Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

The subject of drug use isn’t a novelty in cinema, having been dealt with as far back as The Man with the Golden Arm in 1955, but Addicted to Her Love distinguishes itself with a harsh, unrelenting realism. Director Elliot Lester makes good use of his talented young cast to tell the bleak story of what happens when directionless youth fights ennui with narcotics. Originally titled Love is the Drug (which is actually a better title for this film) it explores the phenomenon of undisciplined, unsupervised, upper-class youth with too much time and money on their hands, similar to 2002’s Better Luck Tomorrow did, but combines it with the stark reality of drug addiction, like a suburban version of Panic in Needle Park.

Beatdown is a UFC fighting film that achieves something incredible. In a movie packed with bloody, brutal fights, it remains completely boring. After having seen Beatdown, we all of a sudden have a new found respect for successful action stars and filmmakers. You don't realize how enjoyable the good ones are until you see something like this. In Beatdown, Brandon (Rudy Youngblood) is a fighter in an underground fight club. His brother gambles away money owed to a mob boss and ends up beside the road with a slit throat. Brandon finds out about his brother’s debts and runs away. He goes home to a tiny town where his father (Danny Trejo) is still hanging out in a wheel chair and collecting his disability check. Brandon gets a job moving junk from one pile to another pile, and it turns out that his co-workers run their own hillbilly fight club. When they find out that he fights, they get him trained up and start having him fight the local talent for big payouts.

Alloy Entertainment is no stranger to the novel-turned-television-show, having put out Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars, all shows based on The New York Times bestselling series that are also published by Alloy. Private is simply the next in a long line of shows based on books, with one major difference: it’s a web series. While the DVD box calls Private a “movie about romance, privilege and murder,” it began as 20 webisodes, each about 4 to 6 minutes in length. However, the part about romance, privilege and murder is spot on. Reed Brennan (played by Kelsey Sander) leaves her small town life behind as she begins her first semester at Easton Academy, a prestigious boarding school in New England. She’s placed in Billings Hall, the best dorm on campus, and manages to snag herself a hot new boyfriend, Thomas (Brant Daugherty).

Where as once it might have been a certificate of emotional authenticity, all too often these days the accompanying tagline "Inspired by a true story" has subtly devolved into cinematic shorthand for 'Please give my poorly thought out clap-trap a pass because at least some small part of it probably happened just like I say it did.' As is the case with The Least Among You, a well-intentioned staging of noted theology professor Rev. Dr. Charles Marks' formative years, undone in equal parts by a weak central performance and a loaded screenplay courtesy of first time writer/director Mark Young.

First impressions are deceiving with this Carlos Brooks release entitled Burning Bright. It starts off cliché enough, with the stereotypical foreboding opening of 'unsuspecting character' whose pride leads to mortal danger. It seems as though this film is going to follow the tried and overdone formula of most horror/thriller B movies, with half-hearted characters and gratuitous gore to supplement bad writing and production, but 20 minutes in, it's evident this one's quite different.

“I don’t want to be anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately. All I have to do is think of me and I have peace of mind.” These are the lyrics to the theme song of One Tree Hill, and I believe that they embody the spirit of the show. One Tree Hill is full of spoiled, self-centered people who do not care how their actions affect anyone besides themselves, and they spend most of their time complaining about how tough and unfair life is to them. They are overgrown middle-schoolers with credit cards. I have no sympathy for these people, and I cannot understand how this show lasted for seven (now going on eight) seasons.

 

Just when you think the drama is over, Gossip Girl steps it up for season 3. Most of the group is in college now, with Dan, Vanessa and Blair at NYU, Nate at Columbia, and Chuck and Serena out in the real world. But apparently college and the real world are even more gossipy than high school was, since title character Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell, whose identity is unknown by the main characters) has even more to reveal this year. And boy, is it juicy!