Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 14th, 2006
Horror films have transformed over the years. We’ve essentially gone from horror films using religion to frighten (The Exorcist, The Omen) to slashers (just about everything in the 80’s), to nothing (the early 90’s void), to post-modern slashers, (Scream, Urban Legends, I Know What You Did Last Summer) to torture (Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes).
With I”ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, we take a short trip back into the slasher genre. And surprisingly, it still looks and fe...ls pretty good. I’ll Always Know is a direct-to-video sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, the Kevin Williamson penned scare-fests that never felt as refreshing as his Scream trilogy, but did their jobs and did them well -- for the most part.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 14th, 2006
Today, anyone with a credit card and some free time can make a movie. But that doesn't mean it's always a good thing. Case in point is Kisses and Caroms, which sports a massive hard-on for Kevin Smith’s Clerks (it’s Clerks in a billiards store. Brilliant!), but its characters, dialogue and location fail to be funny or engaging. For one, how many oddball customers can a billiards store receive in one day? In Clerks, it was believable, since people from all walks of life need what is readily...available at the Quick Stop. In Kisses and Caroms, it feels forced. There are even multiple references to Smith’s films – none of which are funny. At one point in the film, a character refers to another as a “poser.” Maybe the comment was meant for the filmmakers.
Like Clerks, the plot is minimal. But what separates the two films is what they have to say. Whereas Clerks gave a voice to Generation X, K&C seems to exist simply to hold many boring conversations about various forms of sex -- threesomes, orgies and gang-bangs. The DVD cover promises many scantily clad women and lots of “Girls Gone Wild” type situations, but all the characters do is talk, talk, talk. Sure, there is some nudity and a light chuckle every 10-15 minutes, which may be enough for a desperate teenager, but those looking for Clerks-style enlightenment will only find themselves behind the 8-ball.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 13th, 2006
I've said it before, and as long as Warner Brothers keeps putting these classic discs out, I am going to keep on saying it. No studio respects their classic film catalog like Warner's. They have done marvelous things with their special editions of classic films, such as their fantastic 2-disc tin box release of King Kong. They have the largest collection of classic films on the planet, including the entire RKO Pictures catalog, and they are succeeding in introducing an entirely new generation of film fans to the best that cinema has to offer.
In addition to their wonderful single-title releases, they started releasing “Signature Collection” boxed sets of a couple of years ago. These are sets of films featuring a single actor or director, and they are packaged in beautiful boxes, complete with the original artwork for each film. This time around, they are focusing on five films by Ronald Reagan. Included in this box is the 1942 Best Picture nominee King's Row, 1949 film The Hasty Heart, the surprising (and way ahead of its time) drama Storm Warning, the inspirational baseball film The Winning Team and the beloved film Knute Rockne All American, which reminded the world to “win one for the Gipper”.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2006
You would have to either be from another planet, been raised by wolves or be under the age of 15 to not have some sort of a personal history with Full House. The show was a staple of Friday night television for eight seasons, defying all logic and proving that the general public doesn't always know quality when they see it. The story about a non-traditional household was inexplicably popular, despite the fact that it got consistently poor reviews year after year. Even more surprising was how many careers came out of the show. Of course, Bob Saget went on to play a similar role as the host of America's Funniest Home Videos, but John Stamos went on to marry Rebecca Romijn... a match that nobody saw coming or truly understood. And then, of course, there is the multi-million dollar phenomenon that is the Olsen twins.
This particular season falls fight in the middle of the show's run. The big storyline here is the marriage of Uncle Joey and Becky, a plot line that runs from the proposal to the wedding and beyond. Other storylines include Stephanie getting glasses (apparently a major trauma) and one major character getting pregnant. I respect the fact that the show is trying to evolve, but in the end, this is just the same old soft crap that we have already seen for three previous seasons.
Posted in: Brain Blasters, News and Opinions by David Annandale on August 11th, 2006
The work of H.P. Lovecraft has had a rather uneasy relationship with film adaptations. The attraction of his fiction for filmmakers is understandable: this is classic horror, and the cosmic evil on display can potentially lead to huge payoffs. Yet his prose style is very difficult, and most of the attempts at adaptation have been, at best, flawed. Stuart Gordon is the director who most consistently returns to his work, but he doesn’t really have the right touch. Re-Animator is a hell of a lot of fun, and it he...ps that the stories it is based on are Lovecraft being deliberately silly, but there is nothing very Lovecraftian about the result. The closest Gordon has come to getting it right is Dagon (which is actually his long-awaited adaptation of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”).
Most of the other Lovecraft adaptations out on DVD aren’t really worth the effort to track down. There are a few that are rewarding. I’ll mention three. Two are mainstream releases. One will take a bit more effort (but not much) to obtain, and is more than worth it.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on August 11th, 2006
A CNet article from Austrailia explains that PC Blu-Ray drives aren't able to play Blu-Ray movies released by studios as there aren't PC video cards or chipsets capable of handling HDCP.
Not good.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 11th, 2006
I think the fact that Invasion only ran for one season is more of a result of circumstance than anything else. The series starts with a very large hurricane hitting Florida, and the rest of the season dramatizes the aftermath of such a tragic event. Unfortunately, the series made its debut right after the real life hurricane Katrina wiped out much of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. With the 24-hour coverage of the real-life disaster plastered all over the airwaves, audiences just didn't feel much like unwinding with a dramatization of the very same experience.
It's a shame, too, because the hurricane aspect of the story was really just a catalyst to bring on the true story of the series. This was not a show about hurricanes, this was a show about extra-terrestrials. I am always a fan of sci-fi shows that masquerade as traditional dramas, and this one really pulls it off. One of the best things about shows like Alias and Lost is that they spawned other well thought out shows such as this one. It was not long ago that a show would start with a basic idea of characters and place, and the series would evolve over time. Now we are starting to see shows that have an entire couple of seasons planned out before the first episode is even shot (such as 24 and HBO's fantastic Carnivale). The result is a television program that plays more like a detailed mini-series. This is a winning proposition for both networks and fans, as the story builds slowly over time, a personal investment is made in the program.
Posted in: News and Opinions by Archive Authors on August 10th, 2006
Discussing the old school DVD’s that still sound and look great in the era of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD technology.
The submarine film is tough to improve upon. With classics such as Das Boot, The Hunt for Red October, and even Crimson Tide, the submarine film genre is chock-full of movies with intense drama and claustrophobic action.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 10th, 2006
Tell me if you've heard this one before... a high school girl is not allowed to join a certain club because it is boys only, so she dresses up like a (transvestite) boy to sneak into the club and prove that she has girl power!
Seriously, how many times can Hollywood make the exact same movie, before somebody sues somebody for copyright infringement? I understand the argument that each new generation of teens will pay big bucks to see the same crappy movie that has been made every couple of years for generations, but come on. Does nobody have any artistic integrity left?
Posted in: 1.85:1 Widescreen, Disc Reviews, Dolby Digital Mono (English), DVD, Mature, Severin Films by David Annandale on August 10th, 2006
Felicity (Glory Annen) is reaching sexual maturity, but the outlets for her desires at her convent school are limited and not entirely satisfying. She leaves the school for the big bad world, and winds up travelling to Hong Kong where she has one adventure after another.If the concept of an Asian-set sexual coming-of-age sounds familiar, it should, and the movie is honest enough to wear its influences on its sleeve (Felicity is seen reading Emmanuelle and The Story of O). It is what it is. It may not be exactly an unearthed classic, but it is a solidly crafted bit of erotica, very much of its period (1979), and rather interesting precisely for that reason.
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