Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

The title "Champagne and Bullets" doesn't make much sense. The movie includes the consumption of champagne, but very few bullets are fired, though a character orders "bullets" at a bar, which may be a reference to specialized drink. Who knows? One would hope writer/star/co-director John De Hart would, but he's got bigger fish to fry as the mastermind of this crazy picture, which shows almost no sense of leadership or forethought. De Hart oversees one of the great make-em-ups of the 1990s with "Champagne and Bullets," building himself a vanity film that celebrates his songwriting, singing, acting, and sexuality, planning to transform himself into a screen icon with the endeavor, which is as clumsy and misbegotten as can be. Make no mistake, this thing is awful, but one doesn't come to the feature with hopes for directorial finesse. Amusement with a "Birdemic"- style ride is the desired result, and the effort delivers plenty of that. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass have created a great number of classics throughout their partnership, using interest in stop-motion animation to make the holidays a little brighter with television specials such as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town." They've also dabbled in theatrical endeavors, with "Mad Monster Party" a cult favorite. For 1966's "The Daydreamer," Rankin/Bass aim for a more storybook tone, exploring the world of author Hans Christian Andersen through a mix of live-action and stop-motion animation, working to bring some magic to this musical, which visits several of Andersen's famous works. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The world as we know it today inspires the world of tomorrow in "The Prince's Voyage." It's a French production from co-directors Jean-Francois Laguionie and Xavier Picard, who construct a fantasy tale of suspicion and exploration featuring a cast of cultured and contained primates. It's not a new take on "Planet of the Apes," but it shares the same sense of exploration and confusion, with "The Prince's Voyage" offering a refined understanding of societal fears as the characters manage a situation of discovery that could lead to some form of evolution, but only manages to inspire doubt and denial instead. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As many have already reported over the years, "Surf II" is not a sequel. There is no "Surf," with the film's title presented as an introductory joke for the picture, hoping to offer a little mischief as a way to identify silliness to come. It's not a successful gag, inspiring more confusion than knowing chuckles, but writer/director Randall Badat (who would go on to write "Hear No Evil" and "The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream") doesn't spend much time on wit in "Surf II." He's blasting the screen with wackiness instead, looking to update the Beach Party genre for an "Airplane!" audience, delivering a feature that's big on energy but strangely low on laughs. It does have a manic spirit, and that's good enough to support a viewing, especially for surfing fans who enjoy a little humor with their displays of sporting skill. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Six-String Samurai" emerges from the minds of co-writers Lance Mungia (who also directs) and Jeffrey Falcon (who also stars), with the pair trying to find their way into Hollywood via the creation of a cult-ready action fantasy that follows a Buddy Holly lookalike and his effort to protect a child from enemies in post-apocalyptic Nevada. The 1998 picture tries to be ultra-cool and super strange to attract a knowing audience, and there's certainly a fanbase for the endeavor. "Six-String Samurai" is specialized entertainment, but it's not an especially engaging feature, with the production turning to repetition and slow-motion to avoid becoming the inspired short film it was destined to be. There's not a lot of story to snack on here, just plenty of style and rockabilly music, with a 90-minute run time presenting a noticeable challenge for Mungia, who's just not able to pack this movie with enough incident. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Winterbeast" was completed in 1992, but began life in 1986, with director Christopher Thies and producer Mark Frizzell setting out to create a horror picture with no money and a plan to manufacture monsters using stop-motion animation, with Frizzell a student of the artform. The pair spent years putting the film together, finding time here and there to do something with premise and hire patient actors looking to contribute to the cause. What they ended up with is barely a movie at times, packed with as much filler as the production can get away with. Still, "Winterbeast" is charmingly rough around the edges, especially when it focuses on just being a creature feature, getting away from a barely realized story and loose characterization. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1990's "Fatal Exam" (which was shot in 1985) is writer/director Jack Snyder's pass at a haunted house movie, working with the bare minimum of production support to create what appears to be a horror/mystery feature. It's Snyder's helming debut, and it really shows throughout the endeavor, which takes a basic premise of spooky events set inside a remote house and somehow believes that viewers need 114 minutes of screen time to make it from one end of the story to the other. "Fatal Exam" is a sleeping pill, and it's very odd to see the production deny its inert reality, marching forward with a sluggish arrangement of staring contests and enormous exposition dumps. 114 minutes, people. Bring a pillow. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1989's "Beyond Dream's Door" represents Jay Woelfel's directorial debut, working to bring a 1983 short film up to feature-length standards and impress the world with his helming skills. The picture is a descent into nightmares and dreamscapes, following a young college student as he battles with unreality, pulling others into his survival challenge. Woelfel comes prepared for war, serving up a professional-looking movie that's loaded with moving cameras and dramatic lighting. There's just no story to follow or characters to connect to, with the abstract nature of the endeavor growing wearisome as it becomes clear "Beyond Dream's Door" is really just an overlong directorial showcase for Woelfel, who works extra hard to deliver a visual experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Expectations were low for 1991's "City Slickers," which was a modestly budgeted summer release starring Billy Crystal, who was trying to build a leading man career after the success of "When Harry Met Sally." The picture offered adult audiences relatable themes on aging and friendship, delivering nuggets of midlife crisis awareness while exploring the open world, complete with western-style misadventures and animal encounters. "City Slickers" managed to surprise many by becoming the sleeper hit of the year, becoming the fifth highest grossing feature of 1991 (right below "The Silence of the Lambs"), while Jack Palance collected an Academy Award for his work as the crusty cowboy, Curly. A sequel wasn't necessary, there was nowhere left to go with the premise, but Crystal thought he had a sure thing with 1992's "Mr. Saturday Night" (his directorial debut), a hyped dramedy that was envisioned as an awards magnet and box office behemoth, and while the vanity project managed to collect a few nominations, audiences avoided it, knocking the star off-course in his quest to become a bankable name. For Crystal, there was only one way to win back his audience: a sequel. For 1994's "City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold," Crystal is aiming to please, recycling old jokes, rehashing familiar subplots, and even bringing back Palance to make sure the follow-up generates the same excitement as the previous chapter in the Mitch Robbins saga. It turns out, the "one thing" only really works once. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1980's "He Knows You're Alone" is most notable for two things: it was one of the first slasher features to ride the success of 1978's "Halloween," and it offers a young Tom Hanks in his first screen acting job. These bits of trivia tend to define the picture's position in horror history, but director Armand Mastroianni and screenwriter Scott Parker provide more suspense and characterization than the average genre offering, giving the endeavor a little more to work with when trying to frighten audiences. "He Knows You're Alone" isn't a sophisticated chiller, but the production has some good ideas for hideous happenings, paired with energetic performances to bring the nightmare to life. It's an entertaining movie that achieves most of its creative goals, keeping things uneasy without getting completely ugly. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1989's "Grave Secrets" is a curious mix of paranormal investigation and human trauma, with screenwriters Jeffrey Polman and Lenore Wright trying to create a screen nightmare for genre viewers that also deals with rather severe real-world agony. It's a bizarre concoction at times, but director Donald P. Borchers doesn't bother to stop and really consider the material, laboring to pull off a ghost story on a limited budget, masterminding various encounters with the other side. The helmer does well with practical effects, making a passably involving haunted house tale at times, getting "Grave Secrets" where it needs to go as the material explores mysterious happenings at a rural bed & breakfast. Deeper consideration of what's really going on with the characters isn't welcomed, as Borchers is primarily looking to summon a case of the creeps, not a fetal-position-inducing overview of human suffering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With "Altered Innocence: Vol. 1," the label aims to find a fresh audience for a collection of short films with LGBTQ themes, also dealing with endeavors exploring the growing pains of adolescence. These are 12 offerings that vary in tone and creative approach, and a few of them are music videos that take the surreal route to understanding human sexuality and identity. "Altered Innocence: Vol. 1" hopes to share underappreciated or forgotten shorts from a wide variety of moviemaking voices. Some of these selections aim for laughs or tears, while a few gradually expose the horrors of life, but they all offer a distinct creative fingerprint, delivering cinematic stories from burgeoning talent. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Finding success making Robert Redford movies such as 1969's "Downhill Racer" and 1972's "The Candidate," director Michael Ritchie found his hot streak cooled some with 1975's "Smile," which was basically balled up and thrown away by the distributor during its initial theatrical release. Such cruel treatment robbed Ritchie of another hit, but it didn't stop the feature from becoming something of a cult title, gaining admiration and building a fanbase over the last 46 years. While not Ritchie's finest endeavor, "Smile" showcases his skill with actors and controlled chaos, examining the nervous energy of a California beauty pageant and all the contestants, judges, and crew who create an event intended to celebrate femininity, only to bring out the worst in people. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1976, director Michael Ritchie created "The Bad News Bears," which went on to become a comedy classic and a beloved sports-themed film. It dealt honestly and hilariously with the realities of team sports, capturing a refreshingly honest underdog movie experience. In 1986, Ritchie returns to the same concept with "Wildcats," this time joined by Goldie Hawn, who plays the coach of a struggling high school football team, tasked with whipping slackers into shape, a job the character isn't sure about. For his second time around, an older Ritchie doesn't have the same dedication to nailing the nuances of the sport or the team dynamic, put in charge of Hawn-branded entertainment, which was big business in the 1980s, finding the actress riding the success of "Private Benjamin" into several cheery knockoffs. "Wildcats" isn't nearly as sharp as it could be, with Ritchie and writer Ezra Sacks ("FM," "A Small Circle of Friends") playing it safe with the material, dealing with broad humor and cliched personal problems. The whole thing is meant to be held together by Hawn's charm, and there's plenty of that, but the production is missing a strong screenplay, giving the sport and its participants some needed Buttermaker-approved grit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

During his interview for the Blu-ray release of 1991's "All-American Murder," actor Charlie Schlatter reveals that he initially met with director Ken Russell about the project, excited that the mastermind behind the psychedelic highs of "Tommy" would be in charge of a minor whodunit with surges of graphic violence. Whatever occurred behind the scenes isn't clear, but Russell eventually left the project, quickly replaced days before shooting by Anson Williams, who made a name for himself as Potsie Weber on classic show "Happy Days," spending a full decade making comedy for network television. Williams transitioned to T.V. direction after "Happy Days" ended, banging out episodes of shows like "L.A. Law," "Hooperman," and "Just the Ten of Us." "All-American Murder" is Williams's feature debut, and if there's anybody in the business who's the exact opposite of Ken Russell, it's Anson Williams. After watching the picture, one gets a sense of what the gonzo "Altered States" and "Crimes of Passion" moviemaker could've done with the material. Williams doesn't embarrass himself, but it quickly becomes clear this type of film is beyond his skill set, unable to sustain initial interest in the details of the central crime. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Making his first film since 2008's "Soi Cowboy," writer/director Thomas Clay pours everything he's got into "Fanny Lye Deliver'd," a 17th century drama that takes its time to get anywhere. Clay has constructed a true cinematic journey, creating a picture that's all about language and screen details, working to make this tale of Puritan living feel as authentic as possible. There's a rough side to the endeavor, which takes a significant amount of screen time to discover, as Clay is more interested in building tension gradually, eventually reaching a point of fury that's realistically motivated. A sort of period version of "Funny Games" is exposed, and Clay indulges himself with acts of sexual and physical violence. But there's something about "Fanny Lye Deliver'd" that suggests he'd rather shoot farm life routines and landscapes all day, with the limited story served up here almost becoming a burden to the moviemaker. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1983's "Summer Camp Girls" presents an odd take on the seasonal getaway, rethinking the pleasures of the open world with friends and counselors by turning the whole experience into a prison-lite event for a group of 18-year-old girls discarded by their elite families. Hope for a "Meatballs"-esque take on camp shenanigans isn't rewarded, but director Gary Graver and writer Harold Lime try to sustain something of a fun factor to the picture, which deals more with nutty seductions than juvenile pranks, trying to maintain some heat for adult cinema fans. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Producer Dino De Laurentiis wanted to make the big hit of 1976 with his remake of "King Kong," keeping publicity fires burning for a full year before the film's release. It was hype on a grand scale, only requiring a movie that could match such marketing fury. "King Kong" isn't quite the towering adventure promised by De Laurentiis, but the picture offers tremendous scale, with budgetary bucks spent to inspire awe with enormous sets and exotic locations. And then there's the eponymous ape, who's less impressive, emerging mostly as a man-in-suit, competing with the stop-motion animation miracles found in the original 1933 classic. "King Kong" strives to be a sincere retelling of the adventure tale, aiming for spectacle and updated villainy, and it works for the most part, always most compelling when digging into the mystery of King Kong, not showcasing full body displays of him. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"The Cellar" had a rocky ride to a release. Screenwriter John Woodward was initially hired to direct the feature, adapting a short story from author David Henry Keller. The job proved to be too much for him to handle, with Woodward fired after a few days on the set, replaced by Kevin Tenney, who previously helmed "Witchboard" and "Night of the Demons." Tenney's job involved reworking the script and managing a speedy shoot for the low- budget picture, emerging with his version of a tale involving a family's fight for survival against an evil Native American-bred entity living in the muck under their rural Texas house. Tenney tried to deliver something sellable, but the producers didn't trust his vision, eventually restructuring the story and adding scenes to beef up the mystical aspects of the endeavor, eventually getting the film out into the world on VHS to inspire sleepover rental choices everywhere. Now, with this Blu-ray release, viewers are invited to see Tenney's original version of "The Cellar," which isn't a satisfying genre offering, suggesting the material simply wasn't meant to be, no matter the edit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1979's "Frat House" was created to capitalize on the raging success of 1978's "Animal House." The adult film industry wasn't about to let a collegiate setting for tomfoolery and bedroom antics go to waste, inspiring the production to generate its own sense of playfulness, with the full title of the endeavor being "Natural Lamporn's "Frat House." See what they did there? Writer/director "Sven Conrad" (aka David Worth, who would go on to helm "Kickboxer") doesn't have the time or money to really give the Universal Pictures release a proper pantsing, but he organizes a lighthearted effort that's more in love with silent comedies than National Lampoon, dealing with pure zaniness between scenes of sexual gymnastics and disco fantasies. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com