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Author: Kiko Martinez

Eugenio Derbez – Radical

“There’s another side of Mexico that [Hollywood] is not showing. Those are the stories I like to tell.”

Eli Roth – Thanksgiving

“My least favorite side dish is a human head because everybody fights over the eyeballs and the tongue.”

Danny Trejo – Inmate #1

“If I retire, I’ll die. But what’s to retire from? People say, ‘Aren’t you going on vacation?’ My life’s a vacation!”

Bonus Ep. 17 – Bill Nighy, “Emma”

In this bonus episode of The CineSnob Podcast, prodigal host Kiko Martinez returns to speak with actor Bill Nighy, of “Love, Actually” and “Shaun of the Dead” fame, on his role in the newest adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma.” Click here to download the episode!

Top 10 Films of the Decade (2010-2019)

KIKO MARTINEZ Editor and Founder 1. The Social Network (2010) Director David Fincher’s internet epic is an incisively written biopic where legal drama meets toxic ambition. It’s a story of greed, envy and the ruthless means one young man uses to rise to power in social media. Call it There Will Be Blood for the […]

Top 10 Films of 2019

KIKO MARTINEZ Editor and Founder After watching 228 films in 2019, here is a list of my 10 favorites, plus and a few honorable mentions. 1. Marriage Story Director and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Noah Baumbach knows divorce well — personally and, in turn, cinematically. His 2005 independent, dark comedy The Squid and the Whale was a […]

Cinematic Spillover: Short Reviews of Tigers Are Not Afraid and The Fanatic

If you thought actor John Travolta was disturbingly bad in the 2000 sci-fi bomb Battlefield Earth, brace yourself for something just as awful – but with far fewer cheesy special effects. In The Fanatic, Travolta stars as Moose, an autistic man living in Los Angeles who spends his time tracking down celebrities to collect their autographs. His paparazzo friend Leah (Ana Golja) refers to it as his “freaky little hobby.” But when Moose meets his favorite action star Hunter Dunbar (Devon Sawa) and is rejected, he develops an unhealthy obsession with the man and drives himself into full-blown stalker mode. Directed and co-written by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst (The Longshots), who actually drops a Limp Bizkit reference in the movie (seriously, he does), The Fanatic should be an embarrassment for everyone involved. Not only does Travolta deliver one of the most cringe-worthy performances in recent memory, his interpretation of an individual on the autism spectrum is stereotypical garbage and downright offensive. Even without Travolta’s laughable role, Durst and first-time co-writer Dave Bekerman pen a script that is more tasteless than the plaid shorts and Hawaiian shirt combo Moose wears throughout most of the movie. Every character is exaggerated to a level of annoyance that might be considered as cruel and unusual punishment. The absurd friendship between Moose and Leah amounts to a series of phony signs of affection – just enough to gaslight viewers into thinking that maybe Travolta’s character is simply misunderstood. Someone should start polishing up those Razzies for the Worst Film, Director, Screenplay and Actor of 2019. 

Cinematic Spillover: Short Reviews of Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins, Ladyworld and Itsy Bitsy

With a title like Itsy Bitsy, horror fans might anticipate a campy creature feature starring a cluster of eight-legged freaks, but visual effects producer and first-time writer/director Micah Gallo has something a little more sinister up his sleeve. The story follows Kara Spencer (Elizabeth Roberts), a nurse and single mother who moves with her two children to a small town to take a job as a private caretaker to Walter Clark (Bruce Davidson), a world-traveler with an affinity for collecting tribal artifacts. When a cursed relic is brought to him by a friend of his deceased wife, it releases a dog-sized, venomous spider that takes up residence on Walter’s property. Surprisingly, the spider itself doesn’t play into the narrative much until the third act. Itsy Bitsy is more about Kara and her insecurities as a mother and the depression she has to confront because of the death of a third child. Despite Gallo’s ability to keep a consistently creepy vibe, the script, which is also co-written by special effects and makeup artist Jason Alvino (Sucker Punch) and writer Bryan Dick (911 Nightmare), doesn’t bring all the dramatic and horror elements together in a cohesive enough way. Gallo, however, builds some solid tension. Ironically, Itsy Bitsy might’ve worked better as a conventional and minimalist ghost story instead of a gooey monster movie. The arachnid is irrelevant. Itsy Bitsy hits VOD platforms August 30.