Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 10th, 2006
This is the perfect time for Lion's Gate to release Made on UMD for the PSP. Not only does the film feature such trendy personalities as Faizon Love and Puff Daddy/Puffy/Sean "Puffy" Combs/P-Diddy/Diddy, but it also stars the current comedic genius of the week... Vince Vaughn. That's not to say that I don't like Vince Vaughn, it's just that he is riding such a high wave since his hilarious work in Wedding Crashers that this is the perfect time for the studio to cash in on some of his lesser known films ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 9th, 2006
I think that the studio knew they had a problem with Godsend before it was released in theaters. Sometimes a film can look like a great idea on paper, but the final product is just a mess. The thing is, after the studio has invested millions in a bad property, they have to try to recoup the money somehow. In the case of Godsend, the strategy was to put a well made trailer for the property on every Lions Gate DVD product for months and months. In this way, the studio hoped to build up enough word-of-mouth through minimal promotion to have a big opening weekend; big enough to make back some of the film's budget before the word got out about how bad the thing was.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 11th, 2005
Stargate is something of a cult phenomenon among sci-fi buffs. It is so popular, in fact, that it produced not one, but three spin-off TV shows. It is amazing that the big business of the Stargate franchise started with a quirky little film. Now there are some big fans of this movie that will surely have strong words of disagreement for me, but this is really not a very good film. The premise alone is enough to make most moviegoers roll their eyes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 8th, 2005
Film
“This is not a trend. This is us. This is who we are.”
After the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, a new dance form was created out of the oppression, frustration and fear that blanketed the city. It’s called “clowning” or “krumping” and it’s a way of life for thousands of urbanites, keeping them off of the dangerous gang-infested streets of L.A.
As Rize begins, we’re introduced to Tommy, “The Hip-Hop Clown”, who is the self-proclaimed inventor of the dance...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2005
Happy Endings is one of those films that makes you rethink being a DVD reviewer. I sat through this excursion into pretentious observations about the way the world is, and the way "average people" are, and thought, "Yeah, sure, this is a slice-of-life. I bet." Oh, I don't mean to say the characters' lives are way too screwed up to be believable. Lord knows, under every ordinary average guy... or gal... there lurks a whole slew of skeletons banging their bony fists against the inside of the closet door. But the extent to which these screwed-up folks bang into one another like aimless bumper cars at a county fair makes one say, "Enough already."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 19th, 2005
Dear Chris Farley, we har'ley knew ye.
What is it with SNL and untimely death? I am pretty surprised that I have never seen a "conspiracy theory" written out about this, like the Wheaties curse or the curse of the Sports Illustrated cover. Jim Belushi, Phil Hartman, Gilda Radner and even the lovable Chris Farley died way before their time.
Farley had an uncommon gift of successfully being portly, sweaty, clumsy and lovable all at the same time. The assortment of Saturday Night Live skits collected here drives this point home with ease.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 8th, 2005
Synopsis
A series of meteor strikes hits a small town in Australia, turning its citizens into ravening zombies. A handful of survivors gather in the home of a survivalist who has previously encountered zombie fish and been abducted by aliens. The fight to survive begins.
There is a bit more to the plot than the above would suggest, but it mostly kicks in during the last act, so I shall not breathe a word of it here. The tone is very tongue-in-cheek, and many of the characters are caricature...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 7th, 2005
I actually picked this title up several months ago on DVD, so I was already aware of how funny this disc is. For some reason, Saturday Night Live is one of those shows that nobody finds funny until several years later, at which time its charm is rediscovered. I'm sure this has to do with the fact that the reruns and compilations cut out the majority of the filler and leave only the best bits, but I am, still surprised that the shows gets such little notariety during their initial run.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2005
Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme. When is the last time you heard those two names? I'll bet it has been quite some time. Lundgren is the poor man's Schwarzenegger, and Van Damme is best known as the Canadian action superstar that is long on physical talent, but horrid at dialog. These two team up in Universal Soldier, a film that is filled with as much action as possible, with as little actual story as possible. This is the action film equivalent of pornography... give the viewers what they want, and a...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 23rd, 2005
The 80's was the time of the birth of the mindless action movie. The popularity of this type of film has waned somewhat in recent years, but at the time such movies were all the rage. Perhaps the mother of all mindless action flicks came from 80's film darling Sylvester Stallone, with the ashamedly-fun Rambo series. The first film in this series, First Blood, has recently been released on UMD for Sony's PSP entertainment system.
This is a fitting decision, as the PSP has begun something of a renaissanc...
