Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 13th, 2009
Written by Ashley Orr
Despite its over-animated cover, Battle for Terra, directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas, was a surprisingly interesting flick. With an all-star cast playing the voices, this movie takes animated sci-fi and marries the ideas of philosophy and entertainment in an unusual way.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 13th, 2009
Written by Adrienne Ambush
Before there was American Idol, before there was So, You Think You Can Dance and definitely before there was Dancing with the Stars, there was Fame.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 13th, 2009
Written by Adrienne Ambush
Before there was American Idol, before there was So, You Think You Can Dance and definitely before there was Dancing with the Stars, there was Fame.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 12th, 2009
“On the full moon of the seventh lunar month, the gates of Hell open and the spirits of the dead are freed to roam among the living” – Chinese Myth.
I wonder if there’s a roaming charge on that plan. Lionsgate brings back their popular Ghost House Underground series from last October. The series title likely borrows a bit from the old Grind House Theater that Quentin Tarantino brought back to fashion in the last couple of years. I assume it is intended to denote a horror film that skirts the art house scene and Seventh Moon certainly fits that description. This is absolutely the kind of horror film you might expect to encounter at Sundance or an independent horror film festival.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Michael Durr on October 12th, 2009
The people at Warner Bros recently decided to adopt a new strategy when dealing with some of their back catalog. They would propose a printing on demand option or what they would dub the “Archive Collection”. This would allow collectors to own classics of long forgotten films and keep costs at a minimal to Warner Bros. One such movie was named Lightning Strikes Twice which came out in 1951 with Ruth Roman. Hopefully this one was a gem and not something that should be long forgotten back in the vault.
Richard Trevelyan (played by Richard Todd) has been convicted for murder of his wife. He is about to be executed when the jury becomes dead-locked and no decision can be made. He is then released where he decides to hide out at a Texas ranch where nobody can find him. Everybody is convinced that he did it and nobody seems that willing to stand by his side.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 12th, 2009
A monstrous emperor sets out his orcs to find an ancient item that would grant him enormous power. Goblins come out of the woodwork as the side of good assembles a small group of humans, elves and other species to seek out this same item and end the evil emperor's quest for domination. Sound familiar? It should, after all, this is the Fellowship of the...err...Knights of Bloodsteel.
Using what must have been the leftovers at the Lord of the Rings yard sale, the effects people have slapped on pointed ears and noises onto as many extras and actors they could find in an attempt to resurrect the enormous majesty of Middle-Earth (of course it goes by some other magical sounding, gibberish name here). Everyone babbles endlessly about elves this and goblins that to make the fantasy realm become more believable, but it becomes terribly inane tiresome by about the 18th time something “fantasy” is brought up in the first 5 minutes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 9th, 2009
My history with romantic comedies is not a good one. Okay, I cried at the Notebook. *Looks nervously at the man card floating in his wallet*. So, what I cried at Rocky and Bloodsport too. I feel better now. But normally, I look at romantic comedies and want nothing to do with them. But every once in a while, along comes a romantic comedy with a decent cast and a somewhat different story. Even though I can see the ending coming a mile away, hopefully the journey there is interesting and thoughtful.
Andrew Paxton (played by Ryan Reynolds) is the best assistant in the world. He gets to work on time, he always has the right latte for his boss, and his shirt always looks perfect (even if it is borrowed from a co-worker). He works at Colden Books, a publishing company and his dream is to become an editor, especially after three years of being an assistant. He is an assistant to the executive editor-in-chief Margaret Tate (played by Sandra Bullock).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 9th, 2009
Medium made a jump in its 5th season. NBC axed the show, but the folks at CBS decided to pick it up and continue the series. It’s not a huge leap, actually. CBS was already showing the similar and better Ghost Whisperer, and the series was produced by the CBS parent company, Paramount. That means that the production team pretty much stays intact and the show doesn’t really suffer any kind of transition. The same can be said for the release. The packaging and production values are pretty much identical to the previous four years.
Medium was based on a real person with alleged psychic powers who apparently has helped out various law enforcement agencies in some actual cases. If you’ve seen the series, you might find that hard to believe, and the episodes are obviously fictional adventures and not based on the real Allison Dubois’s experiences. At first glance it might be easy to lump Medium in with Ghost Whisperer or The Dead Zone. Actually there are almost no similarities to any of those shows. Allison does not gain any understanding through touching, and while she does see ghosts at times, that aspect of the show has been made to play in only a small percentage of the episodes. Allison accesses her powers through dreams. These nightmares are usually vague and often provide additional clues with each recurring dream. The formula for the show is that she must interpret these images and signs in time to do whatever it is she needs to do. Now that her secret is out, she’s not able to continue her work at the DA’s office. Joe’s career is also in jeopardy, so the show is going through some changes here. The strike likely did some damage, so we may never know exactly what was in store.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2009
The Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky’s the Limit definitely surprised me. As I turned this 96-minute movie on I expected to be bombarded with female stereotypes: flowers, butterflies, and the color pink. Though Strawberry didn’t fail to deliver these dainty, feminine elements, it also offered six very strong and independent female characters.
After watching the intro on car seat safety, sponsored by AAA and unable to be skipped, the movie begins. The opening scene shows the town of Berry Bitty City where all the girls live; Strawberry, Orange, Plum, Blueberry, Lemon and Raspberry. The Berrykins (who pick the berries to keep the berry juice flowing which is what powers the entire city) dance while picking berries and singing a song about their “very nice life.” Orange, the craftiest of the girls, has created a juice fountain and is showing it off to all her friends, while Strawberry works on a new smoothie recipe. We are introduced to the only character different from Strawberry and friends, Mr. Longface. He is the lovable caterpillar who seems to offer the girls’ guidance while reading his family’s stories from an “old family journal.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 8th, 2009
Horror fans have suffered through a severe case of déjà vu of late. All of the major titles of the 80’s and 90’s slasher cycle have now been either remade or are currently in production. There isn’t a big title remaining. Now it appears anything is fair game. Are we really that desolate of originality in this modern age? Today no cult classic or bomb is safe from being regurgitated back to us in either a theatrical release. Or, more likely, a direct to DVD project. In some cases, I’ve welcomed the occasional re-release, if the new film has something new to offer while remaining true to the source material. I actually liked the Mummy films. They don’t really look anything like the Universal classics, but they were kind of a nice ride, so my sensibilities weren’t all that shaken up. I’m looking forward to the Wolf Man film coming soon from Universal. It appears that the movie will be quite an homage to the original, yet satisfy the more modern needs of today’s filmgoers. But for every film that deserves a second look, there are countless movies that had already played out their string. It’s Alive is one of those.
Larry Cohen ended up with an unexpected cult success on his hands when he delivered the low budget original film back in 1974. He wrote and directed the effort, and it was a pretty good hit. It told the story of an unsuspecting mother who gives birth to a carnivorous mutant with an unending hunger for fresh meat. It was a sweet Halloween treat back then. But Cohen decided to milk that baby for all that he could. In 1978 he churned out It Lives Again and finally in in 1987 he delivered his third and final baby with It’s Alive II: The Island Of The Alive. Each entry scored lower than the last, and finally It was dead. But that’s just not how Hollywood rolls these days.
![Seventh Moon [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/seventh-moon-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Proposal [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-proposal-blu-ray-large.jpg)
