Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on April 28th, 2009
I first became aware of J. T. Petty when his Mimic: Sentinel came through for review. I popped it on, expectations very low (it always seems to be a sign of a franchise's last gasp when the digits are dropped from the titles of sequels), and was pleasantly surprised by a clever reworking of Rear Window. Soft for Digging, his feature debut, was just as interesting, and was a quietly effective little ghost story. He hasn't been very prolific as a director (though he did find gainful employ scripting the first three excellent Splinter Cell games), and I missed his S&Man, but now he's back in horror territory with a bleak western with monsters: The Burrowers.
There's a bit of an echo of The Searchers in Petty's set-up: a group of white settlers are abducted, and a posse is formed to hunt down the guilty parties and rescue the captives. While the searchers assume they are after a group of Native Americans, in fact their quarry isn't human at all. What follows has the inevitability of tragedy (and, for that matter, of history): the posse (initially led by a psychotic military commander) perpetuates no end of atrocity against innocent parties, and it is pretty clear from the ferocious racism on display that these men needed very little excuse to start torturing and killing Native Americans. At the same time, the men are very vulnerable to attack from the burrowers of the title.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 28th, 2009
A while back, Cult Epics released a 2-disc limited edition of Un Chant D'Amour. This single-disc reissue features a number of the features (though not all) from the limited release. The actual film and transfer quality are the same, and so much of this review is likewise the same.
Long the bad boy of French novelists, Jean Genet directed this 25-minute short in 1950. Borderline pornographic, it is a silent portrayal of (literally) imprisoned desire. Two prisoners convey their longing for one another through the prison walls, while a voyeuristic guard watches, becoming aroused and frustrated to the point of violence. poetic, fetishistic, and intensely personal, it is a startling and historic piece of underground cinema.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 27th, 2009
At a point in time, women’s fighting was nothing more than usually a side show attraction. As the years went by, the concept of women fighting each other became more and more accepted. There is a women’s boxing league and there are serious women all over the wrestling circuit (and not just t&a shows). There are even rumblings of MMA females (that might be a bit too far though). So, a good plot line for movies would be to interject the female into a man’s fighting world and see how they do. Take underground boxing and the movie: Fight Night, this could be a great marriage.
Michael Dublin (played by Chad Ortis) is a con-man in the hard cold world of underground boxing. As an unfortunate result of his mis-dealings, he is constantly on the run going from city to city and trying to make a buck. He gets in the habit of making too many enemies and finds his life in danger after a con goes bad. However, from out of the shadows appears a female figure who floors Dublin’s would be enemies with vicious punches. Her name is Katherine Parker (played by Rebecca Neuenswander).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 27th, 2009
The title of Spectacular Spider-Man was once used to refer to a second-rate line of comics about the web-crawler. The Amazing Spiderman always led the way in sales but the Spectacular production always had its line of fans too. As well as the critics. The critics were often on the books because they had a more casual tone and sometimes didn’t even go along with the original book in terms of plot development. The comic eventually died off and in 2008, the Kids WB decided to use the name for their new animated show. Two seasons and 26 episodes later, this show has done quite well. Volume Four is now released and includes episodes 10-13.
Episode Ten starts out with Dr. Conners and his crew being allowed to study an alien symbiote. However, that symbiote is lost when the Black Cat & Spiderman have an altercation in the lab when Black Cat was trying to steal the life-form. It is soon found that the symbiote has actually affixed itself to the Spider-Man costume thus changing his powers and his personality.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 27th, 2009
Sometimes I feel like a broken record. Once upon a time, I adored the likes of Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme. I would spend many hours watching Above the Law or Bloodsport until I had nothing else better to do. When I matured, I left many of those movies behind. However, the spirit of those movies was still within the type of movies I would typically watch. The problem is that both of these starts pretty much went from feature film to direct to DVD. But Jean-Claude has tried to change his image by taking on more serious roles. His newest, JCVD; he takes on the role of himself the actor.
Jean-Claude Van Damme (playing himself) is an aging 47 year-old action movie star. His agent can not find him anything decent. JCVD has no money and worst of all, he is fighting a losing battle in the custody of his daughter with his ex-wife. He decides to return to Brussels, his childhood home. Here, he is still considered a national icon and with that comes some sense of worth and peace.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 24th, 2009
Every once in a while a movie comes along that has a very strong social message, but never comes across as heavy handed or preachy. What Doesn’t Kill You is one of the best of those movies that I’ve seen in some time. It’s based upon the real life struggles of Brian Goodman, who wrote the screenplay while he was in prison. Goodman was a lifelong criminal who was also addicted to booze and drugs. With the inspiration he gained from his two young sons, Goodman turned his life around. He got himself sober and avoided the temptations that would lead him back into a life of crime and ultimately prison. Another danger sign in these kinds of films is when you have one man who wrote, directed, and stars in a movie. These “one man band” types of films more than not fail on almost every level. Again, I have to say that What Doesn’t Kill You manages to rise above these trappings. Goodman manages an almost impossible feat here. He tells a socially powerful story, from his own personal experience, and never forgets that ultimately the end result must entertain above anything else. The most important of messages falls completely ineffective if ultimately no one ever sees the movie. And, trust me, when I tell you. More people need to see this movie.
Brian Reilly (Ruffalo) (Goodman’s character) and Paulie McDougan (Hawke) are practically brothers. They grew up together in the same south Boston Irish neighborhood and were inseparable since they were in elementary school. They admire the local crime boss and neighborhood protector Pat Kelly, played here by Brian Goodman. Kelly runs the local criminal activities out of a corner bar. He gets a piece of anything that goes on in the hood. The boys start out as kids running envelopes and other errands for Pat. Fifteen years later, they’re still doing small jobs for the boss. They’re beginning to get frustrated that they haven’t graduated to better things and more money. They soon break the cardinal rule and start to go on their own. Mostly it’s small time stuff. They roust drug dealers and take down a few trucks. But their cowboy antics are about to get them in trouble. They risk making an enemy out of the still powerful Pat, but more importantly they have brazenly taken down quite a few punks. Brian is also beginning to drink too much and is eventually introduced to crack cocaine. He’s messing up. His wife is getting frustrated with him, and he’s making mistakes “on the job”. Those mistakes end up getting him shot. Miraculously, he survives, even though he leaves the hospital against medical advice to get high. The mistakes eventually lead the two friends to get busted and do five years in prison. Brian gets out first. He makes an attempt to stay sober and away from criminal activity. He’s helped by an AA mentor he befriended in prison, named Sully (Lyman). But when Paulie gets out, his need for money and his frustration at playing it straight threaten to bring him right back into those activities that put him in prison. What will he do? Will he repeat the mistakes of the past, or will he be strong for his wife and sons, who waited for him for five years of prison?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 24th, 2009
“The best movies you totally forgot about”
That’s the marketing slogan for this Lionsgate collection of mostly 1980’s films that never really broke any ground in their box office releases. They are, for the most part, cheap comedies. A few have somewhat of a cult following. None of them ever really set the receipts on fire. At just under $15 each, likely less if you shop around, they are good for a couple of laughs, but little more than that.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 23rd, 2009
With so many cast changes, it didn’t really come as too much of a surprise to fans that the series was winding down. Only one more season would follow, and this year never clicked in quite the same way previous seasons had. By now the team was so significantly different that there was little of the cast chemistry that made this one such a winner. With its glory years behind and only one more struggling year to come, we reach the end of our journey with the IM Force.
Jim Phelps (Graves) led his team in a sixth season of Mission Impossible starting in 1971. The show continued its trademark traditions. Jim would receive a mission from the “self destructing” tape and would gather his IMF (Impossible Mission Force) team. The team was necessarily eclectic in nature, and it changed significantly in the sixth season. Gone were Leonard Nimoy, Leslie Ann Warren, and Sam Elliott in his signature role of Dr. Robert. Still in the team we had Barney Collier, the gadget man, played by Greg Morris. The muscle was still supplied by Willy Armitage, played by brute Peter Lupus. Together they took on missions that the government could not be officially a part of. They were always admonished that should they be caught “the secretary would disavow any knowledge” of them. Usually they were sent somewhere to put some evil mastermind out of business. Their tactics ranged from scams to outright theft. Sometimes they were a rescue team, while other times they would infiltrate a group of bad guys. There were certainly cold war elements to the whole thing. Each week the team concocted some convoluted con to play on their mark, walking away at the end of each episode often without getting any credit or congratulations.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 23rd, 2009
Animal films have done quite well at the box office in recent years. Who can forget the astounding appeal of March Of The Penguins. With wonderful cinematography and the commanding narration of Morgan Freeman, the film took the box office by storm. There have been countless efforts to reproduce those results ever since. The latest of these to hit Blu-ray is the indoctrination piece, Arctic Tale. I say indoctrination because this movie is never content with following the natural migration or struggles of the animals it depicts. Instead the film uses contrived dangers that were staged, for the most part, to drive home the “undisputed” message that mankind is destroying the frozen habitat that these animals rely on for their existence. Whatever your politics, or opinions on global warming, there is still plenty of evidence to support the opposing position. With that said, it’s a little too early to use children and furry animals to attempt to present the theory as established fact to our children. The film attempts to work on the young folks’ emotions as we witness man induced pain, struggle, and even death on the polar bear and walrus populations. The film is even somewhat femalecentric. The female animals get names. The male animals are referred to merely as “the little brother” or “male polar bear”. It’s a slanted piece of propaganda, that doesn’t even break any new ground. Some of the footage is repeated in the similar release, A Polar Bear Adventure.
There is some remarkable footage here, in addition to the standard stock elements. It’s pretty obvious that many polar bears are photographed as the “family” we are supposed to be following. The work is the result of a husband and wife team who have made it their life’s work to study and capture these animals on film. The work is often good, and some of the footage is truly stunning. It’s a shame they decided to taint their remarkable efforts with so much posturing and bias. Queen Latifah provides the narration. She tries too hard to be sweet and dramatic in a “once upon a time” manner that she fails to truly inspire the way Freeman did with his narration. This approach further illustrates that the target audience here really is our children. There are better animal shows out there, which provide just as wonderful photography without the political spin. Even Animal Planet has provided some very memorable programs in recent years. There are really just too many comparable choices out there; many of them cost you only the cable bill you’re already paying. Let your children get their values and political beliefs from you, not from their movies. During the credits, children tell you how your actions are killing the cute Arctic animals. Just what I’d want my kid to think. “Daddy, why are we killing polar bears with out SUV?”
![Arctic Tale [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/arctic-tale-blu-ray-large.jpg)
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 23rd, 2009
“Back to the days of the Gold Rush, as Sergeant Preston with his wonder dog, Yukon King, meets the challenges of the Yukon … A land inflamed with gold. Men who came quickly learned the heroism of sacrifice and the treachery of greed.”
These words first reached across the radio airwaves in 1947. Children and adults alike would gather around the warm glow of their large radios to hear the exploits of Canadian Mounties Sergeant Preston and his trusty companions Rex, his horse, and Yukon King, his Alaskan Malamute. When the early days of television arrived, it was no surprise that the more successful radio dramas would become some of the first television shows. Sergeant Preston was part of that transition wave of the new medium of television. Although filmed in color, the series ran in black and white, which was the only format available to the homeowner in those days. Now through the release of the series on DVD, we get to see the series for the first time in color.
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