The Zachtastic Movie Blog

In light of today being Halloween, I thought a horror-themed list would be appropriate, so what better than to talk about the scariest movies I have ever seen? I have to make a disclaimer though - I don’t limit my definition of “scary” to simple horror. Sure, there are many frightening films that thrive on scaring the living crap out of us, but I also think that terror can be found in silence, drawn-out suspense, creepy characters among other things. Also, horror in the form of extremely disturbing imagery or paranoia (in the case of John Carpenter’s The Thing ) could factor in. Without ado, here are my picks! First though, here are some great films that didn’t quite make the cut. Honorable Mentions Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002) The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991) The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) Wait Until Dark (Terence Young, 1968) And now for the official list, starting off with two sci-fi horror classics… #5 - Al...

Even if I am a member of the LDS Church, I can’t deny that Mormon cinema still has plenty of roadblocks to overcome before becoming nationally-recognized. There may have been some great successes along the way such as Saints and Soldiers along with the work of Jared Hess ( Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre ), but there is nonetheless a lack of popularity for such films outside of Arizona, Utah, Idaho and other states with dense LDS communities. The question I now pose is will The Saratov Approach be a game changer for the LDS cinema, especially when considering the subject matter involves the true story of two missionaries who were kidnapped and held for ransom in Russia in 1998? Elder Tuttle (Corbin Allred) and Propst (Maclain Nelson) were LDS missionaries who served together in Russia in 1998. One day while walking around the city of Saratov, a man named Nikolai (Nikita Bogolyubov) approaches them and asks if he could be teached. They answer yes quite triumphantly, ...

So as you all know, I am a Mormon, so I have made a personal effort to not watch R-rated films in the theater. However, it's a different case at home. This is so because I have a Clearplay DVD player which is run by a service that allows one to filter any content they want, so technically I could make an R-rated film on the same level as a PG-13 release. Typically I don't filter out violence and drug content, but otherwise language and sexuality is cut out. Instead of a full review like I write for new releases in theaters, these will just be mini reviews consisting of one or two paragraphs. This is so because the general opinion of critics and audiences have already been set in stone, so I am just going to throw in my own quick opinion on new R-rated releases on DVD. Without further ado, here is my fifth Clearplay Review, in which I will talk about The Bling Ring ! ] My first exposure to Sofia Coppola really shouldn't have been with The Bling Ring . Consi...

I am not one to review television shows, for I almost never watch TV these days. However, if someone told me that Pixar was releasing a Toy Story Halloween special on ABC, then I would turn on my television in a heartbeat. Thankfully for me being a huge fan of the series, Pixar did just that in the form of Toy Story of Terror , a Halloween-themed TV special. Thus, I made the time to watch it, and I am very glad that I did. There really isn’t much to discuss in a short film that is meant to extend beyond the reach of an already concluded film trilogy, but either way it is safe to say Toy Story of Terror is a very fun 22 minutes. In fact, I would even go as far as declaring this short film as the best thing Pixar has produced since Toy Story 3 . Even so, the short is not without its minor flaws. The opening minutes of the special are somewhat rough in trying to establish what sort of tone Pixar is going with. Thus, the script felt somewhat messy and unfocused in that sense...

Paul Greengrass is a director widely regarded for a signature style of shaky cam, quick edits and gritty realism that have been central to numerous successful action thrillers over the past decade. The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum were both excellent action films, while his work on United 93 solidified him as a filmmaker that was also very sensitive to world issues on both ends of the conflict. This made me excited for Captain Phillips since it is also based on a true story like his 9/11 masterpiece, so in that sense has Paul Greengrass once again delivered on thrills and human drama? Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) is the captain of the Maersk Alabama , an American cargo freighter. In April 2009, Captain Phillips and his crew set course for Mombasa, Kenya, but one day after entering Somali waters the ship began to be followed by a pair of pirate skiffs. Only one skiff continued its course to the Alabama after the pirates discovered that Captain Phil...

These days, it seems that there is a film released this year that can be considered a prestige effects picture - what I mean is that these landmark visual experiences are generally nominated for Best Picture soon after their great critical and commercial success. Examples of this trend in recent years include Avatar , Inception , Hugo , Life of Pi and now we have a possible contender in the form of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity . Sporting spectacular visuals, unprecedented realism along with Oscar winners Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in the lead roles, could we potentially a Best Picture winner on our hands? The crew of the space shuttle Explorer are doing the final spacewalk to service the aging Hubble Space Telescope, in which both bio-medical engineer and first-time astronaut Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and veteran Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) - incidentally on his final mission - are repairing various instruments of the telescope. However, Mission Control in Ho...