Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 13th, 2007
The film that arguably more than any other put director Alfonso Cuarón and actor Gael García Bernal on the map, Y Tu Mamá También is a smart, funny, extremely erotic tale of two young friends travelling across Mexico in the company of an older, sexually experienced woman. It’s a great film. But this isn’t the DVD you should watch to appreciate it. In this day and age of a veritable deluge of discs boasting unrated versions of their theatrical release, what, pray tell, is the point of an R rated DVD butchering of a unrated theatrical release? Fully six minutes are missing. The 100 that remain are, of course, excellent, but what is here is not the director’s vision. There is terrible irony in box boasting a blurb that exults in how “unafraid of sexuality” the movie is, when the DVD is clearly terrified. As punishment, I’m cutting the film’s star rating in half, not to reflect on Cuarón’s work, but on what has been done to it. The unrated version is out there, released at the same time as this. Track it down instead.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 13th, 2007
"Remember when I promised I'd kill you last? I lied."
Time to relieve the glory days. Arguably the finest of Schwarzenegger's over-the-top, muscle-bound 80s action flicks, Commando is finally getting the respect it deserves. This is the perfect example of a movie so bad it's good. Really bad, and really good. Commando has it all: copious one-liners, a ridiculously huge Ah-nold physique, and a body count so high you'll run out of fingers and toes in no time flat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 12th, 2007
Writer note: Apologies to Brendan who did the fine HD-DVD review for this flic. Some hack had to pick up the slack for the regular DVD and present a slightly alternate view. (and a different interpretation of english grammar)
Ever see Shaun of the Dead? No? Don't worry, not too many people did either. This fine film directed by Edgar Wright was a parody and homeage to the George Romero Dead films. Full of comedy and nods to the genre, it was a very good but mostly forgotten flic. Fast forward to 2007 and Edgar Wright along with Simon Pegg (who would also play the character of Nicholas Angel) decide to write the homeage to action movies: Hot Fuzz.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 12th, 2007
At long last, we've received the two greatest films of the 80's on DVD. Finally. Ok, maybe not the greatest films - they're ok at best - but this is the first time they've been released on DVD. Wait, that's not true either. Desperately Seeking Susan, Madonna's sixth best movie, hit the streets on DVD in 2000. And Something Wild, one of the answers to "what was Johnathan Demme doing before Silence of the Lambs?" has been available since 2001.
So what's special about this Totally Awesome 80s Double Feature? Shelf space. You can fit two films in one spot, thanks to MGM's efficient packaging.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 12th, 2007
I love horror movies, but lately Hollywood hasn’t done it for me, and Wrong Turn wasn’t an exception. So I wonder how a low budget sequel is going to manage to be better than its phony prequel. But I won’t judge this one until I’ve seen, lets just hope its nothing like The Hills Have Eyes 2, or The Grudge 2, etc.
Wrong Turn 2 takes off shortly after the events of the first film. Right away I’ll let you know that other than the mutant freaks of the first film, this movie has no other links to the first installment, i.e. characters. Slightly off topic, I’ve always thought a movie about a group of reality contestants fooled into thinking they were in a post apocalyptic world could be interesting. This is probably as close as my vision will get to being realized, as it’s about a group of people in a simulated post apocalyptic world who are competing for $100,000. Instead things start getting messed up at the cannibalistic mutants start to show up.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 11th, 2007
It’s good taste time once again, as we follow the unfortunate Amber (Grace Johnston) as she falls into the clutches of your usual gang of inbred hillbillies. These psychos have kidnapped a number of women. They then force them to fight to the death, with the idea that the winner will get to carry on the clan’s bloodline. Charming.
Lord knows the backwoods horror film is not, nor should it be expected to be, a bastion of quiet restraint, but we’ve got a pretty unequivocally misogynist premise here, and the execution does little to mitigate it, despite Johnston’s best efforts. The filmmaking is pedestrian, though not incompetent, but this is a cynical, exploitive work that is also derivative and dull.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 10th, 2007
Would you believe me if I told you a nature documentary was responsible for the advent of the summer blockbuster? Common film lore says Steven Spielberg's Jaws was the first of the now familiar summer smashes. Jaws was based Peter Benchley's book of the same name. Benchley was inspired by Blue Water, White Death, a groundbreaking documentary film about divers on a nine-month expedition to seek out, film and swim with a Great White Shark.
That's one reason you should watch Blue Water, White Death. There are easily a hundred more.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 10th, 2007
Written by Evan Braun
Unfortunately, one of the best things you could say about the first season of ’Til Death is that it’s consistently inconsistent. It’s sometimes boring, it’s sometimes sentimental. Occasionally it’s angry. From time to time, it’s even funny. That said, I have a hard time believing the back cover’s assertion that this sitcom is a “top rated comedy.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 8th, 2007
There are those of us who love Will Ferrell and just about everything he’s done lately, and there are those of you who can’t stand the guy. Read that last sentence carefully and you’ll be able to determine which one I am, but I’m sure you won’t have to read much past this sentence to figure it out anyways. Starting back with A Night at the Roxbury and ranging to Old School and Anchorman, comedically I can’t get enough of these nonsense full movies. Surprisingly I didn’t check this one out in the theatres, but I eagerly welcome the opportunity now.
Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder, School For Scoundrels) are rival world class figure skaters. During the 2002 WinterSport games the two tie for a Gold medal which leads to a scuffle, ultimately banning the two from the sport. Three years go by and the two are working dead end skate related jobs, Chazz is a drunken ice show performer, and Jimmy sells skates at a local sports store. Jimmy then learns from an obsessed fan (Nick Swardson, The Benchwarmers) that through a loophole he is only banned from singles figure skating, not pairs. Of course one thing leads to another and after a hilarious fist fight, Jimmy teams up with Chazz against both their volition. What ensues is some pretty funny stuff as the two try to get ready in time for the WinterSport games in Montreal.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 8th, 2007
Wow, the '80s were just full of pretentious crap, and for all the good that Fast Times at Ridgemont High offered, you know Hollywood, they simply can't just stop at one, so there was Hardbodies, Joysticks and other films that attempted to capture the spirit of fun and lightheartedness, while mixing in the occasional drug reference with copious amounts of nudity, some of it welcome, but most of it bordering on exploitative.
In the eminent wisdom of MGM/Fox, they have decided to release two of those films as an affordably priced package for those who are nostalgic past Bachelor Party or Ski School. The concept within both films is similar, with a group of guys (sometimes involving one fat guy, perhaps to capture the spirit of a recently dead John Belushi, but that's neither here nor there) looking to "get some", with one of the guys, usually the quietest and most reserved winding up with the girl he's been pining after. In the first one, Losin' It covers a group of friends who drive to Tijuana to, lose it, for lack of a better word. The story itself is forgettable for a myriad of reasons, but it is notable for the names that are involved in this project. Aside from the names that we know (yes, Tom Cruise was in this, as well as Shelley Long, who was red hot in her Cheers period), and upon further review, Curtis fricken' Hanson directed this thing! Who would have thought that the guy who did L.A. Confidential would direct the guy from Minority Report several years before they hit superstardom? John Stockwell would also appear in My Science Project, but he also appeared in Top Gun with Rick Rossovich, who also appears in this. And Jackie Earle Haley, who played Kelly Leak in the Bad News Bears films, also appears as one of the buddies too. Like I said, overall this is pretty predictable, but the kitsch lasts longer than the film's appeal. The disc physically cracked as I was playing this movie, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.
