Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 1st, 2009
Citing personal history, I don’t do really well with horror films. As mentioned in other reviews, my parents let me see scary movies such as Exorcist & Poltergeist (as well as R-rated action films) when I was no more than ten years old. While, Poltergeist sits proudly in my DVD collection, I still have trouble to this day with Exorcist. Yes, I can be a scaredy cat at times. To be also perfectly honest, I was a bit worried when I received The Uninvited in the mail to review. After all, it proclaims proudly on the cover that it is made by the producers of the Ring(which I absolutely hated) & Disturbia. By the end of the movie, I was very pleasantly surprised.
Anna (played by Emily Browning) is out with her boyfriend Matt (played by Jesse Moss) at a local beach party. They start to kiss when Matt tells Anna he loves her and he has a condom. (Wow, that screams love) Upset, Anna decides to leave. She passes her sister Alex (played by Arielle Kebbel) on the way back to the house. Through the woods she goes until she encounters three filled garbage bags. She opens them and the dead body of a redheaded girl spills out. The redheaded girl’s head snaps and speaks. Anna runs again in the direction of the house.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 1st, 2009
“The legend began hundreds of years ago when the fierce warriors known as the Samurai served the warlords of Japan with absolute loyalty. The most fearsome of all were the ronin, the samurai who had lost his master, set adrift like a wave on the open sea. One ronin sought out the master swordmaker, Masermune. The legendary master agreed to forge the samurai a sword of great mystical power. But, it would take an entire year to complete the work. The master’s evil-minded apprentice, Masamas, offered to forge another sword, but in only half the time.”
Scooby Doo has spanned generations and over 40 years. Since the 1960’s the name and conventions have become a part of the pop culture. The original cartoon series had a series of conventions. The Scooby Gang would drive around in their green Mystery Machine van and solve ghostly mysteries. Fans of the show quickly grew to learn that these spirits and goblins were usually just normal people using scare tactics to get revenge or make a profit. The cartoon classic spawned music albums, live action movies, and several new shows and animated features. The very latest of these direct to video animated features is Scooby Doo And The Samurai Sword.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 30th, 2009
“Super-toon extraordinaire Freakazoid! Freakazoid! Runs around in underwear Freakazoid! Freakazoid! Rescues Washington D.C .Freakazoid! Freakazoid!
Unless something better's on TV Freakazoid! Freakazoid! His brain's overloading. It has a chocolate coating. Textbook case for Sigmund Freud Freakazoid! Freakazoid!”
Only from the mind of Steven Spielberg and the gang that brought us Animaniacs could such a cartoon series and superhero be found. From 1995 to 1997 it could all be found as near as your television set, with the oddball Freakazoid series from Spielberg and Warner.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 30th, 2009
The day of October 31st is usually Halloween to most people. However, back in 1992 it was the day one of the best cartoon superhero shows premiered on the Fox Network. It was simply called X-Men. The show would last seventy-six episodes and five seasons while rising to considerable popularity. I’m not one to toot personal bias, but this is probably my second favorite comic book related animated show next to Batman: The Animated Series. Most of us X-Men fans have been waiting for these episodes to be released for as long as the dvd format has existed. Finally that time has come and I couldn’t be more delighted to watch these again.
Two parents sit in a living room wondering if they did the right thing. Their adopted child: Jubilee is a mutant. They have felt the best thing to do is file her name with the Mutant Registration Program, a privately funded program with ties to the government. The Mutant Registration Program is supposed to be a peaceful group helping humanity and the mutants carry on in their existence. However, things are not as they seem.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2009
There are many examples of excellent BBC series and miniseries. Some eventually get remade into American shows. State Of Play is one of those fantastic BBC drama thrillers that is now making its way to American audiences, not as a copycat series, but as a major box office film staring Russell Crowe. While I have not seen this theatrical release as of yet, I am intrigued with the story and will eventually find myself watching this movie version. Unfortunately for the likes of Crowe and director Kevin Macdonald, I have a hard time believing that a 2 hour film can pack in as much detail and character development as this 6 hour BBC production has managed to do. I literally watched the entire 6 hours in one sitting. It’s not the Herculean effort you might be thinking, and I’m certainly not bragging here. It’s one of those stories that plays out so well and is paced so perfectly that the hours literally fall away. Before you know it a quarter of an entire day has passed you by and you don’t feel tried, tired, or put out from the time.
The series begins by depicting a rather brutal street murder. It’s a misleading beginning. You might expect this thing to become a marathon of slayings and envelope pushing violence. Nothing could be further from the truth. The six hours will never again get this bloody. The scene is intended as a shock to the system to immerse you quickly into the tale. In the next instant we learn that a woman named Sonia Baker (Macdonald) has apparently “toped herself”. That’s British for committed suicide. She seems to have thrown herself in front of a commuter train. This might not make for big news except that Sonia Baker was the assistant to a member of Parliament who also chairs the Energy Commission. That body is currently holding highly publicized hearings to assess punitive damages to the oil companies. The member of Parliament, or PM, as they’re commonly referred to, is Stephen Collins (Morrissey) who is a young up and comer in the party. It is also soon revealed that Collins had an affair with the young assistant. The story is picked up on by Cal McCaffrey (Simm), a young hotshot investigative reporter, who also happens to be Collins’ best friend and former campaign manager. As McCaffrey uncovers fact after fact, it becomes apparent that his friend isn’t telling the whole truth. Their relationship becomes strained, not helped by McCaffrey’s pursuit of a romance with Collins’ wife, Ann (Walker). The paper’s editor, Cameron Foster (Nighy) assembles a team to cover the evolving story in spite of pressure from the government to let it slide. Obviously, we’ll discover that both crimes are related, and each episode unravels a new important piece of the puzzle until the mystery is revealed. There’s enough conspiracy and government cover-up here to satisfy even X-Files fans. Sorry, no aliens.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 28th, 2009
“We’re tiny. We’re toony. We’re a little bit loony. And in this cartoony we’re invading your TV. We’re comic dispensers. We crack up all the censors. On Tiny Toon Adventures, get a dose of comedy. So, here’s Acme Acres, it’s a whole wide world apart. Our home sweet home, it stands alone, a cartoon work of art. The scripts were rejected, expect the unexpected on Tiny Toon Adventures it’s about to start.”
What do you get when you cross Steven Spielberg with the tradition of Loony Tunes? You get Tiny Toon Adventures. Spielberg produced this 1990’s television cartoon show for the WB Network. Set in Acme Acres, this cartoon was intended as a Next Generation of Loony Tunes characters and stories.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 28th, 2009
A while back, Cult Epics released a 2-disc limited edition of Un Chant D'Amour. This single-disc reissue features a number of the features (though not all) from the limited release. The actual film and transfer quality are the same, and so much of this review is likewise the same.
Long the bad boy of French novelists, Jean Genet directed this 25-minute short in 1950. Borderline pornographic, it is a silent portrayal of (literally) imprisoned desire. Two prisoners convey their longing for one another through the prison walls, while a voyeuristic guard watches, becoming aroused and frustrated to the point of violence. poetic, fetishistic, and intensely personal, it is a startling and historic piece of underground cinema.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 27th, 2009
At a point in time, women’s fighting was nothing more than usually a side show attraction. As the years went by, the concept of women fighting each other became more and more accepted. There is a women’s boxing league and there are serious women all over the wrestling circuit (and not just t&a shows). There are even rumblings of MMA females (that might be a bit too far though). So, a good plot line for movies would be to interject the female into a man’s fighting world and see how they do. Take underground boxing and the movie: Fight Night, this could be a great marriage.
Michael Dublin (played by Chad Ortis) is a con-man in the hard cold world of underground boxing. As an unfortunate result of his mis-dealings, he is constantly on the run going from city to city and trying to make a buck. He gets in the habit of making too many enemies and finds his life in danger after a con goes bad. However, from out of the shadows appears a female figure who floors Dublin’s would be enemies with vicious punches. Her name is Katherine Parker (played by Rebecca Neuenswander).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 27th, 2009
The title of Spectacular Spider-Man was once used to refer to a second-rate line of comics about the web-crawler. The Amazing Spiderman always led the way in sales but the Spectacular production always had its line of fans too. As well as the critics. The critics were often on the books because they had a more casual tone and sometimes didn’t even go along with the original book in terms of plot development. The comic eventually died off and in 2008, the Kids WB decided to use the name for their new animated show. Two seasons and 26 episodes later, this show has done quite well. Volume Four is now released and includes episodes 10-13.
Episode Ten starts out with Dr. Conners and his crew being allowed to study an alien symbiote. However, that symbiote is lost when the Black Cat & Spiderman have an altercation in the lab when Black Cat was trying to steal the life-form. It is soon found that the symbiote has actually affixed itself to the Spider-Man costume thus changing his powers and his personality.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 27th, 2009
Sometimes I feel like a broken record. Once upon a time, I adored the likes of Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme. I would spend many hours watching Above the Law or Bloodsport until I had nothing else better to do. When I matured, I left many of those movies behind. However, the spirit of those movies was still within the type of movies I would typically watch. The problem is that both of these starts pretty much went from feature film to direct to DVD. But Jean-Claude has tried to change his image by taking on more serious roles. His newest, JCVD; he takes on the role of himself the actor.
Jean-Claude Van Damme (playing himself) is an aging 47 year-old action movie star. His agent can not find him anything decent. JCVD has no money and worst of all, he is fighting a losing battle in the custody of his daughter with his ex-wife. He decides to return to Brussels, his childhood home. Here, he is still considered a national icon and with that comes some sense of worth and peace.
