COOP COOPER is an independently syndicated film critic with a split personality. His “Southern Side” prints mainstream reviews that appear in various print publications across the mid-south. His “Dark Side” from Los Angeles befouls the site with reviews of horror and grindhouse flicks. Welcome to the site where COOP’s two halves (and his contributors) review and debate the latest film/DVD releases…

Why negative movie reviews really don’t matter

Article by: Coop Cooper

Energized by the power and fantastic performances of “The Help,” this weekend I ventured online to see what my fellow American movie critics thought. The website Rottentomatoes.com averages the positive and negative reviews from critics of major print publications and assigns a percentage value. Anything under 60% is considered “rotten” and anything over that number is deemed “fresh.” While “The Help” gained a respectable 73% average, compared to the averages of “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” (76%), Captain America: The First Avenger” (79%) and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (82%), its average seemed rather low. Considering the film’s box office and awards potential, I wondered where most of the negativity was coming from…

A favorite film of my childhood, “Red Dawn” (1985) told a bloody fantasy about American teens forced into guerilla warfare against an invading Soviet/Cuban coalition. It starred the late Patrick Swayze, Hollywood’s most popular current meltdown Charlie Sheen and an ensemble of up-and-coming young stars. A new 2009 remake intended to update the concept, making China the primary invading force, but the film was mysteriously shelved and unspoken of until now.

The venerable Hollywood studio MGM revealed this month that it spent an extra $1 million dollars to change the film so as not to offend a country that is far from being a U.S. ally. “Red Dawn” remake producer Tripp Vinson spoke to the press to try to explain why the studio paid an exorbitant amount of money to digitally change the Chinese invaders of the film into the North Korean military: “We were initially very reluctant to make any changes, but… READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT THE CLARKSDALE PRESS REGISTER WEBSITE

So apparently THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE is no longer the most disturbing film of 2010…

A SERBIAN FILM has been shocking and flabbergasting audiences in the festival circuit this summer and for good reason, it features some grisly set pieces and sequences that have caused people to both condemn it for audacity and praise it for its satirical and political messages. I had to see it for myself and now that I have, I see what the big deal is. I also see the movie what it truly is: A missed opportunity.

Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) is a retired Serbian porn star trying to go legit with a Swedish interpreter wife and a 10-ish year-old son. He can’t seem to get a break, so he takes the odd skin flick job to help pay the bills. One of his scumbag ex-co-stars gives him a lead on a supposed well-funded filmmaker offering Milos an exorbitant amount of cash to make an arthouse porn film. This crazed filmmaker, named Vukmir Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic), explains to Milos that the cash agreement will be honored as long as Milos enters the scenes without a script or prior knowledge of what they are about. Milos must then improv his way through the scene. Though uncomfortable with the conditions, Milos cannot turn down the money, so he agrees. The scenes start off mildly disturbing, then escalate to violent and illegal…

Elementary school kids and soccer moms have illegally downloaded free music for nearly a decade, but with that problem coming under control thanks to iTunes, the focus has now shifted to movies. People buy bootleg DVDs on street corners from Hollywood to Singapore. Chances are someone in Antarctica is streaming a hot download of the new “Harry Potter” movie as we speak. Movie piracy has hit an all-time high as studios desperately try to develop new strategies and technologies to combat it. With the Motion Picture Association of America claiming a 2.3 billion dollar loss from piracy in 2005 alone, perhaps it’s time for the casual movie buccaneer to become informed about his/her impact on this popular industry…

Yep, it’s another (sigh) remake. But I actually don’t mind if they update this one since the old 1985 TV miniseries/short-lived series doesn’t hold up well these days. In case you don’t remember, were stil in diapers or sitting around in the guff waiting to be born, “V” begins with a bunch of city-sized spacecraft that appear over every major city in the world (yep, “Independence Day” kinda ripped that part off). Turns out they look exactly like us with the exception of their robot-sounding, metallic voice. Instead of attacking, the aliens announce they are happy to find us and would like to share their technology in exchange for some raw materials such as…

Holy Hannah!!! Click here to read my report on the matter BEFORE the award announcment, then Coop’s opinion on the entire Golden Globes proceedings last month.
Ok, not only did Anne LOSE to Kate Winslet, a feat that could’ve been ignored (although a HUGE upset) except for one thing… Hathaway was IGNORED for the entire ceremony [...]

You heard me… (UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM!!!)
By the way, hey Coop… “To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee; For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.” – Khan from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”
I hear Khan stole that from from a jerk named [...]

I’m one of those naysayers who thinks the Golden Globes (handed out by the less-than-scrupulous Hollywood Foreign Press Association) are no longer valid or coveted. Due to the writer’s strike last year, no one attended and it made for an exceptionally shallow and pointless televised ceremony. When the stars actually attend the ceremony they usually [...]

A “teaser trailer” is usually the first thing that the general audience sees of a feature motion picture. Coming out far before the film ever hits the silver screen, the teaser either shows a few attention-grabbing frames of the film or sometimes, nothing of the film at all. I particularly like these trailers due to [...]