Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 31st, 2006
Synopsis
This is an odd fish. It’s a documentary about Bob Berdella, who raped, tortured, killed and dismembered six men in the late 80's. Director Benjamin Meade combines interviews with the investigators, the prosecutor, a survivor and Berdella himself with gruesome recreations of the crimes, an expectedly hard-boiled narration from James Ellroy, and incongruous performances of songs by the rock band “Demon Dogs.” The result is certainly interesting, but it jumps around so much that it can become h...rd to follow (structurally, it resembles Glen or Glenda? done by someone with talent). There’s a lot of raw power here, somewhat diluted by the songs that, though catchy enough, are more puzzling than anything else by their presence.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 31st, 2006
Yellow Sky is one of those near classic Westerns from 1949. For decades the film has flown under the mainstream radar, only to finally be rediscovered on DVD. Gregory Peck is an unlikely choice to play the lead role. Stretch heads a band of thieves that strike from town to town hitting usually banks. The film wastes very little time getting started. We see the gang set up, and soon pull off, one of these heists in the first five minutes. The gang is quickly chased out into the unforgiving desert sun of the Western badlands. It seems the band is done for in true western poetic justice until fortune once again smiles upon them. Fortune in this case is the ghost town of Yellow Sky. Here only an old prospector (Barton) and his young granddaughter (Baxter) reside. It seems the old man’s been hording some gold in the hopes of bringing Yellow Sky back to her glory days. Of course, Stretch’s gang has other plans. The remainder of the film slows down as the gang attempts to pry the gold from the old timer. Stretch has a change of heart, and this redeemed Stretch is less of a stretch for Peck. Here he begins to fit the part. Including the obligatory romance, the film becomes all too predictable. Harry Morgan, billed as Henry Morgan, makes a nice addition to the gang of outlaws. The film was remade in 1967 as The Jackals with the action moved to Africa.
Video
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 31st, 2006
You won’t ever know the excitement I felt when I heard a sequel was being made to the film Underworld. While I didn’t see the big to due about the first film, I was actually hoping that the film would take the route some sequels have taken by making the film far superior to its predecessor. I guess Director Len Wiseman was trying to go out and make the sequel to Underworld even worse than its predecessor as he has completely succeeded in doing so.
As Underworld Evolution opens up, we g...t a small prologue that flashes us back to 1202 AD. The prologue tells us of the war between the vampires and the Lycans. We learn how the war began with two brothers, both the immortal sons of Alexander Corvinus. The first brother, Markus, was bitten by a bat and hence became the blood leader of the vampies. The second brother, Willian, was bitten by a wolf and hence became the first and most powerful Lycan. Sounds like a nice family feud huh? After this prologue, we pick up right where Underworld left off as Selene (Kate Beckinsale) and her super boyfriend have finally extinguished any and all foes and finally seem like they may have some time for themselves. Oh lord, there is another foe to fight? Turns out that Markus has been woken up by some force or person and isn’t all too excited to see that his family is completely dead.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 30th, 2006
Wolfgang Petersen is obviously a director who seems to love using boats or making films that have tons of boats. We had his masterpiece Das Boot about submarines, this film, his film Troy about the Trojan War, and his most recent remake Poseidon about another doomed ship. Unlike the most recent two films, The Perfect Storm is a pure sensation rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. The film doesn’t even attempt to tell a long drawn out story, but rather a very simplistic story about the ...vents surrounding this ‘perfect storm’ and how it deeply affected everyone around the town of Gloucester, regardless is you lost someone due to the storm.
Wolfgang Petersen’s 2000 vision of The Perfect Storm is based on the best-selling book by Sebastian Junger. The book and the film tells of the fishing ship named the Andrea Gail who, in 1991, in Gloucester, MA ran into the middle of a massive storm when three big storms collided in the middle of the Atlantic. The film tells us all about the economic pressures that the town goes through due to its sword-fishing industry. Instead of Petersen presenting the film about the men and their families, he decides to focus the entire film on this ship, and the oncoming storm. To add even more suspense to an already suspenseful card, Wolfgang decided to include the story about the family whose luxury boat was in distress.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 30th, 2006
Sometimes, I get a bit of an impulse buying urge. And a while back, I went and got a spiffy Philips 727 DVD player (which I've since replaced with a Toshiba upconverting unit). Sure, it's not a higher end player or anything, but for $80 and a hack using the remote control, it's now become a decent multi-region player. So after testing out a friends borrowed Region 2 disc to see if the hack worked, I picked up a couple of movies from eBay and Amazon.UK, so I'll do the occasional Region 2 review.
For whatever reason, there are instances where the US gets yanked by the shorthairs with the occasional DVD release. If you were going to buy this movie, would you want the release that just has an anamorphic transfer and 5.1 soundtrack? Or would you want the one that has the anamorphic transfer and 5.1, along with two commentaries, as well as a 2nd disc of short films, deleted scenes and documentaries? So that's what I did. And my wife, bless her heart, is patient with me through all of this. She even watched this with me over the weekend and liked it. I've still got the bruises on my arm from where she squeezed hard.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 30th, 2006
Written for the screen and directed by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), Separate Lies tells the story of James (Tom Wilkinson, Batman Begins), a high powered lawyer in London who lives in the countryside with his wife Anne (Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves). They have the perfect English house and a dog to match. One day, Anne meets William (Rupert Everett, Shrek 2) and has an affair with him, which turns the trio's lives around in a way that they'd never expect.>
Treading into mild spoiler territory here, so scroll down!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 30th, 2006
It’s true that MASH was winding down by year 10. Everyone involved already knew that the next year would be the last. This is what separates the true professionals from those in it for the money. Instead of dragging out the concept until there was virtually nothing of quality remaining, the entire cast and crew decided it was time to finish on top. A lot of folks would have simply gone through the motions once the end was in sight. Instead, these guys kept pouring it on. The stories and acting in this season are just as good as in any other. The saddest thing about this release is that there is only one more to come.
For the first time in a while there were no major cast changes in this season. All of the characters from season 9 remain. I think if anything can be said about this particular year it might be that the characters have become a bit more vulnerable. Almost every character comes into a story where they are left questioning themselves. For Hawkeye it is mostly philosophical. For Potter and Winchester there are real questions of limitations. For Houlihan there are a ton of emotional issues when she is stranded on her birthday. BJ has to deal with changes in his wife. Klinger has a close encounter with the spirit of a dead soldier that causes his own inner reflection. Finally, Father Mulcahy has to decide a huge moral issue in one of his best episodes. An AWOL soldier seeks sanctuary in the mess tent after Mass.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 30th, 2006
Synopsis
On their way to a regional competition, a group of cheerleaders have a car accident, and wander into the rural landscape to look for help. They come across an apparently abandoned house. Two escaped convicts also find that house, and take two of the girls hostage, but soon everybody has a bigger problem in the shape of a hulking killer, Andre the Butcher, who has all sorts of supernatural powers as well as plenty of sharp blades.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 30th, 2006
In Stephen Sommers’ Van Helsing, we meet Gabriel Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) who is a professional monster-killer with a sidekick named Carl. Van Helsing must first track down Mr. Hyde who lives in the Notre Dame Cathedral and, sometimes, likes to venture outside for the occasional murder here and there. After completing this basic mission, Van Helsing is sent to the famous Transylvania to deal with Frankenstein’s Monster where he meets Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale). Anna and her brother Velkan represent the...last of nine generations of a family whose one goal is to rid the world of Dracula. Naturally, Anna is suspicious of this Van Helsing character but eventually teams up with Helsing to kick some butt.
It amazes me how Sommers convinced Universal to grant him well over $150 million dollars to make this film. I suppose this is because Sommers’ last two adventure based films, both Mummy films, were great summer adventure flicks which both made Universal some nice coin. However, Van Helsing never seemed to click with audiences as it just made over $160 million dollars domestically. Certainly not the huge success Universal or Sommers were hoping for. Some feel the reasoning was the lack of star power, but was Brendan Fraser really that much of a bankable star? Some feel that Van Helsing focused too much on CGI with all the various amounts of monsters that prowled the screen. I tend to lean toward the latter as Van Helsing seemed like 132 minutes of CGI effect after CGI effect.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 30th, 2006
Everybody Loves Raymond - The Complete Sixth Season comes to DVD in an impressive 5-disc edition. As a newbie to this fine series, I was surprised - and thrilled - to see the widescreen presentation. It is a nicety not often given to TV shows, and it looks spectacular, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. The show, as a lot of you know, is about sports writer Ray Barone, and his nut-job parents, who live directly across the street. One must either appreciate Ray Romano's humor, or experience the same...family woes, to truly appreciate this series - and if you do, then you're in for a real treat. Included in this set, is the number two fan favorite episode "Marie's Sculpture," which centers around an abstract that isn't so abstract, made by Ray's mom in her sculpting class. While this episode is very funny, I think the show is at its best when Ray's wife Debra (Patricia Heaton) and his mother Marie (Doris Roberts) are going at it Romano-y-Romano. The show never resorts to stale mother-in-law jokes, opting instead to pull its laughs from the characters and their interactions with one another.
Of course, no serious talk of Everybody Loves Raymond can be complete without mentioning the terrific jobs Brad Garrett and the always reliable Peter Boyle do with their brother and father characters, respectively. The two are dichotomies of one another. Robert is the ever insecure older brother, who is always left out of even the most mundane family activities. He's the kind of guy, who has to fight for every ounce of attention - and affection - his mother gives him, and his large, staggering frame only serves to drain a little more humor from the tank. Frank (Boyle), on the other hand, is so self-confident he just doesn't give a damn about others' opinions - and why should he? Father knows best, at least in his eyes. Taking a back seat to all the goings-on is Ray Barone (Romano). Romano subscribes to the Seinfeld school of sitcoms here by letting the stellar supporting cast do all the hard work for him. His character is like Frank - and why shouldn't he be, everyone loves the guy - but he doesn't have to resort to the same over-the-top performance because he understands Boyle is already doing it so well. These five individuals will make you believe they're related, and they will do such a good job of it that, if you give the show a chance, you will notice comments, events, and subtleties, that exist in your own family. It's very possible you won't like this show the first time you try to sit through it. But stay married long enough, and you'll really start to appreciate it.
![Van Helsing [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/van-helsing-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
