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John Allman

If you’ve ever wandered the aisles at the video store or surfed the DVR pay-per-view options and seen a bunch of movies that you’ve never heard of, chances are John has watched them. Why? He loves movies. All kinds of movies. Good, bad, so-bad-they’re good, even the truly unwatchable ones. He mostly loves horror and science-fiction and drive-in exploitation movies that most upstanding model citizens wouldn’t dare watch. Then he writes up his thoughts so you can decide - watch, don’t watch or avoid at all costs. Sometimes he even gets to talk to the cool folks who make some of your favorite films.

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John Allman

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New Releases for Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010

Posted Feb 16, 2010 by John Allman

Updated Feb 16, 2010 at 03:33 PM

What’s new in retail stores and on video shelves this week:

Law Abiding Citizen (Anchor Bay): Here’s my biggest quibble with what should have been a helluva good Grindhouse-era action/revenge thriller.

Director F. Gary Gray never gets the tone right. In order for this movie to work, you have to either have the audience identify with the grieving vigilante (Gerard Butler) or the career-conscious District Attorney (Jamie Foxx). By making both of them unlikable for long stretches of the film, you never give people a chance to pick a side.

The other big missteps are:

Having a late, and way too quick, reveal of Butler’s character’s backstory, which explains how and why he is proficient with traps and weapons. The explanation is handled so sloppily you almost miss it, and it doesn’t jibe with his self-taught legal prowess.

Not having a congruent revenge strategy. Butler’s character loses his wife and daughter. You would assume that Foxx’s wife and daughter might be in jeopardy at some point. That’s logical, and probably would have been the right thing to do, even if it was expected. Instead, Foxx’s family is never legitimately threatened, which completely undercuts a potentially strong emotional arc.

As it is, “Law Abiding Citizen” is half of a good movie. The first 45 minutes or so are great, but the slow slog to a silly ending kills all momentum.

Good Hair (Lionsgate): Chris Rock makes true be-weavers out of us all with this funny, and educational, documentary about…duh!…hair.

From Mexico With Love (Lionsgate): Though it sounds like a Mexican James Bond, this boxing movie is billed as Mexico’s answer to Rocky Balboa.

Women in Trouble (Screen Media): Confession time – I will watch anything with Carla Gugino or Monica Bellucci in it, and “Women in Trouble,” features them both as a provocatively dressed porn star and a nearly undressed call girl! This funny, quirky feature from director Sebastian Gutierrez isn’t on par with his great “Judas Kiss,” but it’s much better than “Rise: Blood Hunter.”

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (Lionsgate): This long-delayed follow-up to Eli Roth’s 2002 debut should just be a complete mess. Director Ti West has publicly talked about how his vision didn’t match corporate expectations. It’s taken seven frickin’ years for it to actually get released. And, granted, was there really a need for a sequel to a scary contagion movie that wasn’t very good itself (Admit it: If you’re honest, “Cabin Fever” had more plot holes and problems than anyone wanted to admit since Roth had already been (self) anointed as the savior of horror.)

But a funny thing happened in the long, slow wind-up to “Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever” actually seeing the light of day.

West went and made a gory, above-average sequel that hits more than it misses. It shouldn’t be that hard to believe for anyone who has followed West’s work since his breakout feature “The Roost.”

Now granted, “Spring Fever” has its own significant problems. The tone is uneven, veering wildly from subversive high school black comedy to gross-out horror and back. Some of the humor falls flat because it aims too low (Is it really necessary to have three underage/pedophilia jokes?). And structurally, the story-within-a-story of Deputy Winston (Giuseppe Andrews) and his efforts to expose the Down Home Water company ends up distracting more than complementing the main plot, which is a high school prom from hell that would make Carrie proud.

But West’s ability as a director, his eye for clever shots and his refusal to end “Spring Fever” on a conventional note, instead opting for a brilliantly dark denouement that upends the clichéd “built-in sequel” finish.

This week’s High-Definition Re-Issue of Note:

Cabin Fever: Unrated Director’s Cut (Lionsgate): Yes, it’s a blatant tie-in to the sequel’s release. But for fans (and there are those who love this movie), Roth gives you five additional minutes of footage, a group audio commentary and some new short features.