Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 15th, 2006
There’s a bunch of people stuck in a bar in the middle of nowhere. Monsters want to eat them. What will they do? That about sums up Feast, a film that’s part comedy, part horror, and all around over the top. This is the winning project from season three of Project Greenlight, a contest and documentary series founded by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck back in 2000. What does that mean? Feast is a low-budget film helmed by a rookie director, based on an amateur script.
Rookie and amateur are often words associated with low quality, but this gore-fest is actually pretty good. This is obviously a film made by big fans of horror movies, as it embraces many of the conventions and clichés of the genre, sometimes twisting them around or turning them upside down. The result is a decent amount of uncertainty for the audience, which helps suck us into the tense and scary moments.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 11th, 2006
The third entry into the X-Men franchise turned out quite a bit better than I expected. Early script turmoils were only overshadowed by cast problems. It seemed the bottom fell out when Bryan Singer decided to take on The Man of Steel instead of X3. Enter Brett Ratner, best known for the Rush Hour films. Give the man credit for overcoming a ton of problems to deliver a pretty good thrill ride film. Ratner adapted quickly to the f/x driven world of X-Men and managed to fashion a rather compelling tale. The idea of a...“cure” for mutancy is likely the best plot element in the franchise. Ratner was smart enough to not tinker much with the formula already established by Singer. The problem is, he played it entirely too safe. The story has the potential for a hell of an emotional tale which it never quite delivers. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the film a lot, and I have nothing against these amusement rides, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this film wanted to be something more than it was. In the greatest traditions of shows like Star Trek, there was a powerful message to be mined here. Instead, it sat there more like a clever plot device, which it certainly was. Ratner did a fine job of dealing with so many characters all wanting their own moments to shine. Hugh Jackman still steals the show as Wolverine, but this time Berry’s Storm and particularly Famke Janssen have meaty roles, if not too much dialogue. The real cast surprise has to be Kelsey Grammer. Who could have guessed that barfly Frasier would make such a fine Beast? Patrick Stewart’s death scene was visually stunning but a bit of a letdown. (Stay tuned after the credits for more on this situation.) The Golden Gate Bridge sequence is a very impressive display. Finally, I expected to see more humor coming from Ratner. The fact is, I guess I expected that there would be too much humor. Perhaps he tried too hard not to create X3:Rush Hour.
For the most part this will be the last X-Men film for at least a little while. A Wolverine project will most certainly be the next related film. There is talk of a young Magneto film. I wouldn’t expect to see Berry return to the franchise, as she was not exceptionally happy with her role. When the X-Men do return, I would expect to see more time spent on different mutants. The three films do work well together as a satisfying trilogy. Any future films will likely take a fresh approach to the franchise.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 11th, 2006
Synopsis
For those who enjoy the films of Warren Beatty, perhaps his quintessential film, the epic Reds has finally arrived on DVD. The film, which earned 12 Oscar nominations in 1981, including a remarkable four for Beatty (as Director, which he won), Actor, Writer and Producer), the film was a clear labor of love for the left-leaning political activist. Beatty plays John Reed, an American political writer who becomes more and more enamored with the ideas and concepts behind a blossoming ideological...revolution in World War I era Russia.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 10th, 2006
Synopsis
In the soulless wasteland of the San Fernando Valley, feeling-her-oats teen Evan Rachel Wood meets cowboy (or something) Edward Norton at a filling station. Despite the creepy age difference, friendship becomes romance, but Wood’s father (David Morse) is understandably less than keen about the relationship. He orders an end to it. Neither of the lovers is happy with that, and the situation is all the more explosive since Norton is far from being right in the head.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 10th, 2006
Waist Deep tells the story of a man named Otis Senior (Baby Boy’s Tyrese Gibson), an ex-con who is trying to straighten out his life after being releasing from jail. Otis, known by his previous street name of ‘O2’, is working as a security guard at a place he got from part of his ex-con program. One day O2 goes to pick up his son, Otis Junior, from school when his child and his car get ‘jacked’ in a carjacking. O2 chases down these men and, despite killing two of them, doesn’t get his car back. He then ...ealizes, after seeing a woman named Coco (Meaghan Good) who tried to sell him some suits cheap, that he was set up. Obviously this doesn’t sit well with O2 who forcefully (read gun point) convinces her to come with him in hopes of getting his son back and getting her off of the hustling that has consumed her life.
O2’s cousin Lucky (who was suppose to pick up Otis Junior but failed to) tells him that a gang leader named Big Meat (rapper The Game) heard that O2 has a lot of money (try $100,000). In your typical movie plot line, Big Meat gives O2 48 hours to give up this money in exchange for his son. While all this seems kind of terrifying, there is some actual humor to this. As all of this is occurring to O2 and Coco, in the background there is an anti-violence rally going on throughout downtown Los Angeles.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2006
I don’t watch a lot of horror movies, but when I do I want them to be scary or amusing, or both. I found Blackwater Valley Exorcism to be none of the above.
The story centers around the demonic possession of a young woman, and the efforts a group of people make to save her. This group includes her family, her father’s farmhands, a sheriff, a veterinarian and a priest who’s never dealt with this sort of thing before. Luckily, one of those farmhands just happens to be a former priest who has conducted an exorcism.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2006
One of the nice side effects of the popularity of DVD is that the general public is seeing many films that they would not have seen before. The more people that have DVD players in their homes, the more budget titles hit store shelves. Therefore, people are more apt to pick up a title sight-unseen, and some pretty descent direct-to-video films that would never have made it into theaters have found new life in the home theater market.
Warner Brothers knows a good thing when they see it, so they have created a company that produces horror movies with the specific intention of releasing them in the direct-to-DVD market. The first film in the three-picture package is Rest Stop: Dead Ahead This is the story of Nicole, a young girl that runs away from home with her boyfriend to make it big in Hollywood. On the way, the couple pull over at a rest stop. As it turns out, this is a very bad idea.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2006
A letter from the filmmakers included with this disc reads, ”I guess some people will find… The King pretty extreme.” I had barely heard of this indy film going in, so I had few presuppositions to influence my experience. But before hitting play I read the letter, and that statement stuck with me as I watched. I wanted to know whether I was one of those people.
It turned out that I was. Sort of. There are aspects to this story that are so dark and twisted that I often found myself squirming as the scenes unfolded. At the same time, though, I found The King mostly the opposite of extreme. I had fully expected to see a blood-spattering climax of emotions fueled by secrets, sin and betrayal. In fact, after reading the filmmaker’s letter, I figured the picture would get messy pretty early on.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006
Sam Elliott is a fine actor, but he is almost always typecast as a cowboy. He is an excellent cowboy, tall and thin with a weathered face and a deep drawl. The thing is, he is a fine actor in more traditional roles as well. While I frequently enjoy his work as a cowboy, I have always felt that he may have turned in his finest performance as White House Chief of Staff Kermit Newman in The Contender.
He breaks out of his traditional role yet again with The Avenger, a TNT original film that stars Elliott as a mercenary hired to find a lost aid worker in Serbia, and discovers much more than he is looking for in the process. The typical plot lines of powerful men in high places plotting in smoke-filled rooms are plentiful, but it is enjoyable trash all the same. There was a time in the not-too-distant past that “made for TV” equaled “don't waste your time”. Networks such as TNT and HBO have tried their best to change that mindset, and I am happy to find that the stereotype is shifting toward the positive.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 6th, 2006
Synopsis
I thought I knew all about Stick It based on the cover of the disc: “From the Writer of Bring It On”. That’s it, game over. What I could expect was a film where the girls ruled the show, the adults, if they could be found, were pretty marginal, and there would be a lot of ass shots. But despite all the semi-glorified ass shots, Stick It isn’t necessarily a bad movie. In fact, I kinda liked it. Maybe it’s all the ass exposure, I don’t know. Whatever the reason, the 103 minutes ...f Stick It start with Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym, Catwoman), your proverbial rebel with a load of talent who keeps pissing it away by rebelling on anything and anybody. And as punishment for vandalizing a house, her father (and yes, that is Uncle Rico himself, Jon Gries, from Napoleon Dynamite) gets her to rejoin a gymnastics academy she dropped out of as part of her restitution, community service, etc.
