in the competitive field of prestidigitation.  Then there is David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, adding a science fiction element that is fascinating to look at, but ultimately, I hate to say, stupid.

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Seconds (1966)

Filed Under BBT, Soylent Screen, Jef Taylor, second life, Rock Hudson, Secret societies, Beatnik Bacchanal | Leave a Comment

Movie reviews with BBT critic Jef Taylor

Arthur Hamilton is a middle aged man with a respectable but boring position at a New York City bank.  He has a commute from the placid suburbs through the chaos of the city, and a cordial but passionless relationship with his wife.  He’s dissatisfied with his life, he sweats a lot, and lately he’s been getting phone calls from a friend of his who’s supposed to be dead.  It must be time for him to be blackmailed by a secret society into changing his identity and appearance and moving away from his old life forever.

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