Desperately Seeking Susan / Something Wild (Totally Awesome 80s Double Feature)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 12th, 2007
At long last, we’ve received the two greatest films of the 80’s on DVD. Finally. Ok, maybe not the greatest films – they’re ok at best – but this is the first time they’ve been released on DVD. Wait, that’s not true either. Desperately Seeking Susan, Madonna’s sixth best movie, hit the streets on DVD in 2000. And Something Wild, one of the answers to “what was Johnathan Demme doing before Silence of the Lambs?” has been available since 2001.
So what’s special about this Totally Awesome 80s Double Feature? Shelf space. You can fit two films in one spot, thanks to MGM’s efficient packaging.
Dare to Play the Game
Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on September 12th, 2007
The Wii Saber, A Smaller PS3 & some Sonic fun – Welcome to the column that promises to push innovation and technology but in the wrong direction known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Well since last week, the 360 service center people have been doing things a little differently. I received two phone calls. The first was from the manager lady that said she was working on my signature issue and wasn’t able to change the address but she would get me a tracking number once it was fixed. So yesterday, I’m sitting in the car and get another phone call.
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Wrong Turn 2 (Unrated)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 12th, 2007
I love horror movies, but lately Hollywood hasn’t done it for me, and Wrong Turn wasn’t an exception. So I wonder how a low budget sequel is going to manage to be better than its phony prequel. But I won’t judge this one until I’ve seen, lets just hope its nothing like The Hills Have Eyes 2, or The Grudge 2, etc.
Wrong Turn 2 takes off shortly after the events of the first film. Right away I’ll let you know that other than the mutant freaks of the first film, this movie has no other links to the first installment, i.e. characters.
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Bloodlines
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 11th, 2007
It’s good taste time once again, as we follow the unfortunate Amber (Grace Johnston) as she falls into the clutches of your usual gang of inbred hillbillies. These psychos have kidnapped a number of women. They then force them to fight to the death, with the idea that the winner will get to carry on the clan’s bloodline. Charming.
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New Feature: Trailer Index!
Posted in Site News by Archive Authors on September 11th, 2007
Hey hey hey – here’s a new feature I stitched together – the Trailer Index!
Its a subsection of the site that collects trailers for reviews that we’ve posted, organized by Genre, playable right there, courtesy of YouTube. So – if you’re into SciFi, Action, or Drama, click on over and check out some trailers.
Final note: the trailer index will continue to grow as we add more trailers to both new reviews and our back catalog.
Enjoy!
Blue Water, White Death
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 10th, 2007
Would you believe me if I told you a nature documentary was responsible for the advent of the summer blockbuster? Common film lore says Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was the first of the now familiar summer smashes. Jaws was based Peter Benchley’s book of the same name. Benchley was inspired by Blue Water, White Death, a groundbreaking documentary film about divers on a nine-month expedition to seek out, film and swim with a Great White Shark.
That’s one reason you should watch Blue Water, White Death. There are easily a hundred more.
‘Til Death – The Complete First Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 10th, 2007
Written by Evan Braun
Unfortunately, one of the best things you could say about the first season of ’Til Death is that it’s consistently inconsistent. It’s sometimes boring, it’s sometimes sentimental. Occasionally it’s angry. From time to time, it’s even funny. That said, I have a hard time believing the back cover’s assertion that this sitcom is a “top rated comedy.”
Here’s the premise, which is hardly new to television. Eddie and Joy Stark (Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher) have been married 24 years and have settled into a period of their lives that could charitably be described as stable, but more honestly as a rut. They love each other, but they take each other for granted. The magic is gone. Unfortunately, there’s no chemistry, either.
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Blades of Glory
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 8th, 2007
There are those of us who love Will Ferrell and just about everything he’s done lately, and there are those of you who can’t stand the guy. Read that last sentence carefully and you’ll be able to determine which one I am, but I’m sure you won’t have to read much past this sentence to figure it out anyways. Starting back with A Night at the Roxbury and ranging to Old School and Anchorman, comedically I can’t get enough of these nonsense full movies. Surprisingly I didn’t check this one out in the theatres, but I eagerly welcome the opportunity now.
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Losin’ It (1983) / The Last American Virgin (1982) (Totally Awesome 80s Double Feature)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 8th, 2007
Wow, the ’80s were just full of pretentious crap, and for all the good that Fast Times at Ridgemont High offered, you know Hollywood, they simply can’t just stop at one, so there was Hardbodies, Joysticks and other films that attempted to capture the spirit of fun and lightheartedness, while mixing in the occasional drug reference with copious amounts of nudity, some of it welcome, but most of it bordering on exploitative.
Brain Blasters — Children Are EEEEEEEVILLL!
Posted in Brain Blasters by David Annandale on September 7th, 2007
A little while ago, I looked at a recent (and very strong) example of the Evil Kids movie. I mentioned some of the big names in the field (The Omen, the original Village of the Damned, The Bad Seed), but today, for your consideration, a half-forgotten effort from 1974 (smack in the midst of the golden era of grindhouse and drive-in sleaze): Devil Times Five.
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Everything’s Gone Green
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 7th, 2007
When I first heard the title I was thinking, documentary on celebrities impact on making the planet go green. But now having seen Everyone’s Gone Green I can assure you that’s not the case. Instead this is a low budget Canadian movie about a slacker, which doesn’t leave me with much more expectations than when I thought it was a documentary on global warming. As a Canadian I can admit that besides producing some great actors and actresses and supplying some great filming locations, Canadian cinema is about as entertaining as watching the wind blowing around a plastic bag. This movie doesn’t prove to be any different.
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Face/Off (Special Collector’s Edition)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 7th, 2007
I am a huge John Woo fan, especially his earlier classics like Hard Boiled. I’ll admit it’s been several years since I last seen Face/Off, but I don’t have a reason why, as I remember really liking this movie then. At either rate now I have a copy of the movie to call my own, and a special two disc release at that. Let’s just hope that it is what I remember, but as a big fan of Nick Cage I don’t think I’ll be let down.
In order to catch him, he must become him. I couldn’t put it any better myself, Face/Off tells quite the eccentric story of revenge, devotion, and of course crime.
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Grey’s Anatomy – The Complete Third Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 6th, 2007
This was my first ever exposure to Grey’s Anatomy. Certainly I’ve followed the buzz the show has generated with its multiple awards and the feuding between two of the show’s actors. My first impression was not altogether a very good one. You see, season three begins with the aftermath of an obviously big ending from the previous year. From what I can gather, a character died and it left a void for a couple of the characters. I immediately began to feel like an outsider, a feeling I wasn’t very comfortable with. Fortunately, before I could give up feeling frustrated and hounded by an impending review deadline, something quite remarkable happened. Simply stated, I didn’t stop watching. In that moment of hesitation, I began to catch a glimpse of what everybody’s been going on about.
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Pigskin Parade
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 6th, 2007
Planning a high-profile charity football game that they must nonetheless be sure of winning, the powers that be of Yale attempt to invite the University of Texas, but instead accidentally invite Texas State University, a small college whose town population is a mere 700. Newly arrived coach Jack Haley and his formidable wife Patsy Kelly face the challenge of somehow whipping the football team into something that won’t be utterly destroyed on the day of the big game. The key to possible victory is bumpkin-but-natural-prodigy Stuart Erwin, but he’s a package deal, and comes along with little sister Judy Garland, here making her debut.
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Bobby Z
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 6th, 2007
I like Paul Walker; I tend to enjoy his movies. However my experience with Paul Walker starts with JoyRide and ends with Running Scared. (we’ll ignore the Fast and the Furious) So I was kinda excited at the chance to review Bobby Z, a straight to video release that also starred the clever Laurence Fishburne. Two fun actors in what looked like to be a fun action movie. The basic premise was that Tim Kearney (Paul Walker’s character) is plucked from a prison by Tad Gruzsa (Laurence Fishburne’s character) and his assistant because he looks exactly like the infamous Bobby Z, a drug runner who is supposedly dead. So, Kearney takes on the persona of Bobby Z and is used in a trade for a federal agent that was captured. Of course the deal goes horribly wrong and Kearney finds himself in the Mexican desert. Here he has to stay in the Bobby Z persona as he finds out that Bobby Z had a kid among many other plot points. This drives forward to a conclusion with some predictable twists where Kearney does everything he can to stay alive.
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Bif! Bam! Pow! Wow! Graphic Novel ‘net TV show
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
If you’re into both movies and graphic novels (“comic books”), you’ll want to have a watch at new web TV show “Bif! Bam! Pow! Wow!.” Hosted by Tom Seymour of Graham Crackers Comics (a store in Chicago), the show is a quirky, interesting, quickly paced, fun tribute to our comic hero’s villains and stories, and oozes graphic-geek cred.
Check out Batman, Spiderman, or Zombies — all good fun and interesting as hell, with more (apparently) to come.
Private Fears in Public Places
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on September 6th, 2007
Do you as the viewer ever watch that movie that you feel due to overwhelming popular opinion you should like? Unfortunately, I run into this all too often. Most of the time I’m able to push that aside, and give an honest review. Sometimes it is harder. Private Fears in Public Places directed by Alain Resnais is one of those movies. Set in Paris (with language to match); this puts six lonely characters in search of love during the harsh winter season. However, what they find isn’t what they were searching for. Naturally these characters’ stories intertwine and we get a whole lot of snow effects which encapsulate the end of each scene (and each part of this review).
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New Transformers Cover Art: Single Disc version?
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
Hmmm… interesting. Looks like there’s a single disc, non-SE version coming too, to complement the 2-Disc SE DVD and 2-Disc HD DVD versions announced yesterday. That’s all I know so far…
Click for super enormous version…
Review Super-Roundup: The HOST
Posted in Super Round Up by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
Here’s the first ever Review Super-Roundup: a soon-to-be-regular feature where we track down reviews all over the net in an effort to provide you with a well-rounded view about a particularly exciting or unique release.
Reviews aren’t in any particular order; the one’s with numerical rankings come first, and hell, I put UpcomingDiscs at the top because that’s my prerogative. Other than that – these are culled from all over, and the quotes from each attempt to capture the spirit of the review. Click on through and enjoy! BTW – if you have a review you’d like included, comment it.
This week’s round-up – THE HOST: A Korean monster horror movie in the tradition of Godzilla, with a healthy dose of humour and emotional context. It did really well in Korea, and has become a DVD cult hit globally since. Most reviewers really liked it; a few were luke warm.
Reviews are lined up after the jump!
Transformers – Amazon Pre-order Pages are up, with DVD Cover Art!
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
The DVD version is pre-orderable:
The HD DVD one is just “sign up for email notification”….
Firehouse Dog
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
I’ve said in the past and still believe that Josh Hutcherson will be a pretty good adult actor if he chooses to go down that path. I liked his work in Little Manhattan and recently finished watching him in Bridge to Terabithia, but then he comes back and makes films like Firehouse Dog, which seem to flush away a lot of that goodwill in my opinion. He doesn’t try at all and becomes the typical sweet kid, rather than the intellectual who acts larger than his shoes.
Disturbia
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
(Supplemental material portions of this review are culled from Gino Sassani’s review of said film in the Blu-ray format, so enjoy or read elsewhere.)
I’ve always enjoyed Hitchcock’s Rear Window, and I’ve gotta say I was more than a little disgusted when I saw that it was going to be remade and modernized, with no less than Shia fricken’ LaBeouf in the main role. Oddly enough, LaBeouf carries the role pretty well.
Dawn of the Dead (Ultimate Edition)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 6th, 2007
(You’re going to have to forgive me, I’m pulling ample portions of this review from my earlier Divimax review of Dawn, with some exceptions of course.)
Anchor Bay, holding all (or most) of the keys in George Romero’s zombie film trilogy put out a copy of this film now before overloading us we on the remake, done in grainy, handheld 28 Days Later style by director Zack Snyder of 300 lore. A stopgap one disc version was released, followed by this huge-arse four disc version that we’re viewing now.
The Dark Backward
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on September 5th, 2007
In hellish vision of a near future (?) LA, Marty Malt (Judd Nelson) is an incompetent garbage man who moonlights as an even worse comedian (his jokes aren’t funny, and he is half-crippled by stage fright). His only friend is the manipulative Gus (Bill Paxton). When Marty starts to grow a third arm out of his back, he loses his girlfriend (Lara Flynn Boyle) but attracts the attention of sleazy showbiz types Wayne Newton and Rob Lowe.
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TRANSFORMERS FULL RELEASE SPECS – dvd & HD DVD, October 16!
Posted in News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 5th, 2007
Wow – finally! My favorite movie of the summer will come out to play on DVD and HD DVD on October 16th. Both formats are OK initial releases, but leave plenty of room for future extended/director’s/collector’s editions – the DVD audio is particularly weak. Anyway, both releases have a slew of features – from chest-thumping Chevrolet goofiness to what sounds like a cool CGI-model explorer that takes up an entire HD DVD disc.
For now, there’s going to be 2 releases. Each is two discs, but the features and extras aren’t remotely similar:
- DVD “Special Edition” – 2 discs
16:9, DD 5.1 Audio. 5.1 – is that it? Yup.
Disc One: Feature, with Michael Bay commentary track
Disc Two: A zillion featurettes/documentaries – see below for full details - Transformers HD DVD – 2 discs
1080p, DD+ 5.1
Disc One: Feature, “Head’s Up Display” (see below), web-enabled features
Disc Two: Transformers Tech Inspector – seems to be an interactive production model browser
Final word? There’s no way I’m not getting the DVD release. Its strong out of the gates, but I’m anticipating a future follow-up purchase with better-rounded audio.
The complete details from the Press Release follow after the jump… and there’s more info to come over time!