Movie Reviews, Digital HD Reviews, and Television Reviews

Reviews By Marco Duran

Here at FlickDirect, our goal is to provide up-to-date reviews on theatrical, home entertainment, and television series. Check out the scoop on upcoming films or programming, and even our take on the classsics from our critics and Roten Tomoatoes Approved, Allison Rose.

Attack The Block

(Marco Duran) 7/28/2011 10:35 PM EST
The South London housing estates, or "blocks", have always been a great place to stage a film, especially to a Yankee like me. When I think of London, I think of some place nice and clean and free of crime where you can walk down the alley after having a few pints at the local pub and not feel the least bit afraid of being accosted.... Read More

Another Earth

(Marco Duran) 7/10/2011 8:29 PM EST
Independent films rarely take on science-fiction. Reason is because sci-fi films usually require lots of money for sets and effects. On the other hand, having angsty conversations about your family is relatively cheap. When the genre is tackled, I have often enjoyed the results mostly because they tend to be deconstructions or re-... Read More

Jane Eyre

(Marco Duran) 3/14/2011 9:48 AM EST
Charlotte Bronte's classic novel has endured as a mainstay on many reading lists and has only been gaining in popularity. Since 1910, it has surprisingly produced 18 different film versions, not to mention 8 more adaptations for television. Over the years people, including my wife, have been eagerly awaiting a definitive version. This newest ad... Read More

Mars Needs Moms

(Marco Duran) 3/11/2011 10:40 AM EST
Try as he may, Robert Zemekis cannot find his way out of the uncanny valley - that deep gorge where his other forays into motion-capture like The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol have fallen. For those who are unaware of what this valley is, look at the "human" faces in any of those films and see if they don't creep you ... Read More

Cyrus

(Marco Duran) 7/17/2010 10:53 AM EST
The film sub-genre of Mumblecore has been around since 2002. They are characterized by improvised scripts spoken by un-proven actors on shoestring budgets. The plots are simplistic, people talking about what people talk about as they would normally talk. Nothing particularly spectacular happens and it's okay. Slowly, the dir... Read More

Inception

(Marco Duran) 7/17/2010 9:17 AM EST
I did not intend to write a review for Inception. I didn't want to. If I plan on writing about a film, I take my notebook and write my notes by glow of the silver screen. However, when I entered the midnight showing, I went empty handed. I just wanted to sit back and enjoy the ride. The lights dimmed; the film played; ... Read More

Fantastic Mr. Fox

(Marco Duran) 11/13/2009 11:37 PM EST
Before this year, some may have called stop motion animation a dying art form. What with its tireless work schedule - being able to get 1 – 3 minutes of footage done in a full days work - it seems a cruel taskmaster to follow. Yet this year has already given us Coraline, an amazing piece of animation from some veterans of this techn... Read More

Pirate Radio

(Marco Duran) 11/13/2009 11:28 PM EST
In 1966, the government-backed British Broadcasting Company (BBC) broadcast barely two hours of rock and pop music every week over the UK radio airwaves. By comparison, 571 American radio stations were showcasing such music 24 hours a day. So in the home of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who, at the height of British pop music's ... Read More

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

(Marco Duran) 10/24/2009 11:16 AM EST
It's a difficult tightrope to walk doing a film adaptation of a book, especially if the book is well loved. On one hand, if you change the book's content too much, you run the risk of angering the fans who will turn on you for all the differences between the story in their heads and the one you've committed to film. On the other hand, if ... Read More

Zombieland

(Marco Duran) 9/29/2009 9:31 PM EST
First of all, it's cards on the table time. Zombieland is only the second zombie flick I've ever seen. I know. I know. I'm sorry. 28 days later is the other one. Not even one of the "Dead" series. They're on my Netflix cue and have been for quite some time. I just haven't gotten around to them. ... Read More