Lionsgate / Maple Pictures

Good Eeeeevening, Mistress Noms here with a spooky review to add to the “31 Nights of Terror” countdown we have going here in the dungeon of Upcomingdiscs.com! -digs into her bag of tricks (provided by the head dungeon master of Upcomingdiscs.com)- What do we have here, what do we have here... A Blu-ray copy of The Blair Witch Project!? This is the scariest thing you could come up with? Oyie! Perhaps it is true what they say... Terror can come in many forms... including a really terrible movie! Grab your choice of poison and hop into my hearse (Sure... I have some... candy... around here somewhere...) we are going for a ride! -drives off in a fit of madness, cackling out her window-

I remember when the Blair Witch Project first came out. There was all this fuss about how it was a REAL documentary, all the footage was REAL, and how three film students REALLY went missing. Ha, how naive some people can be! There was even a special on Sci-Fi making it seem all real and mysterious! Oooooo Spooky! Not really, but let's just pretend for a while, shall we? And like anything else, things were leaked onto the interwebs, and people got to talking. The actors showed up on some special on MTV (Possibly it was on that “news” thing they do on there, it was a while ago) and bam, killed a good promotion they had going. Too bad too, I wanted to see it in theaters before they revealed it was indeed just a movie.

Open Water:

An over-worked couple (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) whose marriage, while not in danger, has clearly reached some difficult shoals, head off on a diving vacation. A mix-up (which is disturbingly credible) results in the tour ship leaving them behind. Stuck in the middle of the ocean, they float together, hoping against hope for rescue, growing cold and hungry. And then there is the marine life. Like stinging jellyfish. And sharks…

"You are what they eat."

In 1964 Herschell Gordon Lewis brought us the classic gore-fest Two Thousand Maniacs. It was pretty much like all of his films. It was generous on the naked babes and the blood. Lewis was one of the pioneers of the slasher film and was producing low-budget gore films long before they were popular in the mainstream. The man continues to be a legend in the genre. It's been a long time since an original Lewis film has been released, but his influence can be felt everywhere in the genre. So, when I first heard about a "sequel", of sorts, being prepared by Tim Sullivan, I was intrigued, to say the least. This could either be a ton of fun or a complete disaster.

Eddie Murphy was at his best when he did Saturday Night Live and his own stand up comedy. I would even say that some of his earlier films were okay. He is far better when given the opportunity to be himself, and improvise a little. I miss the days of Delirious and Saturday Night Live. Now at most we get Dr. Dolittle and Shrek. I miss the vulgar side. So let's take a trip down memory lane, and have a few laughs.

We interrupt this review to bring you this special report. Good evening, Teh Noms reporting, we have just received word that Buckwheat has been shot. Brought to you by Texxon, Life goes on, and Texxon is there. *cough* You have to have this set of sketches in order for this to be a "Best of". It goes on and on and on... With them showing the video of Buckwheat being shot at least 10 times. It doesn't start to get funny till the 4th or 5th time of seeing the video. The funniest thing is how they repeat the lines. Heeelarious.

The other day, I was conveying to my better half that she should do an open review about a movie called Secretary that was fairly new to Blu-Ray. She ultimately decided against it because she felt she could not do a PG review for such a risqué movie. It is only fitting that a week or so later, I find Bad Lieutenant, a NC-17 movie in my own review pile and I was faced with the same task. Take an absolutely gritty, dark and disturbing movie and do what you can to make it a wholesome review. I always did like challenges.

Harvey Keitel plays a very bad cop. In fact, he's actually a Lieutenant of a local New York precinct (btw, he's never actually given a name, so we'll call him Lt.). He's had the crazy life that echoed the overzealous nature of the 80's. He has a family complete with a wife and children but the wholesome image stops right there. In his time out on the streets, he boozes, gambles, steals evidence, womanizes and does drugs including a whole lot of cocaine.

When I was asked to review this DVD, a smile came across my face. I loved Adam Sandler skits on Saturday Night Live. I was also a fan of some of his earlier movies like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore (Though I can't say I am a fan of Eight Crazy Nights, but everyone has at least one film that they wonder why the person did it later on). I still quote lines from these movies. Yeah, say what you want about that... I still find it and him funny. Go grab a Snack Pack and sit down with me to review The Best of Adam Sandler!

Cough Ok so you pick up the DVD and do what most people do... Turn it around to view the back. A list of twenty sketches stares you in the face, but what is that? Opera Man is listed four times? Apparently they needed to fill the back of the case. That said, you will see quite a bit of Opera Man. It is one of the best characters he had on the show, and probably the one he played the most often. I think the best part is when he is in the middle of singing, he cracks a smile, and tries not to laugh at what he is singing about. The best comedy is the stuff that the comics performing also find funny.

When Jim Henson had finally finished up with The Muppet Show, it was time to take his puppet creations in a slightly different direction. Fraggle Rock, like The Muppet Show before it, was originally produced and aired outside of the United States. With the Muppets it was England that gave the guys their break. This time it was CBS in Canada. The show did quickly find a home in the United States, this time on cable. HBO was just beginning to stretch its legs and break out of its reputation as merely a place to watch movies after their box office run was completed. The network also had a bit of a reputation as more of an adult network. Fraggle Rock was the perfect opportunity to expand on both fronts. The show developed a cult following, but never achieved quite the reputation and numbers that the Muppets had done. Still, it was a staple on the cable network for 5 years.

Fraggles are furry little animals that live underground. Each Fraggle is unique in many ways. They all have their own color and look. They pretty much live a simple life of socializing and having fun. In the world of the Fraggles, there is also a family of giant troll-like creatures called Gorgs. The Ma and Pa Gorgs considered themselves the King and Queen of the land, but Junior was the only other Gorg in the kingdom. He loved to try and catch the Fraggles, who would often raid his garden for their favorite food, radishes. There was also an entrance to Fraggle Rock in the workshop of Doc and his dog Sprockett. Doc was blissfully unaware of the Fraggles living under his home. But, Sprocket was always trying to alert him to their presence. In the final episode, Doc finally learned of the existence of the creatures.

We begin in Vietnam, where the unit of which Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is a member comes under attack. Jacob is bayonetted, and as he struggles with his wounds, the film flashes forward to his post-Vietnam life in New York City. He works for the post office, is divorced, is still grieving over the death of his youngest son (Macauley Culkin), and is living with his new girlfriend (Elizabeth Pena). He is also being tormented by visions of demonic figures. And then suddenly this life turns out to be a dream, and he's at home with his wife and all of his kids are alive. Or is that a dream? And what really happened in Vietnam?

I'm going to assume that most people who are interested in this film have, in fact, already seen it. But in case you haven't, spoilers follow, and should you wish to avoid them, skip to the Video evaluation. Now I'm going to waste another sentence just in case your eyes drift. You're all gone? Good. The last time I saw this film was twenty years ago, during its initial theatrical run, and I was left feeling bitterly disappointed: after all the build-up of conspiracy and mystery, we're left with the he-was-dying-all-along gambit? In other words, my sense was of a horror film that was compellingly original and frightening for most of its running time, and then squandered that good will by a hackneyed conclusion.

I did not see Tyler Perry's moderately successful 2007 film, Why Did I Get Married. I never thought that would present much of a problem with his recent Why Did I Get Married, Too. I've seen plenty of Perry's films and think that I have a pretty good grasp of where he's coming from. Early this year I watched and reviewed I Can Do Bad All By Myself. It was a new direction for Perry and, while he did include his famous Madea character, the film wasn't really about her usual antics. I guess I expected this film to follow in the footsteps of that rather impressive effort. Unfortunately, I may have misjudged my ability to follow this film without having seen the first. Either that, or Perry has gone terribly wrong somewhere along the way.

This is the story of four couples who have obviously been friends for a long time. As the film opens they are about to attend a marriage retreat, at least that's what the dialog leads us to believe. What they are really doing is gathering at a time-share condo in the Bahamas for a week of hanging out together. The only resemblance to a retreat is a tradition they share on their final night together. They gather on the beach around a campfire and take turns telling the story of why they got married. I suspect they should all know these stories by now, but this year the trip certainly threw in a few surprises. The most stalwart marriage is apparently ending.

A robber tosses his loot onto a freeway and it lands on the hood of a random passerby. Said passerby decides to keep the $600,000+ and use it to buy brand new...everything, for him and his wife. While the robber gets incarcerated, he offers half the money to his twin brother if he can track it down. If the young couple flashes their money around and started paying cash for big ticket items, they will be hunted down...they do, and they are.