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Suspense / Thriller

Dressed to Kill (Blu-Ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 14th, 2011

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Ever watch one of those movies that you don’t quite get or understand the first time around? You are certain that the movie is decent and the plot moves along well. But the problem is there are plot holes and the viewer is sure of them. Until they watch the movie a second time. Then either the viewer realizes the movie is brilliant or still full of plot holes. Well, today I encounter one of those films, Dressed to Kill and I think this one has filled out nicely.
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N-Secure (Blu-Ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 26th, 2011

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As I have mentioned before on this site, I was married to somebody else before my lovely Sarah. So unfortunately, I know a thing or two about controlling spouses. People who try to force them their loved ones into things they would not normally do and make the least insignificant things into overly important ones. It is a terrible harmful practice and leaves both partners scorned. Thankfully I learned to love again. Let me see what I will think of another controlling drama entitled N-Secure.
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Fernando Di Leo — The Italian Crime Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 6th, 2011

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Looking for a something a bit different for you gangster flick fix? Then look no further than this box set of gritty, thematically linked Italian crime pictures from director Fernando Di Leo. Things don’t get much more delightfully 70s than this.
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Brotherhood

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 19th, 2011

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When I got to college, I had no idea what I wanted to be. I had signed up for computer science so I could go on to be a video game programmer. The truth is, I placed that as my major because I did not know what else to put. As luck would find it, five years later would get me a degree in Finance which I have never used in the professional world. But there was one thing in college I knew for sure. I wanted nothing to do with any fraternity and I am guessing Brotherhood is not going to change this opinion.
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Dorian Gray

Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 25th, 2011

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(What follows is my cohort Gino Sassani’s review, as it was written for the Blu Ray release of this same film. I have only added changes for the Video and Audio sections as DVD is naturally different than Blu Ray).

The Picture Of Dorian Gray was actually Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel. It was quite a controversial subject when it first arrived on the scene in 1890, but not because of the horror element. The book is often sexually explicit and contains more than a flirtation with homosexuality. The main themes have survived, but much of the work itself has been forgotten.
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The Killing Jar

Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 14th, 2011

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(checks calender) “my goodness its been a few days…time to review another Michael Madsen film”

Michael Madsen goes WAY outside of his normal acting niche and plays a badass killer. Really different from his previous roles (please refer to my two month old review of Madsen’s Brazen Bull to reveal just how sarcastic this opening paragraph is http://upcomingdiscs.com/2011/02/23/the-brazen-bull/#more-15588).
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Capone

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 11th, 2011

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Roger Corman has never let an exploitable opportunity slip by. A case in point is what we have here. In the wake of the first two Godfather films came this rise-and-fall tale. And because the Godfather movies were handsome, expensive and classy, then this Corman-produced effort is also a nice-looking piece of cinema, even if the budget-conscious element shows through with the use of leftover footage from The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
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The Resident (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2011

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Hammer has risen from the grave. A group of investors have resurrected the film brand and intend to honor the tradition of the once-defunct horror giant. President Simon Oakes is a self-proclaimed fan since he was a kid. He has no interest in trying to fit Hammer into the new mold of torture porn or slashers. He acknowledges that there is plenty of room for those kinds of films in the horror genre. He hopes to bring back more than just the Hammer name. He intends to bring back the gothic spirit that was Hammer Films
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Sherlock Holmes: Complete Collection (Blu-ray)

Posted in Hardware Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 5th, 2011

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“Sherlock Holmes, the immortal character of fiction. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he’s ageless, invincible and unchanging. In solving significant problems of the present day, he remains — as ever — the supreme master of deductive reasoning.”

In 1887, readers of the popular periodical Beeton’s Christmas Annual were to receive quite a special treat. There wasn’t much fanfare or hype to the event. Inside the pages of the magazine was a story called A Study In Scarlet. It was a detective story, perhaps like many published before, except for the detective himself, a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
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The Perfume of the Lady in Black

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 5th, 2011

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Three years after her unsettling turn in Dario Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971), Mimsy Farmer headlined this giallo-related effort by director/co-writer Francesco Barilli. She plays a successful chemist on the verge of a psychotic break. She has been haunted since her childhood by the death of her father, and she has recurring memories (or are they fantasies?) of her mother in the arms of a sinister man. Her sense of reality crumbles as objects and people from her past appear and vanish.
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The American

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 14th, 2011

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The cover of this DVD is, depending on which signals you pick up on, either misleading or perfectly accurate. If all you see is George Clooney running with a gun, and you therefore come to the conclusion that this is going to be some action-packed thriller, and that is what you’re hoping for, then you’re going to be disappointed. If, on the other hand, the orange colour and the rather retro look to Cloney’s image, not to mention the rather uninformative title, makes you think of the 1970s, then you’re on the right track.
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The Brazen Bull

Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 23rd, 2011

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A young couple are drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse when they investigate a piece of real estate and a psychopath starts to trail them. Brazen Bull is the title of the film and the killer’s mantra, which means he acts as if he has nothing to lose, when in fact he’s already lost everything.
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The Collector (2009)

Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 20th, 2011

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An ex-con trying to pull one last heist is sucked into a booby trapped house and must face against a madman who is torturing the family within. The makers of 3 SAW films (and not the first three) have ventured into familiar territory of nonsense gore, whisper thin plot, and then even more nonsense gore.
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Exam

Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 2nd, 2011

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8 corporate hopefuls gather at a mysterious location and are instructed to take one final exam as a final test to see which one will walk away with a prestigious job at a major company. The trouble is their exam papers are blank, and it would seem that there is not even a question to answer. For 80 minutes each must solve the puzzle without being disqualified by breaking one of the few rules, all of which double as a riddle/clue to solving the exam question and answer.
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Vengeance

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 23rd, 2010

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In Macao, a trio of gunmen butcher a family. Only the mother survives (barely), and her father (aging French rocker Johnny Hallyday, looking as hardboiled and grotesque as Mickey Rourke), a restaurateur who knows altogether too much about how to get by in the violent underworld, comes to town and sets out on a mission of vengeance. He hires a trio of hit men, and works with them in tracking down his enemies. They have to do so quickly, though, because Hallyday has been shot before, and the bullet lodged in his brain is gradually stealing his memory away. He wants his revenge while he can still remember why it is necessary.
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Death of a Snowman

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 12th, 2010

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A mysterious figure or organization going by the name of War on Crime is apparently engaged in just that in the streets of Soweto. Known drug dealers are being gunned down. On the case is Lt. Deel (Nigel Davenport). Caught up in the case is newspaperman Chaka (Ken Gampu), who is contacted by War on Crime and given tips as to when the next attack will take place. Deel and Chaka are friends of long standing, but their friendship is challenged by the fact that the police captain now views Chaka as a possible accomplice in the vigilante killings. The question, too, is whether there is more to these killings than meets the eye.
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The Disappearance of Alice Creed (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 1st, 2010

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The axiom in Hollywood these days is that more is better. Every year we get inundated with blockbuster films sporting $200 million budgets, groundbreaking f/x, epic journeys and casts of thousands. Enter first-time director J. Blakeson and his intimate and quite claustrophobic thriller, The Disappearance Of Alice Creed. Right from the start we know that we’re in for something completely different. There are no opening credits of any kind. There isn’t even a title screen.
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The Gathering (2010)

Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 25th, 2010

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A surgeon named Michael Foster, played by Peter Gallagher, has his world turned upside down when his wife disappears one morning without a trace. Initially he suspected she was having an affair and ran away with another man, but as strange evidence gathers he soon realizes that she has been a part of a strange coven of witches and her disappearance might not have been her choice.
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Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 15th, 2010

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“The rule of law, it must be held high! And, if it falls, you pick it up and hold it even higher. For all society, all civilized people will have nothing to shelter them if it is destroyed.”

Agatha Christie created the rotund Belgian detective in 1920 with the book The Mysterious Affair At Styles. The detective would go on to feature in about 30 more books over the years. He was a distinctive character.
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Dolan’s Cadillac

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 22nd, 2010

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Wow, someone took Dolan’s Cadillac, one of my favourite Stephen King short stories, and made it into a movie! Awesome! Cool, not a bad cast either. Christian Slater and Wes Bentley. Good actors. A little bit of edge to them. This might be alright. What’s that? It’s a straight to DVD release? Well that’s not promising. Hmm? It was made in Saskatchewan? By a Canadian sit-com director? Okay, now you’re just messing with me…

As it turns out, it’s all true. King’s sun-scorched tale of madness and revenge has indeed been brought to the screen, even if that screen is the one hooked up to your DVD player.

“31 Nights of Terror”: Seven Days

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 5th, 2010

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Bruno Hamel (Claude Legault), a surgeon, and his wife Sylvie (Fanny Mallette) enjoy an afternoon tryst while their young daughter Jasmine (Rose-Marie Coallier) heads off to school. Tragedy strikes, though, when Jasmine is assaulted and killed by pedophile Anthony Lemaire (Martin Dubreuil). Bruno and Sylvie are devastated, and each deals with the tragedy an unhealthy way, with Sylvie withdrawing from the world and her husband, and Bruno plotting vengeance. Lemaire is caught, but doesn’t remain in police custody long, since Bruno kidnaps him and carries him off to a secluded cottage in the forest. His plan: torture Lemaire for the seven days leading up to what would have been Jasmine’s birthday, and then kill him. The police investigation becomes at least as much about saving Bruno’s soul as it is about saving Lemaire’s life.
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Sherlock Holmes Double Feature: Sherlock Holmes Faces Death and Sherlock Holmes in Washington

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 21st, 2010

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“Sherlock Holmes, the immortal character of fiction. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he’s ageless, invincible and unchanging. In solving significant problems of the present day, he remains — as ever — the supreme master of deductive reasoning.”

In 1887, readers of the popular periodical Beeton’s Christmas Annual were to receive quite a special treat. There wasn’t much fanfare or hype to the event. Inside the pages of the magazine was a story called A Study In Scarlet. It was a detective story, perhaps like many published before, except for the detective himself, a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
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Experiment, The (Blu-Ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 16th, 2010

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Most people are aware that I don’t care for romantic comedies but nothing gets under my skin more than a horrible prison movie. My attempts to forget the movie are usually successful until the next time a similar movie appears in my review pile. Maybe it is the cliché plot, the contrived and stereo-typed characters, or the male on male forced action. How would a movie fare where it simulates the jail experience in a behavioral experiment? I dare to find out.
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Dorian Gray (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 25th, 2010

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“The truth is, I’ve done dreadful things. My life has been a monstrous corruption. And there will be a price to pay.”

The Picture Of Dorian Gray was actually Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel. It was quite a controversial subject when it first arrived on the scene in 1890, but not because of the horror element. The book is often sexually explicit and contains more than a flirtation with homosexuality. The main themes have survived, but much of the work itself has been forgotten. We know the work almost exclusively from the classic film from 1945 where Hurd Hatfield played the title character
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Ca$h

Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on August 23rd, 2010

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A robber tosses his loot onto a freeway and it lands on the hood of a random passerby. Said passerby decides to keep the $600,000+ and use it to buy brand new…everything, for him and his wife. While the robber gets incarcerated, he offers half the money to his twin brother if he can track it down. If the young couple flashes their money around and started paying cash for big ticket items, they will be hunted down…they do, and they are.
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