To love grindhouse cinema is to forgive the limitations of low budgets, bad actors, and cheesy premises milked for their lowest common denominator thrills; to intentionally make grindhouse cinema is to welcome the laser scrutiny of the film geekerati, a much greater artistic gamble. Miss the mark with that audience and you get a box-office nightmare -- just ask Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. But hit the B-movie sweet spot just right, as Jason Eisener mostly does in his gleefully gory Hobo with a Shotgun, and you could find yourself living the dream.
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Now this is the way to get hooked into Kim Ji-woon's brutal cat-and-mouse serial killer thriller I Saw the Devil: By ratcheting up the tension, the dueling nemeses, the copious blood spatter, and the kind of insane, ultra-violent vengeance that Korean cinema has rained down upon the world in recent years. Because nothing says "I must avenge my dead beloved" like hunting down her killer and becoming a face-bashing, foot-stabbing serial killer-killer yourself.
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Park City got downright crazy Sunday night, with Kevin Smith's Red State "auction" alienating sales agents and bloggers alike and reports of audience unrest at a midnight screening of Lucky McKee's latest horror pic. And then Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (The Host, Mother) took the mic at the raucous Fantastic Fest/Magnet Releasing karaoke party to warble a little Billy Joel as hundreds of partygoers cheered him on.
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