Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by David Annandale on November 8th, 2011
Two private investigators (Dany Gehshan and Vanessa Broze) are hired to look into the disappearance of a young woman. There search leads them to the small town of Kennyville. They have barely arrived before Gehshan is beaten bloody and Broze is kidnapped. Gehshan’s only ally in his search is a local (Michael Scratch) who wants nothing more to do with the town-wide conspiracy of silence. It seems Kennyville is home to a brainwashing outfit that transforms attractive young women into lethal, programmed assassins, and that is exactly the process that Broze is undergoing.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 1st, 2011
His troops defeated and massacred, General Pang (Jet Li) staggers away from the battlefield, more dead than alive. After a brief by intense overnight encounter with a mysterious Lian (Xu Jinglei), he falls in with bandits headed up by Er Hu (Andy Lau) and Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). He finds a renewed purpose in life with this group, and forges the band into a formidable fighting force, one that will play an ever greater role in shaping the conflicts that are dividing China. But the fellowship he forms with his blood brothers has a fatal flaw: as fate would have it, Lian is promised to Er Hu. Betrayal and tragedy lurk in the wings.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 30th, 2011
The Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) has made a tidy living preaching the Gospel and working his specialty: exorcisms. But he has lost his faith and, along with it, his willingness to fleece the gullible. He does, however, acknowledge that an exorcism can prove psychologically beneficial if the recipient believes in the ceremony. All that said, Marcus wants out of the business, but he takes on One Last Case, and a film crew tags along with him to the backwoods (where else?), where the devout Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum) is convinced that his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed. Marcus slips into his routine, but soon discovers that there is is much more afoot here than he could have imagined.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 29th, 2011
Season 2 of the Tyler Perry-created series continues misadventures of Leroy Brown (David Mann), who, last season, opened up a seniors’ residence. This season has all the characters firmly in place, and the stage is set for no end of misguided schemes and misunderstandings, all of which conclude with lessons learned and heartstrings tugged.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 21st, 2011
It’s willing suspension of disbelief time, folks, as this reality show chronicles the soap-operatic lives of a group of young lesbians. Cari and Kacy want a baby – will they find the appropriate sperm donor? Romi and Kelsey are are having trouble with their sex life. Whitney is having all sorts of girl trouble, while Sajdah (whose name oddly does not end with “y” or “i”) is seeking her first relationship.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 7th, 2011
A few years back, Paramount released all eight of the studio’s Friday the 13th films in a so-called “Ultimate Edition.” With cut versions of the films and no 3D, it wasn’t really that ultimate. So here we are again, with another Ultimate Edition (also Limited!) and this time, the package is much more worthy of the name, bringing together all the deluxe versions of the series.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 27th, 2011
In the wake of the financially successful but critically drubbed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Michael Bay and company return to the fray with this considerably more coherent exercise. Given that this movie committed to advancing the cause of 3D like no other film since Avatar, the question arises as to how well its visual splendour and over-the-top technological extravagance will translate to home video. The answer is: pretty damn well.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 20th, 2011
The grindhouses may be long gone, but their memory lingers on, thanks to releases like this one, which, being released in 1993, is from the twilight years of theatrical exploitation, and thus more accurately from the second, virtual life the grindhouse aesthetic found on home video. This is the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, narrated in retrospect by the serial killer (screenwriter Carl Crew). Dahmer recounts his obsessions and growing need to kill, and a fair bit of the film’s running time consists of Dahmer hooking up with young men and murdering them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 13th, 2011
This is normally where I would summarize the plot of the film. I could tell you that this is the story of three friends in a woodland cabin who must fight monsters spawned by the wife of one of them. But that would be misleading. What the story is really about is two, sometimes three, guys sitting around and drinking beer. Later they switch to whiskey. And then there’s this one dude who puts a cockroach in the other dude’s sandwich...
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by David Annandale on August 8th, 2011
Gregory Peck is an aging Scottish outlaw, and Desi Arnaz Jr is his “breed” (as Jack Warden’s racist sheriff refers to him) partner. Warden captures Arnaz, but Peck, who could have been free and clear with all the stolen money, rescues him, much to Warden’s puzzlement. Peck is wounded in the getaway, however, and as the two friends are pursued by the law across a barren landscape (with Israel playing the role of the American West), the younger, less-experienced man must take on the responsibility of saving both their lives.
