Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 11th, 2011
In 1970 the British duo of Doctor Who's Terry Nation and The Avengers' Robert Fuest collaborated on a British film called And Soon The Darkness. The film stared then-popular Pamela Franklin. It wasn't a huge success by any standards. It's practically unheard of here in the States. But, there was something special about the little film. It developed one of those classic cult followings over the years and eventually gained the notice of people like Marcos Efron. With the popular trend of remaking pretty much every horror film ever made, it's no surprise that someone decided to tackle this lesser-known movie.
Stephanie (Heard) and Ellie (Yustman) were part of a South American bike tour. Somewhere along the way they got bored with the travelogue version of the tour and decided to sneak away and explore the rural country on their own. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. You've seen this movie before. But this one doesn't immediately go where you expect it to go. The girls spend a night partying at a local club. Ellie is a bit of a wild party girl and makes a huge show of herself at the club. Her antics culminate with a rather droll display of touching herself to the jukebox music. Stephanie is the more tame girl who had just caught her boyfriend cheating; there are indications that he cheated with Ellie, but I never was completely clear on that one. That night Ellie is stalked by a horny guy from the club but saved by Michael (Urban) who has the room next door. The next day they miss the only bus. So they head out to what was once a popular beach resort, even though they are ominously warned that it is desolate and dangerous now. Plus there are all of those missing-persons flyers. Of course, they decide to go anyway. There they have a fight about Stephanie's ex and Stephanie bikes away in anger. Once she calms down, she tries to hook back up with Ellie only to find she's disappeared and dropped her phone on the beach. She can't convince the local sheriff Calvo (Vianco) that she met with foul play. The dirty-dancing pictures on her cell phone don't help to convince anyone she isn't off on some wild ride somewhere.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 11th, 2011
I have to admit that I had not heard about Gabriel Iglesias before I got this Blu-ray concert film in the mail. From the first look at the cover you notice the obvious. Gabriel is a rather rotund comic. For him, it's not a liability at all. Honestly, he's turned it into a cash cow, of sorts. It's a huge, pun intended, part of his routine. In fact, to understand the titles of the release you have to be clued into one of his signature routines. He identifies six levels of obesity. They range from Big, Healthy, Husky, Fluffy, Damn, and the latest level Oh Hell No. As you might guess, Gabriel considers himself in the Fluffy category. Still, for all of his pounds he has quite a bit of energy, and he moves along the stage quite well for his weight. His body and child-like face make him disarming and more than a little bit charming on stage.
Gabriel has a pretty solid repertoire of routines. The show actually starts off slow as he appears to name-drop. He goes endlessly on and on about his encounters with the more famous Paul Rodriquez. Fortunately, the show gets a lot better as soon as he's used up every bit he can ride on that subject. While his bits often cover a lot of the familiar stand-up fodder, he tends to be cleaner than most comedians. He does resort to the occasional toilet joke but doesn't appear to be stuck there. His best material is when he's delivering short rapid-fire bits. When he slows down for a longer story, the funny factor drops considerably.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 11th, 2011
I always hated Moonstruck, but do not get me wrong, this is a positive review. See, it seemed like, back in my childhood, every time I wanted HBO or Showtime to play The Goonies, they were always in the middle of yet another airing of this Academy Award-winning romance. It was a boring movie about love with that lady Cher, who needed to stick to the radio, and stay off my movie screens. My, how a little age and maturity can alter perceptions. As a seven-year old boy, I just did not have the sensibility for this film. And while many would argue I have not grown up much in the years following, I gauge all such detractors wrong by the simple fact I now enjoy her shining moment thoroughly. I mean, there has to be some growth there. Right?
Moonstruck is a modern film, which uses the model of classical Italian comedies as its primary structure. In fact, some elements are directly lifted from the divine comedies of yore, but Norman Jewison, along with a top-notch script, and a terrific cast, lend a freshness not seen in the romantic by-products of today, which make the film more homage than rip-off. For one, the story centers on a 37-year old widow (Cher) not your common leading lady role whose superstitions dictate her happiness. She agrees to marry an older man, whom she admittedly does not love, just to bring some structure and stability to her life. Then she meets her fiance and his estranged younger brother, and a spark ignites that turns her world upside down in a good way. The eccentricities of her Italian-American family are mined to perfection with both warmth and humor. The film explores how cruel the closest people can be to one another without wrapping viewers up in any negativity. I can finally see what the critics were raving about – a good, solid film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 11th, 2011
"Did you ever notice how you let a Mexican into your home just because he's got gardening tools? I mean, no questions asked. You just let him right in. He could have, you know, a chainsaw or a machete."
The last year has been a hot year for the illegal immigration debate, between the Arizona law and the various politicians to the vigilante groups that volunteer to arm up and patrol the borders. As the debate rages on and the violence increases, it was only a matter of time before someone exploited it all for your entertainment pleasure. Who better than Robert Rodriquez and his usual cast of suspects?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 11th, 2011
Written by Diane Tillis
24 is a political-thriller television series that spans eight seasons. The show focuses on Jack Bauer, a prominent and controversial agent within the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Jack Bauer using the real-time method of narration. The episodes are marked by the hour with onscreen digital clocks. For instance, episode one of Season 8 relates to 4:00 P.M. through 5:00 P.M. of that day. The show also uses the split-screen technique. The screen will display multiple images that coordinate with the different story lines that occur throughout the season. This technique is used when the opening credits are rolling, before-and-after cuts for commercial breaks, or before the concluding scene. At the conclusion of its eighth and final season, 24 became the longest-running espionage-themed television drama ever.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 11th, 2011
Written by Diane Tillis
24 is a political-thriller television series that spans eight seasons. The show focuses on Jack Bauer, a prominent and controversial agent within the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Jack Bauer using the real-time method of narration. The episodes are marked by the hour with onscreen digital clocks. For instance, episode one of Season 8 relates to 4:00 P.M. through 5:00 P.M. of that day. The show also uses the split-screen technique. The screen will display multiple images that coordinate with the different story lines that occur throughout the season. This technique is used when the opening credits are rolling, before-and-after cuts for commercial breaks, or before the concluding scene. At the conclusion of its eighth and final season, 24 became the longest-running espionage-themed television drama ever.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 11th, 2011
The Graves:
When you first look at the title for this entry in After Dark’s 4th annual 8 Films To Die For, you probably have summoned up images of a dank and foreboding cemetery where unspeakable horrors rise from their resting places to torment the, albeit temporarily, living. This is definitely a little bit of a case of false advertising and the misleading use of a title. These Graves are sisters, Megan (Grant) and Abby (Murray), to be exact. They’re the kind of sisters who do everything together. You know the type. They almost speak in a secret language and appear to be soul mates. But Megan is a bit more outgoing and has gotten herself a job in New York, far away from the sisters’ home in Arizona. Abby is a bit more introverted and is having a hard time dealing with the inevitable loss of her sister. So the two decide to have one more blast together. It’s time for a road trip to visit the world’s largest thermometer. Oh boy. Any horror fan worth his remote knows that the girls are likely not going to make it to see the big thermometer, and they’d be correct. They get sidetracked in a small town called Unity where they are encouraged to visit the abandoned gold mine called Skull City Mine.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on January 11th, 2011
Paul Rudd is desperate for a promotion. Moving from the drudgery of the sixth floor to the executive seventh will, he feels, cement his financial status and convince his girlfriend (Stephanie Szostak) to marry him. Opportunity knocks, but also has a price: he must find an idiot to bring to boss Bruce Greenwood’s dinner party, where these unfortunates will be ridiculed. Rudd doesn’t like the idea, but then he (literally) runs into Steve Carrell, a man of such transcendent idiocy that Rudd can’t resist the siren call he represents. But before they can make it to the dinner, Carrell’s well-meaning stupidity threatens to completely derail Rudd’s life.
This is a remake of 1998’s The Dinner Game (Le diner des cons). Francis Veber’s farce clocked in at 80 minutes. Jay Roach’s bloated retread is half again as long, and only half as funny. The Paul Rudd character in the original, played by Thierry Lhermitte, was a superior, cruel SOB who deserved to have his life taken apart. Furthermore, the characters never actually make it to the dinner of the title. The remake, of course, finds it necessary to stick literally to its title, and gives us the dinner, thus inviting us to engage in precisely the form of cruel laughter it pretends to condemn. It also tries to make Rudd sympathetic, and having his character be a nice guy runs counter to the very premise of the film. End result: a film that tries much too hard to be funny, laboriously working every last predictable gag until those horses are fit for nothing more than the glue factory. There are some amusing moments, but this is, by and large, a gigantic, time-consuming waste of the talent involved.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 10th, 2011
Countless documentaries and dramas chronicle the life of John Lennon. They make each film unique from all the others by taking different approaches, use different archival materials, or new first-hand interviews. LENNON NYC explores a time in Lennon’s life that is rarely exposed. It focuses on Lennon’s life in New York City from 1971 to his death in 1980.
In 1971, after the breakup of The Beatles, John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono moved to New York City. The nine years Lennon spent in the city was a time for him to focus on family. While he did create some of the most acclaimed songs and albums of his career, Lennon wanted to be a proper father to his young son, Sean. A strong icon in the count-culture movement, Lennon was very active in anti-war protests and other political causes.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 6th, 2011
"If you're going to face the fires of Hell, you need to be prepared."
And that's exactly what someone should have told the folks behind the horror thriller Case 39. This has been one of those cursed films from the very beginning. The film appears to have begun production way back in 2006. It appears the film was done, at least in one form, by 2007, but there were reshoots and pick-ups for so long that it's going to be hard to imagine what the film might have originally been intended to look like. A fire on the set destroyed quite a bit of the set; fortunately no one was badly injured. The movie took so long to make that the life changes are quite noticeable in the characters. When the film did finally reach the box office on October 1st in 2010, the numbers were very disappointing. The film only took in $13 million with a budget that is listed at $26 million but was likely considerably more than that when you put it all together.
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