Film review: ‘BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

Tim Burton has forged a unique sub-genre in Hollywood, comical goth horror with films often celebrating mercurial outsiders such as Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Willy Wonka and of course the title character from the film that arguably put him on the map, the 1988 horror/comedy hit Beetlejuice.  That anarchic, inventively odd, if occasionally irritating film introduced us to the mischievous

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Film review: ‘ALIEN: ROMULUS’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

The original Alien from 1979 was a masterpiece of production design that infused Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett’s ‘haunted house in space’ concept with Ridley Scott’s remarkable aesthetic sense.  James Cameron’s 1986 sequel, Aliens, while lacking the original’s eloquent artistry, inventively expanded some its ideas and reworked the concept into a brutally efficient, white knuckle action film.  After two reasonably

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Film review: ‘TRAP’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

Writer/ Director M. Night Shyamalan has become a strange addiction for filmgoers.  After the first magical rush of The Sixth Sense 25 years ago, we’ve been chasing that cinematic high ever since… but it has never come.  Some of his films have started promisingly, featured some novel ideas and contained inventive visuals but they’ve invariably given way to glaring tonal

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