Author Van Roberts

"HELL HATH NO FURY" MOVIE REVIEW Imagine two vintage World War II movies--the European Resistance thriller “5 Branded Women” (1960) and the Clint Eastwood opus “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970), where...

MOVIE REVIEW OF ''APACHE JUNCTION" Villainous varmints with smoking six-shooters proliferate in “Badlands” writer & director Justin Lee’s lame horse opera “Apache Junction” (*1/2...

MOVIE REVIEW OF ''ZONE 414" The suspenseful dystopian thriller “Zone 414” (*** OUT OF ****) appropriates tropes from both Fritz Lang’s silent, science fiction, robot classic “Metropolis” (1927) and...

"TWIST" MOVIE REVIEW A perennial favorite with film producers, Charles Dickens’ second classic novel “Oliver Twist,” published back in 1838, serves as the source material for director Martin Owen’s...

"NAKED SINGULARITY" MOVIE REVIEW An idealistic public defense attorney grapples with the shortcomings of the criminal justice system in freshman helmer Chase Palmer’s quirky but charming...

MOVIE REVIEW OF"LAST MAN DOWN" Swedish film director Fansu Njie must have been weaned on a steady diet of larger-than-life, 1980s, macho thrillers with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude...

"THE POWER" HORROR MOVIE REVIEW The best horror movies either scare the living daylights out of you with ghouls and gore or use suspense and subtlety to make your skin crawl. Freshman British writer...

MOVIE REVIEW OF ''CANDYMAN" “Little Woods” director Nia DaCosta’s lackluster “soul sequel” to Bernard Rose’s seminal Gothic masterpiece “Candyman” (1992) qualifies as an anemic...

MOVIE REVIEW OF ''MASQUERADE" There is more than meets the eye to writer & director Shane Dax Taylor’s fourth film “Masquerade” (*** OUT OF ****), an implausible pastiche of suspense and...

MOVIE REVIEW OF ''COPSHOP" Writer & director Joe Carnahan knows how to make ultra-violent action epics with gun-toting tough guys who wade into blood, gore, and profanity galore. Embarking...