Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

With a title like "Izzy Gets the F*** Across Town," one would expect an energetic, take-no-prisoners viewing experience with a defined punk rock edge. What writer/director Christian Papierniak ultimately offers is a tame assessment of maturation and self-preservation found in the clouds of impulsive behavior. It's only a road movie in the briefest of moments, as Papierniak promises a farce but tries to get by on tedious characterization and a lack of successful humor. "Izzy" doesn't live up to its initial promise of chaos, finding the material far too meandering to make an impression, despite lead Mackenzie Davis's game attempt to make something sizable out of a rapidly deflating endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Kim Hinkel scripted the original "Texas Chain Saw Massacre," watching as the little southern horror movie developed into a behemoth at the box office, becoming a sensation at the time and, eventually, a classic. Hinkel was shut out of the two sequels that followed, but resurfaced in 1994 with renewed interest to reclaim his original creation. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation" is Hinkel's ship and he's content to steer it into murky storytelling waters, hoping the brand name might cover for many issues with the screenplay and filmmaking. Henkel aims for reverence with a semi-remake, but he comes up short in the imagination department, finding the highlights of "The Next Generation" ones that simply recycle Hooper's ferocity and rural Texas madness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Funny" is a word that's often associated with 1982's "The Atomic Café." Such promise of humor is stamped all over the promotion of the picture, with nervous distributors trying to lure viewers who wouldn't normally be interested in an 87-minute-long summary of American leaders lying to the public about the true destructive possibilities of an atomic bomb blast. Funny this movie most certainly isn't, but I suppose the actual toxicity of this darkness is subjective, with "The Atomic Café" more of a skillful assembly of footage than a knee-slapper. Directors Jayne Loader and Kevin and Pierce Rafferty spent years stitching together a look at the development of American paranoia and hubris, and they end up with an eye-opening examination of Atomic Age denial and experimentation, delivering, without narration, an extraordinary view of military power and those tasked with deflecting attention away from surefire dangers during a time of reckless experimentation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In an effort to save some money and limit risk with the creation of a "Critters" sequel after 1988's "Critters 2: The Main Course" bombed during its theatrical release, New Line Cinema elected to take the series direct to video, hoping to meet the fanbase halfway by delivering prime Crite action directly to their living rooms. The studio also decided to make two movies for the price of one, shooting "Critters 3" and "Critters 4" back-to-back, with the last installment of the franchise (at least up to this point) handed over to director Rupert Harvey, who apparently didn't enjoy anything the series had been offering in its three previous chapters. "Critters 4" takes the action into space, unleashing the Crites on a space station, where they go about their daily business of bodily harm and reproducing in tighter confines, generating more of a haunted house viewing experience. At least that appears to be the idea behind the third sequel. What Harvey actually delivers is the worst "Critters" installment of the bunch, dropping humor and open air to play a tedious game of "Wait for the Crites," with the titular monsters barely in the endeavor, finding more attention place on tedious human concerns. This is no way to close out an amusing set of creature features. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Of course, there's only one reason why people are still aware of 1991's "Critters 3." It's the one addition to the Crite saga that maintains outsider curiosity and fan endearment, and it's the only part of the feature that shows any sort of inspiration. That's right, when one thinks of the second sequel to "Critters," the only thing that comes to mind is…Crites in the big city! Okay, okay, perhaps the real reason there's still chatter about the effort is a supporting turn from Leonardo DiCaprio, who makes his film debut here, battling tiny monsters in a low-budget sequel a mere six years before he would hit a career grand slam in James Cameron's "Titanic." DiCaprio has come a long way since the direct-to-video endeavor and his refusal over the years to even discuss the movie is understandable, but there's really no shame in starting small. After all, while "Critters 3" doesn't maintain quality low-wattage frights and laughs like the two previous chapters, it does relatively well with the little it has to offer, making for an entertaining Crite attack offering that tries to bring a few new things to the franchise. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When 1986's "Critters" managed to become a home video success (after mediocre box office results), New Line Cinema elected to go forward with a sequel. However, unlike many follow-ups from the day, money was actually spent to give a potential franchise a proper continuation, adding some coin to the budget and giving "Critters 2: The Main Course" a newfound appreciation of comedic extremes, with co-writer/director Mick Garris brought in to make Crites more mischievous, humans more appealing, and the brand name more alluring to genre fans. In a rare creative success story from the brand-heavy 1980s, "The Main Course" is a proper match to the original "Critters," having fun with itself while supplying all the monster movie violence and mayhem one could ever want from the series. It's a bigger, bolder endeavor, with Garris losing none of the sneaky appeal of the first film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Speak to somebody associated with the production of 1986's "Critters," and they often swear the screenplay was written before the creation of 1984's "Gremlins," the Joe Dante-directed masterpiece that gifted the world a Christmas of chaos featuring the antics of mischievous, murderous knee-high creatures rampaging their way through a small town. Of course, "Critters" isn't set during the holiday season, but the picture also enjoys the destructive abilities of tiny monsters working to take over a rural community. I'm not sure why there's such a defensive attitude about the similarities between the endeavors, as there's room for both movies to be fantastic, with Stephen Herek-helmed horror-comedy managing to do something scrappy and scary with very little money, using imagination to turn a promising idea from co-writer Brian Domonic Muir into a fun ride of creature feature highlights, keeping puppetry and casualty lively in this unexpected franchise-starter. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We live in a day and age when a hit movie is often met with sequels and knockoffs in a year, with Hollywood speeding up their game to secure audience attention, often fearful that waiting to cash-in on a smash will result in swift disinterest. For National Lampoon, the hunt to follow-up 1978's "Animal House" resulted in a lengthy delay, creating a four year wait for 1982's "Class Reunion" (1981's "Movie Madness" was released in 1983), which is an eternity for any company, giving the faithful a chance to seek ribald pleasures elsewhere. Not helping matters is the actual quality of "Class Reunion," with the comedy trying very hard to be the most hilarious release of the film year, only to whiff with every punchline and bit of physical humor. It's an awful effort from director Michael Miller, who doesn't display awareness of funny business finesse, instead using a sledgehammer on sly jokes and tasty parody, keeping the endeavor as far away as possible from the weirdness it craves. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1984's "Silent Night, Deadly Night" was intended to be yet another slasher offering in an increasingly competitive marketplace, using the gimmick of a slaughtering Santa to lure the curious in. Instead of taking over the box office, the picture triggered tremendous controversy over its provocative marketing (Santa holding an ax), which resulted in cult longevity, making the feature something taboo for horror fans to embrace. In 1987, producer Lawrence Appelbaum elected to make a no-budget sequel, trying to rework footage from "Silent Night 1" into "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2," an editorial assignment that didn't work. Enter co-writer/director Lee Harry, who managed to form something of a new story to tell in this universe, mixing footage from the earlier picture with a fresh tale of mass murder, hoping to inspire a potential franchise with a little post-production magic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Hong Sang-soo is a prolific director, and not one to spend too much time refining his cinematic poetry. In "Claire's Camera," there's not much more than a central crisis between three people and a woman who studies the unrest with aid from her titular device, with the action basically regulated to conversations in cafes, apartments, and on French beaches, with the tale taking place around the time of the Cannes Film Festival. "Claire's Camera" is simple work, offering those who typically enjoy these minor forays into ennui a chance to embrace the helmer's special way with sparseness, humor, and repetitive anxiety. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Bringing the work of Robert A. Heinlein to the screen isn't easy. Just ask Paul Verhoeven, who transformed "Starship Troopers" into an orgy of excess, upsetting fans in the process. For 1994's "The Puppet Masters," the screenplay (credited to Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, and David Goyer) tries to be respectful of the source material for as long as possible, and the sci-fi aspects are what keep the feature afloat for its first half. The film doesn't stay inspired, with director Stuart Orme losing his way as the story deepens, making areas of the endeavor ridiculous when they should be emotionally devastating, and he generally loses interest in selling the stranger aspects of the tale, peeling alien intimidation off the finished product. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

While working in the film industry for some time by 1988, writer/director Fred Olen Ray really came into his own during the latter half of the decade. Known for his no-budget entertainment, specializing in exploitation and homage, Ray was pounding out productions around this time, having previously helmed "The Tomb," "Armed Response," "Deep Space," "Cyclone," "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers," and "Beverly Hills Vamp" in a two-year period, clearing the way for "The Phantom Empire," which, according to legend, was shot over a period of six days. Taking a small crew into the Bronson Caves area of Griffith Park, Ray concocted (with T.L. Lankford) a tiny tale of adventuring, with the main characters coming into contact with monsters, Robby the Robot, dinosaurs, and the blinding presence in Sybil Danning dressed in vinyl. "The Phantom Empire" has no finesse, just forward momentum, working with iffy performances, limited cinematic tools, and sheer enthusiasm for B-movies from the 1950s, finding Ray's adoration for the filmmaking period coming through with more accuracy than the story he's trying(?) to tell. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The late Harold Ramis was an enormous talent. However, his directorial career covered a frustratingly uneven collection of instant classics ("Caddyshack," "Groundhog Day," "Vacation") and immediate duds ("Bedazzled," "Club Paradise," "Year One"). 2005's "The Ice Harvest" (Ramis's penultimate film) falls somewhere between the creative extremes, emerging as a slightly mystifying take on Midwestern noir, taking inspiration from Scott Phillip's 2001 crime novel. One can easily see where Ramis wanted to go with the picture, but his desire to mix black comedy with bits of existential dread and underworld entanglements mostly comes off uninspired, finding such careful stepping draining the endeavor of personality and tension. What should've been a home run for the gifted helmer is instead a disappointing non-starter. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Brian Damude only made one movie during his career, and thankfully it's a terrific one. 1975's "Sudden Fury" eschews Hollywood comforts for the great outdoors of Ontario, with the helmer creating an unusual cat and mouse thriller with the simplest of cinematic ingredients. This is spare work, often avoiding music and dialogue to maintain concentration on the movement of characters, but Damude doesn't need much to create a proper nail-biter. "Sudden Fury" is engrossing, with moments of shock and sadness to present it with purpose, while Damude does everything he can with only a few locations, putting effort into characterization and editorial muscle, getting the feature up on its feet as quickly as possible before staging an unusual game of survival. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Religious fury is slowly unfurled in 1972's "Beware My Brethren" (aka "The Fiend"), a British production that's endeavoring to wind itself up with scenes of murder and holy manipulation, but it takes a long time to get anywhere of note in the picture. Director Robert Hartford-Davis and screenwriter Brian Comport definitely have ideas to share in the stagnant shocker, but takes on serial killing, motherly influence, and Godly damnation just don't have the punch they should, with most of "Beware My Brethren" coming across as a television movie that's occasionally interrupted by scenes of violence and nudity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2005, director Sydney Pollack's career was in trouble. After scoring a massive success with 1993's "The Firm," Pollack stumbled with 1995's "Sabrina" and 1999's "Random Hearts," leaving the celebrated helmer in a difficult position, requiring a return to his past triumphs to help goose box office returns. "The Interpreter" is Pollack's effort to revive screen energy that once guided his work on titles such as "Three Days of the Condor," making a thriller that's rooted in real-world ills, but still mindful of audience-pleasing suspense and his trademark attention to character. It's also the penultimate film for Pollack and one of his better pictures, delivering a tight, tense look at procedural actions and political concerns, taking what would've been a B-movie in other hands and elevating it with class and thespian encouragement, giving the chase fine performances to sell the growing panic. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1983's "Mausoleum" is a horror picture, and the genre is known for its appreciation for the strange and outrageous, with most producers looking for some way to help their endeavor stand out from the considerable competition. Co-producer/co-writer/cinematographer Robert Barich goes for extremity with the effort, and while the feature isn't incredibly violent, its blend of ghoulishness and titillation is, in many ways, charming, helping to define the decade's reliance on visual appeal to support lackluster plots. "Mausoleum" isn't a finely tuned dramatic enterprise, but it does have lots of salacious material and something of a sense of humor, with Barich stopping just short of softcore material as he works to pay tribute to the everlasting appeal of B-movies and make one himself. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Last year, Guillermo del Toro won an Academy Award for "The Shape of Water," which depicted a loving, sexual relationship between a mute woman and humanoid amphibian. This year, director Xavier Gens drinks from the same creative well, only his "Cold Skin" showcases a more mysterious love triangle between two salty men and the female humanoid amphibian they both strive to possess. Gens doesn't share del Toro's love of fantasy and textures, but he does offer intermittent intensity with his latest, which is just strange enough to pass, finding oddity often competing for scene attention with overblown dramatics. "Cold Skin" struggles to maintain pace and surprise, but Gens has the right idea more often than not, staying true to an operatic take on man vs. nature, creating something that's better with the dark and violent stuff than anything psychologically profound. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1980's "The Children" is working uphill in the good taste department. It's schlock, giving it an out when it comes to considered filmmaking, with the production often aiming just for shock value, which in this case covers the use of kids as murderous zombies. There's a way to pull this premise off, giving the uneasy audience a thrill ride of outrageousness. Writers Carlton J. Albright ("Luther the Geek") and Edward Terry don't understand the care required to make a movie where children murder and, in return, are murdered. Some humor remains in "The Children," but laughs are often buried under the weight of idiotic tonal directions and an absence of pace, keeping the endeavor an absolute chore to sit through when it isn't completely wrongheaded. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

There were a good few years where a Billy Crystal comedy was generally considered an appealing event. His follow-up to "When Harry Met Sally," "City Slickers" was the comedian's "Avatar" in terms of box office success and media saturation, fitting Crystal for leading man shoe lifts via an unlikely vessel of bellylaughs and cowboy buffoonery. "City Slickers" is easily digestible as a well-crafted comedy, loaded with slapstick and sincerity, permitting Crystal a starring vehicle to exercise his best Jackie Mason impression while submitting a successful catchphrase in Mitch's greeting, "Helllllooooo." The man is genuinely funny here, distributing one-liners and pained expressions, playing beautifully off the likes of Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby, while the producers filled supporting roles with a number of colorful character actors, including Supergirl herself, Helen Slater. And then there was Jack Palance, who clearly beamed down from his private asteroid to portray leathery cowboy Curly, a man so cured, he can light a match off his own cheek. Palance would go on to accept accolades and an Academy Award for his work here (cue the one-armed push-ups clip), and all of the love was heartily deserved, with the actor playing to his breathy strengths as a tough guy who develops a fondness for Mitch's neuroses. Palance and Crystal worked beautifully together, creating wonderful highlights along the way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com