In this cooped up time, I was in the mood for a classic, gothic horror story. I somewhat got that in Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's an interesting mixed bag, this film; trying so hard to be this sweeping horror epic, while not quite hitting the mark. It certainly looks the part, with its surreal, dream-like cinematography. While a bit over-the-top at times, it paints a very vivid view of this world. However, as pretty as it looks, I felt detached from the story. It felt like the plot was an after thought; that we were coasting through each scene to get to the next big image or set piece. It felt more like the writer was checking off boxers rather than telling an organic story. The acting here is also mixed. On the one hand, you have Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins, bringing their characters to life and selling them at 110 per cent. On the other, you have a young Keanu Reeves acting on par with a cardboard cut out. To summarize: I'm a little underwhelmed with 1992...

Shawn here, you know, the superhero movie fanboy?...not.  Ok, well maybe a little. Am I bias?  When it comes to my opinion, absolutely. Watched Thor: The Dark World last night.  I didn't mind the first one as it was a great intro movie. Obviously, The Avengers carried more of this story, with Loki as the bad guy.  The Avengers movie was very well balanced. So that had me looking forward to seeing Thor 2.

In what has to be one of the cleverest viral marketing ploys for a movie I've ever seen, we bring you this PSA from the Master of the Suspense himself -- Alfred Hitchcock. And he would like you to turn off your cell phones during the movie. The great Anthony Hopkins brings the director to life here, as he does in the upcoming biopic Hitchcock, due out next month. This is awesome. Pure awesome. And very much in line with the way Hitchcock used to introduce his TV series and films. Directed by Sacha Gervasi, Hitchcock stars Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, and Jessica Biel. Watch, share and enjoy.

The modern horror movie wouldn't exist without Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho. And judging from the below preview for Sacha Gervasi's upcoming biopic Hitchcock, it was a film no one wanted the master filmmaker to make. Few directors are as deserving of a biopic as Hitchcock. And it looks like Gervasi and screenwriter John J. McLaughlin have picked the perfect thread -- in the story of Psycho's trip to the screen -- to hang such a film on. I'm in! What a cast too: Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson and her boobs, Jessica Biel. The list goes on and on. Hell, even Ralph The Karate Kid Macchio gets in on the action as screenwriter Joe Stefano! This movie looks great. I actually look forward to seeing it. Hitchcock opens in limited release via Fox Searchlight next month.  

We haven't featured much on Sacha Gervasi's upcoming biography on the life and times of famed director Alfred Hitchcock because, well, we just haven't. Back off about it! Now that we've scored a couple of pics from the film, which is due out next month, we figured what the hey -- let's post 'em. The film is a love story between influential filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) during the filming of Psycho in 1959. Fleshing out what really is a great cast are Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles and James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins. Yeah, I might have to see this. Above is a pic of Hopkins in classic Hitchcock profile and below is the lovely Johansson as Leigh. If anything, the casting for this is perfect. We'll have to see if the film is as good.

Decent acting and interesting ideas do not a good movie make. I'm not saying The Rite is bad, because the performances of Anthony Hopkins and Colin O'Donoghue are too good for the movie to fail. Plus I defy any genre fan to not like a story about exorcisms. But we've seen a lot of this stuff before and little actually happens until the third act. There are some minor scares thanks to Hopkins's performance and some nifty visuals, but the film is too long and kinda dull. A Bad for me on The Rite.

What starts off as a beautifully mounted remake of the Universal monster classic quickly de-evolves into just another Hollywood horror movie, lack of actual scares included. There is a wild and crazy fun side to this movie and a serious, dull, lifeless side as well. The two halves duke it out for much of the too-long running time before the film limps to an uninspired conclusion. In fact, the whole problem with the film is that it doesn't know whether it wants to be old-fashioned or cutting edge. I'd have preferred old-fashioned. A Bad review from The Basement for me.