Josie and the Pussycats (2001)

This is the celluloid embodiment of half of my soul. It's ebullient—manic even—but it's also 100% heartfelt and introspective. It rivals the Neg Era of Super Sentai in being effortlessly inspirational and empowering without ever being schmaltzy. It provides social commentary, flips the usual gender-script on its head, and even manages to make Tara Reid look like a competent actress. Alternatively, you could say she didn't have to act at all~ The soundtrack is nothing short of a miracle and of course informs everything on display. The girls, the boys, the villains…everyone and everything is simply rapturous.

For the changes made to the PG cut of the film, please click here.

5 Reality-Checked Snuggle-Bunnies out of 5

Nutted by NEG.

CHERRY FALLS [2000]

Director Geoffrey Wright hops on board the teen slasher flick craze of it's time with the morbidly weird Cherry Falls.
It starts out a lot like Scream (scene set-ups, music and all), with a sleepy town high school going into a frenzy when a young couple is slaughtered but then things get strange when it's discovered the killer is only going after virgins.
The witty script gets lost under a film that appears Wright thought was a darker story than everybody else involved seemed to think.  The majority of the cast are pretty useless with the exception of Brittany Murphy and Jay Mohr who give it their all even when the film has no idea what it's trying to be.  It's sprinkled with all sorts of great potential throughout but unfortunately it never fully realizes it and seems like the studio heads wanted more of a paint-by-numbers slasher flick.

2½ teen orgies out of 5

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)

The first attempt at an Exorcist prequel, held back and eventually released because the other one stank, is a better film than its successor but only just. It tells of Father Merrin’s first brush with the demon that would take control of Regan twenty-eight years later.
This one puts the emphasis on characterisation, so Skarsgård is again the focus. Sadly, the supporting cast suck. The film suffers greatly from the absence of Izabella Scorupco.
Dir Paul Schrader wanted a film about a man, full of dramatic parallels, but the studio wanted a bankable horror and consequently it ended up as neither.

2½ fake hyenas and a box of matches out of 5