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PICK OF THE WEEK

Poll Question

NEW THIS WEEK

28 Days Later by Stephen Goetz "This film is easily the most well made zombie film that I've ever seen and it should be seen by anyone who is a fan of the genre."	The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer by Kevin Feather "I assure you that despite the faults here expounded upon, this movie was enjoyable, and will surely be saved from the scrap pile."	Live Free or Die Hard by Stephen Goetz "Of all the sequels I've seen this summer, this easily takes the cake."
John Wayne Retrospective: Rio Bravo by Christopher Collier "Replete with an epic gun fight, witty one-liners, and classic, albeit played-out, characters, Rio Bravo is a perfect introduction to the Western genre"	Transformers by Christopher Collier "...despite cringing at the dialogue and camped-up humor, I found myself drawn in and excited by Transformers in a way that mimicked my childhood fascination with the toys and cartoon."

THE WEEKLY RANT

July 17, 2007

The Cardinal Review Strikes Back!

After a month away, the Cardinal Review is back and I can honestly say, better than ever. We have a whole new layout and have broken the site up a little better for easier navigation and are diving right into the fray of the height of summer movie-dom to bring you the best of what is new and also classic.

A lot has happened over the past month, all three of us have been shifting around in our various professions and soon one of us will be moving off the East Coast and hopefully bringing us a new midwestern following. It will be hard to top Filmspotting's hold in the Chicago-land area, but we are up for the challenge. As the summer progresses things will continue to bounce around for all of us, but we promise that the break we just took will be our last for a while and that we are looking foward to the second half the the film year and looking out for any film that might be in the Oscar race (while Little Miss Sunshine may have done well to get up on the block as the comedy maybe, I have a funny feeling Evan Almighty and Knocked Up will have the same staying power...)

This week we have five new reviews for you, but thanks to our snazzy new layout, you already know that and may have read them already. We wanted to make the site easier to navigate and to show you what is new right off the bat. In addition, these pages will now be permalinked, so that you can always come back and see the poll, the poll answers, and your favorite rants. If you have not done so already, make sure to sign up for our RSS posts through Feedburner and be the first to know when our new posts are up.

Over our break we tried to cover some of the major Hollywood releases and each of the three of us has tackled one. Steve returned to the franchise started by his #2 film of all times Die Hard and reviewed the newest in the John McClaine takes on the world series; Kevin was patient enough to sit through Marvel's newest attempt at finding a blockbuster that does not have adamantium claws or a web; and I returned to my childhood love of the robots that turned into cars and back into robots with Michael Bay's newest explosion-tacular. We also have been filling in our film knowledge and Steve finally saw the greatest zombie film ever made and I am still plugging on in my John Waybe retrospective. Next week we will actaully be continuing on with these themes as I review a film that I have overlooked for far too long Shaun of the Dead.

In addition to our reviews, I would also like to single out the film blog of my colleague Shane The Bad Splice. A witty, smartly-written blog, make sure to check it out for reviews of the films we missed or another opinion.

~Chris

Last Week´s Poll Question

Following the opening of The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer we asked Do you think Mr. Fantastic can stretch his dinky also? And do you think The Thing is hard all over? I mean really all over." (Who doesn't like Mallrats?)and here’s what you answered:

You know, I think you ought to get whoever picks these poll questions some help. He seems to be really hung up on super heroes' sex organs.


I DO love Mallrats. And i would have to answer with a presumed affirmative, since I plan to have no direct knowledge myself. I will state, however, that this would make Mr. Fantastic the COOLEST comic book character ever!

But of course Mr. Fantastic can stretch his dinky.  Why else would Susan "Invisible Woman" "Total Hottie" Richards be married to him?  As for the Thing, I can't say, but I need to second Chris' assessment that Mallrats rules!

Even though there was a month to answer in, we did not have many people who wanted to weight their thoughts on the whole Mr "Fantastic " issue. Justin merely sighed, while Gabe asked "What's a dinky?" The only person who had any real comment was Stan Lee who provided us with the definative view on the situation: "Come on now, son. We don't have to point out my Freudian shortcomings!"

COMING SOON

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• All About Eve
• A Mighty Heart
• Shaun of the Dead
• John Wayne Retrospective: The Flying Leathernecks
• Feature Article: On Second Thought: Getting to the bottom of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil and Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain.