(expand)

Maria Bello gives a wasted performance in the Tim McGraw vehicle Flicka, a by-the-numbers family film that is such a retread of other more competent efforts, one wonders, What is the point? Alison Lohman plays McGraw’s teenage daughter and friend-to-Flicka, a role type that was much better utilized in classics, such as Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Summer of the Monkeys. Lohman is the precocious adolescent, who struggles through boarding school, and her relationship with gruf…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Def Comedy Jam Classics: Martin Lawrence contains a few hearty laughs in between heaps of “f-this, f-that, f-to the point where it is no longer a curse word and becomes simply an overused adjective” and sexually explicit material. Many of the comedians featured on this disc seem to be delivering material purely for shock value before an audience that does their best to encourage. As a result, most of the comedy lacks a genuine feel, and that includes the offerings we get from Mr. Lawrence himself. That’s n…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Jaleel White continues to flounder about aimlessly looking for a post-Family Matters career in Who Made the Potatoe Salad?, a mindless 90-minute excursion into the offensively cliched family comedy. Looking for laughs in all the wrong places, this effort from writer-director Damon “Coke” Daniels tries to cash in on every dirty race-driven joke it can think of without once pausing for a breath of originality. White plays, of all things, a police officer, who decides the time is right to move his relati…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Some films never achieve greatness, but still manage to leave their viewers with a wry smile, and a “that wasn’t so bad, I’m glad I watched it” mentality. Lonesome Jim from IFC Films is one such motion picture. Starring Casey Affleck and Liv Tyler and directed by Steve Buscemi, this is one mood-swinging comedy that will lull you into complacency, then occasionally drop large hilarious bombs into the experience when least expected. Centered on a depressing, tight-lipped, tell-it-like-it-is, loner, who is for…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Spike TV has really picked up steam in recent years, and this momentum is nowhere more apparent than in their staple show MXC – Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. Now on DVD with the complete first season, fans of the show and adventurous new viewers are sure to enjoy the antics and wisecracks of hosts “Kenny” and “Vic,” who provide commentary on each episode of insane Asian people sacrificing their bodies for the thrill of being on television. Of course, the American voiceovers of MXC are all added …

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

A Fish Called Wanda returns to DVD, this time in a stunning 2-disc collector’s edition that finally gives adequate treatment to one of the funniest surprises of the eighties. John Cleese stars as an English barrister, whose life is so dull and – well, British – that a seductress/jewel thief named Wanda comes along and steals his heart in record time. But Wanda carries a lot of baggage with her, the heaviest piece being a Nietzche-quoting moron, who just so happens to be her psychotic boyfriend. Add an anima…

Read the rest of this entry »

Conviction: The Complete Series ran thirteen episodes, a run of such brevity that one might ask as he looks at the tag, “From the Creator of Law and Order,” why Dick Wolf finds it necessary to add one more courtroom-based show to his laundry list of similarly themed projects. I was prepared for another simulation of the basic L&O format, and that did not excite me. And who knows? Perhaps Conviction is a needless clone of Wolf’s other more successful ventures. As someone, who has never…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

I have to be honest. An HBO series about a fake reality series starring Lisa Kudrow hot-off-the-heels of Friends did not appeal to me as a worthy expenditure of time. And it does take a bit for the show to get started. However, as with other HBO comedies that deal in quirkiness and irritability (see Curb Your Enthusiasm), The Comeback – The Complete Only Season manages to press just the right amount of buttons to keep you watching. Now on DVD, and featuring all thirteen episodes, this show’s …

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Phat Girlz is one rotten piece of crap. I hate to say it that way, but some movies don’t deserve the flowery lambasting some more deserving bad films get from their critics. They should simply be called what they are. That’s why I equate this film with the “c” word. Mo’Nique stars as a plus-sized hypocrite, who seems to have the same prejudgments about “skinny bitches” as they seem to have about her – in the confines of the film, that is. Overweight people are given a saintly presence, while most everyone…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Mix two parts hip-hop artists, two parts Oscar-winning actors, one part TV actor, and one part bad actor, and what do you get? The stars of Edison Force, that’s what. Now just because I specify one as a bad actor doesn’t let the others off the hook. Of course, Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman are going to be tolerable. They’re phenomenal at their craft. Even the TV actor (Dylan McDermott) does a worthy job of bringing menace to his role as primary leg-breaker. But when it comes to poor performances, Cary …

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Johnny Depp continues to work hard in both good films and bad. While I didn’t care for this outing, I’m not sure I would call it a bad film… just one that didn’t connect with any of my tastes. Fans of Mr. 21 Jump Street will delight in yet another strong performance. He has the skill and talent to be remembered as one of the true greats. His performance in The Libertine does nothing to diminish that. But at the same time, there’s something dreadfully boring about films like these. Something not even Depp’s un…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Steve Martin plays a wacky TV weatherman, who develops a close friendship with an electronic freeway sign in the sleeper hit comedy L.A. Story. I found the critically acclaimed film to lack hilarity, but it does get marks for inventiveness. Martin is enjoyable in most anything he’s in, even if the material is not-so-great. L.A. Story is one such example of an actor rising above said material. Most of the over-the-top silliness misses the mark, and Marilu Henner has little more to do than play the cliche…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

There is a little more Tracey to go around with Tracey Takes On: The Complete Second Season, so fans of the show shouldn’t be disappointed. However, I find her humor quaint and dry in an inescapably British way. No one can deny her talent. But it’s hard to like a show when none of the laughs are connecting. Of course, humor - like beauty - is certainly in the eye of the beholder. With that said, I am not one of the lucky ones that can look at this raw oyster of a show and see the pearl. This season, Ullman inc…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Kathy Bates and the late Jessica Tandy star in Fried Green Tomatoes, a wonderfully surprising film about four strong women finding friendship, loyalty, and strength in each other. Sounds boring, right? I thought so, too, until I actually sat down and gave the extended anniversary edition a chance. The film, based on Fannie Flagg’s novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, is really two stories in one. Bates plays an unhappy Southern woman stuck in a marriage routine, which doesn’t favor her n…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Not being a big fan of Black Hawk Down, I can’t really tell you how many releases of the feature this makes from Sony. I know it’s a title, which has seen at least two prior offerings. There is nothing new here to recommend the extended cut over the previous three-disc monster edition; however, it may be the way to go if you’ve yet to add this Ridley Scott war film to your collection. I’ll be the first to admit that Scott does some of his finest work as director in this gritty combat picture; but his style is …

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Synopsis

In 1985, Steven Spielberg backed this TV anthology series. It took its name from the very first SF magazine (which was briefly revived to coincide with the TV show), but have very little in common with that mag. It was almost purely fantasy-oriented, and its real model was the likes of The Twilight Zone (which itself was revived for TV the same year). Spielberg himself directed the pilot, and plenty of other big names singed on as well. So Harvey Keitel stars in an episode directed by…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Synopsis

Will Rogers was once the biggest star in Hollywood. Think of any other big name from the late 20’s and early 30’s, and he outpaced them all. Today, he is little more than a name, and there are plenty of film guides out there that don’t even list his films. Quite the sobering lesson on the evanescent nature of fame. The films in this collection were all made in 1935, the last year of Rogers’ life, before he was killed in a plane crash. These comedies have definitely dated, but Rogers’ charm i…

Read the rest of this entry »

Synopsis

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are two down-on-their-luck jazz musicians in Prohibition-era Chicago. They witness a gangland massacre, and in order to hide from the hoodlums, dress up in drag and join an all-female jazz band that is off to play an extended gig in Florida. The vocalist of the band is none other than Marilyn Monroe, and though it is Lemmon who first casts designs for her, it is Curtis who engages in the wooing. Lemmon, meanwhile, has his hands full when billionaire Joe E. Brown f…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Synopsis

Paul Gross plays Geoffrey Tennant, a once celebrated actor who had a meltdown during a performance of Hamlet. Now he’s trying to mount The Tempest at the head of a broke company about to be evicted from its premises. Meanwhile, his former mentor, Oliver Welles, has just mounted a dispiriting version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the New Burbage Theatre, and very shortly thereafter dies. Tennant is brought in as the new artistic director, and his attempts to stage Ha…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Synopsis

Anthony Michael Hall steps into Christopher Walken’s considerable shoes as Johnny Smith, a man who wakes up after years in a coma to discover that not only has life moved on without him, but he has psychic powers, and with them comes visions of politician Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery, taking on the role essayed by Martin Sheen in the Cronenberg film) bringing about some kind of apocalypse. Smith’s struggle against Stillson makes up the central arc of the series, and this season…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Synopsis

Ken Stott plays Inspector John Rebus. Working in Edinburgh, Rebus is dogged in his pursuit of the truth, no matter how many years it might be buried. He’s not one to stand on ceremony, doesn’t suffer fools at all, never mind gladly, and is curiously successful in romancing younger women. The two mysteries here, The Falls and Fleshmarket Close take place in very different settings: the former delves into the secrets of the very wealthy, the latter takes place in a high-rise proj…

Read the rest of this entry »

(expand)

Synopsis

Four teens hit the wilderness, looking for a Professor Waterman (celebrated SF/fantasy/horror writer Fritz Leiber in a non-speaking role). The professor is missing, but they find an ancient time that turns out to provide the secrets of life, death, and the demons beyond. Said demons want the book back, and our heroes are attacked by one monster after another.

There are two versions of the film on offer here: the original, titled The Equinox … A Journey into the Supernatural made by a group of monster-loving amateurs (including FX legends-to-be Jim Danforth, Dennis Muren and David Allen) in 1967, and the 1970 theatrical release picked up by producer Jack H. Harris with additional footage shot by Jack Woods (using the same cast). Both versions tell approximately the same story, though there are some significant differences, notably Woods appearing as a demonic park ranger. Either way, though there are plenty of rough edges, the talent of these young filmmakers is pretty evident too, and the special effects are uniformly delightful. And just as this was the effort of young creators influenced by the monster movies of the 50s and Forrest J. Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland, it in turn has had its own legacy. See, for instance, the exposition scene concerning the evil book, replicated almost exactly in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films. Unmissable.

Audio

Criterion is not one to mess about creating dubious stereo remixes, and they have not done so here. The mono is clean and as crisp as one could expect in a film made for $6500.00. The music is surprisingly warm, and though the post-synching is obvious, any such flaws are entirely those of the original film, and not the disc itself.

Video

The original film is much the rougher of the two, for good reason, given that some of the original material has been lost, and the film was hardly in a preservation vault. The theatrical release looks pretty amazing, all things considered, however. There is still some dirt, and visible grain (but this IS a 16 mm effort), but the restoration work is very impressive, and it is hard to imagine that the movie ever looked better than it does now. The colorus are strong, the blacks are great, and there is no edge enhancement.

Special Features

A truly spectacular set of offerings here. Disc 1 had a commentary track for each version of the film. Creators Dennis Muren, Mark McGee and Jim Danforth talk about their version, while the two Jacks Harris and Woods discuss the re-edited version, pointing out where and how and why they made changes. Very informative all around. This disc also has an introduction by the legendary Forrest J. Ackerman.

Disc 2 has interviews with Muren and some of the cast. The rest of the disc is an archival treasure trove. “Monstrous Origins” has outtakes from the film and test footage of the Taurus animation model. “Zorgon: The H-Bomb Beast from Hell” is a 1972 student film shot in Bronson Canyon with some of the Equinox crew. “Equiphemer” is a HUGE collection of production stills, promotional art and articles (some of which include the creators’ very first appearances as letter writers in the pages of FM). The original trailer and two radio spots are also present and correct. I’ve saved what might be the best for last. Two shorts by David Allen are here (accompanied by essays). “The Magic Treasure” is a charming little fairy tale. But the jewel in the crown here is Allen’s Volkswagen commercial that recreates the climax of the original King Kong. This rarity alone would be worth a disc in itself. Its presence here seals the deal. To top everything off, the accompanying booklet is itself filled with essays. Any self-respecting “monster kid” MUST own this package, as this is, essentially, the ultimate home-movie effort. The one that made good.

Closing Thoughts

Never before released on DVD, only spottily available on VHS, this film has, for many monster fans, been too long known only as stills in FM and horror film history books. That it should now appear in such a remarkable edition is a major event.

Special Features List

• Audio Commentaries
• Two Versions of Film
• Outtakes and Tests
• Cast and Director Interviews
• “Zorgon: The H-Bomb Beast from Hell” Short Feature
• “The Magic Treasure” Short Feature
• King Kong Volkswagen Commercial
• Trailer and Radio Spots
• Production Stills
• Promotional Stills
• Articles
• Introduction by Forrest J. Ackerman
• Booklet

(expand)

Synopsis

The ironically named Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan) is a hitman whose lifestyle of promiscuous sex, exotic locales and contract killings is catching up with him. As he approaches meltdown, he runs into Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), a businessman who has had a long run of bad luck. The two strike up a friendship in Mexico city, and toward the end of their stay there, something happens. Six months later, Noble, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, turns uup on Wright’s doorstep.

If Bro…

Read the rest of this entry »