Movieman's Guide to the Movies
The Final Word on Physical Media
Curse of Chucky isn’t a great horror film but it’s satisfying and a big step up from Bride and Seed and takes the character back to his roots and away from the stand-up comedy routine from the later outings. Fiona Dourif is a delight in the lead role and Maitland McConnell is hopefully on her way to bigger things after this. While I wasn’t overly thrilled with the film, I’m certain fans of the franchise will love it.
“Robot Chicken”: Season 6 continues to be a successful and very funny series for Adult Swim. The comedy is often gold and Seth Green and company often cross the line offending multiple people and cultures with off-color humor.
Volcano isn’t exactly a memorable disaster movie as it utilizes every cliché in the book but Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche and, to a lesser extent, Don Cheadle, each give admirable performances slugging through stilted dialogue and utterly laughable situations. Still, it’s passable entertainment but don’t go in, or leave, with anything more than what it is.
While Fright Night 2: New Blood actually wasn’t that bad given a limited budget and cast of unknowns, but there’s really nothing special about it and it was more or less another remake to a classic. This is the kind of movie you no doubt will see on FX or FXX in a couple of years.
The Amityville Horror Trilogy set released by Shout Factory has one semi-classic movie, a serviceable sequel and a third movie that is downright silly. The set also has a good amount of features to keep you occupied and the first two movies have good audio/video transfers while the third, at least the video, was awful.
Continue reading “The Amityville Horror Trilogy Blu-ray Review”
“Beauty and the Beast”: The First Season might not be the smoothest freshman season or anything, but there’s enough there to keep watching starting with Kristin Kreuk who finally gets to headline a series after many years on “Smallville” playing second fiddle. Yeah, some of the storylines are a bit soapy and although I liked Kreuk, it does take some time taking her seriously as an NYPD detective.
Continue reading “Review: “Beauty and the Beast”: The First Season”
The Hangover Part III by definition as unnecessary but despite two cruel scenes as well as some scenes that just didn’t hit the mark, I still enjoyed this sequel although I’m not sure if it’s because it’s actually funny or if it’s relative to the fact Part II was a complete rehash of the first sans laughs. In any case, I’m not giving this a glowing review for the obvious reasons however it is at least worth a rental.
To be honest I’ve never been the biggest fan of “Glee” but there are some good moments here and there and the musical covers tend to be reasonably good all things considered.
Continue reading “Glee: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Review”
The Little Mermaid makes a triumphant debut with this “Diamond Edition” Blu-ray containing a fair amount of features and fantastic audio/video transfers making it the best this film has ever looked and sounded.
I Spit on Your Grave 2 is, to say the least, a disturbing movie and like most sequels, the writers and director attempts to amp up the anguish to the next level which it mostly does.
Continue reading “I Spit on Your Grave 2: Unrated Blu-ray Review”
“Leverage” might not be remembered that well but I sure enjoyed the series despite some less than stellar episodes. Still, the cast shares wonderful chemistry and some of the season-long storylines were at least compelling. This final season, granted only 15 episodes, have some solid episodes and the series finale gives nice closure for the fans. The DVD doesn’t have a whole lot regarding features though having a commentary with each episode does provide insight from the creators and others.
The Frozen Ground excels in many areas from a welcomed subtle performance by Nicolas Cage, a mature turn for Vanessa Hudgens and John Cusack playing the thankless role as the creepy and thoroughly disturbing serial killer. However, for all the good acting by the main cast and beautiful, Oscar-worthy, cinematography, it never quite reaches its potential.
World War Z isn’t a bad movie, far from it, as it efficiently entertains from beginning to end though Brad Pitt more or less sleepwalks through his role. However, this film is the epitome of wasted opportunities as this could have been one of the best in the genre to come out but instead it’s just a safe movie.
World War Z isn’t a bad movie, far from it, as it efficiently entertains from beginning to end though Brad Pitt more or less sleepwalks through his role. However, this film is the epitome of wasted opportunities as this could have been one of the best in the genre to come out but instead it’s just a safe movie.
Halloween is still one of the best horror movies with genuine scares and the introduction to one of the best villains in movie history. While the movie might be great, Anchor Bay continues to milk the franchise releasing multiple editions with some nice new features but failing to port over anything from the others.
Continue reading “Halloween:35th Anniversary Blu-ray Review”