Feast on Evil Dead

It was with caution that I entered the theater for the remake of the 1981 cult horror/comedy classic "The Evil Dead". So many great horror franchises like "Friday the 13th", "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" have recently been ruined by Hollywood by not caring about the script and hiring a young music video director making his feature debut and throwing the casting net over any random show currently on the CW or ABC family. it is with great satisfaction and somewhat surprise that I can report that the new "Evil Dead" is both a fine addition to the franchise but also easily the best horror movie I've seen in years.

First a brief history: The Evil Dead first came about as a low budget movie directed and co-wrote by a then unknown director, Sam Raimi (the original spider man trilogy, Drag Me to Hell) and starring future B movie king Bruce Campbell (Bubba Ho Tep). The Evil Dead got enough of a following that two sequels came out, each more successful than the last (Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness). Army of Darkness was released in the early 90's so Dead fans and Brucefiles alike have been clamoring for something-anything, at one point there was even talk of a "Freddy VS. Jason VS. Ash" franchise launcher which unfortunately never came to fruition. So now more than 30 years after the original we have a "reboot" of "The Evil Dead". The story is the same as it was originally, 5 friends are in a remote cabin in the woods when the stumble up a book of the dead. Soon after reading from said book bad shit starts to go down.

"Evil Dead" is bloody, dirty, disgusting and hilarious in parts. Limbs are lost and blood spurts out at a rate that makes "Kill Bill" look PG-13 in comparison, obviously if you are squeamish about those sort of things you may want to cover your eyes. With the train wrecks that have been other rebooted horror remakes its comforting to know that both original director Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are both on board as producers. The cast is surprisingly strong, the most recognizable is Jane Levy from TV's underrated sitcom "Suburgatory". Levy has a great screen scream and without ruining the end it will be interesting if there is a sequel to see if her and Ash team up in anyway. There are a lot of nods to the original "Evil Dead" which will make my fellow dead heads squeal with delight (tip: stay til the end credits for an even bigger surprise). First time Hollywood director Fede Alvarez does a great job as well, there are signature "so evil dead" camera zoom in's but also the director puts his own spin and I cant wait to see what he can do with an original property.

Saying the new "Evil Dead" is the best horror movie to come out in some time unfortunately isn't a hard statement to make. Hollywood has deemed cheap, PG 13 "scary" movies as the future. Gone are the days when big name, respected directors such as Stanley Kubrick or William Freidkin would take on what would become horror classics (The Shining and The Exorcist). Though "Evil Dead" is a remake with Raimi now a big Hollywood franchise director this should hopefully show that even a hard, hard R rated film can stand out and entertain both the masses and the cult diehards. For lack of any other term "Evil Dead is "groovy", now go see it you primitive screwheads!

Die Hard: With a President

*Spoilers throughout



"Olympus Has Fallen", the first of two "White House under attack movies" scheduled for release this year has about every single action movie cliché that you can fill in a two hour movie yet still remains surprisingly effective. OHF features a cast entirely too good for the material which probably benefits the film the most as it plays more as a campy guilty pleasure B movie rather than a "sign of our times" movie.

Gerard Butler takes a break from making dreadful "romantic" "comedies" in horrible American accents to come back to his action roots, with a horrible American accent... He plays secret service agent Mike Banning, the President's right hand man, even the first lady and POTUS's son are sweet on Mike until of course a car crash involving the Presidents motorcade leads to the death of the first lady (Ashley Judd). Mike blames himself as he had to choose between saving POTUS or the first lady and leaves the White House and becomes lead security for the department of treasury. 18 months goes by and during a visit from the South Korean prime minister the White House is  overtaken by an army of North Korean militia. Thankfully our hero is only a few blocks away during this invasion and since he knows all the in's and out's of the property he is able to sneak inside while kick ass and taking a few names along the way.

Its not a huge spoiler to indicate that by the end of the movie the President and America's freedom are all still well in tact."OHF" is not about breaking new cinematic ground, sure there are hokey moments like a tattered American flag being taken down as you hear saddening orchestra music. The cast is top notch overall, Dylan McDermott plays a secret service agent turned bad (you know this because he smokes in the movie) Morgan Freeman is very "Morgan Freemanish" here as well as the speaker of the house who becomes acting President during the crisis and maybe most unrecognizable is recent Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) as the Secretary of Defense-the fact that they cast actual "actors" in this really helps the overall tone and pace of the film, its a ridiculous concept but it works nonetheless