Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 5th, 2010
For somebody who does a lot of the cartoon reviews on this website, I often miss many new cartoons that crop up on Saturday mornings, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, etc. One such animated show cropped up on my review slab. In the spirit of Halloween, (but not an official Nights of Terror post), it is my pleasure to take a look at Ugly Americans, the newest animation from Comedy Central.
Mark Lilly is a newcomer to Manhattan. He moves into his first apartment that he found on Craiglist, a nice two-bedroom with a roommate. One little problem, his roommate is a flesh-eating zombie named Randall Skeffington. Randall became a zombie in an attempt to win over a hot girl who was into zombies. The only issue is that the hot girl had moved on to warlocks by the time Randall had turned.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 5th, 2010
Bruno Hamel (Claude Legault), a surgeon, and his wife Sylvie (Fanny Mallette) enjoy an afternoon tryst while their young daughter Jasmine (Rose-Marie Coallier) heads off to school. Tragedy strikes, though, when Jasmine is assaulted and killed by pedophile Anthony Lemaire (Martin Dubreuil). Bruno and Sylvie are devastated, and each deals with the tragedy an unhealthy way, with Sylvie withdrawing from the world and her husband, and Bruno plotting vengeance. Lemaire is caught, but doesn't remain in police custody long, since Bruno kidnaps him and carries him off to a secluded cottage in the forest. His plan: torture Lemaire for the seven days leading up to what would have been Jasmine's birthday, and then kill him. The police investigation becomes at least as much about saving Bruno's soul as it is about saving Lemaire's life.
Rightly or wrongly, so-called “torture porn” is one of the more reviled subgenres of horror film. While there is no denying that the worst films of this type can be among the most mind-numbing and depressing bits of celluloid stupidity, aesthetically as well as ethically bankrupt, it is just as true that the best can force the viewer into some extremely uncomfortable, but artistically and philosophically vital, territories. One should also bear in mind that though the term “torture porn” is new, that type of story has been around forever. No less a figure of classic horror than Bram Stoker himself wrote a short story called “The Squaw,” wherein a character experiences a sexual thrill by installing himself in an iron maiden (until, of course, things go rather wrong). And if we go all the way back to the birth of literary horror, with the arrival of the Gothic novel at the end of the 18th century, the Marquis de Sade was right there at the start, penning works that articulated what the English Gothics only hinted at, and that depicted horrors that go far beyond anything Eli Roth has dared put on the screen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 4th, 2010
"1.2 billion TV viewers saw the home-made autopsy film in 1995. Experts have been divided over its authenticity ever since ... until now."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 4th, 2010
Eddie Murphy was at his best when he did Saturday Night Live and his own stand up comedy. I would even say that some of his earlier films were okay. He is far better when given the opportunity to be himself, and improvise a little. I miss the days of Delirious and Saturday Night Live. Now at most we get Dr. Dolittle and Shrek. I miss the vulgar side. So let's take a trip down memory lane, and have a few laughs.
We interrupt this review to bring you this special report. Good evening, Teh Noms reporting, we have just received word that Buckwheat has been shot. Brought to you by Texxon, Life goes on, and Texxon is there. *cough* You have to have this set of sketches in order for this to be a "Best of". It goes on and on and on... With them showing the video of Buckwheat being shot at least 10 times. It doesn't start to get funny till the 4th or 5th time of seeing the video. The funniest thing is how they repeat the lines. Heeelarious.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 3rd, 2010
Written by Diane Tillis
Paranormal State is a paranormal reality documentary television series that premiered on the A&E network in 2007. The series follows a group of students from Pennsylvania State University who formed the Paranormal Research Society (PRS) under the guidance of leader Ryan Buell. The students travel across the country investigating instances of paranormal activity at the behest of people looking for answers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on October 2nd, 2010
Three friends, who have been close since grade school, are approaching their 40s and feeling like they are well past their prime. One friend had a 4.0 grade point average, works at a retail store. One was a star athlete bound for a scholarship, is 25K deep in gambling debt. The final of the three was a successful working rock musician, now drives a beer truck and lost his knack for song writing. As they all hit rock bottom, they venture on a road trip with a pair of tickets to a major College Football match and the hope of starting fresh...or end it all on a high note.
So much seems to happen in this film, as it plays out like a series of bits that have been sewn together. Things happen so quickly that it is hard to keep track of what is motivating these men. They seem to go back and forth between seeking a meaning, then redemption, then they want to kill themselves, and then the cycle starts over again. The “bits” (as I just called them) are amusing enough but it is hard to connect with characters when you're not sure how seriously to take them. They play for beer-fueled, road trip laughs more often then not, but then confuse you with a sudden heavy desire for catharsis (and overload of which comes at the end). One might assume that because so much happens so quickly in a movie that is 90 minutes long, that it has a good pace, but it doesn't. The funnier bits certainly pick things up but then we hit a grinding halt on more than several occasions with inexplicable scenes like this Ed Harris cameo at a carnival which has nothing in the way of exposition or character revelation, thus doesn't feed the film at all.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 30th, 2010
A lot of musical acts have broken up over the decades. Some of those breakups have included public feuds and plenty of hostility between the members. You would be hard-pressed to recall a breakup as public and hostile as when the Everly Brothers called it quits. If you think Glen Fry's "When hell freezes over" remark was pretty definitive, you should have been at the final Everly Brothers concert in 1973. The argument occurred on-stage in front of a live audience. Harsh words were exchanged, and a guitar got smashed. When Phil Everly walked off the stage to leave Don to finish the show alone, it would not only be the last time the brothers would appear on stage together in a decade. They would barely even speak to each other throughout most of that time. Lots of broken bands get back together for reunion tours and shows. But if you had to lay odds, the smart money would have bet against this brotherly duo ever singing together again. But, in 1983, a full ten years after the split, the smart money lost. The Everly Brothers reunited for a special concert at London's Royal Albert Hall in front of a sold-out crowd that included a ton of stars that credit the brothers as their own early inspirations. The cameras were on hand to capture this historic moment. Now you can own it on DVD.
Unlike many groups, the Everly Brothers were more than just a performing and writing duo. They sang together, often sharing the same microphone. Part of the act was the intimacy that the boys displayed in their concerts. It made those harmonies sound just that much tighter. So the question going into this performance was rather obvious. How would the acrimony and the years effect that style of performance? You would be very surprised to find that they didn't appear to miss a beat. This is one of those moments where it appears time stood still for those ten years and the boys managed to pick up at the moment before the famous fight. And it wasn't just a one night wonder. The brothers went forward after that night in London and continued to perform and record for over 20 more years. While they never found themselves back on top again -- the times had, of course changed -- the brothers continued to pack concert halls all over the world.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 30th, 2010
When I was asked to review this DVD, a smile came across my face. I loved Adam Sandler skits on Saturday Night Live. I was also a fan of some of his earlier movies like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore (Though I can't say I am a fan of Eight Crazy Nights, but everyone has at least one film that they wonder why the person did it later on). I still quote lines from these movies. Yeah, say what you want about that... I still find it and him funny. Go grab a Snack Pack and sit down with me to review The Best of Adam Sandler!
Cough Ok so you pick up the DVD and do what most people do... Turn it around to view the back. A list of twenty sketches stares you in the face, but what is that? Opera Man is listed four times? Apparently they needed to fill the back of the case. That said, you will see quite a bit of Opera Man. It is one of the best characters he had on the show, and probably the one he played the most often. I think the best part is when he is in the middle of singing, he cracks a smile, and tries not to laugh at what he is singing about. The best comedy is the stuff that the comics performing also find funny.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 30th, 2010
A young epileptic girl returns to her home in New York while on spring break. She stays with her mother and her best friend Al, whose room is now being rented out by his parents. While there she loses touch with her college boyfriend and reevaluates how she feels about her friend Al.
I wish I could say that opening paragraph was the launching point for the film's plot, when in fact it is a basically a summary of the entire film. This film is a very understated character study of our female lead and offers little by way of action or complex plot. Writer/Director Bradley Rust Gray's approach to this film is a sort-of casual, fly-on-the-wall approach to shooting the action (or lack thereof). Gray succeeds when using very long, uninterrupted shots, at very odd angles, as if the cameraman were spying on these these 20-somethings mumbling and fumbling through their awkward feelings and the lame parties they attend in order to capture their unadulterated actions. Whenever a typical shot-reverse-shot occurs (for those not up on film school lingo: an example is simply when the camera is watching one person speak, then cuts to a shot of the person they are speaking to and back again) it actually distracts from the moment for its artificiality removes us from the voyeuristic feel of the camera's positioning. The 'captured reality' approach to the presentation makes it so that I cannot tell if I should attribute the mishandling of situations (mainly some really lame and awkward dialogue) to the characters within the film, or to an awkward script. That is to say, I am able to buy into what is happening in such a way that I forget that there is a team of people working on this film that I cannot see and so I place all responsibility onto the characters.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 30th, 2010
In 1987 Kenny G had released three albums already, but most of the world still didn't know who he was. He was already an accomplished musician who had played as part of Barry White's orchestra. He had dreams of taking his talents a bit further than that. But it's incredibly hard to get on the pop charts with instrumental music. It doesn't happen very often. That's not to say that it's unheard of. There have been a few instrumental pieces and musicians that have found huge success riding the international pop charts. Up until now Kenny G could not be counted as one of them.
All of that changed with the release of Duotones and the single Songbird. Both captivated the mainstream audiences and began to garner serious attention for the sax player. One of the results of that new-found recognition was an introduction to the world famous Montreux Jazz Festival. You had to show something to be invited to that stage. Kenny G appeared there in both 1987 and 1988. This DVD captures both of those performances. Fans won't need much of an inducement to pick up the release. It was an historic moment for the musician and his mostly Seattle-based band. It was the introduction of Kenny G to the world stage.
