Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 16th, 2013
"We always thought that alien life would come from the stars, but it came from deep beneath the Pacific."
The only thing we seem to love more than giant monster movies are movies about giant dudes going a few rounds with said giant monsters. It was huge television fare in the 1960's and 1970's. We had Ultraman, Space Giants, and Johnny Socko. All of them were Japanese imports that gave us daily or weekly monsters doing the old "Tokyo Stomp", and just when things appeared at their darkest, the giant hero would arrive and give us a show more akin to the weekend wrestling shows than anything else. We'd get choke-holds and body slams that would make the rubber suits jiggle as they fell. It was all in good fun and appears to have pretty much disappeared from the television and film landscape. That is, until Guillermo del Toro brings us one of the summer's eagerly awaited tentpole films: Pacific Rim.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 16th, 2013
Direct-to-video sequels of successful animated films are tricky at best. The video release is usually a sign that either the studio is trying to cash in quickly on the franchise or they are just not confident enough in the sequel to put it up on the big screen, usually with good reason. Smaller budgets mean less impressive animation and a lack of A-list voice actors. Every studio has been guilty of one or the other and more often both. But what's the story when the original film made a disappointing $25 million at the domestic box office? That usually signifies that a sequel of any kind is not likely in high demand. Such is the quandary of Alpha & Omega 2: A Howl-iday Adventure.
The original film wasn't near as bad as the box office figures would have you believe. It was pretty much an average computer-animated feature film. It had a very solid voice cast that included such talent as Justin Long, Danny Glover, Dennis Hopper and Christina Ricci. It just didn't have a lot of punch to it, and it fizzled. I'm not sure how anyone thought that this one would have any more heart or punch after you take away the great talent and substitute relatively unknown names. That doesn't mean untalented, by any means. They do pretty much what's expected of them here. I just wish I could say it was entertaining.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 15th, 2013
Embrace of the Vampire is a remake of the 1995 erotic bloodsucker thriller of the same name. The original’s only greatest claim to fame is that it starred Who’s the Boss? cutie Alyssa Milano in her first, ahem, “grown up” role. In other words, the bar wasn’t exactly sky high for the remake. (This is not Gus Van Sant doing a shot-for-shot remake of Psycho.) The well-made newer film certainly “embraces” the erotic thriller DNA of the original. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem overly concerned with the "vampire."
Charlotte Hawthorn (Sharon Hinnendael) is a shy college student who arrives at a co-ed campus after previously attending an all-girls Catholic school. We are quickly introduced to her friendly roommate Nicole (Tiio Horn) and Eliza (C.C. Sheffield), Charlotte’s snarky rival on the fencing team. We also learn Charlotte suffers from violent, vivid dreams — involving sex and buckets of blood — that lead to her waking up in unexpected places.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 12th, 2013
“When people are desperate, they’ll do horrible things to survive.”
Sci-fi and horror have been exploring the dark side of human nature for as long as those genres have been around. Throw a group of people together in a high-stress situation — whether they’re running from The Walking Dead or hiding from whatever is in The Mist — and the base instinct to survive will eventually lead them to commit unspeakable atrocities. The Colony starts off as the sort of movie that explores the monstrous things people do to each other…and then the actual monsters show up.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 11th, 2013
What a great time it was to be a teen in the late 1970’s. No, I’m not referring to disco music. It was a great time to go to the movies. It was the culmination of the perfect date, and Hollywood was riding the beginning of a trend that remains alive and healthy today. I’m talking, of course, about the slasher film. You could argue that Hitchcock started the ball rolling in 1961 with Psycho, but it would be decades before that film would find its true audience and plethora of imitators. Although The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween came before Friday The 13th, can it be argued that any horror film franchise is as widely known? The truth is that even the man behind the film, Sean Cunningham, never really knew what it was that he had. It was never his intent to follow the film with a barrage of sequels. He also scoffed at the idea that Jason could become the centerpiece for future films. By now Jason has become such an iconic character that there is an entire generation out there that doesn’t know that Jason wasn’t the culprit in the first film. Jason’s stature has reached the heights of the classic monsters of the Universal days. While some of us hesitate to put his name and hockey mask up there with the likes of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, and The Mummy, the recognition and sheer dollars generated make it difficult not to. By the beginning of the 1980’s names like Jason, Freddy, and Michael Myers would be scaring audiences around the world, rendering the classics somewhat silly in the eyes of a more visceral generation of teens.
Here we are almost 25 years removed from that first Friday The 13th film and the franchise has racked up nine sequels, one remake, a television series and a team-up film with Freddy Krueger...oh my. Of course, not all Friday The 13th projects are created equal, and the debate rages on as to what constitutes official canon for the franchise. Certainly, the television series can be discounted, because it had really nothing to do with the films at all. The title was merely used to cash in on the fans. Still, it managed to last three years and has developed a somewhat cult following of its own. But whatever you consider part of the "true" franchise, it's all found in one place.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 10th, 2013
During his mid-20th century prime, Danny Kaye was one of the greatest entertainers in the world. He was a terrific actor, singer, comedian and dancer. Not bad for a guy who couldn’t read a note of music and never took a single dance class. On the Riviera is not Kaye’s best (nor his best-known) movie; that title belongs to White Christmas, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty or Hans Christian Andersen. However, this soufflé-light musical comedy — now making its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Fox — is a nice showcase for Kaye’s considerable talents.
Kaye stars as Jack Martin, a small-time nightclub performer on the French Riviera. The actor also stars as Henri Duran, a celebrated playboy pilot who just completed a record-setting trip around the globe. Jack notices the uncanny resemblance he bears to Henri and begins impersonating him during his nightclub routine. (The result is a showstopper, and the movie’s best musical number: “Rhythm of a New Romance.”) When Henri is forced to be in two places at once to preserve an important financial deal, Jack is hired to impersonate the famous French pilot during a pivotal dinner party. Can Jack maintain the ruse alongside Henri’s cynical wife Lili (Gene Tierney) while keeping his own girlfriend Colette (Corinne Calvet) happy?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 9th, 2013
"Hi, I'm Chucky. You wanna play?"
When an unexpected package arrives at the home of Nica (Dourif) and her rather crazy mother Sarah (Quesnelle), they have no idea what it is or who might have sent it. We already know what's in the familiar-shaped package. That's right. After nearly a decade absence, Chucky's back.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 9th, 2013
For years it seems DreamWorks Animation has been living in the shadow of Pixar. Sure, DreamWorks has had their success with Shrek and Ice Age, but when you stack the films next to Pixar’s library, you see Pixar just seems to be the best at what they do. That is until The Croods came along; with the new DreamWorks release it would appear the animation studio has stepped up their game and released their best-looking 3D film to date. My expectations were not too high with this release, but I was at least reliEepd I wouldn’t be watching Ice Age Ten: The Ice is Still Melting. With a theater screening filled with what appeared to be thousands of little screaming children (remember in Gremlins when they were watching Snow White?) before the film I had been face- palming myself, feeling this had been a bad idea, but once the lights dimmed and the film began, my worries faded away. The story may be a little weak, but there is something there that hooked me and kept me engaged throughout the Croods’ journey, and it turned out to be good eye candy that the entire family can enjoy.
From the start no time is wasted as Eep (Emma Stone) narrates the dangers of living in this dangerous world. As far as Eep knows, she and her family, the Croods, are the last of their kind. Fearing the night (and everything unfamiliar or unknown) the family takes shelter in a cave until the sun reappears and everything is thought to be “safe” by Grug (Nicolas Cage), the father and leader of the group. Grug is a neurotic, overprotective parent who simply expects at any point something could happen and kill them all, so with the exception of family hunts, they never stray too far from the cave. And as a teenager, living this cramped lifestyle surrounded by her family is becoming overwhelming for Eep, and her sense of adventure (and being a rebellious teen) is just too much. Besides, living in a cave with your overbearing father, mother, brother and grandmother from sunrise to sunset is enough to make anyone want to venture anywhere despite all forms of danger.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 8th, 2013
Caroline Esmeralda van de Leeuw didn’t know she was a jazz singer until somebody told her. Growing up in Amsterdam, she was too lazy and impatient to properly learn how to play an instrument. Fortunately, she was blessed with a sultry, soulful and sassy singing voice. Caro Emerald has used that voice to smash chart records in the Netherlands. Earlier this year, her second album, “The Shocking Miss Emerald”, reached #1 in the United Kingdom. And that’s where she happened to be when I was introduced to her funky brand of jazz.
This Blu-ray captures her performance at the art deco BBC Radio Theatre in London as part of the In Concert series. It’s a relatively intimate, 300-seat venue that suits her music perfectly. In fact, if it weren’t for those pesky seats, I could easily imagine the theatre spontaneously turning into a dance hall with everyone in the audience joining in on the fun. I should mention that, in my former life, I was a pretty avid swing dancer. So I’m always looking for potential places to lindy bomb, and cool new music to dance to.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 7th, 2013
“This story is based on a remarkable but true incident that took place in Africa in 1913 before the Great War, when the world was very different.”
The moviemaking business was also drastically different in 1976, the year this British, pre-WWI romp was released. Today, the risk-averse film industry has made large-scale adventures like Shout at the Devil — starring big personalities trekking across even bigger locations — all but extinct. I get that greenscreens and CGI are more cost-effective. But a movie’s ability to transport its audience gets an extra jolt when we know we’re looking at the real thing.
