Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 1st, 2010
Extraordinary Measures is a moving story about family and a father’s perseverance to find a cure for his children. John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) seeks out the help of an irritable medical researcher (Harrison Ford) whose theory cannot be fully developed without extensive funding. As the time ticks away, so does the probability of finding a cure. This film requires an emotional investment and audiences will be surprised at how invested they become.
Coming from emotionally charged source material, the filmmaker (Tom Vaughn) was given the difficult task of conveying personal emotion to a mass audience. Too often stories similar to this are made into low budget made for TV films which are downtrodden for their ineptitude. It is difficult for audiences to shed that stigma from the marketing of this film. However, on a positive note, Extraordinary Measures is executed quite well. The momentum of the film is driven from the story and less on aesthetics. The shot selection, editing and score of the film are all pedestrian at best. However, there is something to be said for a film that has an arbitrary execution and still manages to maintain the audience’s attention.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 28th, 2010
Timer is an innovative concept. In the film, people can choose to be fitted with a timer which counts down until that person meets their soul mate. The timer will tell you precisely how long you will have to wait to find true love. Oona (Emma Caulfield) is in the rare situation of having a blank timer. Her soul mate has not had one implanted yet and the suspense is getting to her. Oona decides to go out of her comfort zone and begin dating a considerably younger man named Mikey (John Patrick Amedori). The only problem is that Mikey is not slated to meet his soul mate for another four months.
This film has a strong and imaginative concept. The writer/director Jac Schaeffer takes an ambitious approach at the romantic comedy genre and the result is a muddled film. The performances are mediocre and the characters are not fleshed out enough. I found myself struggling to identify with any of the characters. The concept needed to be further examined with more confrontation and a grittier approach. When attempting to make profound statements about our culture in the happy-go-lucky genre of romantic comedy it becomes difficult. By viewing this film as a critique of the popularization of internet matchmaking and dating, it asks the audience to enjoy more of the present and worry less of the future. The statement is sound, but the vision is never fully realized.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 27th, 2010
"This is Hell, and I'm going to give you the guided tour."
There have been a lot of great prison and prison break films over the years. Who can forget Dustin Hoffman in Papillon or Clint Eastwood in Escape From Alcatraz? Of course, more recently we had The Shawshank Redemption. Lock Up won't ever taste the rare air of those classic films. In fact, it's not really a prison break film at all. There is an attempted break, but it's not quite the focus of the film. I almost felt like I was watching the sequel to a break film. That's because Lock Up deals with the aftermath of a prison break and shows us the consequences on both the escapee and the warden who was responsible for preventing said break. And that's where I think this movie creates its own niche in the popular genre. It's a unique film that might have left its most exciting moments in a past that we never got a chance to see.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 26th, 2010
In 2007, nineteen years after a similar uprising was crushed by Burma’s military junta, frustrated citizens once again took to the streets. Led by troops of monks in peaceful demonstrations, they made their voices heard by the generals, demanding freedom and democracy. The reaction was swift and violent. Men with riot gear and guns descended on the demonstrators and after many clouds of tear gas, numerous beatings, and even some shootings, the government quickly broke the spirit of its people again.
These incidents, and the actions that led to them, were chronicled by a courageous group of video journalists called Democratic Voice of Burma. These men and women captured hours of footage, risking imprisonment and worse, and got that footage out to the world over the internet and through trusted couriers. The images they captured allowed the people of the world and, even more importantly, the people of Burma (to whom the footage was also broadcast), to see the truth behind the lies of the Burmese government.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 26th, 2010
As the name suggests, this is a collection of ten movies on LGBT themes. In chronological order, here's what we have:
The Children's Hour (1961): Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn are the headmistresses of a girl's school, and their lives are turned upside down when one ghastly little child accuses them of being romantically involved. It is clear, though, the MacLaine would very much like to be. This was director William Wyler's second stab at adapting Lilllian Hellman's play, and this time was able actually to deal with the play's central issue, rather than disguise it as he had to
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 23rd, 2010
Several years ago comedian Doug Benson made a joke about wanting to parody the film Super Size Me, after watching it while high, by smoking pot continuously for 30 days. A filmmaker heard that joke and decided to make it a reality. Upon making the film, there was an added catch to Benson's plan of 30 days being “Super High,” as he would have to be stone sober for the 30 days leading up to it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 15th, 2010
The name says it all. With just those four words, you can pretty much figure out everything you need to know about Hot Tub Time Machine. This is very much a party film in the tradition of the Saturday Night Live alumni movies of the 70's and 80's. With the release of this movie, you no longer need to travel back in time to 1986 to watch a film that relies almost entirely on sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll for most of its situational comedy. The rest gets filled in with your standard toilet humor. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, or who exactly I should blame, but at some point filmmakers decided that the only way to elicit laughter was to gross you out. Before long a sort of Hollywood arms race had started. Each new film had as its primary mission the objective to out-gross the ones that came before. If you wish to measure success on that axiom, Hot Tub Time Machine is a very successful movie.
Meet four guys who are in a desperate need to get a life. Adam (Cusack) has just lost his live-in girlfriend. It seems she took a lot of the good stuff, including the television, with her. Nick (Robinson) was once a promising local musician with a loving wife. Now his wife is cheating on him, and he works at a doggie spa named Sup Dawg removing crap from rich folks’ constipated dogs. Lou (Corddry) is divorced, broke, and alone. While getting carried away listening to a rock song on the car stereo, Lou almost kills himself in a closed garage with the car running. His friends, who really don't even like him that much, had long since abandoned him. Now that they think he tried to commit suicide, they get guilted into taking him out for a good time. Together with Adam's geek nephew Jacob (Duke), they decide to go back to the location of their glory years of youth, a ski camp. Of course, a lot has changed in 25 years. The place is now a ghost-town dump. On the bright side, their hotel room comes equipped with a hot tub. The four guys party hard and into the night. When they wake up, the place is packed and jumping like it was in the good old days of Winterfest 1986. There's a good reason for the change. The hot tub has transported them back to 1986 into the bodies of their younger selves. Their good times are hampered by the appearance of a cryptic hot tub repairman (Chase) who appears to know what's going on. He warns them that if they change anything, there could be dire consequences. Jacob's worried that he might not even be born.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 15th, 2010
Lionsgate has as good a collection of catalog titles as any studio out there. Many of these films have not yet been given the high definition Blu-ray treatment for one reason or another. So I'm sitting here trying to figure out how a trivial film like Ladybugs jumped the line and finds itself in a barebones release on Blu-ray this month. I'm sure that the movie has its fans. Of course, I've never met any of them, but I gotta believe that they're out there ... somewhere.
Don't get me wrong. I love Rodney Dangerfield. He's one of the few guests on Letterman who got me to be sure to schedule my DVR. I don't get to watch such things often, because I spend a large part of my entertainment time watching films for you guys. I know. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. Yeah, I laugh about it all the time with my friends and family who have real jobs. Usually, they don't think that one's so funny. Except sometimes this really is a tough job. And, you want to know what else isn't so funny? Ladybugs. It's a bad sign when I find myself laughing hardest at a scene where Rodney's behind a dressing room curtain with Jonathan Brandis, and he's sounding like a pedophile to a shopper who misunderstands what she sees and hears. When that's the high point of any film, you've really gotta question the value of the kinds of things you're watching.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 13th, 2010
When I was a kid in the 80’s, Predator was one of those films that you weren’t supposed to watch, but everybody did anyway. Over-the-top action, invincible heroes, cheesy one-liners and big, big explosions made this a film that was a favorite of pre-pubescent boys everywhere. Going into this disc, I found myself wondering if the film would stand up to the harsh tests of time and maturity.
The answer to that question is both “yes”, and “no”. In the “no” column, it is very apparent early on in the film…that there is very little here in the way of plot. Some soldiers are hired to go behind enemy lines to rescue an American politician who has been kidnapped by generic terrorists. Once the team arrives at their location, they discover that they have actually been sent on the mission for different reasons altogether, though those reasons are never really made clear. On their way back to the rendezvous point, they have multiple encounters with an evil and mysterious creature who tries to kill them (and occasionally succeeds). That’s about it. Beyond these basic plot outlines, dialog is basically reserved to screaming profanities and the aforementioned goofy one-liners.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 8th, 2010
"The rocket belt was first developed by Bell Aeronautics in the 1950's with financial backing from the U.S. military. The Bell Rocket Belt flew successfully for the first time in 1961. Upon seeing the test, the U.S. military found the device so impractical that they promptly withdrew financing and dropped all support for further development."
Unless you’re a regular at the film festival circuit, chances are you haven't even heard of the movie Pretty Bird. Even after picking up the distribution rights to this quirky comedy, Paramount left it sitting somewhere in a cold canister for about two years. Finally the movie arrives in a bare-bones direct-to-DVD format. Is it possible that the studio found the film so impractical that they didn't see any upside to further financial support that releasing the film at the box office would entail? After watching the movie for the first, and likely last time, I suspect there is more truth to that theory than not.
![Lock Up [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/lock-up-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Hot Tub Time Machine (Unrated) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/hot-tub-time-machine-unrated-blu-large.jpg)
![Ladybugs [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/ladybugs-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![Predator (Ultimate Hunter Edition) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/predator-ultimate-hunter-edition-large.jpg)
