The Iceman (2012)

This account of the career of real-life crime figure Richard Kuklinski, a hitman-for-hire active in the 70s, is more concerned with the gory techniques he used for his murder-for-profit than with his psychology, and so there's little of interest beyond that very briefly generated by David Schwimmer's turn as the Iceman's killer colleague.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Francis Ford Coppola's ludicrous, outrageous Dracula story is buoyed by Gary Oldman's gleefully grotesque portrayal of the 400 year old count who floats around with a disembodied shadow and an ability to transform into green mist or a writhing mass of rats, and the movie's Giallo horror stylings help present a world so reminiscent of the book that this really does feel like it is Bram Stoker's Dracula and not just another camp monster cliche.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Letter (aka The Stare) (2012)

The director of a play seems to be losing her grip on reality in this movie of such utter awfulness it is almost worth sitting through its so-bad-it's-funny Z-grade Black Swan plot with its tedious voiceover narration and zombie-like performances, just to see.

☆☆☆☆☆ (no stars)

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Alien Resurrection (1997)

This time, in an Alien instalment too clever by half, Ripley is resurrected in director Jean-Paul Jeunet's "Delicatessen", a futuristic green-yellow world of zany characters and irreverent detail, but in fact, Ripley isn't Ripley at all but a Ripley-alien clone and empath who once again takes charge of a group of mercenaries when aliens - distinctly Jurassic Park raptor-like ones - break free from their Umbrella Corporation science experiment chambers and start - you guessed it - picking off everyone on board the Earth-bound spaceship Auriga (including elfin robot, Winona Ryder) one-by-especially-bloody-one.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW

Heathers (1988)

Long before Scream Queens, 90s cult classic Heathers was making light of murderous teenage angst; today, the movie is still a riot and the satire as black as pitch in light of so many real trenchcoated Jason Deans wreaking havoc on the jocks, geeks, emos, loners and 'Heathers' of their US high schools.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS