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Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 23rd, 2011

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It all started with a very short novel by French author Pierre Boulle. It wasn’t even that much of a hit at first. But a small group of Hollywood moguls led by Arthur P. Jacobs believed in the property and worked hard to get a film made. It wasn’t easy. They had to interest a big star and make a test reel in order to get anyone to bite. Fortunately for us all, Fox did bite. After five films, a television series, and a cartoon run, the franchise ran out of steam by the middle of the 1970’s.
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Scrooge (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 22nd, 2011

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Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is the pre-eminent holiday fare success story. Not only was it gigantically successful for Dickens himself, to the point that not only did he then follow it up with other Christmas books (The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Haunted Man), but he also took charge of one of its early adaptations, trimming it down for oral performances. It has also, of course, been the subject of numerous film versions, with everyone from the Muppets to Bill Murray having a go. This one, from 1970, turns the story into a musical.
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The Rocketeer: 20th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 22nd, 2011

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“How about… The Rocketeer?”

Back in 1972 Elton John pushed himself to the top of the charts atop the hit song Rocket Man, who was burning out his fuse up here alone. Well, it wasn’t going to be a very long long time before Disney and company gave us a Rocket Man in their family drama/comedy The Rocketeer. It was the first day of summer in 1991 when The Rocketeer first appeared. The box office was moderate, but it had seemed like he disappeared from the scene for a long long time.
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The Expendables (Extended Director’s Cut) (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 21st, 2011

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“Man, we’ll die with you. Just don’t ask us to do it twice.”

Well… that’s exactly what Sylvester Stallone is asking you to do. Many will look at this release as a simple case of a double-dip, and to a certain extent it is. But Sly isn’t kidding when he tells us that it’s a better film this way. At least I thought so. No question the studio wants to build buzz going into the second film, and this edition works as a sort of placeholder. It’s still a tough decision, but let’s look at the film again, just for argument’s sake, shall we?
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Kung Fu Panda 2 / Secrets of the Masters (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 14th, 2011

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“Long ago in ancient China, the peacocks ruled over Gongmen City. They brought great joy and prosperity to the city, for they had invented fireworks. But their son, Lord Shen, saw darker power in the fireworks. What had brought color and joy could also bring darkness and destruction. Shen’s troubled parents consulted a soothsayer. She foretold that if he continued down this dark path, he would be defeated by a warrior of black and white.”

We all know who that warrior is, don’t we?
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Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on December 13th, 2011

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“Oh hidy ho officer, we’ve had a doozy of a day. There we were minding our own business, just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property.”

A carload of preppie college kids set off for a Memorial Day weekend of partying deep in the backwoods of West Virginia. They encounter a couple creepy looking hillbillies leering at them on the highway. Stopping to gas up they encounter the two rednecks again, but this time one of the two approaches the girls holding a scythe over his head and laughing like a madman.
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Video Girl

Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 7th, 2011

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A small town girl named Lorie Walker is injured, which forces her to abandon her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina. After a chance encounter with an old friend, she is convinced to appear in a rap music video. The director of said video is immediately smitten with her beauty and takes her away to Los Angeles to become a Video Model.
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The Devil’s Double (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 6th, 2011

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There have been a lot of films out that deal with the Iraq war and the various political situations that region of the world has had to deal with since that time. Most of these efforts are trying so hard to make some radical political point that they tend to serve their audiences poorly as entertaining films. Happily, that’s not the case with Lee Tamahori’s The Devil’s Double. The film cuts through the polarizing political elements and provides a brutal view of the Hussein regime through the actions of one of Saddam’s sons, Uday. Tamahori has created a modern Scarface
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Attack On Leningrad (Blu Ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 4th, 2011

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This historical film looks at the three-year siege of Leningrad during World War 2. The film follows a Russian, female police officer who aids a stranded, English news reporter as they try to survive the siege.
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Carjacked (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 1st, 2011

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John Bonito has had very little experience in filmmaking. He’s done a few wrestling tidbits and one earlier film called The Marine, and that was nearly six years ago. Chances are you haven’t heard of either. If Carjack is any indication of his limited ability, the new film out on Blu-ray isn’t going to help with that name recognition. So, with a no-name director and a direct-to-video release, the film really left small expectations. We might go into a film like this expecting a rather dull, “been there, done that” feel to it. In that sense Bonito doesn’t disappoint at all. But take a closer look at the cast and hope emerges for something perhaps a little better than that.
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Super 8 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 28th, 2011

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It is 1979. While filming a Super 8 horror movie, a group of young friends on the cusp of adolescence witness a spectacular train wreck. They later discover that they accidentally captured evidence that there was an alien creature on the train, and it is now loose in their small town. But if the mysterious disappearance of dogs, engines and (increasingly) people wasn’t trouble enough, the military descends upon the community with an agenda far more merciless and inhuman than that of the alien itself.
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River Why (Blu-Ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 23rd, 2011

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Fishing is fairly foreign to me I admit it. The idea that you have to get up at the crack of dawn just to sit in a rusted over boat without saying a word to only catch not a darn thing seems like a waste of time if nothing else. The television fishing shows on TBS do not make it sound any better either. The only thing appealing to me about it is if you can find some beautiful scenery to fish in. Perhaps a place like Oregon, which is the setting for our new review: The River Why.
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Blue Velvet (Blu-Ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 20th, 2011

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Deep inside most people’s hearts lies a layer of curiosity. Many of us could go that one step farther and say it boils down to perversion. Whether it involves a spectacular car crash or two lovers in the throws of passion, there are uninhibited moments that we want to see. But what happens when those moments go beyond curiosity and straight into voyeurism? Worse yet, perhaps straight into a very dangerous situation? Well then one might be feeling much like Jeffery Beaumont in Blue Velvet, one of David Lynch’s best movies.
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Infernal Affairs (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on November 13th, 2011

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“What thousands must die, so that Caesar may become great.”

When Hong Kong released Infernal Affairs in 2002, it pretty much revived the Asian gangster genre and proved the inspiration for Martin Scorsese’s Best Director Academy Award winner, The Departed. I saw The Departed before I watched Infernal Affairs and, now seeing it, must say I prefer Scorsese’s Boston noir re-envisioning of the film more than the original. I realize this goes against the hardcore fans and critics of the film, but it doesn’t take anything away from the hardboiled crime sensation directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak created.
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Bunraku (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on November 9th, 2011

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“Things never go well before first going wrong and then getting worse; which is one of the many lessons our silent drifter has been hearing for as long as he can remember.”

Bunaku is the name of a 400-year-old form of Japanese puppet theater. These elaborately staged productions star intricately-detailed puppets operated by puppeteers dressed head to toe in black, who almost blend into the background, but never really do, making their puppeteering as hypnotic as the puppets and sets themselves.
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Planet 51

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 8th, 2011

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This is the DVD release of the film whose Blu-ray incarnation was reviewed by Gino, so I’m going to let him take it away for the review of the film itself. I’ll check back in for the specs.

“It’s back to the 1950?s with its telltale alien invasion science fiction matinees. There’s Doo Wop coming out of the radio. The cars have tail fins and plenty of color and chrome. That’s right. This is 1950?s Americana. Well … almost. You see, the alien invaders are humaniacs. They turn the helpless population into mind-controlled zombies, and they eat brains for breakfast.
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Atrocious

Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on November 7th, 2011

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“The mind is like a labyrinth in which anyone can get lost.”

The debut film from Mexican director Fernando Barredo Luna, Atrocious is yet another entry into the “found footage” genre. This is a niche where you either enjoy the handheld bouncy ride or you don’t (or if you have motion sickness, you can’t). I, for one, quite like this style of horror. With video cameras in our phones, tablets, computers, cars, and appliances as well as security cameras recording our every move 24 hours a day; the media sources for these stories are endless.
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The Warlords

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 1st, 2011

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His troops defeated and massacred, General Pang (Jet Li) staggers away from the battlefield, more dead than alive. After a brief by intense overnight encounter with a mysterious Lian (Xu Jinglei), he falls in with bandits headed up by Er Hu (Andy Lau) and Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). He finds a renewed purpose in life with this group, and forges the band into a formidable fighting force, one that will play an ever greater role in shaping the conflicts that are dividing China. But the fellowship he forms with his blood brothers has a fatal flaw: as fate would have it, Lian is promised to Er Hu. Betrayal and tragedy lurk in the wings.
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Captain America: The First Avenger (Blu-ray)(3D)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2011

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In the world of Marvel comics Captain America was indeed the first Avenger, and as the full title implies we’re going quite a way into the past to create this hero. But the first shall be last, and it’s certainly true on this long road to the May 2012 release of The Avengers on film. You see, this is the final piece to the puzzle for that great assembly of heroes. We’ve had two chances to witness both The Hulk and Iron Man and a recent film introduction to Thor. Other characters like Black Widow and Hawk Eye came as guests on the other films. But the introductions are now complete.
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“31 Nights Of Terror” The Presence

Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on October 24th, 2011

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“l know, it must seem like an eternity, but your eternity is only just beginning. Do you really want to spend it trapped here?”

The woman (Mira Sorvino) arrives at a cabin on a remote island in Oregon. At the cabin waits the ghost (Shane West) standing and staring at the woman as she goes about her daily tasks. She can’t see him, but he subtly makes his presence known. When her boyfriend (Justin Kirk) makes a surprise visit to the island, both the ghost and the woman are put out by his presence. Soon the woman begins behaving irrationally and showing the signs of spiritual oppression and possession.
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The Cider House Rules (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on October 24th, 2011

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“I’m not a doctor. I haven’t been to medical school; I haven’t even been to high school.”

A beautiful and moving film based on John Irving’s best-selling American classic The Cider House Rules deals with sensitive and controversial subject matters wrapped inside a captivating coming-of-age story. John Irving had second thoughts about trimming his huge novel into a two-hour film and only agreed to adapt the screenplay after the studio agreed to allow his son, Colin Irving, to be in the movie (He plays Major Winslow in a small role as a notifying officer delivering bad news).
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Scarface (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2011

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“In May 1980, Fidel Castro opened the harbor at Mariel, Cuba with the apparent intention of letting some of his people join their relatives in the United States. Within seventy-two hours, 3,000 U.S. boats were headed for Cuba. It soon became evident that Castro was forcing the boat owners to carry back with them not only their relatives, but the dregs of his jails. Of the 125,000 refugees that landed in Florida an estimated 25,000 had criminal records.”

One of those refugees was Tony Montana.
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Stool Pigeon (Blu-Ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 11th, 2011

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The more I get into this review writing gig (I say this like I just started writing movie reviews last week when it’s been half a dozen years), the more I appreciate foreign films. I am no longer afraid of subtitles, culturally sensitive sub-plots, or the use of specific foreign mythological creatures as supporting characters. I am not even sure what I just said. Anyway, we have an interesting foreign film to review today entitled “Sin Yan” or more commonly known by the American title as Stool Pigeon.
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Fast Five (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 4th, 2011

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Written by John Delia

The action thriller Fast Five with its hot rod theme leaves the past four episodes of Fast & Furious in the dust. Now on Blu-ray the high-on-energy, exhilarating plot and amazing chase scenes make this a must-see adrenaline pumper. Within the opening 20 minutes it gets so wild it took my breath away.
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Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 27th, 2011

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In the wake of the financially successful but critically drubbed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Michael Bay and company return to the fray with this considerably more coherent exercise. Given that this movie committed to advancing the cause of 3D like no other film since Avatar, the question arises as to how well its visual splendour and over-the-top technological extravagance will translate to home video. The answer is: pretty damn well.
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