Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 10th, 2007
For decades it was the doomsday scenario. Cold War Americans lived in almost constant fear that the Soviets might drop a nuke on us and begin Armageddon. It was unthinkable that a conventional invasion could reach our shores instead. Red Dawn stirred its own mushroom cloud of controversy when it reached theaters in August of 1984. While the Cold War was actually closer to its end than any of us might have suspected, Red Dawn entered our collective consciousness as a shock to a system that had for some time moved beyond the culture of fear those older than myself knew growing up. By the 1970’s the air raid sirens and classroom drills were no longer commonplace in American cities. Growing up in Eastern Pennsylvania, it was
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2007
Surf's Up is Sony Pictures Animation's second and latest film, and is directed by Toy Story 2 co-director Ash Brannon and Chicken Little's Chris Buck. Although it was considered a box office failure, Surf's Up has since been applauded by critics and fans alike. I have to say, normally I'm a sucker for CGI films but lately there has been a flood of them on the market, and frankly they're starting to decline in quality. But Surf's Up does something different, it's actually a CGI mockumentary on surfing documentaries, and with quite a list of voice actors. The list includes Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, Shia LaBeouf, James Woods, Diedrich Bader, and more. So does this film break free from the recent rut the animated film genre seems to have found itself in?
A crew of cameras follows Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf, Transformers) around Shiverpool, Antarctica documenting him as he hopes to become the next renowned surfing penguin, after his idol "Big Z" (Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski). Eventually a talent scout makes his way to Shiverpool where he recruits Cody to join his team. Here Cody befriends Chicken Joe (Jon Heder, School For Scoundrels) a mellow surfer, and becomes hostile with the buff and jerkish Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader, Napoleon Dynamite). Along the way he also meets a kind and caring lifeguard Lani (Zooey Deschanel, Live Free or Die) whom he instantly falls in love with. After a while Cody's arrogance gets himself injured while having a surf off with Tank, and he ends up being nursed back to health by a hermit named The Geek. Eventually Cody finds out that The Geek is actually "Big Z" and with his help Cody hopes to win the upcoming Big Z competition.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 4th, 2007
Scientists Edward Pretorious (Ted Sorel) and Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Coombs) successfully construct a machine (dubbed the “Resonator”) that links our world with another, hostile dimension. Pretorious gets his head bitten off by something summoned by the machine, while Tillinghast is incarcerated in an asylum. Psychiatrist Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) believes Tillinghast’s story when she discovers his pineal gland is growing enormously, and she has him released into her custody to recreate the experiment. Baaad idea.
Director Stuart Gordon’s follow-up to Re-Animator ups the gore and mutated flesh aspect, and in this uncut version, we at last get to see Coombs sucking Carolyn Purdy-Gordon’s brain out of her eye-socket, among other gruesome delights. There are plenty of distorted monstrosities on display, too, and the film certainly benefits from an enthusiastic commitment to its material. But Gordon, despite his great love for Lovecraft’s material, has always struck me as not quite having the right temperament to really capture Lovecraft’s spirit. He comes close in Dagon, but there, as here, he coaches performances that are pitched far too broadly, and gets carried away, not just with the sex and gore (which isn’t necessarily a problem), but with the equally broad humour such that the movie never really captures the true cosmic terror of Lovecraft’s tales. (In the Mouth of Madness is much more successful in this regard.) So, while this film doesn’t quite work, it is still huge fun.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 27th, 2007
This is a second release of the film already available in Severin’s fine Black Emanuelle’s Box collection. What I said about the film in that review still holds, to whit: “Emanuelle Around the World (1977) has a bit more of a storyline, though it is still very picaresque in nature. Picturesque as well. Our heroine becomes outraged by the sex traffic of women, and so travels from location to location, exposing the evildoers. D’Amato (who also directed the previous entry) here rather unconvincingly dons a pseudo-feminist stance, but there are moments actually approaching suspense. The sex scenes of both these films are, for the most part, laughable, though occasionally well shot. Any sense of eroticism is thanks to Laura Gemser, whose ethereal beauty and grace are such that she moves through the film as an almost divine presence, above and untouched by the events around her.”
This is the “XXX European Version,” which doesn’t make a whole heck of a lot of difference. The running times are essentially identical. The only scene where I noticed any real increase in explicitness is in the creepy sequence where a captured Emanuelle is forced to watch rape by snake and dog. The scene is still, I think (and devoutly hope and keep telling myself), simulated, but most unpleasant, and makes the film’s pseudo-feminist stance even harder to buy than before.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2007
Stop me if you’ve heard any of this before. Four teens set out on a road trip …
STOP.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 22nd, 2007
It’s hard for me to believe that Darkman comes from a time when Sam Raimi was fresh off directing Evil Dead 2 and Liam Neeson was a little known Irish actor. A lot has changed since then, but a true classic can stand the test of time, and although I was very young when I first saw this movie, I remember it being very unique. Of course my perspective on films has blossomed since the time I was watching Rugrats, and it has literally been that long since I’ve seen Darkman. Nonetheless I’m pleased to finally get the chance to watch this Liam Neeson classic, and in HD to boot.
Darkman was hardly what I remembered it, but not in a bad way. I can understand it better now, and see there is more depth to it than I remember. It tells the story of scientist Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson, Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace) who is developing a synthetic skin that would allow burn victims to appear normal. That’s pretty handy considering Mr. Westlake is about to be hideously disfigured, but I’ll overlook that. Anyways, there is a flaw with the skin; it only lasts for slightly over 90 minutes before it disintegrates in the sun. In the dark it will stay intact. This all comes into play later, but in the meantime Westlake’s girlfriend and attorney Julie Hastings (Frances McDormand, Fargo) has found evidence incriminating a local developer and a mobster. This leads to Westlakes lab being blown up, with him in it. The Darkman is now born, the disfigured Westlake undergoes surgery that severs his nerves and his ability to feel anything, along with an overactive adrenal gland, and you got a pretty pissed off halfway superhero. He escapes from the hospital and hopes to rebuild his relationship with Hastings, and get his vigilante justice on those responsible for making him the way he is.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 20th, 2007
Since Mystery Science Theater 3000 came to an end, fans have been having to make do with various second-best replacements. The most obvious one has been Mike Nelson’s solo commentaries on the likes of Reefer Madness and House on Haunted Hill. Though his efforts have been amusing, they have like the lunatic fun generated when he had Tom Servo and Crow to bounce off. With The Film Crew releases, we have the closest thing yet to a return of MST3K, as Nelson is reunited with Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett (who were the ‘bots). Playing themselves, they are a trio of working joes whose job is to provide commentary tracks to undeserving films. We don’t see their silhouettes, but we hear their exchanges over the course of the film. The result is pretty damn funny.
Killers from Space is a hilariously dismal 1954 SF opus from W. Lee Wilder (Billy’s singularly untalented younger brother). The boys give this tale of Peter Graves encountering aliens with ping-pong-ball eyes a deserved trouncing. Their work is easily on par with their MST3K days, and some of their post-film antics (which I will not spoil here) have me cackling even as I write these words. This really is the next best thing to MST3K.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 20th, 2007
It’s back, yet again, and looking for more brains. Dan O’Bannon’s lively zombie comedy tells the tale of a toxic spill reanimating corpses who, not content with wanting to eat your brains, are going to give you lip about it at the same time. Notable for its mix of horror, punk rock, gore, humour and nudity (this is the film that established Linnea Quigley as a horror starlet), the film has since been bested in terms of wit and gore by both Dead/Alive and Shaun of the Dead, but it was there first, and remains great fun. Never having caught the film in the theatres, I haven’t noticed anything amiss with the soundtrack, but the chatter out there among the film’s fans lets it be known that some of the songs have been truncated, so be warned on that front. Otherwise, have a blast.
Audio
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 19th, 2007
When I picked up Rio Bravo – Ultimate Collector’s Edition to review, I realized I had never seen a John Wayne movie. “The Duke” starred in well over 100 films, so I was more than a little surprised at this gaping hole in my viewing repertoire. Then I looked up director Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep) and discovered another long list of films I’ve overlooked. Defensively, I asked myself whether I was really missing out. Could their old movies be worth my time so many years later?
If Rio Bravo is any indication, their films are absolutely worth watching, though they’re perhaps not as masterful as they’re reputed to be. No matter your opinion, this Ultimate Collector’s Edition is one fine DVD set.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 18th, 2007
As any respectable history professor will tell you, if you want to learn about our past you should watch Hollywood historical fiction. That explains why MGM’s College Essentials: History 101 features Platoon – Special Edition, Windtalkers and Dances With Wolves. All three are clearly excellent examples of thoroughly accurate representations of historical conflicts, right?
Alright, so maybe educational impact isn’t the intention here. This is just MGM’s way of unloading some sub-par discs on unsuspecting buyers. What’s wrong with getting three movies for the price of one, you ask? Nothing. Unless one disc is out-dated and the other two should be incinerated by a giant laser.
![Darkman [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/darkman-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
