Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 13th, 2007
Pulse is a remake of the 2001 Japanese film Kairo which was based on a novel of the same name. The movie opens with Josh entering a dark university library looking for someone named Zieglar, where he is instead met by some creepy old man and an entity that sucks life out of him. At this point everything seemed to be promising, although a bit out there. We soon find out that Josh was the boyfriend of Mattie (Kristen Bell) who is now worried as to where their relationship stands because Josh isn�t speaking with her anymore. She goes to his apartment where Josh is still alive but looking very pale and lifeless. Moments after he asks her to wait for him, he walks into another room and hangs himself using a wire, Mattie is left blaming herself. Shortly after his death Mattie and her friends begin getting messages from Josh online, believing it is a virus Mattie�s friend Stone goes to his apartment to turn off his computer, where he is in turn met by these entities. Basically the rest of the movie is Mattie and her new found friend Dex trying to figure out who these people are and how to stop them, while her friends are slowly being killed one by one.
The movie�s central theme is technology's negative impact on people; instead of connecting people together, it has in fact distanced us from personal and emotional relationships. But maybe that�s getting a little too deep, because that�s exactly the opposite of this movie�s intention. Instead, while keeping that as a core theme, the movie is essentially The Grudge combined with White Noise, The Ring, and Night of The Living Dead with the exception of digital zombies in the place of human-like ones. That�s right, two of the most overrated and weak horror movies, The Grudge and The Ring, essentially piled into one even crappier movie, Pulse. Referring to The Ring, as in Pulse a creature if you will comes from a television and kills people. With reference to The Grudge (another Japanese remake) you got someone wandering around trying to figure out some nonsense plot all the while leaving you to wonder when something scary is going to happen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 9th, 2007
Four years after Jackass: The Movie took the popular MTV franchise to the big screen, Johnny Knoxville and his gang returned to theatres with Jackass - Number Two. The sequel is bigger, bolder and much more disgusting. But is it better?
In my humble opinion, the sequel equates to more of the same. If you loved the original, you'll eat this up. If you hated it - and we both know those are the only two options - you can happily make indignant remarks to any friends or family in the "love it" camp.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 28th, 2006
Jet Li's Fearless is reportedly the star's final martial arts epic. Since we're talking about the guy who did Once Upon a Time in China, Twin Warriors and Hero, that fact alone makes this is a significant film for martial arts fans.
Fearless tells the story of Huo Yuanjia, who in 1910 helped found the Jin Wu Sports Federation (Chin Woo Athletic Association), the first civil Kung Fu organization in China. Li plays Yuanjia, who is a Chinese folk hero. The film follows Yuanjia's life from early childhood until his last days, showing his journey from a weak, little boy to a cocky, selfish bully, and finally to a respected martial arts master and Chinese patriot.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 11th, 2006
(Portions of this review have been pulled from the original one-disc version of Jackass, which can also be found in the reviews portion of the site)Synopsis
One could make an attempt at witty prose by comparing Jackass to the works of Kubrick, Cassavettes, Scorsese, or what have you. But look, it’s a bunch of guys, some of whom have reputations in other circles, such as skateboarder Bam Margera and acclaimed director Spike Jonze, doing stunts that you may not have thought, dared or ...emotely considered doing, and keeping parts of the general public off guard. The gang made a huge splash on MTV, and scores of crazed teens wanted to try what these guys were doing, and maybe appear on the show. I think the quote from Millhouse on the Simpsons says it best: "All those warnings on TV make me want to do it more". The kids would get burned, broken, what have you, and parents who couldn’t crack the whip hard enough at home decided to sue anyone under the sun, despite the profuse warnings on each show, as well as a timeslot shift early on in the series’ life. So Johnny Knoxville became this decade’s Beavis, which I guess makes Steve-O Butthead. So, after judging (perhaps correctly) there wasn’t anything really left to do on TV, they decided to step things up and do a movie, and a $5 million budget led to a gross of over $60 million and a sequel that may make the same amount.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 15th, 2006
There’s a bunch of people stuck in a bar in the middle of nowhere. Monsters want to eat them. What will they do? That about sums up Feast, a film that’s part comedy, part horror, and all around over the top. This is the winning project from season three of Project Greenlight, a contest and documentary series founded by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck back in 2000. What does that mean? Feast is a low-budget film helmed by a rookie director, based on an amateur script.
Rookie and amateur are often words associated with low quality, but this gore-fest is actually pretty good. This is obviously a film made by big fans of horror movies, as it embraces many of the conventions and clichés of the genre, sometimes twisting them around or turning them upside down. The result is a decent amount of uncertainty for the audience, which helps suck us into the tense and scary moments.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006
If Jackass was on the Travel Channel, the result would be Wildboyz. I think this show can best be described as “perversely fascinating”. On the one hand, any sane person would never sit in a hot tub full of alligators, or step into the ring with a champion Thai boxer. On the other hand, it really is fascinating to see these morons visit the wilds of Africa, see rat-infested temples in India or face off against the Russian hockey team. While most travel programs would discuss the history of the locations...they visit, these guys truly experience the places for themselves, no matter the risk to personal safety. For instance, while many know of the ancient ritual of bathing in the Ganges river, only these fools are crazy enough to dive into the disease and sewage-filled water for a bath today.
Finally, a word of clarification; “uncensored” does not really mean uncensored. The language in these episodes is uncensored, but nudity is not. Believe me, it's all for the best. While the thought of visiting a nudist camp or seeing a tribe of cannibals may sound like fun in theory, believe me, once you see the boys visit a nudist camp in Louisiana, you will be thankful that the blurry boxes have been left in.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2006
If Jackass was on the Travel Channel, the result would be Wildboyz. I think this show can best be described as “perversely fascinating”. On the one hand, any sane person would never sit in a hot tub full of alligators, or step into the ring with a champion Thai boxer. On the other hand, it really is fascinating to see these morons visit the wilds of Africa, see rat-infested temples in India or face off against the Russian hockey team. While most travel programs would discuss the history of the locations...they visit, these guys truly experience the places for themselves, no matter the risk to personal safety. For instance, while many know of the ancient ritual of bathing in the Ganges river, only these fools are crazy enough to dive into the disease and sewage-filled water for a bath today.
Finally, a word of clarification; “uncensored” does not really mean uncensored. The language in these episodes is uncensored, but nudity is not. Believe me, it's all for the best. While the thought of visiting a nudist camp or seeing a tribe of cannibals may sound like fun in theory, believe me, once you see the boys visit a nudist camp in Louisiana, you will be thankful that the blurry boxes have been left in.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 25th, 2006
Synopsis
Boy, this haunted technology stuff is getting out of hand. Seems a body can’t touch a single appliance or toy without some evil spirit emerging in smite-mode. In this instance, the problem is a survival-horror video game called Stay Alive, which not only refuses to let you stop playing, after your character dies, you die in the same way. At the root of it all is the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who has been the subject of many a film already. Unaware of this, our usual batch of charact...rs (the Regular Guy, the Regular Girl, the Goth Chick, Her Annoying Brother and the Nerd) must try to beat the game in real life before it beats them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 5th, 2006
Synopsis
Anna Faris takes a job as a social worker, moving into a house with the evil presences we know and love from The Grudge. Meanwhile, next door, Craig Bierko is about to deal with The War of the Worlds. And off we go, as the movie riffs one parody of recent films after another.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 6th, 2006
There is no shortage of vampire stories out there. There’s certainly no shortage of kick butt chicks dressed as sparsely as possible running around in depressed future populated worlds. Underworld, without a doubt, does the combination better than anyone. Ultraviolet makes a grand attempt that really ends up being more of a ride than anything else. Now, I can usually follow the most convoluted storylines, but this one gave me some trouble. It seems that while trying to create a super soldier (where is Mulder and Scully when you need them) the government made a big oops and created something akin to a vampire. Those infected with HGV, (I wonder what connection they’re going for there?), possess extraordinary strength. They also develop light sensitivity and a thirst for blood. After realizing these new hybrid beings weren’t going to quite fit in socially, the plan was to round them up and kill them all. That was the plan, anyway, before the likes of Violet. As part of an underground hemophage movement to survive the genocide, Violet finds herself having to protect a child whose blood might contain a cure or a plague. The inevitable chase through a futuristic city serves more to show off some expensive CG f/x than really further any plot.
Ultraviolet makes the fatal flaw of trying to serve too many purposes. There’s nothing wrong with a thrill ride with plenty of eye candy. Still, Ultraviolet is trying to make too many statements. The obvious HIV inferences, combined with the concentration camp mentality of the totalitarian future, overwhelm us most of the time. Another problem is the f/x are often too slick. More often than not the film just doesn’t appear believable. Now I don’t mean “That’s just not possible” unbelievable. I mean, the picture just doesn’t look real. This is what happens when color correction becomes manic. Everything is so smooth and shiny it looks as though it might as well all have been CG. The action is also almost comical. We’re talking Kill Bill on the believability gauge. She just takes on hundreds of enemies at a time. Before long you’re thinking, Who cares? She’s indestructible. Don’t get me wrong, I rather enjoyed it at times. It’s an over-ambitious thrill ride and nothing more. The problem is, it obviously wants to be so much more than that.
![Pulse [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/pulse-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
