Dolby Digital 5.1 (English)

Hellbent

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006

OK, let’s just get this out of the way at the start. Hellbent is a film from a cable network called Here!, which is America’s foremost gay and lesbian television network. Consequently, this made-for-TV film is based solely around homosexual couples, as is all of the programming on the network. They make all manner of programming, including feature films, that deal primarily with homosexuality.

Now, here is my complaint. If you want to make programming that has homosexuals in it, I’m fine with that.
Read More

Glory Road

Posted in 2.35:1 Widescreen, Buena Vista, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 2.0 (French), Dolby Digital 2.0 (Spanish), Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Drama, DVD by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Don Haskins may not be as well-known as Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown, or other historical figures that have helped integrate sports with black players, but the impact that Haskins had on college basketball is arguably more significant than any coaching strategy could have possibly introduced, and it’s those events for which Haskins was at the helm that unfold in Glory Road, which some have unfairly labeled as producer Jerry’s Bruckheimer’s basketball equivalent to Remember the Titans.

Ghost Whisperer – The Complete First Season

Posted in 1.78:1 Widescreen, Box Set, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), DVD, Paramount, Television by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

”My name is Melinda Gordon. I just got married, just moved to a small town, just opened up an antique shop. I might be just like you…except from the time that I was a little girl I knew that I could talk to the dead. ‘Earthbound spirits’, my Grandmother called them. The ones who’ve not crossed over because they have unfinished business with the living, and they come to me for help. To tell you my story, I have to tell you theirs.”

So goes the opening for each episode of this first season of Ghost Whisperer, a series that blends drama, horror and comedy to carry its audience to an emotional place.
Read More

Fast and the Furious – Tokyo Drift

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 25th, 2006

Wasn’t it just yesterday that The Fast and the Furious raced across our theatre and soon after took the checkered flag on DVD in our own living rooms? I guess not, because Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is upon us, and it’s the third and least imaginative of the franchise. Unfortunately, none of the previous films’ characters return for this third outing. I don’t count the clever little cameo that serves as the film’s coda. Gone are also the cool American muscle cars that gave the franchise its edge. The souped …
Read More

Mission: Impossible III

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 25th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

It’s been a decade since Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible hit theatres to box office success, established a new blockbuster franchise and added ‘action hero’ to Tom Cruise’s résumé. In 2000, John Woo’s highly stylized follow-up raised the franchise to new box office heights. This year, the long-awaited third installment arrived amidst controversy about Tom Cruise’s crazy off-screen antics.

M:i:III’s U.S. box office take suffered from the public backlash to its headliner’s whacky rants and questionable actions.
Read More

Rocky Horror PIcture Show/ Shock Treatment

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 24th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Staid middle-class couple Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) wind up, one stormy night, at the gothic mansion of the cross-dressing Dr. Frank N. Further (Tim Curry). Many songs and sexual awakenings ensue. Seriously, people, if you are reading this and require a summary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, then the movie is probably not for you. Shock Treatment, however, is less well-known. Once again we have Brad and Janet (this time played by Cliff De Young and J…
Read More

The Butterfly Effect 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 23rd, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

The Butterfly Effect 2 is a direct-to-video release, and for good reason. While the original film was a surprise hit back in 2004, this sequel is nothing more than a quick cash-in.

At least, that’s what I thought I’d be writing for this review. I definitely had low expectations for this film, especially since while I’ve heard good things about the original, I’ve yet to see it, and I still question its somewhat-acclaimed reputation. So surely this sequel must be a piece of junk, right? But it’s not.
Read More

Little Man (Loaded with Extra Crap Edition)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 22nd, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

I must admit that I fully expected to hate this film. Turns out, I didn’t. The truth is, Little Man, the latest comedy from the Wayans brothers, is too harmless for such a vehement reaction.

Sure, Little Man is not very good, but if you can manage to check your brain at the door, you’ll probably get some laughs out of it. Then again, they’re probably the same laughs you had watching the trailer. My problem with comedy like this is that it’s really much better suited to short sketches than feature films.

Pet Sematary

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

From the rather twisted mind of Stephen King, Pet Sematary is actually one of my favorite of his horror novels. It’s scary to think the story was never meant to be published and only offered up to finish a contract with his earlier publisher. As has been the Stephen King plague at nearly every turn, something ends up lost in the translation. In the novel, the deeper subtexts that King is so adept at take several hundred pages to set up and ultimately pay off. Unfortunately a mere couple of hours of celluloid never …
Read More

Land of the Blind

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

This could have been a pretty good film. I just don’t know. The advance material and the jacket suggest this is a “gripping thriller” with timely themes of terrorism and war. As soon as the film opens, it becomes immediately obvious that something entirely different is at work here. A news report suggests that a tyrant is showing his compassion and generosity when he commutes the sentence of a prisoner about to go to the guillotine. What does he commute the sentence to? Death by hanging. What a guy. I think my mood…
Read More

Nacho Libre

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 19th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Jack Black says when he’s embarrassed, he knows it’s funny. He must have been pretty confident about the success of Nacho Libre, because as Ignacio (Nacho) – the friar by day, wannabe wrestler by night – he embraced one embarrassing moment after another.

Black stars as a friar at a Mexican orphanage run by the sort of God-fearing folk who think wrestling, or Lucha Libre, is a sin. All his life, Black has longed to be a luchador (wrestler), which is a bit of a conflict. His only jobs at the orphanage are cooking duty, and dead-guy duty.
Read More

Body Double

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 18th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

In 1984 Brian De Palma dusted off his best Alfred Hitchcock imitation in the by now infamous Body Double. We all know the story by now. In fact, if you’ve seen the far superior Vertigo and Rear Window films, you knew the story already. Claustrophobic vampire actor Jake Scully is having a hard time. He’s just been fired because he can’t lie in a coffin, and getting home early, he walks in on his girlfriend in bed with another man. Out of work and homeless, things look up when a fellow actor gets him a sweet housesit…
Read More

Little Mermaid, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 17th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

Ariel is the rebellious teen daughter of King Triton. She falls in love with a human prince (whom she rescued from drowning), but her father will not hear of it. So she makes a bargain with the evil Ursula – she will be granted legs for three days (but no voice), and if she has not been kissed by then… well… you know how deals with Evil generally go.

After a long time in the dolldrums, this was a return to form for the Disney studios, and marked something of a second golden age…
Read More

Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kitties

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 17th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kitties is a lot better than I thought it would be. Kids would love it, and it’s not too obnoxious for adults.

It’s a decent story for kids. Just before he’s planning to propose to her, Jon Arbuckle’s girlfriend, Liz, announces that she’s been scheduled at the last minute to speak at a conference in London, and she must leave right away. Jon decides to follow her there to pop the question. Garfield wants to interfere, so he and Odie smuggle themselves in Jon’s luggage.

Slither

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 16th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

Synopsis

A meteor lands in your typical SF/horror movie Small Town (and it could well be the same meteor that brought the original Blob to town). Bullet-headed mug Michael Rooker stumbles over it one drunken night, and promptly becomes infected with carniverous slug-parasites from outer space. He sets about spreading the good news, as it were, and before long the entire town is a chaos of slithering nastiness and zombiefied townspeople.

After scripting the slick but soulless remake of Da…
Read More

The Omen (2006)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 15th, 2006

This remake of the 1976 horror classic The Omen is a solid psychological thriller. I should admit that I have never seen the original, so I can’t make a comparison. For opinions from that perspective, I imagine an Internet search will find more than enough.

I can, however, weigh in on whether I think this move should have been made, a question always asked about Hollywood remakes. My answer? Yes, because it offers the film to a new audience, of which I’m a part. And now that I’ve seen and enjoyed this new version of The Omen, I’m also interested in checking out the original.
Read More

Feast

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 15th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

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.
Read More

X3: X-Men – The Last Stand

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 11th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

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…
Read More

Reds

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 11th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

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…
Read More

Down in the Valley

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 10th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

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.

The performances …
Read More

Waist Deep (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 10th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

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 …
Read More

Blackwater Valley Exorcism

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

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.
Read More

Rest Stop: Dead Ahead

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

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.
Read More

The King

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 8th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

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.
Read More

Avenger

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006

Buy at Amazon.com

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.
Read More

«< 52 53 54 55 56 >»