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: DOOM

Doom, the latest video game turned into a movie, presents us with a cinematic first. In the film a character dies and then gets a free life. It’s during the much vaunted “first person shooter” scene – our hero is overtaken by an enemy and knocked down. In a truly amazing moment of bizarre filmmaking, … Continue reading

BOOK REVIEW: LOOKING GLASS WARS, THE

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!AUTHOR: Frank BeddorPUBLISHER: EgmontMSRP: N/A for AmericaPAGES: 376 For many writers, there’s an undeniable lure in remaking an existing property. Hollywood falls to the temptation far more often than it should. Writers of fiction are a touch less prone to overzealous reimagining, simply because the market doesn’t support it, but … Continue reading

REVIEW: ELIZABETHTOWN

Cameron Crowe’s new movie, Elizabethtown, is like the shambolic southern rock that fills its soundtrack. Like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird (now used twice to great effect this year), the film is too long, peaks too early and is really sort of all over the place. Which is why I loved it. Orlando Bloom is Drew, … Continue reading

REVIEW: THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

Sometimes a movie speaks to me so truthfully and so personally that I can’t figure out if it’s a great film or just one that greatly resonates with me. After thinking about it a lot (and I mean a lot), I’ve come to the conclusion that The Squid and the Whale is a great film, … Continue reading

REVIEW: TWO FOR THE MONEY

There are a lot of people today who don’t get what the big deal is about Al Pacino. I see it on the CHUD message boards all the time, kids who are familiar with the concept that Pacino is one of our great actors but not believing it because they just haven’t seen him being … Continue reading

REVIEW: HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, A (RUSS’ TAKE)

David Cronenberg is a monster, and I mean that with respect. He’s created as impressive a body of work as any director in cinema. Over the course of a thirty-year transformation from artistically minded horror filmmaker to true artist, he’s taken genre filmmaking into deeply emotional territory, finally reaching a place where ‘genre’ doesn’t apply. … Continue reading

REVIEW: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (DEVIN’S TAKE)

David Cronenberg is back from his time in the wilderness. It’s been almost 20 years since his box office peak, The Fly, and his films in the decades since have been either non-commercial or aggressively non-commercial (M. Butterfly hasn’t even been released on DVD yet). Interestingly, Cronenberg didn’t leave behind an ounce of his artistry … Continue reading

REVIEW: MIRRORMASK

Mirrormask looks really great. It looks like Dave McKean paintings come to three dimensional life, which makes sense, as he directed the film and designed the look of it. If you’re interested in seeing a movie after smoking an inordinate amount of pot, here it is. There may in fact even be a classic rock … Continue reading

REVIEW: CAPOTE

Some films are nothing more than showcases for great performances. In many ways, that’s exactly what Capote is – I don’t know if it could work with someone other than Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role. At times incredibly fascinating and at others dreadfully slow, Capote is always kept aloft by the amazing performance … Continue reading