Disc Reviews

Growing up, several of my favorite films were created by Tom Holland; in my eyes this guy is a legend.  He’s responsible for writing and directing Child’s Play and Fright Night, two 80’s classics that most know about, but he also penned Psycho 2, which I know I’m in the minority but I actually like more than Hitchcock’s. But Holland also wrote this other film Cloak and Dagger with Henry Thomas and Dabney Coleman that was released in 1984, and this was just one of several movies I would watch over and over again to the point I’m sure it drove my parents bonkers.  What’s with the trip down memory lane?  Well, I just want to establish how much I do respect Holland and the work he’s done, because some of his films are responsible for the film geek that I am today.  And it’s because of this when I had the opportunity to review Tom Holland’s web series Twisted Tales, I jumped on it.

The web series has a basic enough concept.  Each episode is a short film that is introduced by Tom Holland; all nine episodes are directed by him, but he only gets credit for writing seven of them.  The episodes originally aired on Fear Net which is also responsible for bringing the project to life.  In concept this is great idea, but in the execution of some of these they not only fall short but are simply bad.  Budget lends a hand to what hurts the overall look of the project, but as I moved through the episodes I couldn’t help but feel that most of these shorts were simply based on ideas thrown out or just never fully developed.

Until recently DirecTV's Audience Network was a home for critically acclaimed shows that somehow lost their feet on another network. It started with Friday Night Lights and more recently with Damages. So DirecTV was no stranger to original series production. Now for the very first time the satellite carrier and network have developed their own television series. Rogue would be the first show on the network not to have played somewhere else first. The effort is a collaboration with eOne and Greenhouse Entertainment. From the first 10 episodes of the first season, you can bet it's a pretty wild ride and a relatively strong start.

Grace Travis (Newton) is an undercover cop for the San Jose Police Department, on loan from the Oakland Police Department. She is deep undercover and has managed to get quite close to kingpin Jimmy Laszlo (Csokas).When her son is killed in an apparent random drive-by shooting she is devastated and pulled from her cover and put on leave. That is until she discovers there might be a link between Laszlo's organization and her son's killing. Someone within Jimmy's crew is trying to take him out, and a bullet comparison ties his traitor with her son's death. Without permission she goes back under. When her cover is blown she ends up striking a deal with Jimmy to find the person that both of them want. It's a tricky accommodation that will send ripples through her family and work colleagues.

SyFy Channel is at it again, a film about the near end of the world.  With the backlog of disaster films, you would imagine if there ever was an emergency and the world was on the cusp of massive destruction, thankfully there is a film out there to at least give us an outside-the-box theory of how to prevent the end.  After all it’s not as though NASA or the numerous geniuses working in labs in front of computers or telescopes would have any idea about what to do.  It’s always someone nestled in a small town no one has ever heard of, but this resident has the answers to everything.  It’s with this kind of thinking and obsession with disaster films where End of the World wants its viewers.  This isn’t a film that takes itself seriously, but it also is a far cry from being a parody.

Greg Grunberg (Alias and Heroes) plays Owen Stokes, a disaster-film-obsessed owner of a video store.  It’s a small town, so it doesn’t seem as though Netflix or Red Box has made its corporate invasion quite yet.  Selena (Caroline Cave) is Owen’s girlfriend and doesn’t seem too pleased that he’s forgotten her birthday or that he uses the birthdate of his favorite sci-fi writer Dr. Walter Brown to remind him.  But before their argument can get too out of hand, a solar flare hits the Earth sending bursts of blue energy that destroy whatever it comes into contact with.