The Postcard Killings is one of those movies that got lost in the pandemic shuffle. This indie-thriller was set to hit screens in March, right when the world shuttered its doors due to COVID-19. I'd not even heard of the flick until I stumbled across it while scanning recent VOD releases. This is a surprise, as it's based on a James Patterson novel, which he co-wrote with Liza Marklund about a decade ago. And Patterson, of course, is the author of several Alex Cross novels, a couple of which were made into mid-90s hit movies starring Morgan Freeman. And it's directed by Danis Tanovic, a Bosnia director who's No Man's Land won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Quite a pedigree! Alas, The Postcard Killings is pretty standard serial-killer stuff. If you've seen Kiss the Girls and Along Came A Spider, Se7en, or any number of mid-90s serial-killer movies, you've seen The Postcard Killings. Gruesome crimes, dedicated detective, and a final race aga...

Revisiting Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions, it made me pine for what could've been. Which has nothing to do with the movie itself. It's still a solid genre entry, filled with all the things we'd want from a Clive Barker movie. It's got the occult, gore, special effects, violence and mystery; which hold up really well almost 25 years after it was released. What could've been -- nay, should've been -- is a series of Harry D'Amour movies. And, although I didn't care much for his performance back in '95, Scott Bakula should've stuck with the role. Bakula was coming off Quantum Leap at the time, and it was hard to distance him from that role. But he does well as Barker's P.I. with a knack for finding supernatural trouble. He's surprisingly good in the tortured-tough-guy role, and roles with the material, taking seriously, but not too seriously. I'd forgotten a pre-Bond Famke Janssen was in this. I liked and believed her rela...

Every other movie site on the planet has posted about this, but that's never stopped us before. So we're proud to bring you the official trailer for Tak3n, which I still think is a stupid title for a movie. Just call it Taken 3. Please. That being said, I think the trailer looks damn good. A hell of a lot better than I expected. And the two minutes are certainly more interesting than the entire running time of Taken 2, which was not called Tak2n.

I don't know how excited I can get for a third Taken movie. The first flick owned big time but the sequel left me pretty cold. The concept doesn't lend itself to a franchise, but that's never stopped filmdom before. Why should it now? Today the international poster for Taken 3 . . . I mean Tak3n . . . debuted on Collider and it looks like a movie poster. There's not much more I can say then that.

No argument here that Wolverine is one cool cat and Hugh Jackman is the only man alive who can play him. But the character's last solo outing was X-Men Origins: Wolverine , and the less said about that the better. How does James Mangold 's spin on the popular bad ass rate? Stick with me. When Wolverine is summoned to Japan by an old acquaintance, he is embroiled in a conflict that forces him to confront his own demons.

It needs to be said right out the gate, Tommy Wirkola 's Dead Snow is the cat's ass. Based on the strength of that film alone, I had an inkling that Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters would be something special. That's why I pimped the fuck out of it on the site sight unseen. Now it's time to put the Jeremy Renner /Gemma Arterton fairy-tale-action-horror flick on the chopping block. Hansel and Gretel are bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their past. First off, kudos to Paramount Pictures and MGM for showing faith in this tough-to-market movie and releasing it in the hard R-rated version it was intended. There's no way, and I mean no way, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters would fly in a trimmed down, PG-13 version. No way. This is a bloody, foul mouthed and fun as fuck flick that pulls no punches and never ceases to enter...

The man behind Cabin Fever and Hostel, Eli Roth, isn't one to sit still. He's got a lead role in the upcoming earthquake thriller Aftershock AND he's executive producer on the first original series for Netflix, Hemlock Grove. In a nutshell, the 13-episode series takes place in the small town of Hemlock Grove, where a girl is murdered. With the cops fresh out of clues, two young men, one a gypsy drifter and one an heir to a family fortune, decide to find the killer themselves. Kinda looks like Twin Peaks meets True Blood. But with Roth on board -- he directs the pilot episode by the way -- this could be a decent horror outing for the small screen. And one can't knock the presence of the lovely Famke Janssen (pictured above) either.  Take a peep at the trailer, and ready your Netflix subscription, Hemlock Grove begins Friday, April 19. Kudos to YouTube and Netflix for the news.

Before Chuck Norris goes to sleep he checks under his bed for Liam Neeson. I've bitched before about how 20th Century Fox has buggered the marketing for its sequel to the smash hit Taken. But, with this new trailer released exclusively to YouTube, they got it right -- in my biased opinion of course. I'm not going to spoil it for you, just watch and enjoy. And remember: in Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter. Much kicking of ass ensues. Taken 2 opens Oct. 5. 

No, this isn't a trailer for the much anticipated sequel to Liam Neeson's spectacular 2009 action flick Taken, but rather a rundown of the script by those fine folks over at Latino Review. And it's a rather spoiler free one at that. It does, however, offer a very thorough synopsis of the sequel's first act or so and hints at how the film plays out without actually running anything. The reviewer also puts to rest any fears that Neeson will play a small part in this. That said, if you want to go into the film without even the remotest hint of what's to come, then don't push play. But, if you want to be even more jazzed for what promises to be an exercise in pure badassery, then give the six-minute clip a listen. Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen return along with Neeson. Taken 2 is shooting as we speak and hits theatres Oct. 5. And apologies for the sizing of the video, but it's meant to be heard rather than seen.          

100 Feet Shawn: Here is a cheaply made horror film with some great scares balanced out by sequences that are a total fail. The film goes from creepy to cheesy and back again far too often. This had a tonne of potential and delivered about 60 per cent of it in some scenes and 100 per cent in others. The bit where the ghost kills the kid by headbutting him repeatedly was awesome. The big special effects ending was not. This rates a Bad for me. Jason: Famke Janssen and the house are the real stars of this movie. There's good performances and some nice scares, but other moments -- especially the ending -- fall flat. How can the ghost materialize to hit her but she can't hit back? There's some nice quiet sequences here as well, but too many of them. It throws the pacing off. I wanted to like this movie more than I did. It's worth watching once. A Bad from me as well. Babysitter Wanted Shawn: This is how you make a low budget horror movie! And what a great musical sco...

When a filmmaker named John Carpenter screened his first horror movie, Halloween, for a young studio executive at 20th. Century Fox he did so without the music. She bluntly told Carpenter his film wasn't scary, that it didn't work. So the director and composer set out to "save it" with music. The score he composed, and the chilling film he made, have become fixtures in popular culture. Tonight, on a special episode of Film Reviews From the Basement, The X's own Rev. Steve of Do Not Touch This Amp joins us for a discussion on movie soundtracks and their transition from being accompanying music to a big moneymaking business. It's a segment no film or music fan will want to miss. And yes, there will songs. But we are review show, and that means Shawn and I have a couple of reviews for your listening pleasure. First up is the haunted house spookfest 100 Feet starring former Bond babe Famke Janseen and John Fallon of Arrow In the Head. Then we turn the executione...