The Final Word on Physical Media
“Revolution”: The Second and Final Season had some potential especially between the production values and ensemble cast, but the storytelling was lacking in substance and style and it’s easy to see why this not only got cancelled but why its viewership dwindled to a pitiful 4 million viewers for the series finale.
Continue reading “Revolution: The Complete Second and Final Season Blu-ray Review”
Draft Day isn’t a great movie and probably ranks in the bottom half of sports films, but there’s some entertainment value and Kevin Costner helps to elevate the material far beyond what it deserves. The direction is at least interesting by Ivan Reitman and the supporting cast, albeit not well utilized, is respectable.
The Possession of Michael King is the latest in the “found footage” flicks that have permeated theaters and store shelves over the past decade or so and it’s frankly kind of dull and not at all scary.
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Cabin Fever: Patient Zero could’ve just been condensed down to Patient Zero has it has no bearing on the first movie and is merely a generic, flesh-eating virus movie like any other. The acting is also a bit wonky with Sean Astin surprisingly giving the best performance and keeping this from being a complete waste of time.
“Criminal Minds” remains one of my favorite shows today (note: I steer more towards procedural crime dramas) and while the ninth season isn’t predominantly special, there are more than a few solid episodes (‘The Inspiration,’ ‘The Inspired,’ and ‘200’) and even the others are entertaining if not routine.
Aftermath is a well crafted, and altogether simply made, apocalyptic thriller that serves more as a psychological character study more than anything else, and certainly more than the cause of the nuclear attacks. The characters themselves can be on the clichéd side but still interesting enough to want to get through until the end.
R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly: Have You Seen My Ghoulfriend? is a sequel to a 2008 DTV flick that I honestly never heard of, let alone having seen. This is your typical young adult entertainment with slapstick comedy, low key humor, bad dialogue, so-so acting (the highlight is Bella Thorne) and a story maybe those used to shows on the Disney Channel will enjoy, for myself it was a chore to even get through.
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Pumpkinhead might not be most well made horror movie coming out of the ‘80s but it has gathered somewhat of a cult following and there are some things to be admired from the late and great creature creator Stan Winston marking his directorial debut, one of only two feature films.
Continue reading “Pumpkinhead: Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Review”
Kind of forgotten in the wake of James Cameron’s The Abyss, Leviathan is an OK if not uneven sci-fi adventure. The cast is good and some of the creature effects aren’t bad either, but at the same time it comes across as a rip-off of Alien sans suspense and compelling storytelling.
The Legend of Hell House is an effective British supernatural-horror-thriller with fine performances all around but with special notice on Roddy McDowell and Pamela Franklin.
Blended isn’t nearly as bad as some of Sandler’s other recent “works” (i.e. train wrecks) because unlike something like Grown Ups 2, I actually managed to laugh (even mildly) a couple of times and, well, it actually had some semblance of a plot even if it is convoluted. And although the material is substandard, the re-pairing of Sandler and Barrymore is a welcoming sight.
Eleven seasons in and “NCIS” is still going strong, being able to do the same old, same old and yet switch things up with multi-arc episodes as well as giving its characters, even if little by little, development. The only drawback is the production values seem to be limited but I can overlook it for solid storytelling and, of course, the chemistry between the core cast.
The Buddy Holly Story is a well done biographical drama given life by an Oscar-worthy performance from none other than Gary Busey (yeah, there was a time when he wasn’t completely nuts). The direction and pacing was also fine-tuned making for a nice drama.
Motel Hell is another quirky release in the Scream Factory line and it has its moments headlined by a good performance from Farmer Vincent himself, Rory Calhoun.
I actually found Scooby-Doo: Franken Creepy to be one of the better entries of the recent DTV movies. The animation is more or less the same but the humor is great, include some fun in-jokes and a strangely stylistic direction style seemingly inspired by Edgar Wright’s The World’s End (and a couple others that I can’t remember).
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