Cheapo zombie comedy from New Zealand, in vigorously, aggressively bad taste. (That was the proud title of director Peter Jackson's first film: Bad Taste.) There are several laughs (the kung-fu clergyman: "I kick ass for the Lord!"), but nothing to compete with the quantities of blood, pus, severed limbs, entrails, …
In writer-director Jason Lei Howden, Peter Jackson may have found a cinematic heir — at least to his patrimony of New Zealand–based, late-’80s gross-out horror-comedy. Sad metalhead Brodie (Milo Cawthorne) loves bands like Cannibal Corpse because “when life sucks and you feel alone and empty, you feel better because someone …
The behind-the-scenes presence of Peter Jackson, the New Zealander responsible for the highly respectable Heavenly Creatures and before that the deliberately disreputable Dead-Alive, adds a degree of interest to this ghost tale, even if some of that interest must take the form of dismay. His direction is incontestably high in …
True-crime story, out of New Zealand, about two early-adolescent schoolgirls who form an "unwholesome attachment" and who bludgeon one of their mothers to death when the two of them are about to be forcibly pried apart. Directed with enormous energy by Peter Jackson, of Dead-Alive fame or infamy, it is …
More of the same from director Peter Jackson, here pulling a proper Lucas and giving us the first installment of a prequel trilogy to his earlier three-parter, The Lord of the Rings. (Then, he was adapting three books; now, he's stretching just one, packing a straightforward quest with all manner …
Look, if you were as bloated as The Hobbit trilogy, you'd probably be showing signs of exhaustion toward the end of a nearly nine-hour runtime, too. And if your films were as stupidly profitable as director Peter Jackson's, you'd probably be just as blind to your own cinematic sins. So …
Peter Jackson continues his mad quest to transform a ripping children's book into an all-encompassing epic. The result is a road movie with entirely too much baggage, a slog through the mires of exposition and special effects. With all the dwarves, wizards, hobbits, orcs, wargs, elves, spiders, dragons, man-bears, enchanted …
Fans of Middle Earth: at this point, you maybe kinda sorta have to wonder if Peter Jackson is just trolling you, no? First, he takes a short book written for children and stretches it into a monster epic trilogy. Now he's releasing extended versions of those three films? That takes …
Dr. Tolkien's home-cooked myth. First course only. All manner of visual invention, photographic trickery, computer magic, etc., cannot alter what is in essence an overblown bedtime story. They can only blow it up bigger. And the burden of it is more or less tripled by the knowledge that these three …
The former Fellowship of the Ring prepare for the final battle for Middle Earth, while Frodo (Elijah Wood) & Sam (Sean Astin) approach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. Directed by Peter Jackson, starring Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Bernard Hill, Christopher Lee, and Ian McKellen.
Dr. Tolkien's home-cooked myth. First course only. All manner of visual invention, photographic trickery, computer magic, etc., cannot alter what is in essence an overblown bedtime story. They can only blow it up bigger. And the burden of it is more or less tripled by the knowledge that these three …
The former Fellowship of the Ring prepare for the final battle for Middle Earth, while Frodo (Elijah Wood) & Sam (Sean Astin) approach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. Directed by Peter Jackson, starring Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Bernard Hill, Christopher Lee, and Ian McKellen.
Another three hours on the journey of a thousand miles, with pretty much the entire third hour given over to a single indecisive battle. (And now: "The battle for Middle-earth is about to begin.") The viewer who did not scrounge up the video of Part One for a refresher, or …
Another three hours on the journey of a thousand miles, with pretty much the entire third hour given over to a single indecisive battle. (And now: "The battle for Middle-earth is about to begin.") The viewer who did not scrounge up the video of Part One for a refresher, or …