Torque is a biker version of The Fast and the Furious (from its producer no less) sans any memorable characters and includes terrible dialogue, a lame story (even for a movie like this) and even worse visual effects culminating with an awful, and confusing, finale.
This “Power Rangers” Seasons 13-17 set is another solid seasons of the long-running, enduring series. Sure, its cheesy as all hell, the acting isn’t the best but it’s also entertaining in the breezy sort of way. This season set compiled by Shout Factory offers up OK audio/video transfers and some well made, newly recorded featurettes.
Used Cars is not only a biting and dark satire but it’s also very funny and pretty edgy even by today’s standards to the point I’d doubt a film like this would get widely released. Kurt Russell is fantastic in the lead role and the supporting cast, led by Jack Warden, is wonderful as well.
Get Carter might’ve been yet another unnecessary remake and although hardly perfect is at least passable entertainment, though there’s nothing about it particularly memorable despite decent performances from Stallone and Cook.
Wild at Heart is a, well, wild ride featuring bucko performances by Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe while it’s fun seeing Laura Dern in a different role.
Young at Heart is a great romance/music/drama but it features good performances from its three leads, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Gig Young but otherwise it’s just a nice little movie that, no doubt I will forget in a day’s time.
Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a well made if not slightly disturbing or off-putting 1980s British drama featuring three great performances.
No Holds Barred is silly and yet a lot fun with the overacting from Hulk Hogan and Tommy “Tiny” Lister and Kurt Fuller milks his villainous scenes whenever possible reminding you why the 1980s was such a glorious time for overkill in the acting department.
In Fear had a decent concept but with one character who not only makes illogical decisions but is downright unlikeable and a “twist” that is revealed halfway through, the movie flounders until the very end and a message that feels tact on though I understand what the writer/director was after.
The Pirate Fairy actually isn’t a bad little film that, albeit geared more toward the younger age group, has some good animation and voice work plus the story is well written. While I might not revisit it anytime soon, it’s still a slight recommendation for families.
I cannot describe how much I didn’t like Walking with Dinosaurs from the voice over work to the humor which doesn’t work at all. Also, although the landscape is stunning, the CGI elements aren’t overly impressive but can easily be overlooked.
Twisted Tales is an interesting concept taking more than a little cue from “Tales from the Crypt” and getting together some decent talent by Tom Holland who wrote and directed each of the nine vignettes. However, more than a few of those aren’t very good or well acted yet there’s a couple that are at least watchable including the one starring William Forsythe and Danielle Harris.
Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz is actually a decent little horror-thriller combining Nazis and zombies for a third time in this series (which honestly I had never heard of). The DVD release by Xlator doesn’t have much going for it with only a trailer and merely adequate video and audio transfers.
Birds of Paradise is an average, down-the-road, direct-to-video flick attempting to take advantage of high profile movies, in this case duplicating Rio. As cheap entertainment, it’s OK but the animation isn’t great though the audio/video transfers are adequate enough and at the one featurette isn’t terrible.
Best Night Ever is exhibit #152 why Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer should not get anywhere near a camera. Although it is technically a step up from their previous attempts at “humor”, this is still a dry piece that hampered even further with the overused and I pray to god is on its way out, found footage style of “filmmaking”.