FREAKS OF NATURE (2015)

The town of Dillford, best known for its sandwich "The Riblet", is just your average small town.  Like anywhere else, in Dillford vampires are the cool residents (top of the pecking order), while zombies are the mindless, brain-eating bottom-feeders, and humans lie somewhere in between.  All factions generally get along, and even at his high school Dag (Nicholas Braun) walks the halls side by side with students from all walks of life ... none hotter than Lorelei (Vanessa Hudgens), who Dag pines for even though she only uses him to hide her weed.  Then the alien invasion happens, and suddenly the streets are rampant with rioting and violence, as humans blame vampires and vampires fight back and zombies go berserk when the brain food supply stops ... and residents of Dillford begin to disappear.  Now it's up to human Dag, vampire Petra (Mackenzie Davis) and zombie Ned (Josh Fadem) to band together to save the world.  While not the best or funniest of the horror-comedy genre, Freaks of Nature is insane and has moments of genius, with an awesome supporting cast of familiar faces to help out, as well. (rated R)  B

FREAKS OF NATURE Red-Band trailer (adult themes/language)

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN (2015)

Told through the eyes of Igor (a character not even featured in the original novel), Victor Frankenstein is an enjoyable, semi-lighthearted retelling of the legend of the good doctor (James McAvoy) directed by Paul McGuigan - director of a number of episodes of "Sherlock", which shows (positively, for me) in the look and feel of this film (not to mention Adam Scott and Louise Brealey - both of "Sherlock" - have supporting roles).  Here, Igor (a very good Daniel Radcliffe) is a hunchbacked clown who's only ever known the circus as his home, until rescued from his abused existence by med student Frankenstein when the doctor learns Igor's a self-studied medical genius.  Igor's knowledge, in fact, becomes essential to Victor's work, the two becoming friends and partners, even as Frankenstein's experiments grow into the arena of madness.  I enjoyed the chemistry between the two leads, and while the finale is a bit silly and convoluted, a la Van Helsing, overall (to me) the film was a fun period piece not worthy of the thrashing it got from critics. (rated PG-13)  B

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN trailer

BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015)

Jim Donovan (Tom Hanks) is an insurance lawyer during the Cold War in America when his firm urges him to be the defense counsel for accused Russian spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance).  The trial is a joke, Abel already seen as guilty, and the best Donovan can do is wrangle a prison sentence for his client in exchange for the death penalty, citing the possibility of the USA being in need of the prisoner for some future exchange, should one of their own get caught in Russia.  Sure enough, when a U.S. pilot with dangerous secrets is captured in Russia, the CIA recruits no less than Donovan (as he's a private citizen with no ties to the U.S. government, per se) to oversee what turns into a rather complicated trade-off.  Hanks, Rylance, director Steven Spielberg, the entire cast in fact is terrific in this Cold War thriller ... yet as I watched it, I couldn't help feel I'd traveled this road (a lot) before; Hanks playing his one-man-against-the-odds do-gooder, as well as Spielberg's blueprint, A-Z telling of the story in a way that just feels ... "Spielbergian".  Well-made, suspenseful, and a great watch ... even if it all feels a bit too familiar. (rated PG-13)  B