Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 30th, 2007
I have to admit that I have never heard of this film prior to receiving it for review, so I went into this one completely blind without any expectations. My only guess was that this would be some sort of fantasy/horror film, and it turns out I was right. Perfect Creature is a different sort of take on a vampire film which makes it rather unique, but how’s it going to end up?
Set in a fictitious New Zealand referred to as Nuovo Zelandia, Perfect Creature takes place in an alternate world not unlike our own. There is, of course, one major difference, which is the acceptance of vampires as the next level of evolution in human beings, referred to as The Brotherhood. Members of The Brotherhood and humans have a pact in which they live amongst each other in harmony, humans donating blood at the churches to quench the thirst of the vampires. That is, at least, until the renegade vampire Edgar begins attacking and killing human beings. Lilly, the local hard-knock cop, who has lost her entire family to a sweeping influenza epidemic, teams up with Edgar’s brother Silus who wants to protect the rights of The Brotherhood and stop Edgar’s madness. Eventually, the two succeed and even share a few almost romantic moments, but before long Edgar escapes the confines of The Brotherhood once again, and he carries with him a dark secret powerful enough to change the society forever.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 30th, 2007
Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) are best of buddies who share a flat with another roomie. Shaun works hard at a local electronics store, while Ed doesn’t really accomplish much besides playing games. Shaun has recently become despondent after breaking it off with his girlfriend Lizzie and fails to notice that London is slowing being taken over by zombies. When Shaun realizes what’s occurring, he and Ed must work together to fight these creatures off as well as now travel to save Shaun’s mum and his ex/girlfriend from these zombies.
Along the way, a few laughs are found, but the film’s main theme of trying to include romance with a comedy, just didn’t overall click for me (especially when compared to their follow-up film Hot Fuzz).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 29th, 2007
I’ve been in this run lately where I’ve seen quite a bit of Brad Pitt’s dramatic work from his earlier days, before he decided to funk himself up (and earn the respect of young males everywhere with Fight Club), and in the sprawling film Meet Joe Black, he tackles a different take on a character with a respected cast and crew behind him.
The film is a remake of the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday and this version was adapted by a cast of hundreds (well, four actually), and directed by Martin Brest, who was directing his first him after 1992’s Scent of a Woman. In this, Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs) is a successful communications mogul about to celebrate his 65th birthday. He has two daughters in Allison (Marcia Gay Harden, Pollock) and Susan (Claire Forlani, Mallrats) and quite frankly couldn’t ask for more. However things change when one morning he has sharp chest pains, as if he’s having a heart attack, but he pulls through it. That night at dinner, he is greeted by a guest, a strapping young man (in the form of Pitt) who tells him that he’s the grim reaper, Death himself. He tells Bill that he would like to spend some time with him before taking him, and if Bill tells anyone who he is, he’ll take him beforehand.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 29th, 2007
In 1997, Hal Hartley put out a film called Henry Fool. It was the story of an introvertish garbage man Simon who makes friends with Henry Fool, a witty but talent-less novelist. Simon ascends to be a great poet while Henry finds the bottomless pit of alcoholic brew. However, the plot turns around and Simon helps Henry to flee the country since he has a criminal past. The movie did seem to hint at a sequel but didn't see one until 10 years later. Fay Grim tries to pick up where Henry Fool left off. It includes many of the same cast of characters.
Parker Posey returns as Fay Grim, the wife of Henry Fool (she took back her maiden name after his death). She becomes the focus for this movie. Donning a leather coat with fake pockets, she goes around Europe and the Middle East in search of Henry's missing notebooks. These notebooks apparently contain some government secrets that lead to a game of deadly espionage. Back at home, Simon Grim (played by James Urbaniak) is serving a prison term for keeping his mouth shut regarding Henry Fool's escape from the country. Ned (played by Liam Aiken)(Fay's 14 year old son) and Angus James (played by Chuck Montgomery)(Simon's publisher) also return as important characters for the sequel. However, new characters are on foot here too. The most important is the role of Agent Fulbright (played by Jeff Goldblum). Jeff as Fulbright does an excellent job of being the main opposition of the film as he is trying to investigate the notebooks and seeing if he can convince Fay to do his dirty work for him.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 28th, 2007
I still remember the first time I watched a Spawn animated episode. I was with my parents in my younger years on what I believe was the last vacation we ever took together. It was a hotel we were staying at which had HBO (I never had that channel growing up). I had read Spawn but didn't even know of the animated series. The fact it was late at night and on a premium movie channel meant it had to be good. I was simply blown away and remember telling my parents that we had to be back at the hotel to watch it again the next night. I remember that later I would procure used copies of the series. All beat up, in snapper cases, it didn't matter. I soon dumped those copies in a couple of years and hoped that it would get reissued in a nice box set. That time has come, Spawn has come home.
Spawn is Todd McFarlane's baby; his issue of defiance when he and a group of artists started Image Comics. Great art, compelling stories and no boundaries. Spawn was the story of Al Simmons who sold his soul to the demon Malebolgia so that he come back to avenge his death and be with his wife Wanda one more time. Problem was once that occurred he was to become an undead "hellspawn". So he fights that control constantly along with enemies from that conflict and those enemies in the human world that would bring him harm. He is not a superhero so much but the boogieman, a character that lives in the shadows and comes out at night to take care of business and then return to those same shadows by morning.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 28th, 2007
What is it about British comedy that is so damn funny? I suppose the humor behind it is their use of language and pronunciation (similar to how us in the Boston area add ‘r’ to everything like idea). When I heard about the creators of Shaun of the Dead (a film I still have yet to see but have heard a plethora of positives about), I became interested. When I heard that the film was going to be based on the police force in London, I knew this one would be a classic. Luckily, I was completely correct.
Hot Fuzz tells the story of Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), a cop who is almost too good. His arrest record is a whopping 400% higher than any other cop in London and he’s received more awards than people can think of. Because of him being, well, too qualified, the top chief determines that he’s embarrassing the department. His punishment? He’s shipped off to Sandford (real-life town of Wells), a town whose police force and town members do everything for “the greater goodâ€. Soon a set of murders causes Angel and his new partner Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) (mostly Angel actually) to look further into this town. Is there more than meets the eye?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 27th, 2007
I have to say right off the get go, these are two movies I’ve never heard of and I’m guessing it would have probably been better kept that way. Still I’m going into this review completely unbiased but rather just with the expectations of horrendously typical 80’s comedy. At least there are a few recognizable actors including Rob Lowe, John Cusack, and Virginia Madsen in Class and Kelly Preston, Lori Loughlin, and Fred Ward in Secret Admirer. At any rate lets see how these dubbed 80’s classics turn out.
I’ll start off with Class which has a better cast and was easily the better of the two, which isn’t saying much for either. Jonathon (Andrew McCarthy, Pretty in Pink) is a country boy who gets a scholarship to a posh school where he’s roomed up with his Skip (Rob Lowe, Tommy Boy), who pretty much his opposite. But despite their different backgrounds Skip takes it upon him to see that naïve Jonathon looses his virginity. He sends him off to Chicago where Jonathon meets an older woman with whom he shares an affair, only ending once she realizes he’s underage. But things get complicated one day when Skip takes Jonathon home and finds out the woman from Chicago is Skip’s mom, and Skip finds out about the affair and that’s when things get messy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 27th, 2007
Although I was never really motivated to check this movie out on my own, I had just recently heard of it and thought it could be fun. It doesn’t have any A list stars in it, but rather has a nice collection of well enough known actors and actresses including Zooey Deschanel, Michael Rappaport, Aaron Stanford, and Paul Schneider. Already I’ve heard this film to be a cross between Bottle Rocket and Fargo, well I don’t know if those statements have any warrant, I can only hope they do and Live Free or Die turns out to be a hit. Writers Gregg Kavet and Andy Robin did some writing on Seinfeld so I can only hope a bit of that can rub off on this one.
Simply put John “Rugged†Rudgate (Aaron Stanford, The Hills Have Eyes) is a wankster, a small time crook who has aspirations of being a gangster. He spends most of his day selling speakers on the street that is until his old buddy Jeff Lagrand (Paul Schneider, The Family Stone) comes back to town. Jeff and his sister Cheryl (Zooey Deschanel, Elf) have inherited a storage facility from their deceased father, but John sees this as an opportunity for criminal endeavors. But close on his tail is the emotionally unstable cop Putney (Michael Rappaport, The War at Home), who is very determined to bring John down.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 27th, 2007
With a cast that includes several well known actors, I couldn't believe that I hadn't heard of this movie prior to reviewing it. This really didn't worry me however, because in the past I’ve always enjoyed low budget Indy films. So how does Played stack up?
Played dissects the lives of players in the London underground ring of crime, from the hustlers to the crooked cops. After an elaborate heist goes all wrong small time thief Ray Burns takes the fall and is sentenced to eight years in prison. He keeps his mouth shut and does his time with only one thing on his mind, revenge. As he hits the streets he finds out that the scam goes above and beyond what he expected and the true players become revealed. At certain points it seems like everyone is playing everyone and it really keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 27th, 2007
Some of you may know John Grisham as a politician or an attorney but that’s not very likely. Like me you probably know him as an author of some of the best legal/crime fiction novels. His works have made their way to the big screen several times including; The Firm, Runaway Jury, A Time To Kill, The Client, and of course The Rainmaker. Although it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen any of the aforementioned films I do remember them all being rather good, I just hope The Rainmaker can live up to what I remember.
Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon, The Bourne Identity) has recently graduated from the University of Memphis Law School, but can’t nail a well paying job. Eventually he resorts to something that goes against his principles and becomes an associate to J. Lyman “Bruiser†Stone (Mickey Rourke, Sin City), a cutthroat and successful ambulance chaser. On the brink of bankruptcy things aren’t looking very promising for Rudy, especially once his employer’s office is raided by the FBI. Nonetheless Rudy decides to stay on a case he had just accepted and enlists the help of associate Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito, Twins). Although Deck has failed his bar exam multiple times he has experience working with insurance companies and excels at information gathering.
![Shaun of the Dead [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/shaun-of-the-dead-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Meet Joe Black [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/meet-joe-black-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Hot Fuzz (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/hot-fuzz-combo-hd-dvd-and-standard-large.jpg)
