New In The USA: DRACULA 3D
Perhaps the nadir of a long, long decline for Italian horror maestro, Dario Argento. Bad 3D, bargain special effects, boorish acting all around. But then there is a gigantic mantis kill, so there is that.
New In Canada: GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE
While both Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor both have solo directed efforts coming out this year, but the Ghost Rider sequel may have killed things as a branded duo. Despite the presence of Idris Elba and Ciarán Hinds (or perhaps because of the presence of Christopher Lambert) few were overly keen on taking a second motorcycle ride with Nic Cage. All that being said, this film (and its filmmakers) seem to be one of the key points in the 'vulgar auteur' movement, so there is that.
New In The UK/Ireland: WELCOME TO THE PUNCH
Solve the crime, they live; fail, they die. Super-violent cop drama with Mark Strong, James McAvoy and the always wonderful Peter Mullan kind of fell through the cracks in 2013.
New In Brazil: THE CANYONS
Paul Schrader's collaboration with Brett Easton Ellis, Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen aims to be a keening death knell for cinema. It all but puts it out there in a montage of closed picture-houses across Los Angeles. The film is low rent and not as lurid as it could have been, but does exist as a piece of cultural detritus par excellence.
New In Mexico: THE BORDER
This forgotten Jack Nicholson and Harvey Keitel picture from the early eighties was never that good, outside perhaps its location shooting and cinematography. Underbaked story-wise, and featuring lots of yelling between its high-testosterone leads, one of the films few pleasures is to watch Nicholson smoke and Keitel sport mirror-shades in the Texas dust. "This fucking line here, I don't cross!"
New In Scandinavia: MEN AT WORK
This is not the documentary on the 80s cheeseball rock outfit from Australia, but rather a 1990 Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez throwaway comedy about garbage men that inadvertently blow the lid off of a toxic dumping scandal. Somehow, this thing golf-clapped its way to $16 million in box office receipts that only underscores how much of a wasteland the early 1990s were until the indie boom kicked off. It is now provided in Sweden, Norway, and Finland for your passing 'view-the-train-wreck' consideration.
