Movie Reviews

We’re a hotheaded group of individuals. We crave a pull quote like anyone else, but it’s not about that. It’s only about you the reader. We love you. We want to take you home and cuddle with you. The following reviews are the opinions of the editors of CHUD.com and are by most accounts bang on.

REVIEW: MR. WOODCOCK (JEREMY’S TAKE)

I imagine Craig Gillespie would’ve preferred a little distance between his Toronto Film Fest fave, Lars and the Real Girl, and the wide theatrical release of Mr. Woodcock, the "comedy" from which he was "removed" a year ago. Reshot by Wedding Crashers‘ maestro David Dobkin, and frantically shuttled around the schedule by New Line like … Continue reading

REVIEW: REDACTED

You’ve probably heard wrong information about Redacted, so let’s do some bookkeeping. Yes, it’s Brian De Palma’s recreation of the rape and murder of a 15-year old Iraqi girl and the murder of her family. No, it is not made from documentary footage and other sources. It is one hundred percent dramatized. De Palma has … Continue reading

REVIEW: EASTERN PROMISES (JEREMY’S TAKE)

The twisted team of David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen prove persuasive enough to distract from screenwriter Steven Knight’s parade of contrivance and convention in the Russian mob melodrama, Eastern Promises. Though far from Cronenberg’s best, the director is certainly more comfortable within the confines of the prestige picture than he was a decade ago with … Continue reading

REVIEW: ORPHANAGE, THE

In a grand orphanage on the Spanish coat, dead children are playing games. Once a childhood resident, Laura (Belen Rueda) has returned as an adult. With her husband, she’s bought the old manse to turn it once more into a home for children. Her own adopted son, Simon, initially takes to the place, playing with … Continue reading

REVIEW: MOTHER OF TEARS

You can’t go home again. I thought Dario Argento learned that in 1980 after making the laughably bad Inferno, ostensibly a sequel to his landmark Suspiria. But he’s back again with the third part in this so-called trilogy. Taken as a whole, the three films bear little relation to one another. Inferno and Mother of … Continue reading

REVIEW: CONTROL

We’ve been deluged, it sometimes seems, with portraits of troubled musicians. The musical biopic has become a popular sub-genre; it sells soundtracks by the millions and raises familiar public figures up to a level of adoration and/or scrutiny that we’re all comfortable seeing. It’s just so easy to watch the dissection of a rock star’s … Continue reading

REVIEW: SHOOT ‘EM UP (JEREMY’S TAKE)

Remember that Simpsons episode where Homer buys a gun and proceeds to use it as an all-purpose tool to turn off lights, change the channel, crack nuts and so on? The protagonist of Michael Davis’s Shoot ‘Em Up, Mr. Smith, approaches firearms with a likewise sense of versatility, only Smith is a lot handier with … Continue reading