Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 4th, 2008
A group of exotic dancers head off to a resort in the hills, ostensibly to shoot a film, but instead fall into evil clutches. The torture begins for them and that point, but it began for the audience prior to the opening credits. While the monologue that begins the film hints that there might have been an idea buried somewhere in here concerning the abusive objectification of women through history, the film decides to incarnate that idea rather than critique it, and do so very clumsily at that. The makeup effects are beyond risible, and the cinematography consists primarily of headache-inducing shaky close-ups. Another nail in the coffin of the torture porn subgenre.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 8th, 2008
Why god must you do this? Why does Hollywood in all its limited wisdom try to remake any and everything with the hopes that it will be good, when it just winds up becoming another EPIC FAIL? They’ve done it with The Grudge, they’ve done it with The Eye, and now I hear they might be remaking Oldboy and The Host. We’re coming up on sacred cow territory here, and quite frankly, I don’t know why these films have to be “Americanized” to appeal to the unwashed masses; I thought the whole point of them was to be appreciated on their own merits. But sure enough, the horror film genre is guilty of cannibalizing product like anyone else. See what I did there?
Moving on, The Eye is based on the 2002 Hong Kong film Gin gwai, but Tom Cruise’s CW Production studio bought the American rights, and Sebastian Gutierrez (Snakes on a Plane) adapted the screenplay for American audiences, in a film that David Moreau and Xavier Palud (Them) directed. Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba, The Love Guru) is a classically trained violinist who has been blind most of her life. Upon receiving a corneal transplant (the eyes people, work with me here), she starts to see visions that shock and terrify her. Her sister Helen (Parker Posey, Best In Show) doesn’t know what to do for her, and her doctor (Alessandro Nivola, Grace is Gone) thinks she’s crazy, even though she walks around with strange markings on her hands and arms. So she tries to find out where her donor eyes came from, and the person who had them before saw unimaginable horror, and those visions are transferred to Sydney.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 19th, 2008
To be bloody honest, I was never a huge fan of Speed Racer. Actually I spent most half hours watching the cartoon (in college) poking fun at it and wondering how many drinking games could be compiled by just analyzing various components. It was a serious cartoon with some brief comedic relief that did not come off as funny, what was funny was all of the seriousness of driving the Mach 5 and figuring out who this Racer X character was (it was Speed's Older Brother, sorry if I spoiled it). Anyhow, it's 2008. Speed Racer has experienced a resurgence including a movie and a new cartoon series. The movie hasn't done very well but many times the cartoon can be the saving grace. It was supposed to follow a new Speed, with a mysterious past. Ooooo, well as long as no Chim-Chim or Spritle is around, we'll be okay.
In the not too distant future, a hopeful racer who goes by the name of Speed wants to attend the Racer Academy founded by the original Racer bunch. However he knows nothing of his past and finds that his name & lack of friends is a source of much teasing and criticism as he tries to ascend to the top of his class. There are other major players such as Headmaster Spritle (he grew up? I thought he would have gotten run over by the Mach 5 by now), X who is Speed Racer's son and X's girlfriend Annalise, both of which try to thwart the young Speed. Annalise's father, Zile Zazic is the main funder for the school and serves as the evil mastermind and antagonist to Speedy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 19th, 2008
The movies of National Lampoon haven't always had the best track record. On on the good side, we have Christmas Vacation, Van Wilder or European Vacation (Chevy Chase is gold after all). On the bad side we have movies like Senior Trip, Dorm Daze, or Dorm Daze 2 (Wretchedness has sequels?) But every once in a while, you can take a bad movie and suddenly realize that you are holding something that is worse than any National Lampoon movie to date (I don't care what anybody says but Loaded Weapon wasn't half bad). A movie so bad, that even Jonathan Winters or Diedrich Bader could not save it.
Richie (played by Thomas Ian Nicholas) doesn't have the greatest luck in love. His best friend, Sherman (played by Andrew Katos) wants to bed as many chicks as possible regardless of the fallout that might occur. They hatch an idea that involves taking discarded casting call pictures and actually having their own casting call to find their perfect soulmate (or in Sherman's case, just a hot chick or several). However, they have to impersonate having a real film in place before they get any real girls to fall to their claim. They also need an office and resources. They decide to include their friend Glenn (played by Diedrich Bader) who has the office space and resources to make it happen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 14th, 2008
I don’t remember that much about Diva growing up; it was a film that I heard about as a kid, and a lot of people liked it, but that was the first time I can honestly say I was exposed to the arthouse film, and that it was something that I wanted to find out more about. Through the years, I’ve seen many a foreign or independent film, however the one that started all of it off for me I hadn’t seen, until now.
Diva was adapted from the Daniel Odier novel by Jean-Jacques Beineix, who previously directed a documentary version of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly long before Julian Schnabel put together a dramatic version of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s life. The story of Diva is a little complicated, but I’ll give it a go; a young messenger attends the concert of an opera singer, and creates a recording of the performance, which is a rarity for the singer, who normally frowns on recording her work. A line is said in the film along the lines of “art shapes itself around business, when business should actually shape itself around art.” A woman is murdered and drops a separate recording that is criminally linked to the police, and the tape winds up with the messenger. When the messenger, named Jules, is spotted recording the singer’s concert, they threaten him and demand to obtain the tape, so that it can be sold to the highest bidder. Unbeknownst to Jules, the participants of the other tape include a crooked police chief, who wants to try and get the other tape by any means necessary.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 1st, 2008
I wonder if Johnny Smith could have seen it coming. After 6 short seasons the USA Network series based on Stephen King’s The Dead Zone has finally closed up shop. The series is based very loosely on the early Stephen King novel or the film with Martin Sheen. Johnny still goes into a coma and comes out with psychic abilities. He even meets the infamous Senate candidate destined to destroy the world. The similarities between the original tale and this surprising series end there. This show is more about Johnny using his abilities for good whenever he can. We find out that it was meeting Bruce, a physical therapist who was not in the original story, that kept him from the self-destructive path King had outlined for him. What makes this increasingly compelling storyline work is twofold. Fans of the original finally have some beef to sink their canines into. The second benefit is a direct payoff of this being a series instead of a single film. While we may think we know where Johnny’s headed, we now get to see it have a profound impact on his life. We get to see the character develop, heading inevitably toward the dark future he has caught glimpses of for several years now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 1st, 2008
Call it Deliverance meets Texas Chain Saw Massacre by way of Straw Dogs. Really that’s the best way I can describe this incredibly derivative film starring Gary Oldman. It’s Summer in 1978 and two couples are making their way to an isolated vacation house in the woods. The house is the ancestral home for Paul. The four are traveling from
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 9th, 2008
When last we left the fine folks of Weeds, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker, Saved!) and her herb-growing buddy Conrad (Romany Malco, Blades of Glory) were being held at the mercy of two rival drug groups, both of which were very interested in Nancy’s stash and her cash, but it was taken by her son Silas (Hunter Parrish, Freedom Writers), who was arrested by Nancy’s friend Celia (Elizabeth Perkins, 28 Days). I’m not even close to discussing how things got to this point, and needless to say, the twists and turns sound a little soap operatic at times, but when you’re invested into the characters’ fates as you are, they provide for some memorable experiences.
One of the things that Weeds does is push things to the edge of the envelope, and I‘m fine with that. What I’m not fine with, and what my wife and I get into debates about from time to time, is that in Season Three, Nancy’s transformation from widowed mother in a upper/middle class suburban neighborhood to full-fledged marijuana dealer becomes full and complete. In the previous two seasons, Nancy mixed her Caucasian naivete rather well with her cold and precise drug dealing livelihood. In Season Three, she becomes much more cold and precise, particularly around people she knows and calls friends. She takes care of her feelings first, particularly in one episode where she sleeps with her boss (played by Matthew Modine of Vision Quest lore), despite Celia’s urge to be with him. Her rendezvous with Conrad, one the show had been waiting for for almost three seasons, was more for her convenience than anyone else’s. She becomes much more distasteful than in previous seasons, and all the sweetness of sucking on an iced coffee straw isn’t going to help things.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 4th, 2008
The Pang brothers return with one more instalment to their series of ghost tales. This one also goes under the title of The Eye 10 (and The Eye: Infinity), which is actually the more accurate nomenclature, given the sheer number of hauntings that are present here. A group of friends on vacation in Thailand regale each other with ghost stories. Their host then produces a book that lists the ten ways of seeing ghosts. The group, whose instinct for self-preservation could do with some strengthening, proceed to put the book to the test. They get far more than they bargained for.
In the making-of featurettes that accompany the film, the Pangs talk about how they had too many ideas to fit into the first two instalments of the franchise. So here they have a structure that allows them to pack in a cornucopia of summonings and hauntings. Some of the manifestations are undeniably effective, and there are some pretty decent jolts. On the other hand, the Pangs recycle some of their greatest hits, sometimes to deliberately humorous effect. The tone generally is much lighter than before, but the humour has a tendency to disrupt scenes that are building up a good head of terror. The film is thus a frustrating mixed bag, where flashes of the Pang brilliance are present, but there are also plenty of moments where the brothers seem to be just going through the motions, when they aren't taking the piss entirely.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 7th, 2008
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series ran from 1987-1996 and had over one hundred and ninety episodes. Millions watched as Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, & Raphael grew up from little turtle babies into mean, green, fighting machines. They could take on Shredder, Krang and any other bad guy that wanted to turn them into turtle soup. The sixth season takes on episodes 128-143 and spins them into a tiny two disc package from Lionsgate. Over a hundred episodes in, do the turtles still pack the punch they did back in 1987? As Splinter would say, "Be patient young ones, the answer will come."
Let's see, where were we in the TMNT saga? The last episodes of the fifth season saw the Turtles land up on a planet where turtles ruled and introduced us to a couple of new mutants named Groundchug and Dirtbag. True to form however, the turtles were successful in their exploits and sent Krang & Shredder back to the Technodrome. Season six opens with Krang & Shredder in the Technodrome, trapped in the Arctic. The Turtles are busy eating pizza, fighting crime and striking back at whatever plan the bad guys hatch at them each episode.
