Brain Blasters
Posted in Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on December 1st, 2006
A few weeks ago, I profiled Cult Epics, which has become the reigning king when it comes to DVD companies specializing in vintage sexploitation, erotica, and the like. That position is likely to remain pretty secure for some time, what with the release of such treasures as The Irving Klaw Classics box set, but there are a couple of recent contenders for the throne that have just come to my attention, so I thought I’d say a few words about them. These are Private Screening Collection and Severin Films.
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Alias – The Complete Fifth Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 30th, 2006
Five years seemed to go by in the blink of an eye, but Sydney Bristow and friends have gone on their final mission. The final season brought along the expected plot twists, new faces, and clever disguises just as the previous four had, but something was definitely missing by now. With J.J. Abrams moving on to other things like Lost and Start Trek XI, it seems that Alias was left to fend for itself. Now, granted, it had been a while since Abrams was involved in the day to day running of the show, but by year 5 it se…
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John Tucker Must Die
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 30th, 2006
John Tucker Must Die has all of the elements of an average teen movie: a high school setting, an unrealistically attractive cast, cliques, and the list goes on. That’s my way of saying I can’t think of any other obvious teen movie stuff, so fill in whatever comes to your mind and I’m sure it’ll fit just fine.
If it looks and sounds like a duck, then it probably is an average teen movie, right? Right. I may have skipped a step there, but the point is you shouldn’t expect anything special from John …
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Boston Legal – Season 2
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 29th, 2006
The first full season of Kelley’s “The Practice” spin-off was somewhat abbreviated. It was also a time to introduce us to the firm and new cast of characters. As is Kelley’s trademark style, we were sure of one thing. These characters would be quirky with enough of a touch of reality to keep them interesting. So as his flagship series faded away into production problems and slipping ratings, Boston Legal erupts like a phoenix from the ashes of certain death. Now as popular or more so than The Practice, Boston Legal…
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Dare to Play the Game
Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on November 29th, 2006
Black Friday, Wii like you want it and a dinner with a female for your host? – Welcome to the 2nd date that never even gets a complimentary phone call known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I’m your host that had a really incredible friday. There was Black Friday, the shopping experience (see below), and Black Friday, the social experience. If you don’t mind me deviating from games a bit; I will go into a little detail for th…
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Mansion of the Living Dead
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 28th, 2006
Four young women (including Lina Romay in her Candy Coster persona) arrive at beach resort. They plan to pick up plenty of men for sex, but if none are available, as they’re in a Jess Franco film, they’ll make do with each other. They see no one else around, except for the odd manager (Robert Foster) and the even more bizarre gardener. At first they think nothing of the town’s deserted nature, but gradually they realize something is wrong, and it has to do with the nearby monastery, where undead Cathars vent their frustration with their cursed state by raping and killing our heroines.
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Burger King Roundup (Big Bumpin, Pocketbike Racer, & Sneak King) (Xbox 360)
Posted in Game Reviews by Michael Durr on November 28th, 2006
Opening
Promotional games have come and gone. Typically they involve some movie or tv show, kid or blockbuster related. Once in a while, they center on food such as the M&M’s game for Playstation 1 or perhaps the 2 or 3 McDonalds games. Burger King decided that their king character which was a cartoon character onto himself deserved not one video game about him but three. Better also make that for one of the top systems today. The XBOX 360. What will we charge, just $3.99 with a value me…
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Macumba Sexual
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on November 27th, 2006
Alice (Lina Romay under her blonde pseudonym “Candy Coster”) is haunted by erotic nightmares involving the Princess Obongo (the Amazonian Ajita Wilson). She therefore has her misgivings when she is ordered by her boss to travel to a remote island and sell some real estate to that very person. Doubts notwithstanding, off she goes (got up in an outfit I’ve never seen a real estate agent wear before) to play Jonathan Harker to Obongo’s Dracula. On the island, she falls under the Obongo’s spell, and becomes emmeshed in a web of sex, rituals and magic.
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Little Athens
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 27th, 2006
I�m never up on the film festival scene, so it�s no surprise to me that I�ve only just discovered Tom Zuber�s Little Athens, even though it was an official selection of the Toronto Film Festival back in 2005.
My three favourite things about this movie are its strong cast, solid story and the unique cinematography. Actually, make it four things, because the soundtrack is also pretty excellent.
First, the cast. Little Athens is definitely an ensemble film, and every actor in this one is solid.
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition
Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on November 27th, 2006
What, you were expecting something profound from a short week?
Seriously? Well, for whatever it’s worth, the big news this week is the release of Superman to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The Bryan Singer film Superman Returns (which looks like a beaut on HD-DVD), along with the Richard Donner-helmed Superman and Superman II (both of which are also beauts to boot).
In other day and date HD and Blu releases, The Ant Bully hits store shelves this week, and Windtalkers comes …
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V for Vendetta (HD DVD)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 26th, 2006
Natalie Portman stars in V for Vendetta, cast in a role unlike what I typically expect from her, a dialogue driven action movie with a serious tone to it. This movie even got me thinking a little bit about mankind’s intolerance of other man and how far society has to go to protect itself. I enjoy movies of this nature, you know the kind taking place in a not to distance future and not so distant problems, but a drastically different way of life. Something these movies always have in common is the civil rights …
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JAG – The Complete Second Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006
Synopsis
The concept of JAG is pretty simple, I mean, it’s A Few Good Men on the small screen, using sets and footage from other recent armed forces films and hopefully enough pretty people that viewers will enjoy it. However, that wasn’t the case initially, but JAG is one of those shows that helps prove how sometimes you’ve got to give enough time for people to catch onto it before it takes hold.
From week to week in Season One, the creators kept trying to find a female offic…
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Strangers With Candy
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006
Synopsis
Back when it first aired on Comedy Central in a previous incarnation as a television series, Strangers With Candy was an interesting enough premise. Take a menopausally challenged, recently released prisoner named Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris, Elf) who decides to return home for the first time in over three decades to try and get a new start and throw her into high school. Now, not knowing how good or bad the show did, it must have had some sort of following, because there’s a movie out …
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Ronin
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006
(Portions of this review have been pulled from the original one-disc version of Ronin, which can also be found in the reviews portion of the site)Synopsis
I think the only thing I remember about Ronin initially was that Robert DeNiro (Heat) was involved in some scandal involving a French “house of ill-repute” or something along those lines. But when Ronin was released, people quickly forgot about that mess, as what came from it was an action film that put a little more e…
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Die Another Day (Region 2)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 25th, 2006
Synopsis
With Casino Royale now out in theaters and being shown to a mostly positive audience, let’s all take a step back and remember that James Bond just celebrated an anniversary in 2002 with the release of Die Another Day. The film was the twentieth in the Bond legacy, and Brosnan’s fifth (and last) in the role. How does it stack up?
Directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors), the film puts Bond in North Korea, attempting to procure some diamonds from a young Korean Col…
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Guitar Hero 2 (Playstation 2)
Posted in Game Reviews by Michael Durr on November 25th, 2006
Opening
I knew that when they announced Guitar Hero 2 many moons ago, I would be running not walking to my local EB Games and procuring the game ahead of time. I mean what was there to not love about the first one, hard rocking music, every air guitarist’s dream and addictive gameplay. I am happy to report that the second is more of the same; there are new songs, new levels of difficulty, and the same great gameplay albeit with a few new quirks. However, don’t let that little flaw deter…
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King Kong (2005)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 24th, 2006
No monster movie is bigger than King Kong. AFI members recently considered King Kong to be the most influential film ever. The original King Kong has inspired more filmmakers, actors, and technicians than any film in Hollywood’s history. The score is considered the first modern film score. For the first time the music is timed to accent certain aspects of the action. Willis O’Brien practically invented movie special f/x with his revolutionary stop motion technique seen earlier on The Lost World. One of those filmma…
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O. Henry’s Full House
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 24th, 2006
Synopsis
John Steinbeck, looking and sounding remarkably like James Ellroy, and coming across as surprisingly two-fisted given the overall tone of the movie, introduces a quintet of stories by O. Henry. “The Cop and the Anthem” features Charles Laughton as a dignified bum trying unsuccessfully to get himself arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice, warm prison (Marilyn Monroe is one of the top-billed, but she has only one brief scene here). “The Clarion Call” has Dale Robertson as a detective w…
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Brain Blasters
Posted in Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on November 24th, 2006
If the exploitation film is the dark underbelly of mainstream cinema, then the rape revenge movie is the dark underbelly (or one of those dark underbellies) of the exploitation film. It is a form that has more exemplars than many would like to think, and has extended its tendrils into the mainstream, whether that be in the form of made-for-TV movies or theatrical ones. Carol Clover, in her excellent study Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film sees a direct link between the most notorious o…
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You, Me and Dupree (HD DVD)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2006
I’ll come right out and say it. I don’t see what the big deal is with actor Owen Wilson. Sure he was funny in Wedding Crashers, but he always seems to play that super annoying character in his films that you just want to hate, but seemingly can’t sometimes feel sorry for. Such is the case in his recent 2006 affair with Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon entitled You, Me and Dupree.
Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson) have just gotten married in the beautiful Hawaii islands. Dupree (Owen Wilso…
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Peeper
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
Michael Caine is a down-on-his-luck PI in LA. He’s hired to find the long-lost daughter of a man who is now wealthy, though being hunted by goons. Caine heads off to house of the presumed daughter’s adoptive parents. There are two women the right age here. Which one is he looking for? Could it be Natalie Wood?
And the questions keep coming, such as who thought Wood would be perfectly cast as a femme fatale? Questions unlikely to be answered. The script is full of would-be witty ban…
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Miracle on 34th Street
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2006
Synopsis
This is another film one feels a little silly summarising, given that it must be an exercise in redundancy. At any rate, Macy’s department store gets a new Santa, and this one (a marvellous Edmund Gwenn) insists that he is the real thing. He sets about restoring the sense of wonder in hard-nosed Maureen O’Hara and her skeptical daughter (Natalie Wood), and John Payne winds up having to prove that our boy is who he says he is in a memorable court case.
Schmaltz is hard to avoid in C…
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Pen & Teller: Bullsh*t! – The Complete Third Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on November 22nd, 2006
I thought Pen & Teller were magician-comedians. When did they get a T.V. show? Call me out of touch, but I hadn�t heard of Pen & Teller: Bullsh*t! until this third season set was sent my way to review.
Obviously, I�m in no position to make comments like, �season three of Bullsh*t! (for short) is by far the best yet.� I can say it�s the finest season of Bullsh*t! I�ve ever seen in my entire life, but that means jack-all since I�ve already explained that it�s the only season of Bullsh*t! I�ve watched.
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Forbidden Planet
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 22nd, 2006
Few science fiction films of the 1950’s left as much of an impact as Forbidden Planet. Gene Roddenberry often cited the film as the birth of Star Trek. It is in this film that he took away the interactions of an interstellar craft’s bridge crew. Even the United Planets organization in Forbidden Planet heralds Trek’s United Federation of Planets. Robby the Robot would become a science fiction icon and lead to a great number of copycats, most notably the Lost In Space robot. Robby even made a cameo on that show. MGM …
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Dare to Play the Game
Posted in Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on November 22nd, 2006
Tacos, Turkey and lots of 360 – Welcome to the Giblets that left out the gravy and everything else known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I am your host that likes dark meat and brisket for thanksgiving…but probably will get neither. Yeah this is the first thanksgiving without my wife since we split a few months ago. So no texas thanksgiving for me. I will be forced to endure thanksgiving with the folks and my aunt and her…
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