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Review: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Reviews
Quarantine
About as scary as a creaky door
By
TOM MEEK
|
October 15, 2008
QUARANTINE
" alt="photo of 'QUARANTINE'">
1.5
Stars
Every second horror film these days seems to be shot by some desperate character with a hand-held digital camera who half the time is running for his or her life from whatever monstrosity is splattering carnage everywhere. This unsettling jostle effect might have seemed fresh in
The
Blair Witch Project
and even
Cloverfield
, but in the hands of
Quarantine
writer/director John Erick Dowdle, it’s just another generic cliché. A TV film crew and some firefighters and policemen get sealed off in a dilapidated LA apartment building where an accelerated strain of rabies has turned the residents into — who would guess? — flesh-eating ghouls. Goosebumps might rise in the first few minutes as reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) shadows two firemen into the building and they are suddenly, inexplicably sealed in. But after the first bite, this one’s about as scary as a creaky door.
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[
02/17
]
Festival Ballet Providence presents UP CLOSE ON HOPE
@ Black Box Theater
[
02/17
]
"Dana Levin: A Classical Realist In the 21st Century," an exhibit of paintings
@ Bert Gallery
[
02/17
]
Mary Poppins
@ Providence Performing Arts Center
ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK
REVIEW: UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING
| January 24, 2012
The Underworld series got long in the tooth early, but here, in the fourth installment (directed by Swede Måns Mårlind), it grows new fangs.
REVIEW: JOYFUL NOISE
| January 10, 2012
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
REVIEW: IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY
| January 05, 2012
Jolie has loosely reworked the story of Romeo and Juliet in an infamous setting familiar from CNN but here seen from the inside.
REVIEW: ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED
| December 13, 2011
For 50 years, Alvin and the Chipmunks have been driving parents nuts with their helium-infused banter and shrill bastardizations of pop music.
REVIEW: TRESPASS
| October 13, 2011
If Rod Lurie's errant remake of Straw Dogs didn't tickle your morbid fear of home invasion, then perhaps the latest from Joel Schumacher ( Falling Down ) might do the job.
See all articles by:
TOM MEEK
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