DVD Monthly

Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 103 May 2008
(1 votes, average: 2 out of 10)
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Off the beaten track.

The Lowdown: When two young couples stumble across the myth of Michael Rockefeller, a privileged traveller lost in New Guinea back in 1961, they decide to head into the wilderness to see if he is still there. But if he was cannibalized by locals, as has been suggested, then what fate awaits them?

Review: After the considerable success of The Blair Witch Project back in 1999, all manner of third-rate hacks rushed out with their own unimaginative camcorder copycat movies. With writing credits on major league action movies Die Hard: With A Vengeance and Armageddon, and un-credited rewrites of Con Air and The Rock to his name, Jonathan Hensleigh is certainly no third-rate hack. It seems strange then that Hensleigh should abandon his genre of choice for a lukewarm Blair Witch style shocker like Welcome To The Jungle…

Blair Witch owed some of its macabre charm to the gruesome 1980 exploitation faux-documentary Cannibal Holocaust, and indeed the spectre of that notorious movie looms large over Welcome To The Jungle. By updating proceedings for a travel-conscious generation, the film bears comparison with last year’s much-maligned Paradise Lost. Although Paradise Lost was slammed by critics, it towers head and shoulders over this piece of trash. It all begs the question: quite what were Hensleigh and his famed producer wife Gale Anne Hurd trying to do with something this insubstantial?

As we all know, irritating teenage victims are a prerequisite for horror movies, but in a movie where they actually act as your camcorder-wielding tour guides, the irritation factor is cranked up to a dangerous level. Any tension that Hensleigh manages to build up in the early stages evaporates due to the sheer amateurishness of the proceedings. Clumsy homages to Cannibal Holocaust pepper the final stages, summing up Hensleigh’s utter lack of ideas. Special features are limited to an audio commentary with Hensleigh and a single deleted scene. The victims of Cannibal Holocaust must be turning in their graves…

FILM: 2 EXTRAS: 3

DVD Info:
Certificate: 18
Starring: Sandy Gardiner, Nick Richey, Veronica Sywak, Callard Harris
Directed By: Jonathan Hensleigh, 2007
Distributor: Optimum Home Entertainment
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 78mins
Price: £15.99

Special Features:
Scene Selection
Audio Commentary With Director Jonathan Hensleigh
Deleted Scenes With Optional Audio Commentary With Director Jonathan Hensleigh

Reviewer: Lee Griffiths
Issue 103 May 2008
(3 votes, average: 7.67 out of 10)
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Darkness falls.

The Lowdown: Once a year, the small, remote Alaskan town of Barrow is plunged into darkness for 30 days, which doesn’t make for the easiest of months for the small community. Making things a whole lot worse this time around though is an invasion of bloodthirsty vampires looking for a good feed.

Review: Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s simple but effective graphic novel gets a relatively simple but effective big screen adaptation thanks to David (Hard Candy) Slade. The story presents a simple case of vampires attacking a remote town shrouded in a month’s worth of darkness, which provides ample opportunity for much violence and ravenous blood-sucking courtesy of Danny Huston’s gibberish talking head vamp and his gang of deformed demons. Josh Hartnett (silent and brooding) and Melissa George (sexy and feisty) are the ex-lovers who are thrown together to save the Alaskan town of Barrow from certain doom, and the results are rather impressive. Some gorgeous visuals and slick direction (which echoes Templesmith’s beautiful artwork from the source graphic novel) certainly make this one of the most attractive looking fright flicks of recent years, while the generous quota of bloody violence and gore will more than meet the standards of any vamp aficionado.

Problems arise with the film’s running time, with the movie beginning to outstay its welcome toward the end while the pace sags somewhat in places, thanks to the (needless) near two-hour running time. The film has retained the book’s eerie atmosphere, heart pounding action and wonderful climactic scene thanks to Steve Niles staying onboard for the screenplay, but certain additions/alterations hinder the pace and blight the quick-delivery needed to make 30 Days an all-out success.

The special features lay on the featurettes thick and fast with about 50 minute’s worth of behind-the-scenes related footage, covering numerous aspects of the production, from early story meetings and the WETA team’s designs, to casting decisions and the stunt work. The audio commentary features much technical insight from producer Rob Tapert, while George And Hartnett offer opinions on the horror industry and the plus and minus points of their own feature. Also worth mentioning is the bonus graphic novel which comes with this two-disc edition, which is basically a neat little excerpt from the ‘30 Days’ novel that takes us to where the 30 days of horror begins in the movie.

Though not perfect, 30 Days Of Night manages to deliver the goods for the most part, and thanks to some glorious visuals (looking sumptuous on DVD) and plenty of terrific action, Slade’s movie remains an essential slice of blood-sucking horror, and really, when was the last time Hollywood released a decent vampire film?

FILM: 7 EXTRAS: 7

DVD Info:
Certificate: 18
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston
Directed By: David Slade, 2007
Distributor: Icon
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 113 mins
Price: £19.99
Film supplied by:
Noble PR

Special Features:
Audio Commentary With Actors Josh Hartnett, Melissa George And Producer Robert Tapert
‘Pre-Production’ Featurette
‘The Vampire’ Featurette
‘Building Barrow’ Featurette
‘The Cast’ Featurette
‘The Look’ Featurette
‘Blood, Guts And Nasty $~@!’ Featurette
‘Night Shoots’ Featurette
‘Stunts’ Featurette
Photo Gallery
Trailers
Exclusive ‘30 Days Of Night’ Graphic Novel
Scene Selection

Reviewer: Lee Griffiths
Issue 103 May 2008
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 10)
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It’s better than Garfield.

The Lowdown: Alvin, Simon and Theodore, a trio of mischievous but loveable chipmunks, become pop stars thanks to struggling songwriter, Dave Seville (Jason Lee), who uses their vocal talents to save his dwindling career. However, fame and fortune ensure that the cute and cuddling fur-balls lose sight of their good old-fashioned family values.

Review: Director Tim Hill’s uncle, George (Oscar winning George Roy Hill of Butch And Sundance fame), must be spinning in his grave. Following his atrocious Garfield: A Tail Of Two Kitties (2006), Hill is back in semi-animated territory with a morality tale about the evils of the music industry that places those shrill-voiced rodents at centre stage. An initial bemused smirk will quickly evolve into cries of pain as Alvin (the “awesome” one), Simon (the nerdy one) and Theodore (the fat one) break out their hip-hop rendition of ‘Witch Doctor’.

Brought to the screen by a team of seemingly talented men whose résumés include ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’, ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Ren And Stimpy’ and ‘King Of The Hill’, you’d have thought Alvin And The Chipmunks would at least be tolerable, though with a romantic sub-plot eerily similar to the one from Garfield, some dreadful dialogue and some truly painful speedy vocals courtesy of Justin Long, Alvin And The Chipmunks is barely watchable at times. God knows how they managed to get Jason Lee involved, who, looking a shadow of his Kevin Smith days, busts his butt to keep things lively and tries to retain some dignity, but even Earl himself fails to pull off a miracle. Cameron Richardson manages to stay pretty throughout, while David Cross provides a solid music exec slime-ball. However, it’s essentially the chipmunks’ movie, and it’s really difficult to warm to their antics when they literally hurt your eardrums every time they open their mouths.

If you can manage to ignore the rather unwholesome situation which sees a grown man sharing a bed with three shit-eating rodents, then we can at least suggest that Alvin and co’s shenanigans may be suitable for the younger end of the market, and who knows, that bewildered sneer might turn into a genuine giggle of enjoyment for some of the more juvenile readers out there, who have a penchant for the odd CGI fart gag.

Special features wise, there’s not a lot going on for either the older or younger end of the market, with four brief featurettes taking us through the Chipmunks’ history and teaching us how to dance like a Chipmunk. Like the film, not much fun at all.

It’s no less than baffling that Ross Bagdasarian’s naff creations from 1958 became multi-Grammy award winning sensations throughout the 60s, though it’s even more perplexing that the same lame characters could rake in $340 million at a 21st century box office.

FILM: 4 EXTRAS: 4

DVD Info:
Certificate: PG
Starring: Jason Lee, David Cross (Voice) Justin Long
Directed By: Tim Hill, 2007
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 87 mins
Price: £19.99

Special Features:
‘Chipmunk History’ Featurette
‘Hitting The Harmony’ Featurette
‘Dance Like A Chipmunk’ Featurette
‘The Visual FX Of Alvin And The Chipmunks’ Featurette
Scene Selection

Reviewer: Jordan Brown
Issue 103 May 2008
(No Ratings Yet)
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A balls-out comedy?

The Lowdown: Leaving the world of table tennis when his father is mysteriously killed, ping-pong legend Randy Daytona returns to the table at the FBI’s request to compete in a tournament run by dastardly Triad leader Feng. Up against his old rival Karl Wolfschtagg, can Randy win and reclaim his former glory?

Review: There was a point when eyes looked to Dan Fogler as the next big thing in comedy. While turns in School For Scoundrels and Good Luck Chuck managed to raise the odd titter, his performance in Balls Of Fury shows that sadly he doesn’t quite have the comic muscle to head up a film. On the other hand, when the material he’s got to work with is this shoddy, you could have Will Ferrell in the lead and his performance would still be as funny as a root canal.

Attempting to fuse the intensity of classic 70s martial arts with the all-too-common tale of the sporting underdog, Robert Ben Garant’s Ping Pong piece is a big daft letdown. It’s a bit of a shame considering the rest of the cast are generally dab hands at the funny stuff. Still, what Balls Of Fury lacks in laughs it makes up for in enthusiasm. Christopher Walken’s performance should raise the odd smirk while Maggie Q delivers a supremely sexy turn as the limber daughter of Daytona’s blind and eccentric coach. Other than that, there’s little else to get excited about. The disc features the mildly amusing ‘Under The Balls’ featurette, a turgid ‘making-of’ segment and a few insomnia curing deleted scenes. Lastly, there’s an alternate ending that hints at the possibility of a sequel. As such, it’s a good thing it was left out. Unfortunately there are still those 20 chapters that did make the final cut.

FILM: 3 EXTRAS: 5

DVD Info:
Certificate: 12
Starring: Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, Maggie Q, James Hong, Aisha Tyler
Directed By: Robert Ben Garant, 2007
Distributor: Universal
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 91 mins
Price: £19.99

Special Features:
Scene Selection
Alternate Ending
Deleted Scenes
‘Balls Out’ Featurette
‘Under The Balls: The Life Of A Ball Wrangler’ Featurette

Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 103 May 2008
(No Ratings Yet)
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There will be blood!

The Lowdown: Young drug addict George makes a living discovering covert information for notorious New Orleans vampire hunter Judith. George is desperate to score one final job so that he can leave town for good, but when his contacts start turning up dead, George’s only priority is staying alive…

Review: Fuelled by the popularity of Steve Niles’ 30 Days of Night, this bite-sized selection of webisodes aired on FEARnet.com last year, and acts as a prequel to the events in Alaska. Any horror fans whose blood lust wasn’t quite sated by the movie may well find salvation in these blood-soaked online nuggets, which have since been stitched together to form a gory short film. Taken together these scenes form a perfectly respectable short movie, populated with grisly vampires and their hapless prey. However, such is their individual nature, the whole Blood Trails mini-saga feels uneven and rather disjointed. In fairness, although most of the acting is unnervingly wooden, Spanish director Victor Garcia handles the short bursts of action pretty impressively.

After working on the special effects for Hellboy, he did his reputation no harm at all with the superior straight-to-DVD sequel Return To House On Haunted Hill last year. Blood Trails also has its moments, and if he can get away from sequels ‘n’ prequels he may well be a name to watch on the horror circuit. The pulsing tension and jolts of fear do the trick, but it is the array of bloody kill sequences that horror fans will enjoy most. I think that many fans will agree with me when I suggest that webisodes like these belong on the internet and not on DVD, and with all seven episodes freely available online there is no real need to shell out for this mini-series. Nevertheless, an appealing spin-off.

FILM: 6 EXTRAS: 3

DVD Info:
Certificate: 18
Starring: Trip Hope, Marilyn Johnson, Andrew Laurich
Directed By: Victor Garcia, 2007
Distributor: Icon Home Entertainment
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 25mins
Price: £4.99

Special Features:
Scene Selection
Interviews With Cast and Crew

Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 103 May 2008
(1 votes, average: 8 out of 10)
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Double trouble!

The Lowdown: Inspired by the notorious crime spree perpetrated by Texan bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Darrow, Arthur Penn’s seminal Bonnie and Clyde follows the violent duo as they rampage across the Depression-struck Mid-West, capturing the nation’s attention in the process.

Review: It may have played fast and loose with the truth, but Bonnie and Clyde’s phenomenal impact cannot possibly be denied. Star/producer Warren Beatty ushered in an amoral new era for Hollywood with liberal helpings of sex, violence and dark humour. Beatty and his radiant co-star Faye Dunaway became counterculture figureheads overnight thanks to their shameless, taboo-shattering onscreen behaviour, and Bonnie and Clyde offered an unnerving wake-up call for the Hollywood old guard. However, when it limped onto Region 2 DVD as a bare-bones release, fans were infuriated by the shabby treatment of a cinematic legend. However, all is not lost… To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde last year, Warner went to town and prepared a brand new set of special features to placate fans, resulting in this two-disc special edition.

But is the extra disc of special features worth the wait? The first special feature on offer is an in-depth History Channel documentary entitled ‘Love and Death’. Befitting its History Channel roots, this documentary is a dry, informative affair that will appeal to anyone who yearns for the real story behind the filmic crime spree. As interesting as it is, ‘Love and Death’ is comfortably outshined by the three-part ‘making of…’ documentary ‘Revolution!’, which is a must see for all fans of New Hollywood filmmaking, and cinema in general.

Nominally broken up into three chunks: ‘Bonnie and Clyde’s Gang’, ‘The Reality and Myth of Bonnie and Clyde’ and ‘Releasing Bonnie and Clyde’, the documentary offers a highly warranted scrutiny of the movie and its origins. Part one, ‘Bonnie and Clyde’s Gang’, examines how producer-turned-star Warren Beatty assembled such an enviable cast and crew for the movie. Strangely enough, his original intention was to have Francois Truffaut behind the lens, with Bob Dylan starring as Clyde! The role-call of talking heads across these three featurettes includes Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, director Arthur Penn, screenwriter Robert Benton and ‘creative consultant’ Robert Towne. The title of the second chapter, ‘The Reality and Myth of Bonnie and Clyde’, is slightly misleading, instead offering behind-the-scenes scrutiny of the costumes, sets etc. Finally, ‘Releasing Bonnie and Clyde’ probes the movie’s astonishing impact on Hollywood. From the shocked displeasure of Warner Brothers head-honcho Jack Warner, through to the initial critical savagery and then the eventual mood-change – the ending to Bonnie and Clyde’s story is no less fascinating than its roots.

On top of all of this documentary fodder, Warner has also included a couple more curios to satisfy the fans: seven minutes worth of ‘Warren Beatty Wardrobe Tests’ and also a pair of deleted scenes. Unfortunately the audio couldn’t be located for these deleted scenes, so you’ll have to rely on subtitles that have been sourced from the film’s original shooting script if you want to know what is actually going on! Overall, this is a solid, appealing set and a must-see for fans.

FILM: 8 EXTRAS: 7

DVD Info:
Certificate: 18
Starring: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard
Directed By: Arthur Penn, 1967
Distributor: Warner Home Video
Audio: Mono
Visuals: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 111mins
Price: £15.99
Film supplied by: Premier PR

Special Features:
Scene Selection
‘Revolution! The Making of Bonnie and Clyde’ Three-Part Documentary
‘Love and Death’ History Channel Documentary
Warren Beatty Wardrobe Tests
Deleted Scenes

Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 103 May 2008
(1 votes, average: 6 out of 10)
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Review: For this 1961 movie Michaelangelo Antonioni paired together screen legends Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau as a crisis-stricken married couple. Mastroianni’s husband is an out-of-touch novelist hampered by writer’s block, whilst his wife is a bored socialite troubled by her own lethargy. A selection of previously censored sequences have been reinserted for the first time, but not even they can lift the movie out of the bleak middle-class doldrums that swallow up the proceedings. The two leads inject a sense of class into the proceedings, and although the film looks typically impressive, it ultimately feels as dysfunctional as the characters themselves. As with many previous Eureka! ‘Masters of Cinema’ releases, La Notte comes packaged with a fascinating 40-page booklet, containing an essay and a rare 1961 interview with Antonioni.

FILM: 6 EXTRAS: 4

DVD Info:
Certificate: TBC
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau
Directed By: Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1961
Distributor: Eureka!
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 118mins
Price: £19.99

Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 103 May 2008
(No Ratings Yet)
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Review: When it was originally released, Yesterday was been widely compared to Minority Report, which was released in the same year. To be honest, such comparisons are rather misleading, as despite a slick, complex approach, Yesterday lacks the propulsive action of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster. In 2020, 30 years after a number of schoolchildren disappeared, a selection of retired scientists are being murdered one by one. Yesterday sees a Special Investigations unit examine the disturbing turn of events. Director Jeon Yun-Sun’s visuals are top-notch, but the film as a whole seems muddled and uneven. However, ‘Lost’ fans should note that Kim Yoon-Jin (who plays Sun Kwon in the castaway caper) does feature heavily. It may be unnecessarily convoluted, but Yesterday is a respectable Asian techno-thriller.

FILM: 6 EXTRAS: 1

DVD Info:
Certificate: 15
Starring: Kim Yoon-Jin, Min-Su Choi
Directed By: Jeon Yun-Sun, 2002
Distributor: Tartan Video
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 121mins
Price: £14.99

Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 103 May 2008
(No Ratings Yet)
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Review: The ‘girl with long dark hair’ is a neat but oft-exploited J-Horror cliché that has been rendered tiresome with overuse. Nevertheless, The Wig carries things through to their (un-)natural conclusion with a movie all about scary hair! Although this sounds like a tongue-in-cheek romp, director Won Sin-Yeon prefers to play things straight, vanquishing any chance of camp appeal. Although he handles the action with great care, his priorities seem rather skewed, and even the horror seems to take a backseat to the dodgy love triangle that seems to be brewing. Although there are some decent scares to be had, ultimately Won gets so bogged down with melodrama that it is difficult to stay rapt. By the time the lousy ending rolls around you are left ruing a case of ‘what could have been’…

FILM: 5 EXTRAS: 1

DVD Info:
Certificate: 15
Starring: Min-Seo Chae, Seon-Yu
Directed By: Won Sin-Yeon
Distributor: Tartan Video
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 106mins
Price: £14.99

Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 103 May 2008
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 10)
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Review: ‘Video nasty’ distributor-of-choice Shameless continue their campaign for Grindhouse-era dominance with this magnificently depraved slice of Italian terror. Aldo Lado’s sleazy thriller was refused a UK certificate back in 1976 and has languished unreleased on these shores ever since. As with many ‘video nasties’, its reputation precedes it, and although not all films are able to marry controversy with content, Night Train Murders is a menacing, defiantly nasty little horror movie, rendered unforgettable by some of Lado’s more disturbing scenes. Horror villains don’t come much more unpleasant than the trio in this movie, and some of their actions will leave sensitive viewers feeling rather queasy. If you are interested in the seamier side of 70s horror, make sure you check out Night Train Murders and the rest of Shameless’ fast growing back catalogue.

FILM: 6 EXTRAS: 2

DVD Info:
Certificate: 18
Release Date: Out Now
Starring: Flavio Bucci, Irene Miracle
Directed By: Aldo Lado, 1974
Distributor: Shameless Screen Entertainment
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 90mins
Price: £12.99

Reviewer: Jordan Brown
Issue 103 May 2008
(No Ratings Yet)
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Review: With The Water Horse hitting cinemas, it shouldn’t shock anyone to see that Universal has dug the uncannily similar Mee-Shee out of the vault. While it doesn’t quite sparkle with the magic of its Scotland-set clone, there’s enough here to keep the little-uns amused. Based on the legend of the Ogopogo (a Canadian Nessie-like creature), Mee-Shee follows young Mac as he accompanies his dad on a trip to a British Columbian lake to drill for oil. Discovering the mythical beast within the lake, Mac has to convince his father not to drill while trying to fend off a rival company with the help of his new aquatic chum. Entirely inoffensive stuff featuring some nice effects courtesy of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Mee-Shee won’t bowl you over, but it’ll entertain nevertheless.

FILM: 5 EXTRAS: 2

DVD Info:
Certificate: PG
Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Daniel Magder
Directed By: John Henderson, 2005
Distributor: Universal
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 90 mins
Price: £15.99

Reviewer: Jordan Brown
Issue 103 May 2008
(2 votes, average: 10 out of 10)
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Review: After debuting at the Cannes film festival way back in 2005, Chromophobia finally arrives on DVD. Following a bourgeois family as it slowly but surely collapses in on itself, this mildly gripping drama sees Damian Lewis in the role of Marcus Aylesbury – a London-based family man struggling to cope with the outlandish attitudes of those close to him. Under the enormous pressure of having to deal with a psychologically disturbed wife and son, a hospitalized godfather and scamming boss, Marcus tries as hard as he can to keep his world from falling apart. Although entertaining and featuring a great ensemble-cast, it’s a bit of a slog at 136 mins. With the only extra on the disc being a trailer, it makes for a slightly disappointing title.

FILM: 5 EXTRAS: 3

DVD Info:
Certificate: 15
Starring: Ben Chaplin, Penelope Cruz
Directed By: Martha Fiennes, 2005
Distributor: Momentum
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 136 mins
Price: £15.99