Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on March 13th, 2013
“The border between the United States and Mexico spans 2,000 miles. It’s also the most frequently crossed land border in the entire world. And that just refers to legal crossings…”
Hundreds of thousands of people — we’re told at the start of Border Run — try to cross that boundary every year, and each of them has a unique story. Unfortunately, the filmmakers botched a great opportunity to explore the thorny issue of illegal immigration in a thoughtful and stimulating way by choosing to tell the most ridiculous and off-putting story they could possibly think of.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 22nd, 2013
And you thought Thanksgiving dinner with your family was tense. For most of us, it doesn’t get much worse than critical parents, competitive siblings or that weird side dish no one really wants to try. (There always seems to be about a gallon of that stuff too.) Consider yourself lucky: unlike the poor souls in Deadfall, you’ve probably never been chained to the dinner table — not literally, at least — nor had a psychotic Eric Bana point a gun at your face.
On the surface, Deadfall kind of looks like the wintry crime thriller the Coen Bros. never bothered making. Addison (Eric Baan) and Liza (Olivia Wilde) are brother-sister crooks fresh off a big casino heist. One grisly car accident and a dead state trooper later, Addison decides splitting up would give them a better chance of reaching the Canadian border. Liza is picked up by Jay (Charlie Hunnam, Sons of Anarchy) a recently-paroled former boxer on his way home for an awkward Thanksgiving dinner with his retired sheriff dad (Kris Kristofferson) and his loving mom (Sissy Spacek). Everything comes to a head during the aforementioned Thanksgiving dinner.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on February 20th, 2013
“We never found a single body. Now they’re just missing girls that nobody missed.”
Fictional serial killers have to work extra hard these days if they want to stand out or shock us. Network shows like Criminal Minds bring us a different sicko every week, and a certain popular pay cable hit actually has viewers rooting for the killer. So the best thing I can say about The Factory is that it gives us an exceptionally sick premise. Unfortunately, the straight-to-DVD thriller is ultimately derailed by a sloppy screenplay and a truly preposterous final act.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Jonathan Foster on January 23rd, 2013
When I first received Love Me, I thought it was going to be just another angsty teen drama. (Something along the lines of Dawson’s Creek.) That notion was quickly disabused, however, when a young girl is stalked and attacked in the opening scene. From there, the film jumps ahead three months, with the town still reeling from her disappearance. While discussing how eerie the case is with her friends, Sylvia Potter (Lindsay Shaw, TV’s Pretty Little Liars) quite literally bumps into rich pretty boy Lucas Green (Jamie Johnston, TV’s Degrassi: The Next Generation) and falls for him instantly.
Fortunately for Sylvia, the feeling is mutual and, despite her friend’s many protests, Sylvia begins dating Lucas. As their relationship deepens, Sylvia discovers some unsettling things about Lucas, including the fact that he was dating the missing girl at the time of her disappearance and police consider him the prime suspect. As the pressure mounts and new evidence comes to light, Sylvia must decide what — and, more importantly, who — she believes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 10th, 2013
If it were possible to buy stock in any under-25 actress today, I’d pick Jennifer Lawrence first, Emma Stone would be a close second, and Kristen Stewart would be last. Lawrence has a pair of blockbuster movie franchises in her back pocket (The Hunger Games, X-Men) and is already a two-time Oscar nominee, thanks to her recent nod for Silver Linings Playbook. So if a studio were to have a Jennifer Lawrence film on its bench, September 2012 would probably look like some prime real estate.
Prime real estate and a murder-related discount are what attract Elissa (Lawrence) and her mom (Elisabeth Shue) to their new home in House at the End of the Street. Elissa becomes drawn to reclusive next door neighbor Ryan (Max Thieriot). Four years earlier, Ryan’s parents were murdered by his sister, who promptly disappeared. (That explains how Elissa and her mom got such a good price on their rental.) Ryan now lives in the house by himself, but a series of strange occurrences make it clear Ryan’s house hasn’t seen its last dead body.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 7th, 2012
When I started to review this film, I thought I would come up with a hokey beginning to celebrate the 31 Nights of Terror. That might have worked if I had reviewed It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown or a Lindsey Lohan movie, but to be truthful there is not much humor in this movie to be had. So let us skip the theatrics for at least one review and go straight into reviewing Bedevilled.
The movie starts with a story when vegetarianism was the way to go and the narrator went to camp for four days. The first day, they decided to talk a walk and they were showed various plants and told they could eat them. Some did, some did not. Later at night when they asked where the food was, the instructor said “Did you not get your fill during the walk?” The people laugh. They pull up to a scene where they see two thugs beat up a young girl and then chase her. The girl runs up to the car where the group of people is to ask for help. Unfortunately, they roll up the window and we fade to black.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on August 22nd, 2012
I've said before that they just don't make action movies like they used to. I'd like to slightly amend that statement: they still make action movies like they used to, it's just a heck of a lot harder to find them. As production costs continue to rise, studios seem to be playing it safer than ever in terms of which movies get the widest releases. As a result, bloodless PG-13 flicks designed to hit as many quadrants as possible tend to grab the most screens. Put it this way: I haven't seen the new Total Recall, but I'm fairly confident there's no scene where Colin Farrell yells, "See you at the party, sweetheart!" while holding the bloody stumps of Kate Beckinsale's arms.
Battleground — an action-horror hybrid out on DVD Aug. 28 — is actually reminiscent of a different Arnold Schwarzenegger action classic.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 1st, 2012
Like a lot of people in general, I strive to get more bang for my buck. Whether it is in grocery shopping, video games or a pizza buffet, I always want to pay the bare minimum and reap the maximum benefit. Another area this holds true is movies. In my collection, there are double packs, triple features and quadruple showings. Today, it just so happens that we have a triple feature from Mill Creek Entertainment that brings us three thrillers: D.O.A, Playing God and Color of Night. This might be a long night.
D.O.A.
Late one night at a police station, a ragged man, Dexter Cornell (played by Dennis Quaid) stumbles in and proceeds to tell the policeman on duty that a murder has been committed. When the desk cop proceeds to ask who, Dexter simply replies “I was.”. Hence starts a series of flashback events of how Dexter Cornell finds himself dying at the hands of an unknown assailant. In fact, it was just thirty six hours ago when the man was simply teaching writing at a local college.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 30th, 2012
Most people who read my reviews can realize that me and prison films just do not mix. Far too many of them are incredibly hokey and if I hear one more cliché about dropping the soap, I swear I might just go watch about a 12 hour Golden Girls marathon. However, our film today deals with a psychiatric hospital for criminals. It sounds a lot like a prison to me, but perhaps today’s review will take on a much gentler tone and provide us with something just a little different.
Allen Meneric (played by Nick Stahl) and his girlfriend (played by Haley Webb) drive up to a house. Allen is angry, upset and tells his girlfriend to get in the car and drive home. Apparently, the girlfriend was raped by a guy who just so happens to be here at the house ready for Allen to strike. The girl drives away sobbing. Meanwhile, Allen proceeds to pick up a wrench. That is when everything goes black.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 26th, 2012
After a family moves into a new home, they are taken hostage by a group of hitmen who are searching for money that has been stolen from a crime-boss. The film's title, “Aggression Scale,” refers to a psychological evaluation that measures the tendency for an individual to act in aggressive ways that may harm others. This applies to our hero Owen, the son of the family, whose violent/survivalist tendencies are worrisome and detrimental in all situations except this one, where he may be the savior of the family.
Many other reviews, including those quoted on the DVD box art, refer to this as a hyper-violent version of Home Alone. This is in reference to the sort of traps the Owen sets out to harm the hitmen. Granted, the climactic final trap does have a couple nods in that direction (with the use of nails and Jacks as booby traps) but Owen's devices are less comical and complex (save for the aforementioned climactic trap) and more brutal and reminiscent of something Rambo might construct. I suppose the comparisons are made less because of the traps, but more the cat-and-mouse game being played between a child and a group of career criminals. Since Owen never speaks, the communication between these two parties is purely through acts of violence upon each other. This bare bones dynamic saves us some groans from any redundant, cheesy banter...which I appreciate.
