Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on October 24th, 2011
“l know, it must seem like an eternity, but your eternity is only just beginning. Do you really want to spend it trapped here?”
The woman (Mira Sorvino) arrives at a cabin on a remote island in Oregon. At the cabin waits the ghost (Shane West) standing and staring at the woman as she goes about her daily tasks. She can’t see him, but he subtly makes his presence known. When her boyfriend (Justin Kirk) makes a surprise visit to the island, both the ghost and the woman are put out by his presence. Soon the woman begins behaving irrationally and showing the signs of spiritual oppression and possession. Is this because of the ghost or is there a darker presence in the cabin?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on October 24th, 2011
“I'm not a doctor. I haven't been to medical school; I haven't even been to high school.”
A beautiful and moving film based on John Irving’s best-selling American classic The Cider House Rules deals with sensitive and controversial subject matters wrapped inside a captivating coming-of-age story. John Irving had second thoughts about trimming his huge novel into a two-hour film and only agreed to adapt the screenplay after the studio agreed to allow his son, Colin Irving, to be in the movie (He plays Major Winslow in a small role as a notifying officer delivering bad news).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2011
"Now children, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin..."
A good ghost story is actually pretty hard to pull off. Unlike a typical slasher or monster movie, ghost stories can't really depend on visual elements to carry the burden. Certainly, there have been those films where apparitions take on some pretty creepy forms, and that can go a long way. The Asian horror market has explored that world often enough. Still, some of the best ghost stories make their impact on what you can't really see. It's the tale and the telling that makes a film like The Others come to life. It's a film that hasn't really gotten the attention or credit it has deserved over the years. Perhaps with Lionsgate's new Blu-ray release of the 2001 film some of that can be corrected.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 18th, 2011
"This is a simple story, but not an easy one to tell. Like a fable, there is sorrow. And, like a fable, it is full of wonder and happiness."
Roberto Benigni has been somewhat of a staple in Italian cinema for nearly 40 years. He has a solid reputation not only as a talented actor but as a writer and director, as well. He has been known mostly for his comedy, and that's exactly how many people see Life Is Beautiful. On first glance you might read the description and be somewhat skeptical about watching a comedy about the Jewish Concentration Camps during World War II. But Benigni manages to mix just the right amount of whimsical comedy into a very serious backdrop. It isn't very easy, and I know of only a handful of cases where serious material has successfully translated into comedy. Hogan's Heroes and M*A*S*H stand out as notable examples.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 12th, 2011
Stop me if you've heard any of this before. Peter Jackson directs a horror film that has an expedition going to Skull Island to retrieve a horrific primate. Of course, you might now be expecting a review of Jackson's remake of King Kong. But the primate here is something called a rat monkey, and it only figures into the film's early moments. Long before Jackson achieved household name status by taking us on a journey to Middle Earth, he was a small filmmaker with no less grand designs.
Dead Alive has become one of those cult films that has managed to keep strong legs for many years, long after the director has gone on to far more successful projects. One of the things that has made Peter Jackson as good as he's been even on big-budget films is the fact that he's like a kid in a candy store. He appears to absolutely love making films, and that's certainly evident on the Rings films. But it's also very evident here as well. Jackson demonstrates his love for such greats as Ray Harryhausen with some rather nice stop-motion work here and a few direct nods to the master. The stop-motion effects are quite obvious, but they are also quite fun and entertaining. Dead Alive is a bloody good time...literally.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on September 25th, 2011
“...and now the killer video that kills you seven days after you watched it, we're the only station that has it and we are showing it all night.”
Gone are the Wayan Brothers and in their place, David Zucker (Airplane, Naked Gun), one of the pioneers of the spoof movie, takes the helm. In some ways this is an improvement, in some it loses some of the naughty punch the Wayans brought to their films Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2. Gone are Shorty and Ray (and most of the sex and drug jokes with them) and in their place we have a not-yet-insane Charlie Sheen, the great Leslie Nielsen and a very funny Simon Rex. The spoofs are not quite as wide ranging, focusing primarily on The Ring and Signs, but they still manage to slam 8 Mile (not funny) The Others (still not funny) and The Matrix Reloaded (should have been funnier). The wisest thing Zucker did was center the movie around the star really carrying this franchise, Anna Faris.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on September 24th, 2011
“Cindy, this is a skeleton, this is bones! Would you run from Calista Flockhart?
The quote above is from one of my favorite scenes in Scary Movie 2. A reanimated skeleton stalks Cindy (Anna Faris) through the halls. She runs into Brenda (Regina Hall) and begs her to help. Brenda looks down the hall and sees it is just a skeleton. She kicks its ass and rearranges the bones to humiliate it. The problem is the Calista Flockhart reference. She might have been a cultural icon in the late 90s, but she’s been off the map for over a decade. The shelf life of pop culture parodies like Scary Movie 2 is very short.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2011
Written by John Delia
This television movie fits into the hackneyed cinema mold of predictable storyline ordinary camerawork, low-budget talent and the absence of any realistic special effects. If you can’t find anything else to rent, however, then it will do in a pinch. Geared for the terror crowd, the insipid acting, unimpressive script and implausible actions are all downsides for this film genre.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on September 13th, 2011
“One – you can't do it. You just can't. This isn't a personal attack towards you, I'm just saying that no man can do it, it goes against nature. The male was biologically designed to spread his seed. You're gonna piss off the seeds, Matt! It goes against science! You wanna be the guy who goes against science?”
In 1988, director Michael Lehman brought us Heathers, one of the great, all time classic black comedies so ballsy it could never get made our current post 9/11 and Columbine culture. Then something happened to him and began to spit out tepid, careful comedies like Hudson Hawk and The Truth about Cats and Dogs. 40 Days and 40 Nights taps into the abstaining-from-sex-and-keeping-the-reason-from-one's-potential- mate premise Judd Apatow mastered with the far superior 40 Year Old Virgin.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 8th, 2011
"Every story has a beginning, but ours doesn't start the way you might think. Sure, it begins on a street that looks like most and with a family that was, for the most part, normal...ordinary."
Superheroes are big business these days. I'm not just talking the blockbuster tentpole films, either. Television has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence thanks to shows like Heroes. All we've been waiting for was someone to come up with a fresh take on the whole thing. We almost got that with No Ordinary Family. It came close, but you remember what they say about horseshoes and hand grenades. The show had great potential and some rather impressive star power. And, as the man on the box of rice keeps telling us: "With great power comes great responsibility". After watching a full season in just under a week I found that I was underwhelmed more than I was wowed. And to think it all started out so promising...
![The Cider House Rules [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-cider-house-rules-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![The Others [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-others-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Life is Beautiful [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/life-is-beautiful-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Dead Alive [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/dead-alive-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Scary Movie 3 (Unrated Version) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/scary-movie-3-unrated-version-bl-large.jpg)
![Scary Movie 2 [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/scary-movie-2-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![40 Days and 40 Nights [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/40-days-and-40-nights-blu-ray-large.jpg)
