Horror
Rod Lott
Aside from re-creating two or three minor scenes, Silent Night in no way could be called a true remake of 1984's extremely controversial Silent Night, Deadly Night. Flicks about a killer Santa Claus have existed before and since; if not for the value of a brand-name, this could be just another.

Thriller
Rod Lott
I should have listened to Ron Backer. In his new book, Mystery Movie Series of 1930s Hollywood, he more or less warns would-be audiences away from trying any of the early 1930s’ half-dozen movies based on Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason character.

Horror
Rod Lott

Horror
Rod Lott
Says a concerned mother in the opening scene, "If I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times: Stay away from vans. Only bad people own vans." Truer words, ne'er spoken, especially in the case of Creep Van, an independently funded flick of horror from the heart.

Horror
Rod Lott
For being A Vampire's Tale, the story sure is dominated by an antiquities dealer named Jacob (Doug Bradley, the Pinhead of the Hellraiser series). With his hateful stepdaughter and newly pregnant wife, Jacob moves to the country to live on a farm.

Family
Phil Bacharach
If you haven’t seen 2009’s Coraline, you might be more inclined to surrender yourself to the macabre charm of ParaNorman. Both films, works of stop-motion animation by the Oregon-based Laika company, share much in common: an outcast protagonist, ineffectual grown-ups, visually stunning riffs on the supernatural.

Television series
Rod Lott
Four years ago, cable remade the perfectly fine ’70s sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain, based upon Michael Crichton’s thriller, but needlessly doubled the running time, thereby cutting its effectiveness in half. 

Western
Rod Lott
Before Django gets Unchanged this Christmas via Quentin Tarantino, get schooled on the spaghetti-Western bounty hunter through a pair of double-feature discs from Timeless Media Group. (Spoiler: He's neither a slave nor African-American.) That's four films total for those of you who can't do math, and all but one are hitting DVD officially for the first time.

Action
Rod Lott
While not fully lucid, Painted Skin: The Resurrection excels from a standpoint of visuals. Whether that’s worth an entire viewing depends on your tolerance for fantastical whimsy.

Documentary
Rod Lott
Peter Gabriel’s 1986 album, So, found the former Genesis vocalist at his commercial and critical peak. Now, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, it’s not only been reissued in a three-disc box set, but is the subject of the Classic Albums documentary series.

Comedy
Rod Lott
Reveals Big Tits Zombie lead actress Sora Aoi in the disc's behind-the-scenes footage, "We have action, nudity, striptease, zombies, and splatter." Oh, you guessed that already? Either way, her eight words could double as a review.

Action
Rod Lott
For the first 10 minutes, I wondered if Kill ’Em All weren’t a movie at all, but a collection of unrelated action vignettes — a bomb hit here, a knife throw there, fists and feet everywhere — as seemingly unrelated characters fight, but hardly speak, with no story given.

Documentary
Rod Lott
There's a great story surrounding Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. I know because a month ago, I read all about it in Sean Howe’s new book about the very topic. As for the documentary With Great Power  ...: The Stan Lee Story, however, it's perfectly fine if the only portrait you care to see is superficial, self-laudatory and largely wart-free.

Horror
Rod Lott
Call me crazy, but 3,400 square feet seems like an awfully massive home for a strip-mall veterinarian's assistant and a Geek Squad-esque installer of home-theater systems. Then again, the place does have its drawbacks: doors open on their own, furniture moves mysteriously, mold appears, and then things start to die within its well-mortgaged walls — a Costco cactus here, the neighbors’ dog there.

Thriller
Rod Lott
London, jazz, neon-lit nights, a posh hotel, a heist, Imogen Poots: Comes a Bright Day has so many elements I love to see in the movies, yet they add up to such a minuscule amount of pleasure. It's like pouring your favorite bubbly beverage all the way to the top of a frosty glass, only to see that once the head has subsided, you're left with so little.