Disc Reviews

Any time I see a film released with the words Once Upon a Time (insert location), I feel the film is already setting itself up for failure. There are numerous classics that boast that title; Once Upon a Time in the West as well as Once Upon a Time in America are two that come to mind that are classics in their genres.  But then you have Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which for me was a lackluster conclusion to the El Mariachi trilogy.  Now we have the release of Once Upon a Time in Vietnam and, well, despite its attempts to be a big sprawling epic, the film just doesn’t deliver.  Dustin Nguyen puts on many hats in his first feature release, filling in the roles of actor, writer, director and producer.  It’s an ambitious undertaking and seems to be a labor of love; unfortunately, it doesn’t always reflect in the film.

Master Dao (Nguyen) is something of a loner, on a quest to find other warriors like himself.  What Dao plans to do with these warriors simply depends on whether they are good or bad.  In some ways you can see this Dao character in the same vein as The Man With No Name, the similarities are there and are very apparent, but Dao seems to lean more towards the “hero” side, considering he follows in the ways of Buddha.  Once he arrives in a small village, he rents out a room from a couple who have a young rebellious child of their own.

by Normandy D. Piccolo

In 2011, four men, Larry Black (big cat expert), Ben Black (cinematographer/Larry’s brother), Budi (a local) and Adi (a government tracker) ventured into the jungles of West Java, Indonesia in the hopes of finding and filming a documentary about the endangered Javan leopard. Unfortunately they crossed paths with something deadlier, and it was all caught on film.  The Jungle, a documentary/found footage film, was written/directed/produced by Andrew Traucki. Mr. Traucki’s other works include the ocean thriller, The Reef (2010), which made the sharks in Deep Blue Sea (1999) look more like tame goldfish. He also wrote/directed, Black Water (2007), a swamp saga that had folks bidding a fishing trip in a bayou adieu. The term ‘gator-bait’ pretty much sums it up.

"We have some interesting times ahead of us."

This is really the tale of two cities; no, not those cities. But like the Dickens character, we are dealing with two different countries, and while neither is going through a revolution, they are two very real and disparate places indeed. Juarez is in Mexico (the state they named those annoying little yip-yip dogs after). Here there is poverty and crime on levels that would make most Americans shudder. There is corruption that runs through every aspect of government. Here most of the police are bought and completely owned by the drug cartels. Here literally thousands of young women and girls disappear or die each year. Americans come here to sin and leave it behind them when they cross the border again.

After the number of horror films I’ve seen, the prospect of going on a road trip and taking a back road seems like just about the worst idea anyone could ever have.  Whether it’s in the mountains where you have to fear backwoods cannibals (Wrong Turn) or it’s the open desert highway and fearing maniacs in semi-trucks (Joy Ride), really, is anywhere safe to travel?  Even the quaint little roadside motel is a place to fear, and I don’t mean the bedbugs either.  No Vacancy comes along on DVD as families and friends are getting ready to embark on the open road, and in case none of the previously-mentioned films were enough to make you think twice about that road trip, perhaps No Vacancy will.

A group of friends are on their way to Vegas; considering they’re all young twenty-somethings, I seriously doubt it’s to catch Celine Dion live on stage.  Drinking and plenty of debauchery seems to be on the menu for these guys, that is until they get two flat tires and are stranded in the middle of nowhere.  The guys set off to find help while leaving the girls behind with the car.  The help that the guys do find turns out to be better than they ever could have expected.

Jim was a Chicago cop who had a disagreement with his boss. That little disagreement was his boss shooting him in the butt for sleeping with his wife. Jim Longworth (Passmore) made out okay. He got a huge settlement and a fresh start in a warm climate. Oh, and you and I got ourselves another one of those smart-aleck detective shows. Not a bad deal, when all is said and done. Much of this used to be covered in an opening credit monologue which has since disappeared. I guess they figure you should know all of this already.

Jim is one of those detectives who thinks he's got a lot of charm. He smiles a lot and appears to be very cavalier about his job, but really takes it very seriously. Unfortunately, he rubs most folks the wrong way. He says whatever comes to mind and doesn't much care who he offends. He works for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), a state police agency. His partner is also the agency's medical examiner Dr. Carlos Sanchez (Gomez). The two have one of those bickering friendship relationships. Jim is now engaged to former hospital intern Callie (Sanchez); she's now moved back from Atlanta so that they can be married. She used to be married to a criminal named Ray who is now in the witness protection program. Local Florida actor Jordan Wall makes a good showing for himself as the eager intern for Carlos. His energy is infectious, to say the least. He was a fortunate find for the show. Intended only as a throwaway character in the pilot, he earned a spot on the regular cast. That's also how actress Michelle Hurd worked a bartender role from the pilot that ended up on the cutting room floor to a part as Jim's boss.

"Lucky Bastard was a pornographic website that invited fans to have sex with porn stars. The following footage is believed to be the last video shot for the site."

You know exactly what that kind of an intro means. You should. The found-footage genre has been around even long before it was turned into a modern trend by The Blair Witch Project. Since that time the genre has appeared in both large- and small-budget films. The shaky footage usually covers a variety of sins by the filmmakers. Rarely does the genre have anything clever or new to dispense. That's not exactly true with Lucky Bastards.