Assume the Position With Mr. Wuhl
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 29th, 2007
In my mind, Robert Wuhl has never really understood when to quit. The guy was the star of Arli$$, which was an anomaly on the HBO cable channel. Whereas all the other shows on the channel were ending too soon and were too well received, this show went on and on and on, and no one seemed to really like it. So when I saw he was doing a couple of one-off shows set at universities, I thought this was just another way to grab onto popularity.
CSI Miami – The Fifth Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 29th, 2007
I love CSI and have been an avid fan from day one. I think it brought a fresh look to the procedural crime dramas that have long ago become just a little stale and predictable. The problem is that the series has gone the Dick Wolf route of branching out so that the final product might be a little diluted. Unlike the Law & Order franchise, each version of CSI has attempted to take on a unique look and style to reflect the location without giving up those elements which are the tradition of the series. CSI:
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October Road – The Complete First Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 29th, 2007
Every now and then a writer gets stuck for what to write. As a reviewer it happens that I can watch a film or series, take pages of detailed notes and read everything I can get my hands on about the subject, but still when I sit down to my computer it’s just me and that flashy cursor, aptly named, for every writer has felt the curse as that incessant blinking blob continues to remind us we’ve got nothing. In the industry we have a highly technical term for this condition. We call it writer’s block.
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The Reaping
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 29th, 2007
I admit I don’t have the strongest faith. Sure I believe in God, but it pretty much ends at that like any other agnostic. So when I get a movie that is based on the idea of the Ten Plagues; let’s say I’m not that familiar with the subject matter. I know there are locusts attacking and toads dropping involved along with the whole river of blood thing but outside of that I’m a little thin. However, not to say I wasn’t interested. In fact I’m always intrigued by stories in the bible when they are used as methods of literature and peaks into the historical past.
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Sears “Black Friday” deals
Posted in Blog Posts, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on October 29th, 2007
Some great deals on the unholiest day of retail sales(source).
Coby DVD Player – $9.99
Curtis Home Theater System – $29.99
Philips HDMI Up Convert DVD Player – $29.99
Sony 1000 Watt 5 Disc Home Theater System – $299.99
Sony 1000-Watt 5-Disc Home Theater System – $299.99
Sony 800 Watt Home Theater System – $149.99
Sony Combination DVD VCR Player – $84.99
Sony DVD Recorder With VCR DVD – $199.99
Toshiba HD-A3 HD DVD Player – $169.99
Zenith DVD Player / VCR Combo – $39.99
Puzzle Quest (Xbox Live Arcade)
Posted in Game Reviews by Michael Durr on October 28th, 2007
Some things just go together. Like Peanut Butter & Jelly, Sonny & Cher, Siskel & Ebert (okay, not so much). Puzzle Quest brings something together in complete harmony like no other game before it. Puzzles and Role Playing Games. Sure the Zelda or Breath of Fire series have puzzles in the game, but we are talking full integration where every battle is decided in a Bejeweled-like interface. Complete with mounts, spells, and other rpg-like elements; this could be the best idea of putting things together since I tried fritos and cream cheese. (Come on, you know you are curious)
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The Lair – Season One
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on October 28th, 2007
What happens when the reviewer who did Dante’s Cove decides to tackle its vampiresque cousin, The Lair? (Besides scheduling more sessions with his psychiatrist) You get somebody who starts understanding what makes up the Here! network. We’re homies, we break bread together. Just don’t expect me to wear my pants that low nor participate in your late night parties. I got an image to uphold. Season one of the Lair provides something that no other show on the Here! network has proved to this point. A show where there is actual dialog and something more than a cheap excuse to show lots and lots of male on male action. Welcome to the Fang Bang.
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A Clockwork Orange (HD DVD)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 28th, 2007
Very few of us know A Clockwork Orange as the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess, instead we know it as the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film adaptation. Not only did Kubrick direct this cult classic, he also wrote the adapted screenplay and produced it. There’s no doubt that Kubrick put a lot into this movie, and by now we all know the results. A Clockwork Orange is a perfect example of Kubrick’s career, highly controversial. After the cult hit 2001: A Space Odyssey, it was crucial for Kubrick to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, and what better way to do that than adapt A Clockwork Orange. There are those who would call this movie trash, and of course there are those who absolutely love it, then of course there’s everyone in between. Well A Clockwork Orange isn’t new news to me, it’s release on HD DVD already looks to impress.
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The Invisible
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 27th, 2007
The Invisible appears to have been marketed a couple of different ways when it was released in early 2007, but the most used phrase for the film appears to be “Supernatural Thriller”, which might address it to some degree if it was, you know, thrilling.
Christine Roum (Bodyguard II) co-wrote the screenplay, which David Goyer directed. Goyer has been a longtime writer, providing words to such films as Dark City, Blade and Batman Begins. And for all the good work he’s put in as a writer, you’d think he would have learned some things when it comes to directing, but ultimately, he’s just another guy who was talented in one area and needs some work in his new one.
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The War (Ken Burns)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 27th, 2007
I don’t think any documentarian in history has been as famous as Ken Burns. His series on the Civil War is what first made him a household name, and his in depth looks at baseball, New York City and jazz are what has solidified his place in the American consciousness as the world’s premiere documentary filmmaker. He is so well-respected, in fact, that his method of making still photographs interesting by zooming and panning is actually known as the Ken Burns Effect.
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Double-Dipping and Rewriting Film History
Posted in Brain Blasters, Regular Columns by David Annandale on October 26th, 2007
I know that some of what I’m going to touch on today is going to overlap with past topics, and so I beg your indulgence. But recent DVD releases have prompted some thoughts on the phenomenon of double-dipping. This is not something that is by any means exclusive to the cult movie scene, but plenty of it goes on here. Consider the umpteen “definitive” editions of Halloween that Anchor Bay has trotted out. But I want to look at a three cases, two of which are admittedly mainstream (though not unrelated to this column’s field), with the third representing an overt stab at cult immortality.
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Satan’s Baby Doll
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 26th, 2007
Mario Bianchi’s film is a 1982 remake of the recently reviewed Malabimba. The spirit of a newly deceased woman possesses her daughter, and proceeds to wreak havoc in the gothic castle that is the family’s domicile. Of course, given that the father is a murderous drug-addict, there isn’t that much for the possessed teen to do, as far as the plot itself is concerned. Curiously, this effort is less lurid than its predecessor (barring a couple of insanely OTT performances), with less nudity and taboo-busting, and also a rather less interesting deconstruction of respectable society. Plotting and motivation are haphazard at best. Still, it’s a not-unentertaining late-period Italian gothic, blessed with handsome sets.
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Night of the Living Dead 3D
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 25th, 2007
There are plenty of reasons to be grateful for public domain rules, as they make plenty of movies easily available that wouldn’t be otherwise. But there are pitfalls as well, and there is no clearer example of this than what has befallen George A. Romero’s classic film. The great man barely saw a dime from his work, but all and sundry can fiddle with Night of the Living Dead as they see fit, and here is a textbook case. The basic premise is intact: young woman and her brother visit cemetery, are attacked by zombies, and heroine winds up part of a besieged group. Sid Haig lends his presence to liven things up a bit, but he have any real role to play until the movie is almost half-over, by which point many viewers will be sunk in boredom. The zombie attacks are tediously realized, and this is easily the most gore-free version of the story.
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The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume One
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 24th, 2007
I can still remember the first time I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was just after my birthday in June, and I had some time to kill on a weekday afternoon. I didn’t recall seeing a lot of hype, and it seemed no one knew just how huge the film was going to be. My expectations were not really high. The film looked interesting, and I was just looking to escape for a couple of hours. By the time I left that theater, I felt a little bit like Indiana Jones himself having made some grand discovery. I had to tell my friends.
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Dare to Play the Game
Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on October 24th, 2007
Mass Effect LE only available online, DS only releases 21 games this week and there can only be one console – Welcome to the column that only decides to sling mud after they washed their hands completely of it before known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I want to teach the world to sing. Seriously, because most people are just tone deaf! I did end up getting Half Life: Orange Box for 360 and will start playing it as soon as I get off the silly Halo 3 single player. Sure I would occasionally touch the multiplayer but I want to be done with the single one once and for all (provided I don’t go back and start playing for the skulls). Everytime I read about Orange Box; I just really really want to play it.
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Smallville – The Complete Sixth Season (HD DVD)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on October 24th, 2007
Smallville, although well shot and portrayed has never been a favorite series of mine. Growing up I was a Marvel comics fan, I hardly ever crossed into the DC market and if I did, it was for Batman, never Superman. Of course, for those of you that don’t know Smallville follows the life of a young Clark Kent in the years prior to him becoming Superman. Of course it started out in season 1 with Kent in high school, very unsure of his potential but six seasons later he’s very Superman esque.
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Meet the Robinsons
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 22nd, 2007
Meet The Robinsons follows the story of young orphan Lewis. He’s quite the young inventor but ends up with more failures and near misses than anything successful. His tendency to blow things up doesn’t help his adoption chances too much either. One day his life is changed when a kid from the future arrives to give him a boost of confidence. Back in the future Lewis is temporarily trapped, and the guest of the manic family Robinson. Each family member is a zany character unto themselves. Uncle Art, cleverly voiced by Adam West, is an intergalactic pizza delivery guy, and mom has trained frogs to become big band singers.
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Slow Burn
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2007
Slow Burn delivers exactly what the title suggests. A whole lotta slow and a little burn. District Attorney Ford Cole (Liotta) is running for Mayor. He’s got a no nonsense reputation for fighting crime. He’s been locked in a near mortal struggle with crime lord Danny Luden, an elusive criminal who has more than once humiliated Cole in the past. His ace assistant, Nora Timmer (Blalock) has just shot a man she claims attempted to rape her. The story begins to unravel when Luther Pinks (LL Cool J) arrives with an alternate story that paints Timmer in a very bad light. The two tales are told through flashbacks and narrative, and it’s left to the audience to come up with the truth. The only problem is the pacing is erratic and often confusing. After an hour and a half of clichés and snail’s pace plot movement, you find yourself too fatigued to give a crap who is playing who anymore.
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The Last Run
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 20th, 2007
The box art boasts that “You have never seen The Wonder Years’ Fred Savage like this before”. Right. And will you please all bow your heads and join me in prayer that we never see him like this again. Forget for the moment that I just can’t get the character of Kevin Arnold out of my head any time I see Savage, but watching him turn into some sex crazy maniac is like catching your sister on the toilet. The image is there forever burned into your corneas like some visage of Hell to torment you for the remainder of your natural life.
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Malabimba
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on October 19th, 2007
Connoisseurs of Eurosleaze will be pleased with this nasty little variation on the gothic. In an isolated castle, a fractious, failing aristocratic family has gathered. There is no more money in the family, except indirectly: one brother, now in a vegetative state, is married to a rather wanton woman, who now holds the purse strings. The matriarch suggests that her other son marry her, even though his brother is still alive. The man is properly horrified by the suggestion, and he is also still in mourning for his wife. But then something – the spirit of his wife? a demon? – invades his teenage daughter, who then starts acting out sexually and recreating scenes from The Exorcist.
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Better Than A Poke In the Eye With A Sharp Stick … But Not By Much
Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on October 19th, 2007
When, in the 1950s, television became widespread and began to take a serious chunk of the audience away from cinemas, the movies fought back in a number of ways. Gimmicks were rife (hello, William Castle). Colour became standard. Widescreen arrived. But other than colour and widescreen, every other innovation turned out to be a brief novelty, never to be seen again. There was once exception, a gimmick that was more popular than most, never became a standard, but refuses to die, resurfacing again and again after periods of dormancy, and that’s 3-D.
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New & Improved Review Index
Posted in Blog Posts, Site News by Archive Authors on October 19th, 2007
I’m happy to report that after a bunch of work the “Reviews” tab at the top has been significantly revamped. Its now, hopefully, a quicker, easier way to find a particular movie, or just browse our archives.
Click the “Reviews” tab to get started, and you’ll a big page full of different categories – so that you can see a list of our Blu-ray reviews, for instance, or Horror reviews (just in time for Hallowe’en), or Adult Swim reviews for when you’re feeling maturely humorous, or all reviews of films from Tartan Studios, when you’re feeling Asian.
The list pages are organized with 50 results per page (alphabetically), and include thumbnails of the covers where available. Click the cover or the title to go to the review, and you’re done!
Anyway, please comment any feedback, and happy browsing!
UPDATE: Some of the pages will be slow to load the first time – that’s the covers loading from Amazon. Fortunately, I tacked on a caching system to speed these requests, so as covers are cached, performance site-wide should perk up slightly (over the next few days).
Sony officially confirms $399 PS3, along with an immediate $100 price drop on current model.
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on October 18th, 2007
From AP(source),
Sony Corp. on Thursday cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console in the U.S. and announced an even cheaper model that will arrive before the holiday shopping season.
Starting November 2nd, Sony will be selling a new 40 gig PS3. This newer model features a upgradeable 40 GIG HDD. However, This new model is now missing backwards compatibility with PS2 titles, memory card readers and 2 USB ports(leaving 2 ports remaining).
Sony also announced that their latest model featuring a 80 GIG HDD has been immediately dropped to the MSRP of $499.
Vincent Price is the Last Man on Earth: Dec. 4
Posted in Blog Posts, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on October 17th, 2007
Vincent Price’s “The Last Man on Earth” precedes the Will Smith vehicle “I Am Legend” by 10 days, due for DVD release on December 4th. Both movies are based on the same, highly influential horror-screed “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson.
From the press release:
Scientist Robert Morgan is the only human immune to the air-borne plague that has transformed the entire population of the Earth into vampire-zombie like creatures. Alive among the lifeless, alone among the undead, Morgan must find a way to survive in a world that is no longer his.
4 stills of Price nattily hammering stakes into zombie/vampires while dressed in tweed follow after the jump….
Dare to Play the Game
Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on October 17th, 2007
Lost is found in Half Life, Xbox 360 Elites Selling Out (In Japan), and a TurboGrafx CD game available for download – Welcome to the column that is one oxymoron away from a plate of jumbo shrimp known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. This past week, I became addicted to the game known as Puzzle Quest. Except it was the trial version. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t pay down the 1,200 points required for the full version. *sigh*. Everyday I come home I want to pull the trigger. But I know if I do I can kiss my girlfriend, work and normal social life goodbye. But wait, I’m mature now! *laughter in the background* Well I hope so anyhow. When you sport Evil Dead posters in your living room and Daredevil switchplate and figures in your game room, you start questioning maturity.
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