Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 15th, 2008
Barrows, Alaska, is just settling down for a month-long winter’s night. Many of the residents leave for the dark period, but those who remain encounter a series of strange crimes (all the cell phones in town being stolen and melted, for instance). It turns out that the incidents are the work of a man preparing the way for an invasion of vampires. After all, what better hunting ground than a town with no day? Josh Hartnett leads a dwindling band who hunker down and struggle against overwhelming odds.
Faithfully transcribing Steve Niles’ graphic novel to the screen, this is an enormous breath of fresh air in a horror market dominated by poor remakes of Asian films and tired franchises. The opening shots are breathtaking in their beauty, simultaneously (and appropriately) echo Nosferatu and John Carpenter’s version of The Thing. Those are the films that are the spiritual forefathers of this one, which melds the atmospheric chill of the latter with the thoroughly horrible vampires of the former. There is nothing glamorous about these vampires. They are completely vicious, ghastly creations, and are thus the first truly frightening vampires to grace theatrical screens in many and many a year. But as unappealing as its monsters are, the film is nonetheless filled with images of beauty as breathtaking as it is terrible. An overhead shot of the town under siege is a perfect example, and demonstrates a real commitment to the art of horror on the part of the filmmakers. If the sense of hopelesness and dread can’t fully be sustained for the length of the film, this is nonetheless one of the most effective and gorgeously crafted horror films in recent memory.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 13th, 2008
Waitress is a film that could easily be passed-over as a tired, generic chick flick when perusing the DVD section of your favorite retailer. Those that take a chance on this underrated film, however, are in for a real treat. This is a film that has genuine heart, is honest and surprisingly funny.
Keri Russell stars as a down-on-her-luck waitress that makes pies in a small town diner. When she discovers that she is pregnant, she begins to want more than her lowlife husband is giving her. Unfortunately, she seems to find what she is looking for in her Doctor.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 13th, 2008
There was a new Cowboy in
There is a discrepancy in the season numbers that I should explain here. Most episode guides will refer to this collection of episodes as the fifth season. The first season of
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 13th, 2008
Family Ties is likely remembered most as the series that launched the career of Michael J. Fox. There’s no question that he owes a great debt to Alex Keaton. It’s almost a bit awkward now to watch him as this young, extremely conservative teenager after Fox has spent so much of his life as a liberal poster boy in the last couple of elections. Politics aside, it’s hard not to credit his performances in Family Ties and the Back To The Future films for launching him into a well deserved lucrative career. The Michael J. Fox issue, however, might hide some of the other assets the show had going for it in its time. For one of the first times parents were portrayed as humanly flawed, and families were not the perfectly functional institutions most of these shows described. Up until Family Ties, these households were either perfect little examples of American ideal or they were so dysfunctional that they could hardly be considered families at all. This show obviously went for a bit of realism.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 12th, 2008
The original Bachelor's Party was produced roughly 25 years ago in the 80's. Drugs, Sex, Tom Hanks and a donkey with a taste for belly dancing and cocaine all highlighted this cult favorite film that actually did very well for it's time and genre. However, 2008 decided to release a sequel to this movie. Naturally, they could not get Tom Hanks to even do a cameo since he's busy doing important films that involve him walking around an airport or naming inanimate objects "Wilson". However, throw in some hot comics and even hotter females with some solid writing and you might just have a really fun and racucous time.
Ron (played by Josh Cooke) and has fallen in love with Melinda(played bySara Foster). They decide to get married and Ron's friends decide to throw him a bachelor party at the local strip joint. However, Ron's future brother in law, Todd (played by Warren Christie ) decides to take them to something a little more crazy and fancy. He books a vacation for Ron, his friends and himself to a scantily clad hideaway on the family's company tab. Ron tries his best to remain faithful to Melinda and still have a good time around a bevy of booze and beauties.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 11th, 2008
The web has a way of delivering some of the most interesting material. Flash animation in particular can produce some very funny shorts. Furthermore, these shorts are unedited and can be downloaded by millions of people on a whim. These viral episodes can be played over and over again, with little care to the quality or the content. But what happens when they take that idea and decide to make into a feature length film? In this case, proof that people will download anything.
Jake is the king of poon nanni. He'll screw anything in a skirt and come back for sloppy seconds. However, Siton is not so lucky in the conquering of young females. In fact, he's never been fortunate enough to get a girl to sit a top of his knob. One night, Jake uses Siton as his wing man in his quest for more tastes of the forbidden fruit. After Siton fails to close the deal, Jake realizes that this character needs a little more help. We also find out that Siton is actually a prince. Thus begins the journey where Jake and Prince Siton go across the world trying to find beautiful women and more importantly one that gives the prince his first taste of that casual sex.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 10th, 2008
It'll be interesting when man travels past the moon to far away places in outer space. The science of it will be reason enough for the rest of the world's population to pay attention, but I want to find out, more than anything, if every deep space crew in real life runs into the same problems that they do in the movies.
In Sunshine, a movie by director Danny Boyle, I thought that the deep space crew in the film would be relatively free of space movie cliches. This just didn't seem like one of those movies. But I'll be damned if at the end of the movie Cillian Murphy wasn't racing panicked through the corridor of his space ship, determined to detonate a nuclear bomb before a clock reached zero.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 9th, 2008
Early on, it's easy to tell that Mr. Brooks doesn't take itself seriously.
At least I hope it didn't.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 9th, 2008
The Aristocats has the distinction of being the very last animated project that was greenlit by Walt Disney himself before his passing. The film reveals all of the classic elements that Walt believed a good animation project should contain. He went to the famous Sherman Brothers to provide sing-a-longable songs and utilized the best voice talents in the Disney arsenal. While the animation is not quite as good as some of the other films made during this animation golden age, it still met the high standard Walt Disney had already established. You won’t find quite so fluid movements as The Jungle Book and there certainly isn’t the stylish charm from The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, but the spirit of Walt can certainly be felt if not always seen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 8th, 2008
Ever find yourself shuffling around your local video store, eyes glazed over at all of typical genre fare studios churn out year after year, longing for something different? You could head over to the independent/festival section for relief, but it might mean straying farther from your usual tastes than you’d like. Enter The Brave One, an intelligent thriller that takes the usual revenge tale and rearranges its DNA. It offers the unusual perspective of director Neil Jordan (The Good Thief) and Jodie Foster’s finest performance since The Silence of the Lambs.
Foster stars as Erica Bain, a New Yorker whose life is torn apart by a vicious attack that leaves her in a coma and her fiancé dead. When she comes to weeks later, she learns of his death and funeral, and she cannot remember enough from those dark moments in Central Park to help the police track down the killers. Bain, host of an I-love-NY radio show called “I Walk the Streets,” can now hardly bear leaving her apartment. Fear controls her. The city she once loved has become a terrible place where danger lurks everywhere, in dark corners and broad daylight. Giving in to her fear, Bain buys a gun off the street, and like Alice down the rabbit-hole, her life spirals into a disturbing adventure.
