Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

1990’s “House Party” is the directorial debut for Reginald Hudlin, and he also handles scripting duties, adapting his 1983 short film. And what an amazing first movie it is, with Hudlin turning a traditional teen mischief idea into a celebration of character, comedy, and dancing, becoming the rare study of adolescent antics that achieves a joyful quality. The helmer oversees a gifted cast of young talent and creates a boisterous mood of celebration and camaraderie, sold with attention to wackiness and lustfulness that makes the feature all the more fun. “House Party” maintains amazing screen energy and playfulness, which aids Hudlin as he deals with issues of the day and inspects culture in a major way, creating one of the best pictures of its release year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“New Rose Hotel” began life as a short story from author William Gibson, originally created for Omni Magazine in 1984. The tale tracked the experiences of two corporate espionage agents handling their latest case, and Gibson offered nine pages of drama and technology to follow. Nine pages. Co-writer/director Abel Ferrara attempts to find 90 minutes of movie in those nine pages, working with co-writer Chris Zois to embellish and amplify Gibson’s small idea. “New Rose Hotel” certainly plays like an adaptation nightmare, watching the production furiously taffy pull everything the author had to offer to keep going, while Ferrara often gives up on storytelling all together, adding scenes of arguing, improvisation, and sex to supply something for viewers to sit down with. The endeavor is an extraordinary test of patience, following Ferrara’s attempt to turn a study of corporate rule into cinematic jazz, and all the instruments are out of tune. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As the famous line of dialogue from “The Wizard of Oz” goes, “There’s no place like home.” That is, unless your dwelling also appeared in a popular movie or television show, resulting in a mass of gawkers and tourists looking to stand by your front door, run around the backyard, and peek inside your windows. Suddenly, the place begins to feel like a prison. Director Tommy Avallone looks into the realities of such living spaces in “The House From…” (narrated by Jason Lee), endeavoring to understand the popularity of these locations and the experiences shared from the homeowners, who are left to deal with so much, often without fully understanding why they’ve been drafted into duty as a pop culture gatekeeper. Avallone plays the feature brightly but also fairly, examining both sides of the tourism situation, visiting numerous properties who’ve either submitted to the ways of fandom or thrown up gates to keep trespassers out. “The House From…” is extremely fun for the most part, as Avallone maintains a snappy pace and sense of humor about the subject, also acquiring access to locations most fanatics could only dream of visiting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The film industry has been trying to turn actor Joel Kinnaman into an action star over the last decade, and nothing’s really taken hold. His last major starring effort was 2023’s “Silent Night,” a John Woo-directed offering of gunplay and explosions that played to empty theaters, but the system isn’t done with Kinnaman yet. He returns to the ways of screen survival in “Icefall,” which is kinda, sorta similar to the plot of 1993’s “Cliffhanger,” but screenwriters George Mahaffey and Steve Isles don’t have the budget to create an epic understanding of criminal activity and high-flying adventure. They simply take the missing cases of money idea and try to create a more reasonably priced actioner featuring a hunt for cash in the cold extremes of Montana. “Icefall” has the ingredients to be junky fun, but director Stefan Ruzowitzky can’t get momentum going, creating a picture that lacks a surprising amount of excitement and danger. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Producers moved fast on “The Garbage Pail Kids Movie,” which is based on a sticker trading card line from Topps that was known for its extreme grossness, stirring up the interests of concerned parents and school administrators as the line grew in popularity. The cards debuted in 1985, and a feature film was pushed through production for the summer of 1987, working to cash in on a kid trend that burned pretty brightly during its peak, but whatever made the line so appealing to the target audience definitely didn’t translate to the big screen. Co-writer/director Rod Amateau has the considerable challenge of creating a story for a franchise built on vivid visuals, coming up with a picture that can’t escape its extremely limited budget. “The Garbage Pail Kids Movie” is a pretty rough sit, with Amateau winging it for most of the run time, hoping to find success with strangeness that’s never inspired. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It bears repeating: there are no trolls in “Troll 2.” The 1990 feature was originally shot under the title “Goblins” before the wild ways of film distribution ended up branding the movie as a sequel to 1986’s “Troll” without having a connection to it. Writer/director Claudio Fragasso doesn’t have any control over the name of the picture, but he’s in charge of making something at least passably competent with the endeavor, and he fails spectacularly. “Troll 2” is often found on lists of the worst movies of all time, and it certainly earns such branding if one comes to the offering expecting a consistent, capably made horror film about vegetarian goblins looking to devour visitors to a small Utah town called Nilbog. Fragasso wipes out spectacularly with sincerity, throwing together a poorly executed and frightfully performed display of utter nonsense that’s filled with padding and scripted without thought. However, as a Bad Movie Night selection, “Troll 2” has more appeal, triggering plenty of unintentional laughs as the effort fumbles around pursuing bizarre ideas, armed with clunky low-budget craftsmanship. It could be fun for some viewers, and cinematic punishment for others. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1986’s “At Close Range” is “based on a true story,” dramatizing the brutal ways and family ties surrounding gang leader Bruce Johnston Sr., who embarked on a reign of terror around rural Pennsylvania in the 1960s and ’70s. Screenwriter Nicholas Kazan (son of director Elia Kazan) looks to turn such headline news into a more intimate drama about a father and son experiencing the development of a toxic relationship while working to figure each other out. It’s the stuff of high drama, but director James Foley (coming off 1984’s “Reckless”) doesn’t pursue the melodramatic potential of the piece. Instead, the helmer generates an intensely moody understanding of bonds and games of intimidation in the endeavor, moving forward with a semi-spare study of reactions and threats. The feature carries a level of intensity as it explores a dark reunion between Brad Jr. (Sean Penn), a wayward teen who’s not interested in a future, and Brad Sr. (Christopher Walken), the leader of a criminal gang looking for opportunities in a rural location, confronted by responsibilities he has no interest in. “At Close Range” is a troubling picture, as Kazan offers a cold-blooded examination of Brad Sr.’s lethal seductions and overall viciousness, finding strong tension in scenes of direct conflict. Foley isn’t always interested in creating the most propulsive effort here, with pacing an issue as the story gradually unfolds, but he’s committed to a more interior life for the characters, searching for ways to generate emotional moments handled by gifted actors, creating some sensational moments of pressure along the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Horror can be a tough business, and it’s even harder when there’s limited imagination for frights in charge of the picture. Making his filmmaking debut is YouTuber Chris Stuckmann, who hopes to deliver a thoroughly terrifying feature in “Shelby Oaks,” though he doesn’t have much to work with in what’s truly a very dull endeavor. Lifting from movies such as “The Blair Witch Project” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” Stuckmann doesn’t have drive to really launch into disturbing behavior. Instead, he’s positioned himself somewhere between a found-footage endeavor and a chiller, never quite settling on a single approach to make sense of his main idea. “Shelby Oaks” aims to be creepy, but it’s painfully generic and poorly paced, resembling most other low-budget genre efforts in the marketplace with its strange appreciation of suspense and uneventful plotting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1985 was a big year for Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy. The pair enjoyed box office success with roles in “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire,” also experiencing a massive surge in media interest with their positions in “Brat Pack” stories, highlighting their youthful takeover of the film business. In 1986, career momentum was suddenly halted, with the duo reteaming for “Blue City,” a picture that hoped to ride a wave of overexposure to financial fortunes, only to end up a bomb. And there’s a few good reasons for audience rejection, with the endeavor showing signs of editorial struggle that results in an awkward viewing experience. “Blue City” has its messiness and miscastings, and while director Michelle Manning has a way with the visual presence of the effort, she can’t hold any type of consistent story together, with the final cut jumping from incident to incident without much connective tissue. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Rachael Cain has a lot of ideas for “Somnium,” her helming debut. And she’s determined to try and squeeze them all into a single movie. It’s a story involving the loneliness of an aspiring actress in Los Angeles, her heartbreak involving her ex-boyfriend, the mysteries of producer support in Hollywood, and the strangeness of employment at a sleep center. Cain gives herself 90 minutes to work through quite a lot of ideas and feelings in the picture, but focus is the main element missing from the endeavor. “Somnium” hopes to be a penetrating drama and something vaguely resembling a horror feature, but it never fully settles on one idea. It’s not a mess, just incredibly half-baked, leaving the audience with an assortment of emotions, subplots, and moods that don’t fully connect in the end. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A remote hotel in the dead of winter. Troubled characters dealing with the possible melting of their minds. Strange visions around the property. Murder coming for all. There’s clearly a beloved horror film serving as the inspiration for “Bad Things,” with writer/director Stewart Thorndike looking to revive the chilling ways of isolation and psychological disruption with the effort, taking viewers to a strange getaway for a group of friends who have little respect for one another, facing unexpected finality during what’s meant to be a week of partying. Thorndike doesn’t have a budget, but she has a location, doing okay with the emptiness of the hotel setting and all the secrets it contains. However, a little disturbing behavior doesn’t carry “Bad Things,” which only connects in select moments, while the rest of the endeavor plays like a community theater production of “The Shining.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

One could certainly appreciate 1981’s “Taxi zum Klo” as a study of life for a gay man in West Germany, detailing his encounters in the area as he tries to maintain work and play. Writer/director/star Frank Ripploh has something in mind with the endeavor, electing to make a picture about experiences, following the main character as he hunts for carnal events and falls into a relationship while dealing with friends and strangers. However, Ripploh also wants to examine the perils of cohabitation and love, ending up with an easily distracted feature that carries on for too long, especially when it attempts to explore a story that fails to provide much of a dramatic hold. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Pee-wee Herman was becoming a big deal for actor Paul Reubens in the 1980s. He scored attention with the creation, and success when generating a stage show for the nerdly character, earning spots on late night television and the attention of Hollywood producers. In 1985, “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” was the first real nationwide test of the character’s appeal, pairing Reubens (who co-scripts with Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol) with director Tim Burton, a young talent making his feature-length debut with the endeavor. The idea was to take Pee-wee’s strange ways and stick them into a story about an outsider hunting for his stolen bicycle, but something wonderful happened to the project during its creation. Burton and Reubens found a way to take something potentially goofy and turn it into a splendid celebration of cinematic imagination, with visual and performance mischief found everywhere in the endeavor. “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” is a special film, sharing an exquisite amount of playfulness and low-budget inventiveness during its run time, allowing Burton to run wild with his youthful interpretation of Pee-wee’s bizarre world of panic, road trip connections, and indefatigable determination to right a horrible wrong. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Joe Begos is a fan of exploitation movies, and he’s been trying to replicate the approach of these films throughout his career. He’s had some visibility with endeavors such as “VFW” and “Christmas Bloody Christmas,” and he goes ultra-independent with “Jimmy and Stiggs,” which was shot inside his own apartment for almost no money, while cast and crew is mostly made up of pals who endured the three-year-long production journey. It’s an alien invasion picture, but certainly not a traditional one, as Begos (who also stars in the film) arranges a splatter-fest with the offering, keeping the tale contained to a single setting, and filling up this place with as much blood and guts as possible. “Jimmy and Stiggs” is a mess in many ways, and while it maintains a defiant attitude and enjoyable technical credits, the viewing experience also feels like a prison sentence at times, as Begos loves extremity and nothing else. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2009, Emily Hagins was the subject of the documentary, “Zombie Girl: The Movie.” The feature focused on Hagins and her moviemaking dreams, embarking on a mission to create her first project as a 12 year old, finding help from her parents and pals as they attempted to generate a proper horror experience. “Zombie Girl: The Movie” was a delight, and Hagins has seemingly pulled off the impossible, managing to build something of a career as she became an adult, eventually launching three follow-up projects (“My Sucky Teen Romance,” “Grow Up, Tony Phillips,” and “Coin Heist”) and various short films, maintaining some longevity in an industry that’s a true survival challenge. 2023’s “Sorry About the Demon” is Hagins’s fourth offering, and she sticks with her love of genre entertainment, attempting to mount a horror comedy about a twentysomething man and his war with insecurity as he deals with a recent breakup and the reality that he’s sharing a new rental home with a demonic force of doom. “Sorry About the Demon” isn’t ambitious, remaining dialogue-driven and sticking with a single location, and Hagins has some difficulty deciding what kind of movie she wants to make, as the comedy is limp and the scares are nonexistent in this overlong effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Horror films have a long history of addressing real world problems through the fantasy of fear. “Slapface” takes aim at the issue of bullying, with writer/director Jeremiah Kipp constructing a monster movie that touches on deep psychological situations of abandonment and isolation, following the lead character’s experience with a mysterious entity as he struggles to make sense of grief. “Slapface” is a low-budget production, often fighting against some visual ideas that don’t work, and performances aren’t always where they should be, but Kipp has an idea worth following in the feature, which does an effective job communicating abyssal pain and fear that’s starting to consume young minds, leaving them confused and exposed to an outside evil that works in strange ways. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Tyler Taormina made an impression on indie film audiences with 2019’s “Ham on Rye.” The helmer invested in atmosphere, not storytelling, examining the behaviors and social interactions of teenagers as they prepare for a party. Taormina wasn’t interested in plot, just the vibe, and he returns to the same idea for “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” which takes the “Ham on Rye” concept and transfers it to the holiday season. There’s a family gathering to inspect in the feature, bringing all types of personalities together for a celebratory evening where relationships are revisited and experiences are pursued. “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” sustains Taormina’s filmmaking interests in shapelessness, but he’s remarkably observant when it comes to the creation of a reunion event with holiday flair. The picture is practically 3D in the way it captures household bustle and indulgence, creating some superbly vivid moments. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The holiday season is meant to inspire warmth and joy, but to horror filmmakers, it’s a ripe opportunity to bring ghoulishness to the screen. 2021’s “The Advent Calendar” is a Belgian production that looks to disrupt the wonders of Christmas by offering a highly bizarre tale of a gift that keeps giving, and in increasingly malicious ways. Writer/director Patrick Ridremont shows some imagination with the picture, examining the tension of a young woman dealing with an unusual German present that takes command of her life, testing her sanity as the countdown to Christmas continues. “The Advent Calendar” is actually more a genie-style examination of wish-granting, following the main character’s journey into a different reality she wants for herself, only to be asked to sacrifice so much to keep it. Ridremont has a strong opening half, tracking the passage of days and the prizes inside the eponymous gift, achieving a strong atmosphere of mystery and menace as the central story develops. The endeavor eventually starts to lose focus in its second half, but there’s enough presented here to deliver on some welcome oddity and intensity as the main character experiences a very special countdown to Christmas. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When making a movie about the lives of paramedics, intensity to a point of insanity is always the atmosphere. There’s nothing cozy about the vocation, which demands everything from employees, especially those working in troubled areas of the country. Madness is the journey, but co- writer/director Christopher Leone makes a valiant attempt to find some dark humor in the details of life and death. “Code 3” strives to follow the rocket sled ride of EMS life during a 24-hour-long shift for two veterans and a rookie, sending them around Los Angeles as they encounter people in dire need of medical treatment. Leone and co-writer Patrick Pianezza aim for realism in the work, delivering a disturbing understanding of mental illness and physical damage involved in this world. They also try to keep the feature at least somewhat approachable, giving star Rainn Wilson an opportunity to deliver perhaps the best performance of his career in a supremely challenging role. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

People love shark attack cinema. Earlier this year, “Dangerous Animals” found release, which attempted to subvert the norm in the subgenre, playing around with human predators instead of strictly oceanic ones. And now Japan tries their luck with horrors from the deep in “Hotspring Sharkattack,” which is about an unserious as a film can get. We’ve done the “Sharknado” thing too many times, but writer/director Morihito Inoue delivers a different kind of wackiness with his presentation of death and destruction. He goes camp, but creatively so in the picture, which examines chaos caused by deadly ancient sharks awakened from the deep due to commercial development, seeking revenge on all for such an offense. “Hotspring Sharkattack” is low-budget and loving it, and while there’s definitely a limit on such exaggeration, Inoue has some imagination for his lunacy, mounting a bizarre and amusing riff on sharksploitation bedlam. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com