Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 7th, 2011
A few years back, Paramount released all eight of the studio’s Friday the 13th films in a so-called “Ultimate Edition.” With cut versions of the films and no 3D, it wasn’t really that ultimate. So here we are again, with another Ultimate Edition (also Limited!) and this time, the package is much more worthy of the name, bringing together all the deluxe versions of the series.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 9th, 2010
Having accidentally blinded a singer during a contract killing, hit man extraordinaire Chow Yun-Fat, consumed with guilt, becomes the woman's protector, and seeks redemption by finding some way to restore her sight. Meanwhile, Danny Lee is the plays-by-his-own-rules cop on his trail, and inevitably the two men will find themselves as unlikely allies in gigantically operatic gunfights.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 17th, 2008
My personal bias may be leaning through but I fully enjoy the Transformers. More than meets the eye, robots in disguise, Starscream for President! Well, he can’t be any worse than the two turkeys we got running right now. Anyhow, after the Generation 1 cartoon series came and gone, we got a slew of off-shoots and attempts at re-creating the cartoon hit that was the Transformers. In the middle of 2005, a series produced by a partnership between Hasbro and Takara came to the fold. It was a sequel to Transformers: Armada & Transformers: Energon. It was called Transformers: Cybertron. Fifty two episodes later, the series ended. Was it any good or did it just get sucked into a black hole?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 12th, 2008
When Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out in 1977, a young Steven Spielberg was coming off of the unexpectedly phenomenal success of Jaws. This was the director's chance to solidify his career as a well-respected filmmaker, and build a lifelong career. While most directors would have either gone the route of making Jaws II or picking up a no-brainer script from a proven scriptwriter, Spielberg wagered his success on the odd tale of a possibly mentally deranged individual's belief in extra-terrestrial life. What he came away with was a film that won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, was nominated for four Golden Globes (including Best Picture and Best Director), and has become synonymous with the legacy of the famed director.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 19th, 2007
When I picked up Rio Bravo – Ultimate Collector’s Edition to review, I realized I had never seen a John Wayne movie. “The Duke” starred in well over 100 films, so I was more than a little surprised at this gaping hole in my viewing repertoire. Then I looked up director Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep) and discovered another long list of films I’ve overlooked. Defensively, I asked myself whether I was really missing out. Could their old movies be worth my time so many years later?
If Rio Bravo is any indication, their films are absolutely worth watching, though they’re perhaps not as masterful as they’re reputed to be. No matter your opinion, this Ultimate Collector’s Edition is one fine DVD set.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
(You’re going to have to forgive me, I’m pulling ample portions of this review from my earlier Divimax review of Dawn, with some exceptions of course.)
Anchor Bay, holding all (or most) of the keys in George Romero’s zombie film trilogy put out a copy of this film now before overloading us we on the remake, done in grainy, handheld 28 Days Later style by director Zack Snyder of 300 lore. A stopgap one disc version was released, followed by this huge-arse four disc version that we’re viewing now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on August 6th, 2007
In the United States, we tend to take for granted; influences. In the case of movies, we take certain film styles for granted. We just figure that they always existed. Doesn't really matter where they came from, we just know we like that style of movie; over and over and over again. Enter Hard Boiled, a 1992 film directed by John Woo. This featured Chow Yun-Fat as Tequila, a hard nosed cop who is on a quest to derail an arms smuggling ring that has both cops and innocent civilians dead in its wake.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 21st, 2007
Synopsis
Honestly, the only thing that I remembered from watching For Your Eyes Only was that Sheena Easton sang the title song (qualifying her as probably the most attractive Scotsperson out there) and that there was a sprawling chase scene involving Roger Moore on skis that was cool. But that’s it. And now that I’m wrapping up this long winding once over for all the James Bond Ultimate Edition DVDs and I get a chance to see everything again, it turns out that this film is a pretty good one.
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Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 1st, 2007
Synopsis
Timothy Dalton might have endured a bit of grief for his short tenure as James Bond, enduring comments equating him to Connery and Moore plagued his two film run, with this one being the last. However, this one was quite the doozy, and almost in the area of “forgotten gem” status.
Written by Richard Maibaum (The Man With the Golden Gun) and producer Michael Wilson, and directed by John Glen (A View to a Kill), Dalton as Bond finds himself as the Best Man to the wedding of lo...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 27th, 2007
Synopsis
In slowly but surely wrapping up my reviews of each and every Ultimate Edition James Bond title on DVD, coming to Thunderball, a sect of people say that this is the quintessential film for the man who quintessentially personified James Bond. So in his fourth outing as the man who likes martinis, cars and women, he encounters a large swath of them all over two hours.
Based on Ian Fleming’s story and directed by Terence Young (From Russia With Love), this installment in the se...
