by Steve Ramos

Explosive action and gore makes for a likely vampire franchise

It’s been a long seven years since filmmaker brothers Michael and Peter Spierig wowed horror fans with their micro-budget zombie thriller, Undead. Thankfully, their sophomore horror Daybreakers, a clever twist on the vampire legend, delivers what genre fans crave and more. Set in a near future where vampires rule the world and hunt the remaining humans for blood, Daybreakers pairs winged monsters and explosive gore with car chases and automatic weapons. The Spierigs make exciting use of their clever vampire premise and the result is a potential horror/action franchise equal to Underworld.

by Amy Nicholson

James Cameron writes solid—not surprising—scripts. Spoiler alert! In Titanic, the ship sinks; the real drama happens in the small moments that happen before, during and after. Avatar is both incredibly predictable and incredibly perverse. Not only does Cameron blur the line between reality and CGI, he’s at once jingoistic and anti-hawk. Right-wingers will feel welcomed in the first half, the left-brained will be vindicated by the climax. But both groups will pony up buckets of cash to see what pledged to be—and is—the spectacle of the year, and even just shy of three hours it’s a hell of a lot more whiz-bang fun than bread and circuses.