An Invisible Sign (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 3rd, 2011
“There comes a moment when you look around waiting for the person in charge to help you, and then you realize you’re the person in charge.”
Sometimes things get lost in translation, and while I’ve never read Aimee Bender’s An Invisible Sign Of My Own, I know that it has quite a core of fans. So I’m forced to believe that something just didn’t make the transition to screenplay and ultimately onto the screen itself. Of course, some things don’t really translate to film, and I suspect this is really the case here. So where do I look for blame for the 90 minutes of my life lost
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Cream – Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2005
Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 2nd, 2011
Here are four evenings music fans did not anticipate coming, yet anyways hoped for. In 2005 Cream reunited for the first time since their breakup (save for one performance when they were inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 1993) for four concerts at the legendary Royal Albert Hall. The bad blood between the members of Cream was almost as famous as their influential music. With that in mind, it is wonderful to see these extremely talented men play just as tightly as they did in the 1960s, and some might argue that they’ve never played better than at these shows.
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American Pickers: Volume Two
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 2nd, 2011
Personally, I do not watch much reality television. Most “realities” they present is quite boring or scripted. However, as of late I have started to watch reality shows that I have dubbed, “One Man’s Junk is another Man’s Treasure.” My two favorites are Storage Wars and Pawn Stars. The idea that just because one person might think it is a piece of crap, the next might think it is worth a ton of money. Today’s review is the second volume of American Pickers. Will it be another diamond in the rough?
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Dream Theater – Live at Budokan
Posted in Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 2nd, 2011
Bubokan is one of those venues that has become a goal for any major band. Dream Theater had toured Japan numerous times over the course of 12 years but never yet rocked this venue. Japan is, and has been, one of those markets that tends to embrace things differently than North America or Europe; and Progressive Metal is not exactly rocking the Top 40 stations (at least, not since RUSH were in their prime…and even then…). It was only a matter of time that the most relevant “Prog” band playing today would make it to Budokan, and they celebrated by making it into a concert film.
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2nd Annual 4E Awards
Posted in Random Fun by Gino Sassani on November 2nd, 2011
Anyone who is a fan of horror or science fiction knows who Forry Ackerman was. He gave more to the industry than anyone else. He coined the term sci-fi and inspired the likes of Stephen King, John Landis, Steven Spielberg, and many others. He was the editor of Famous Monsters Of Filmland and held the largest collection of movie memorabilia anywhere in his famed Ackermuseum.
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13 (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 2nd, 2011
“You lose. You die.”
In 2005 Russian-born writer director Gela Babluani had a bit of an Eastern Europe success with his film 13 Tzameti. The film took the Grand Prize Jury at Sundance and a few other film festivals, winning also in places like Venice and Transylvania. The film made quite a splash, and it wasn’t long before it attracted the attention of American distributors.
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It’s a Wonderful Life Giftset (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 2nd, 2011
Every generation has had its Christmas classics, films that have become as much a part of the holiday family traditions as Christmas trees and candy canes. For me it has been the more modern A Christmas Story with ol’ Carl Kolchak himself, Darren McGavin. Kids today have taken more of a shine to even more recent films, but for more than one generation, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life. Since 1947 the film became a seasonal fixture in neighborhood movie houses across the fruited plain. In the 1970’s the film temporarily fell into the public domain and was played relentlessly on local television stations as each holiday came and went.
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Sucker Punch
Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on November 2nd, 2011
“I might be wrong, but I’m guessing you know something that I don’t.”
First off, this is not the 2011 Sucker Punch directed by Zack Snyder. This was shot in 2008, but released in 2011 under the name Sucker Punch just months after Snyder’s action fantasy. I can only imagine this was done to capitalize on confused DVD renters and buyers.
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A Little Help (Blu-Ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 2nd, 2011
Everybody needs a little help in their life but many are afraid to ask for it. Perhaps they need to know how to ask for a raise, or perhaps help with their geometry homework. One does not exactly gain knowledge of how to ask out a beautiful redhead supermodel unless they get a little help from somewhere. But I digress. Today, we explore the life of Laura who apparently needs a little help when her cheating husband dies right in front of her. Things are not as easy as they seem.
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Lucky
Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on November 1st, 2011
Colin Hanks is a serial killer. If you watch Dexter on Showtime, you know that already. On Dexter, Hanks is playing a conflicted messenger of God who is dour and unhappy and under the control of another to do horrific and brutal murders. In Lucky, he seems more like a regular guy. That’s the kind of guy that Hanks normally plays. He is usually someone who is kind of smart and nerdy with a somewhat preppy and fussy edge. He is different than his father, Tom.
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Five Guns To Tombstone
Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on November 1st, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
“Gee Dad, it’s great to see you again. How’d you get your parole so soon?”
You can usually count on getting two things from the old Westerns – good guy versus bad guy, and a compelling storyline. While a nostalgic respect for this genre might drive me to bump up its score, I feel like a meaty third of the film was missing—sucked out from between dusty skeleton scenes, hastily chopped off and left forgotten on a reel cart somewhere.
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The Warlords
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 1st, 2011
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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“31 Nights Of Terror” Frankenhooker (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on October 31st, 2011
“In a blaze of blood, bones, and body parts, the vivacious young girl was instantly reduced to a tossed human salad… a salad that police are still trying to gather up… a salad that was once named Elizabeth.”
Ah, there is nothing that can bring an exploitation movie alive like the unhinged imagination of Frank Henenlotter.
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“31 Nights of Terror” The Last Exorcism
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 30th, 2011
The Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) has made a tidy living preaching the Gospel and working his specialty: exorcisms. But he has lost his faith and, along with it, his willingness to fleece the gullible. He does, however, acknowledge that an exorcism can prove psychologically beneficial if the recipient believes in the ceremony. All that said, Marcus wants out of the business, but he takes on One Last Case, and a film crew tags along with him to the backwoods (where else?), where the devout Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum) is convinced that his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed. Marcus slips into his routine, but soon discovers that there is is much more afoot here than he could have imagined.
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“31 Night of Terror” ASTRON-6 premieres Father’s Day and Manborg
Posted in News and Opinions, Release Announcements, The Reel World by William O'Donnell on October 30th, 2011
The Toronto After Dark film festival has left it’s claw marks all over the Big Smoke and in the fallout, audiences were floored by two feature length delights by Canadian film collective ASTRON-6. Father’s Day, a revenge tale about a vigilante group tracking a “father-rapist,” and Manborg, a lo-fi, sci-fi epic about a cybernetically altered soldier facing the forces of Hell in the future, both made their Canadian theatrical premieres at TAD and have been receiving not but rave reviews since.
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“31 Nights Of Terror” More Brains! A Return To The Living Dead
Posted in Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on October 29th, 2011
“Do you want to paaarrrty!”
If one loves zombies, one loves The Return of the Living Dead. This wonderful, unofficial sequel to Night of the Living Dead seamlessly combined horror and comedy in a way that has rarely been achieved. I would say the only other movie which did that as well was An American Werewolf in London. I had often heard stories in interviews about the insane experience making this movie was, but never knew the whole story. Or should I say stories?
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Meet the Browns
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 29th, 2011
Season 2 of the Tyler Perry-created series continues misadventures of Leroy Brown (David Mann), who, last season, opened up a seniors’ residence. This season has all the characters firmly in place, and the stage is set for no end of misguided schemes and misunderstandings, all of which conclude with lessons learned and heartstrings tugged.
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Prohibition
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2011
Ken Burns has achieved a rare feat in the world of filmmaking: he makes clean, concise, uncontroversial documentaries and yet has somehow become a household name, or as close as any documentarian can get in this society. It also depends, I suppose, on the ratio your household’s television is tuned in to PBS compared to, say, Spike TV.
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“31 Nights Of Terror” Wrong Turn 4 Cannibal Cookbook
Posted in Random Fun by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2011
Director Declan O’Brien created the right recipe for the gut wrenching blood-oozing tale that follows a group of friends that decide to go snowboarding during their winter break.
They make the ‘Wrong Turn’ and end up getting lost in a deadly storm with killers in their midst.
Just in time for Halloween, our new ‘WRONG TURN 4: Bloody Beginnings Cannibal Cookbook’ is now available via Cookbook
where you’ll be able to follow an array of gruesome recipes to make something horribly delicious – just be careful not to make the Wrong Turn’ & consume at your own risk!
Captain America: The First Avenger (Blu-ray)(3D)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2011
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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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2011
“That be the cold hand of fate I feel down my nape.”
With each of the previous Pirates Of Caribbean films pulling in over a billion dollars in total revenue, it was indeed the cold hand of fate that determined the franchise would not end. Like Captain Jack Sparrow himself, this franchise isn’t going to be easy to kill. It’s true that the last two films, the third in particular, were rather universally scorned by the critics. But they still pulled in a boatload of money
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Baarìa (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 28th, 2011
Italian writer and director Giuseppe Tornatore was born in the small village of Bagheria on the island of Sicily in 1956. The life and culture of his home village has had a tremendous influence on his work. Many of his films have an autobiographical nature to them that he takes no pains to disguise. Earlier we reviewed his love letter to movies with Cinema Paradiso, which also took place in Bagheria. This time we explore five decades of life in that same village, known here by its nickname and the title of the film: Baaria.
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Angels Memories: The Greatest Moments in Angels Baseball History
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 28th, 2011
After reviewing the magical 2002 World Series of the Anaheim Angels, it was only appropriate to review a half century of highlights and lowlights from the team’s history. The Angels are not a flashy team, they win with raw talent and a ton of heart. Their success in the 2000’s only came after many years where they floundered and did not meet expectations. Let’s explore the team the Autry’s built. Here are the Los Angeles Angels, now known as the Anaheim Angels.
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“31 Nights Of Terror” The Exterminator (Blu-ray)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 27th, 2011
“The punishment’s gotta fit the crime.”
Believe all of the hype and controversy. In the language of the day The Exterminator was one bad mother. And when I say one bad mother, we’re not talking Casey Anthony. The Exterminator came at the tail end of the era of grindhouse, exploitation, and revenge films. So, how do you close out a memorable era like that?
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The Captains – A Film By William Shatner
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 27th, 2011
“Boldly go where no man has gone before.”
Is there anyone out there who hasn’t noticed that William Shatner the actor has become William Shatner the character over the years? Give the man some credit for finding ways to reinvent himself. After Star Trek he was the only actor to find himself another regular television character and shakes the typecasting that most actors in the franchise have been victimized by.
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