Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 11th, 2006
(Portions of this review have been pulled from the original one-disc version of Platoon, which can also be found in the reviews portion of the site)Synopsis
There are a good number of people who have labeled Oliver Stone as a fan of conspiracy theories, out to destroy foundations of conservative ideology, while at the same time re-visiting 60’s nostalgic icons. Despite the jokes and the stereotyping, one has to admit that, as a filmmaker, he has helped bring to screen some of the most talk...d about cinematic experiences of our time, including Midnight Express, Scarface, not to mention Conan the Barbarian. As a director, his works, such as The Doors, Nixon, JFK and Natural Born Killers, have generated discussion both within and aside from the technical merits. Platoon was his most personal work, and is widely regarded as one of the defining films of the Vietnam War.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 11th, 2006
(Portions of this review have been pulled from the original one-disc version of Jackass, which can also be found in the reviews portion of the site)Synopsis
One could make an attempt at witty prose by comparing Jackass to the works of Kubrick, Cassavettes, Scorsese, or what have you. But look, it’s a bunch of guys, some of whom have reputations in other circles, such as skateboarder Bam Margera and acclaimed director Spike Jonze, doing stunts that you may not have thought, dared or ...emotely considered doing, and keeping parts of the general public off guard. The gang made a huge splash on MTV, and scores of crazed teens wanted to try what these guys were doing, and maybe appear on the show. I think the quote from Millhouse on the Simpsons says it best: "All those warnings on TV make me want to do it more". The kids would get burned, broken, what have you, and parents who couldn’t crack the whip hard enough at home decided to sue anyone under the sun, despite the profuse warnings on each show, as well as a timeslot shift early on in the series’ life. So Johnny Knoxville became this decade’s Beavis, which I guess makes Steve-O Butthead. So, after judging (perhaps correctly) there wasn’t anything really left to do on TV, they decided to step things up and do a movie, and a $5 million budget led to a gross of over $60 million and a sequel that may make the same amount.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 10th, 2006
Warren Beatty attempts directing for the second time in Reds, a film based on the life of John Reed during the Russian Revolution. I didn’t know what to expect from this film, as I had never heard of it prior to its release on HD DVD. I have never seen a movie based on this subject matter, so the movie covered all new grounds for me. Upon investigation I discovered the movie was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won three, including Best Director for Warren Beatty. Boasting an impressive cast including W...rren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino, and Gene Hackman, this movie seemed to have a lot of potential.
John Reed was an American journalist and communist activist best known for writing Ten Days that Shook the World. He was married to writer Louise Bryant; they had a hot and cold relationship, which is one of the main themes portrayed in this movie. Of course the others being John Reed’s quest to document the Russian Revolution, and the years beyond it. We learn about things such as communism, the insecurities of the main characters, and observe their somewhat repetitive back and forth bickering. Interestingly, Beatty decided to tie in actual interviews with people who knew John Reed throughout the movie, which gave us real life perspectives about Reed as well as tying together different parts of the story. I enjoyed those parts, as they didn’t interrupt the flow of the movie and it added an insightful sense of realism to it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 8th, 2006
It seems that most of the creators behind today’s horror movies just aren’t thinking anymore. Films like The Grudge or the remake of the classic The Omen just aren’t as scary anymore. Such is the case with the recent Universal film Slither, which ends up being an entertaining movie, but never really produces that spook factor that say the original Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street produced.
The film begins after a meteorite crashes in a Midwestern town. A man named Gra...t (Michael Rooker) stumbles upon a fossil and is infected by a life force living inside the fossil. Soon his super cute wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks) figures out that something is not right with her husband. He has a new found larger than life hunger for raw meat and he begins to crave strange body mutations. It turns out that a strange alien creature has infested Grant in hopes of infesting the entire human race. Now the next part sounds a bit out of the film Species. The creature inside Grant decides it wants to mate with Starla to create a whole new race. Bring in Deputy Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion) and Jack MacReady (Gregg Henry) to do battle with this new creature and you have, surprisingly, a pretty entertaining film even if it never truly scares you.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 31st, 2006
Ice Age – The Meltdown is a short, funny, well-animated sequel that offers up a new adventure for the memorable characters from the original Ice Age film. As a great bonus, it’s nicely balanced for audiences young and old.
20th Century Fox Animation is still a poor second cousin to Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios, but for sheer entertainment value, Ice Age – The Meltdown doesn’t get knocked completely out of the water by top-shelf blockbusters like The Incredibles. Sure, the animation is weaker, and story is less inspired, but the voice work is excellent, with the talent of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, Jay Leno, and the list goes on.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 30th, 2006
12 Monkeys tells the story of a man named James Cole (16 Blocks Bruce Willis) who is sent back in time from the year 2035 to the year 1996 in hopes of saving the human race from a deadly virus which has forced mankind into total seclusion from the above world. Down below the ground, they live in communities hoping one day to come out and start a new world. Once he arrives, Cole encounters a patient named Jeffrey Goines (Troy’s Brad Pitt) and a psychiatrist named Kathryn Railly (We Were Soldier... Madeleine Stowe). Cole soon learns, after a few conversations with Jeffrey, that he may hold the whole key to solving this virus. As the film progresses, what we and Cole learn is that the scientists who simply sent Cole back to obtain a sample of this virus for further study, may have had more sinister motives at hand.
The film is directed by Terry Gilliam, a man who certainly has quite the fan base not because his films gross a lot of money, but rather because his films require the mind to think about what they’ve just seen on the screen. Having only seen this film once before this viewing, my love for the film was brought back quickly. Even though I’ve only seen a handful of his films, I’ve always loved how Gilliam is able to sway away from the main plot to introduce side plots in a manner that is always keeping the viewer in loop with what the main purpose of the film at hand. His films are so creative, insane (in a good sense), fun, and simply a mind trip to watch (especially his recently released on HD DVD Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). He creates these characters that are so unique and interesting that one can help getting sucked into the story at hand.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 29th, 2006
Phat Girlz is one rotten piece of crap. I hate to say it that way, but some movies don’t deserve the flowery lambasting some more deserving bad films get from their critics. They should simply be called what they are. That’s why I equate this film with the “c” word. Mo’Nique stars as a plus-sized hypocrite, who seems to have the same prejudgments about “skinny bitches” as they seem to have about her – in the confines of the film, that is. Overweight people are given a saintly presence, while most everyone...– male or female – capable of squeezing into one airplane seat is portrayed with utter contempt.
And the jokes are the epitome of weak. One embarrassing moment in the film comes when Mo’Nique has one of the lamest word battles ever heard with a fry cook. The jokes written for her hapless adversary were in circulation around the first Thanksgiving, and I’m sure made it over on the Mayflower. Mo’Nique’s comebacks are designed to be uproariously better, a technique which might have worked were it not for the head-scratching lack of sense made on execution. We’re left to think, “Was that supposed to be funny?” Topping off this exercise in ridicule – as in ridiculous – is a story that sends eyeballs rolling immediately into their sockets. Mo’Nique and her shy plus-sized friend win a trip to a Caribbean resort, where they JUST SO HAPPEN to meet two buff Nigerian men, who JUST SO HAPPEN to like large women, and JUST SO HAPPEN to be successful doctors in their native land. The film’s efforts at fairy tale unwind quickly to the realms of absurdity, and never recover.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 26th, 2006
Whichever generation you’re from I think we can all remember watching this movie as a child. I have great memories of this film, and when watching the newly released Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I found myself comparing it to these memories. Finally I’ve gotten the chance to sit down and watch it again for the first time in years, and on HD DVD what a treat, so how does it hold up after all these years?
The movie centers on a young boy named Charlie Bucket, living with his mother and bedridden...grandparents. Charlie like any child loves chocolate, so when it’s announced that the famous Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) is allowing five children to spend an entire day in his factory, he wants to win more than anyone else. There are five golden tickets placed randomly inside Wonka candy bars, they could be in any candy shop, in any town, anywhere in the world. As the days go on we find that an overweight chocolate obsessed boy in Germany named Augustus Gloop has found the first ticket. The second by a nagging spoiled brat in England named Veruca Salt. The third an overachieving competitive girl from The United States named Violet Beauregarde. The fourth is a lazy television obsessed boy named Mike Teavee, also from The United States. All hope is lost for Charlie when it is announced that the fifth ticket has been found… but that wouldn’t make for much of a movie, would it?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 25th, 2006
Steven Soderbergh’s film Out of Sight tells the story of a man named Jack Foley (E.R.’s George Clooney) and his ability to rob banks. As the film opens up, we see Jack as he cunningly convinces the bank clerk that his partner is speaking to the bank manager and will blow off his head if Jack gives the word. Turns out that this is the exact opposite and Jack almost gets away had his car not flooded. As Jack is doing his time in jail, we immediately learn that he is going to escape soon, actually that nig...t. The escape goes off cleanly until Jack and his driver named Buddy Bragg (Mission Impossible’s Ving Rhames) nab a federal marshal named Karen Sisco (The Cell’s Jennifer Lopez), putting her and Jack in the trunk of her car together. It’s here that Jack and Karen, while talking, become attracted to each other.
As a federal marshal and law officer, Karen is obviously suppose to arrest Jack. But this can’t happen yet otherwise the film would only be 20 minutes long. Here is where Soderbergh succeeds at a high level. He gives us a lot of flashbacks, one in particular to Jack’s days in prison. Jack meets a man named Glenn, who seems to be a kind of odd character who doesn’t necessarily seem to full in the upper portion of his head. We also meet a group of three men named Snoopy Miller, the violent part of the group, Kenneth, his partner and White Boy Rob, his big, bulky bodyguard who constantly stands up for Snoopy. While all this is occurring inside the prison, Soderbergh switches back and forth between the ongoing ‘relationship’ between Karen and Jack.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 24th, 2006
Synopsis
Staid middle-class couple Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) wind up, one stormy night, at the gothic mansion of the cross-dressing Dr. Frank N. Further (Tim Curry). Many songs and sexual awakenings ensue. Seriously, people, if you are reading this and require a summary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, then the movie is probably not for you. Shock Treatment, however, is less well-known. Once again we have Brad and Janet (this time played by Cliff De Young and J...ssica Harper), living in the TV-controlled town of Denton. Resistance to the televised brainwashing is met with the treatment of the title.
![Reds (25th Anniversary Edition) [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/reds-25th-anniversary-edition-hd-large.jpg)
![12 Monkeys [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/12-monkeys-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
![Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory [HD-DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/willy-wonka-the-chocolate-factory-large.jpg)
![Out of Sight [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/out-of-sight-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
