A remake – this time of the 1957 classic by the same name. Even so, it’s been awhile since a good western came out. I was especially impressed with Ben Foster’s performance, since I remember him from the Disney Channel back in the day when he played the dorky Tucker on Flash Forward.

He’s come into his own as an actor, and alongside Russell Crowe they make a great villainous duo. Foster has been playing a lot of less-than-savory roles in his recent film career, and he does an impressive job at most of them. Christian Bale, who plays the protagonist in the film, also happens to be one of my faves, so even the somewhat cliche storyline of a rancher being driven off his land by a greedy, crooked rich guy holds water. Still, mostly enjoyable.

Never before in my life have I been so utterly scared of vampires. Usually their role in films is to be creepy and kind of make you look over your shoulder when you’re walking down a dark street. But the vampires that descend upon the small Alaskan town of Barrow as it is plunged into darkness for a full month are uncannily terrifying.

They are cold, ruthless hunters, and there are over thirty of them that begin to prey on the hapless citizens of Barrow who have decided to stay behind during the darkest period of the year. The ending is awesome, the tension and suspense throughout the film are awesome, and as vampire movies go, this one is just completely awesome all around. Very unique, see it!

Duh. Are you blind? You should probably be watching 300 right now, even if you’ve already seen it. I’ll warn you that there are a couple of boring parts, like where King Leonidas goes to consult the great (stupid) oracle and randomly sees some naked chick floating around, which I don’t really remember all that well. But the battle scenes that fill the rest of the movie are so sweet. Think of the typical war movie, and then picture a battle scene where you cut to a single slow-motion sequence of a Spartan hacking about a dozen guys in a row to tiny dead bits. It’s like accidentally slicing your hand off with a machete, but doing it on purpose just to see how wicked it looks. The only reason it didn’t get a perfect 5 is because the entire movie isn’t war scenes.