Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2007
“Here’s the thing about the future. If you look at it it changes, and every time you look at it it changes again…”
If Nicolas Cage had Chris Johnson’s ability to see into the future, he might have avoided his latest film, Next. At the very least he might have been tempted to monkey with it in order to get a better box office take than it ultimately received. The film was in and out of theatres faster than I could blink, let alone catch it. If Cage had foreseen the film’s demise, it would have been unfortunate for us who got to see this film on DVD for the first time. The fate of the film is a bit of a mystery. The sci-fi trade and fan magazines were all over this one in pre-release hype. One explanation can be found in the way the film depicts the flash forward moments. While I am aware it is intentional and I understand the purpose, it was often too difficult to get your bearings. An audience doesn’t like to feel stupid. We don’t mind being surprised, but we want to be able to figure it all out so that we can feel smarter. Films rarely succeed when they leave the viewer feeling like an idiot. A subtle hint as to “when we were” might have gone a long way in making this easier on the audience. I think I have more patience than most in this regard, but even I felt cheated sometimes by the presentation of the various timelines.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2007
Stop me if you’ve heard any of this before. Four teens set out on a road trip …
STOP.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 24th, 2007
2004 brought moviegoers two big-budget historical epics in Oliver Stone's Alexander and Wolfgang Petersen's Troy. One bombed. The other performed well, but was by no means heralded as a critical success. No, Troy was praised for slick production values and exciting battles, but derided for a lack of emotional depth.
Can it all be blamed on running-time constraints and compromises made for the ratings board? The answer is here, with the unrated Troy: Director's Cut, Petersen's second shot at eternal glory, this time with more than 30 minutes of additional footage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 23rd, 2007
(Since I was lucky enough to review the standard def copy of The Wedding Date, I'm going to be lazy and let you view my thoughts on this, with the audio and video updated to reflect this HD DVD copy).
I would hope that The Wedding Date, signals the end of the genre of films set around weddings. There’s nothing left to mine, the horse is very dead, and in this case, the film is rather predictable. Or to put in another way, my wife said “this film will probably be stupid, but I’ll like it”. And when I was watching parts of the film, the story was so easy to follow that I could go and make a batch of chili, come back, and still know what happened while I was away.
![The Wedding Date [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-wedding-date-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 23rd, 2007
(Comments on the supplemental part of the disc are pulled from Gary Van Auken’s review of the Blu-ray version of the disc, which can be foundhere.
Synopsis
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on September 23rd, 2007
Bomberman has long been a friend of mine. I spent most of the early to mid 90's playing either the original Bomberman or Bomberman '93 for the Turbo Graphix 16 System. I played each until their eventual conclusion and then wouldn't touch them for years. So when there was word that a Bomberman game would come to Xbox Live I was very excited. But at the same time I was very skeptical. So skeptical, it took me about two months to download it and the accompanying first expansion pack. However, what came out of it was quite possibly the best multiplayer Xbox Live Arcade game of all time and one of the best reasons to own an Xbox 360 that doesn't involve a first person shooter.
Graphics
The main difference between Bomberman Live and Bomberman games of old (at least like I remember them) is the 2d to 3d jump. My eyes did a flip when taking in all of the new boards and how they looked in three dimensions. They are all very detailed from the Bombermen themselves to the blocks and surroundings. This is further helped by the widescreen presentation. No silly borders filling half the screen here. Bomberman has been completely redone and it shows in the presentation. The only difficulty anybody will experience in admiring these graphics is that there might be seven other Bomberman on the screen at the same time. So it can get crowded especially once you clear the explodable blocks out of the way. That and keep tracking of all the bombs on each path can lead you to some crazy frustrating situations. However, the graphics (up to 1080i) are crystal clear and rival some of the larger retail releases in crispness and vibrancy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 22nd, 2007
It’s hard for me to believe that Darkman comes from a time when Sam Raimi was fresh off directing Evil Dead 2 and Liam Neeson was a little known Irish actor. A lot has changed since then, but a true classic can stand the test of time, and although I was very young when I first saw this movie, I remember it being very unique. Of course my perspective on films has blossomed since the time I was watching Rugrats, and it has literally been that long since I’ve seen Darkman. Nonetheless I’m pleased to finally get the chance to watch this Liam Neeson classic, and in HD to boot.
Darkman was hardly what I remembered it, but not in a bad way. I can understand it better now, and see there is more depth to it than I remember. It tells the story of scientist Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson, Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace) who is developing a synthetic skin that would allow burn victims to appear normal. That’s pretty handy considering Mr. Westlake is about to be hideously disfigured, but I’ll overlook that. Anyways, there is a flaw with the skin; it only lasts for slightly over 90 minutes before it disintegrates in the sun. In the dark it will stay intact. This all comes into play later, but in the meantime Westlake’s girlfriend and attorney Julie Hastings (Frances McDormand, Fargo) has found evidence incriminating a local developer and a mobster. This leads to Westlakes lab being blown up, with him in it. The Darkman is now born, the disfigured Westlake undergoes surgery that severs his nerves and his ability to feel anything, along with an overactive adrenal gland, and you got a pretty pissed off halfway superhero. He escapes from the hospital and hopes to rebuild his relationship with Hastings, and get his vigilante justice on those responsible for making him the way he is.
![Darkman [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/darkman-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Random Fun by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2007
Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, made an interesting observation about R vs. G rated movies in a recent post:
"A study done in 2005 showed that G-rated movies are 11 times more profitable than R-rated movies, yet the industry cranks out 12-times more R-rated movies." [from Scott Adams]
Posted in: Random Fun by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2007
Found via digg, another funny feature on Cracked: the 10 Best Animated Films for (Traumatizing) Kids.
Number One: Pom Poko, distributed by Walt Disney.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on September 21st, 2007
My very first horror film book, acquired in Grade 3, was Denis Gifford’s A Pictorial History of Horror Movies. Among its many stills were a number for films identified by title, but with no other information provided. The result was rather tantalizing. One of those stills was for a 1969 Japanese ditty called Horror of Malformed Men. At long last, thanks to a new release from Synapse (with the title pluralized to Horrors of Malformed Men), my curiosity has been more than satisfied.
All right, seekers of the bizarre, try this plot on for size. The film opens with a man trapped in a cell with dozens of half-naked women. They’re all writhing about as if they’re performing some kind of avant-garde dance number, except for the one who is going after the guy with a knife. Eventually a guard intervenes and he hauls out the man (Teruo Yoshida), blaming him for the ruckus. Turns out the setting is an asylum, and Yoshida is an inmate, with no recollection of how or why he is there. After surviving an equally mysterious assassination attempt, Yoshida escapes. By chance (it seems), he runs into a circus performer who sings the same song that haunts Yoshida’s fragmented memories. She might have information about who he is and where he comes from, but she is killed before she can tell all. Yoshida is blamed for the murder, and he becomes a fugitive. On the run, he reads about the death of the scion of a respected family, a man who could be his twin. Yoshida takes the place of the corpse (!) and fakes a resurrection. He enters the man’s household, hoping to find out who he is, why the dead man is his exact double, and how that man really died.
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