Disc Reviews

"It is the unknown that defines our existence. We are constantly searching, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions. We are explorers. We explore our lives day by day, and we explore the galaxy trying to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. And that is why I am here: not to conquer you with weapons or ideas, but to coexist and learn." 

No Star Trek series has divided Trek fans as much as the 1993 release of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It had been six years since the franchise had been resurrected on television with The Next Generation. Next Generation won over the Trek community and had enjoyed a pretty solid run. But it was coming to an end soon, and the folks at Paramount didn't want to see the ratings train leave the station quite so soon. Creator Gene Roddenberry died two years earlier, and this would be the first entry into the franchise that was not guided by his own hand. Rick Berman and Michael Piller, who had both worked on Next Generation, were tapped to create the next true generation of Star Trek television shows. The result was Deep Space Nine. While it would be introduced with Patrick Stewart's beloved Captain Jean-Luc Picard, it would lead to unrest in the fan-base and accusations that Roddenberry's dream had been jettisoned from the franchise. I must admit that I never really warmed up to the show at the time. It was only later through DVD releases that I was able to watch the show with both distance and some context and I truly started to appreciate the show. It still doesn't rank as one of my favorites, but having an opportunity to see it all as a 7-year project, I grew to enjoy many of the characters and even some of the stories. Deep Space Nine introduced the long-form story arc to the franchise, and that certainly can be better appreciated by having it all unfold before you as episode immediately follows episode. It's an opportunity you now have with the release of the entire series in one collection.

Have no fear, Michael Jai White is here, in a role that is outside the norm that has been established for him in recent years. You know the one, kicking ass and taking names, usually without a shirt on. However, in The Crooked Man, a horror film, he is doing quite the opposite, and also unlike him, he is not the focal point, as the story focuses on a young girl named Olivia, who finds herself not only framed for her friend’s death at the hands of the Crooked Man, but institutionalized when no one believes her story. An intriguing premise, but a bit long in the tooth, if you know what I mean. That said, it does earn the title of best television movie of 2017 for me, but we shall see how long its reign lasts, as we are only two months into the year.

Olivia Shaw’s life changed the night of a sleepover when she and her friends recited a rhyme, which called a murderous apparition known as the Crooked Man.  Framed for the murder of one of her friends, Olivia quickly tells the truth about what happened, only for her claims to fall on deaf ears. Confined to a psychiatric facility for six years, the murders stop, quickly putting an end to the Crooked Man’s murder, furthering public opinion that she is responsible. Upon her return to her hometown, she finds herself ostracized by her former friends, who too believe that she killed their friend, as well as the victim of vandalism by the townspeople.

Exploitation film has reached a point where there are just too many subgenres to count, or to care about for that matter. This film combines three of the subgenres into one incoherent amalgamation of boredom: Blaxploitation, Kung Fu flicks, and “Brucesploitation.” While the two former concepts should be familiar outside of the realm of cinephilia, Brucesploitation may be a little more difficult to grasp. Basically, after the death of Bruce Lee, filmmakers began to capitalize on Lee’s image posthumously, by using barely passable lookalikes such as Bruce Le or Bruce Li as lead martial artists. In the case of The Black Dragon’s Revenge, only Bruce Lee’s name was used, but he was an important concept to the ideas given by the plot of the film. However, with the three subgenres combined, a paper-thin plot, and abnormally slow pacing, The Black Dragon’s Revenge manages to transcend the concept of “leaving much to be desired.”

The film’s protagonist, Ron Van Clief, or The Black Dragon, plays himself in a plot that suggests a quasi-reality in which Bruce Lee had written a secret martial arts style before he was killed. It is up to The Black Dragon to find this manuscript and discover the reason that Bruce Lee was killed. That is what the film’s box and other reviews suggest to be the story’s plot. However, when watching, it is incredibly easy to get lost, considering each character has an insanely limited agency. As the film progresses, you are introduced to more characters that don’t have a perceived logical contribution to the advancement of the story, yet they stick around, and you are expected to understand why. Unfortunately, the poorly written plot is the first step towards a very unbalanced ratio concerning bad to good.

When it comes to having a serial killer being used as the main character or used as the anti-hero, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.  Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and of course Dexter are titles that first come to mind.  The difference between these two titles is that we understand their code, or see the lack of code, when it comes to whom they choose to kill.  It’s escapist entertainment, and I appreciate the morbidity of rooting for such deplorable characters, but that’s what cinema and television do; they take us along for a ride that reality cannot.  When it comes to Dead West, we’re on board for a cross-country trip with a serial killer, but sadly this is a trip that had me reaching for the door handle before arriving at our destination.

When we first meet “The Ladykiller” (Brian Sutherland), he’s at a honkytonk bar in Texas and has his eye on one of the patrons who seems to have an eye on him as well.  After a little small talk, he leads her behind the bar, and after he decides she’s not to his liking, he kills her.  Apparently this is the M.O. for the killer, killing pretty young blondes, except this blonde has a brother Tony (Jeffrey Arrington) who wants revenge for his sister’s death.  It’s a simple setup to get the story rolling, but the problem is there is nothing much else on display.

"It killed 102 people, brutally mauling its human prey. Its victims are all women and children. The worst attack by an unknown beast in history, and the basis for the legend of the werewolf. Two investigators set out to solve the mystery. Applying modern day forensics, they hunt to uncover the real wolfman."

With the Universal remake of one of its classic monsters, you can expect to see a lot of related material come out of the woodwork to capitalize on the buzz. Unfortunately, the remake of The Wolf Man pretty much tanked, plagued more by too many internal problems than the full moon. Still, the legends and stories are out there, and it might be fun to check some of this stuff out. There's likely to be a few interesting tales out there to entertain us and help us to overcome the sting of unmet expectations.

If you have any love for Italian horror films, then you know the names Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci are the ones that cause the most excitement. Both directors have made a name for themselves in horror cinema, each providing their own authorship within their own interests. Much like debate concerning The Beatles or The Stones, cinephiles typically side with one over the other. Yes, Argento has conjured dreamlike, character-driven horror that has haunted our minds over the decades (Suspiria, Phenomena), but the late Lucio Fulci has a seemingly innate ability to create landscapes of terror that consistently push the envelope of realistic gore (Zombi, The Beyond). While I do tend to favor Fulci, I am well aware of both of their contributions and influence to horror cinema as a whole. Even though they have notable differences, The Wax Mask offers a collaboration between the two greats prior to Fulci’s death in 1996.

The story, written by both Argento and Fulci, is an adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s “The Waxwork Museum.” The plot involves a mysterious wax museum in 1922 Italy, whose curator has an interesting fetish for the macabre: he only creates scenes of famous murders. Whether it is the slaying of the gorgon Medusa, the mysterious case of Jack the Ripper, or a more contemporary double murder, he creates the scenes for his museum. However, as the film progresses, a reporter and the museum’s newest employee discover the curator’s unorthodox methods of creating his sculptures, as well as the dark history surrounding the curator’s family.