Get Ready for "12 Disasters"! Coming To You From Anchor Bay Films on DVD January 7th

On January 7th, Anchor Bay Films shocks you into the New Year with the unforgettable end-of-the-world tale "12 DISASTERS" on DVD

This Syfy Original Movie takes the ancient Mayan prophecy of the earth’s fiery demise to wilder and weirder new levels. Directed by Steven R. Monroe  (I Spit on Your Grave), 12 Disasters stars Ed Quinn (“Eureka”, “True Blood”, The Caller), Magda Apanowicz (“Kyle XY”), Holly Elissa (Ice Quake), Roark Critchlow (“Days of Our Lives”), Ryan Grantham (Altitude). The SRP is $19.98. The pre-book is December 11th.

As Christmas approaches, a local shop-owner and his family struggle to survive as their idyllic small town is torn apart by a series of disasters, which reveal an incredible link between the Mayan 2012 prophecy and a familiar carol: The 12 Days of Christmas. He soon learns that his own daughter is the key to everything, and must protect her from both the disasters themselves and the panicked townspeople who blame her for the destruction, all the while racing to find five ancient golden ring needed to avert the end of the world – before it’s too late.

Not a city will be standing, not even a house, after these 12 days are over. With super natural rings,  apocalyptic volcanos and deadly shards of ice falling from the skies 12 Disasters is fun, outrageous and utterly absurd, all the ingredients that have made these Syfy movies a cultural and ratings phenomenon. 12 Disasters is sure to leave you shaking and quaking…just like the last days of planet earth.

12 Disasters DVD
Street Date:                  January 7, 2014
Pre-Book:                    December 11, 2013
UPC #:                         01313261255380
Item:                            AF61255
Audio:                         Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:                     English SDH, Spanish
Retail Price:                 $19.98
Genre:                          Sci-Fi
Rating:                         R
Run Time:                   90 Minutes
Year:                            2012

Get Ready for "12 Disasters"! Coming To You From Anchor Bay Films on DVD January 7th

COMEBACK SEASON -- movie review by porfle

(NOTE: This review originally appeared online in 2006 at Bumscorner.com.)


COMEBACK SEASON (2006), which was written and directed by familiar "Kids in the Hall" alumnus Bruce McCullough but bears no resemblance to that style of comedy whatsoever, begins with two major fractures.

First, an arrogant, conceited high school star quarterback named Skylar (Shaun Sipos, FINAL DESTINATION 2) trips over an electrical wire as he's strutting onto the field for a big game and sustains a career-ending knee injury. Meanwhile, his next-door neighbor, Walt Pearce (Ray Liotta), a middle-aged family guy whose marriage has grown stale, shatters it by having sex with a co-worker. He regrets it immediately, but the damage is done and his heartbroken wife Deborah (Glenne Headley) throws him out of the house as their spiteful older daughter Chloe (Rachel Blanchard) eggs her on.

Before long, Walt gets into a shoving match with a motel clerk and Skylar, while drowning his sorrows in a sports bar, takes a beer mug and launches a forward pass through a big-screen TV, and the two of them end up in the same jail cell. (Did I mention that they hate each other? Of course they do.)

Since Walt has no home or money (Deborah has cleaned out their joint account) and Skylar's parents are away on vacation, it looks like they're both stuck in jail for awhile, until Walt's younger daughter Christine suggests that they live together at Skylar's house for the time being. That way, Walt will have a place of residence, and Skylar will have a guardian till his folks get back.

As contrived romantic-comedy situations go, this one is pretty good. Walt undertakes the arduous task of winning his family back while helping Skylar regain his self-confidence and the use of his knee. Skylar's influence shakes Walt out of his old-man funk and restores the youthful zest for life he once had.

It's fun watching the two of them learning to get along and finally becoming unlikely friends as they team up to solve each other's problems. Christine, who was once cruelly stood up for a prom date by Skylar, forgives them both for their transgressions and is on their side. I found myself liking her character most of all, and Brooke Nevin (I'LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) is a winsome young actress.

Ray Liotta, on the other hand, has always seemed a bit creepy to me, mainly because I've seen him mostly in creepy roles (GOODFELLAS, HANNIBAL). So I was pleasantly surprised to find that, as Walt, he is quite capable of playing an affable, sympathetic character. He's funny, running around in Skylar's old kiddie pajamas and sneaking next door to swipe the business section out of his wife's newspaper, and when he stands in front of her house all night in the rain with a "take me back" sign taped to his shirt, only to have her call the cops on him, you feel for the poor guy.

As his wife Deborah, Glenne Headley (whom you may remember as "Elmira" in LONESOME DOVE) is surprisingly bland. Shaun Sipos does a convincing job as Skylar, at first so callous and full of himself until his injury teaches him humility and he eventually seeks to make amends to the people he's hurt before.

Contrition and forgiveness, you might guess, are the main themes of COMEBACK SEASON. Although it's a safe bet things will turn out all right in the end, it's an enjoyable time getting there and I felt pretty good after it was over. It's all standard and predictable stuff, but it capably fills its niche as a low-key feelgood movie, and sometimes that's all I require to be reasonably entertained for an hour-and-a-half.

Buy it at Amazon.com

COMEBACK SEASON -- movie review by porfle

THE FALL: SERIES 1 -- DVD review by porfle

Bleak, melancholy--borderline depressing, in fact--the Brit cop series THE FALL: SERIES 1 (2013)  has enough going for  it to supply hardy viewers with plenty of hard-edged adult drama and suspense.  Yet those holding out for some kind of closure at the end of series one's five episode run may find it ultimately unfulfilling.

Gillian Anderson ("The X-Files", BLEAK HOUSE) plays DS Stella Gibson,  who's been summoned by the Belfast police to head a departmental review into a stalled murder investigation.  When other, similar murders point to the work of  a serial killer, Gibson urges her superior and former lover Jim Burns (John Lynch) to put her in charge of the case.

Meanwhile, we follow the everyday life of Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan, "Once Upon a Time"), a devoted  husband and father who works as a grief counsellor.  He also happens to be the killer DS Gibson and her new task force are searching for.  When not helping care for his ultra-cute kids Olivia and Liam or guiding a young couple through the heartbreak of losing their son, he's stalking young professional  women as a prelude to murdering them in extremely ritualistic fashion.

While Dornan plays the character with a quiet, smoldering intensity,  Anderson's DS Gibson seems mostly sullen and cold.  This is partially accounted for by the fact that she has no life whatsoever outside of law enforcement, and treats the one sexual encounter that we see--after an abrupt come-on to handsome  young cop James Olson (Ben Peel) to whom she's just been introduced--with less warmth and intimacy than a handshake. 

When Olson is gunned down in connection with a related case, Burns' objection to Gibson's casual encounter with him becomes fodder for series creator and writer Allan Cubitt's desire to inject gender politics into the mix whenever possible.   The scripts often feed Gibson weak male characters to get the best of and sympathetic female colleagues to  bond with, although none of this is as effective or relevant as Helen Mirren's struggles against sexual discrimination in the classic series "Prime Suspect." 

It does, however, give Anderson the chance to play an imperfect heroine who isn't particularly likable and, in fact, comes off as rigid, humorless, and emotionally-repressed.  We learn practically nothing about her past and thus haven't a clue as to how she became this way.   One might even call her character underwritten,  giving Anderson the task of filling in the blanks with her own substantial presence, which she manages to do quite well.

As for Paul Spector, so much is made of his family and professional lives that we sometimes almost forget that he's the killer, except for the times in which his public and private personas threaten to collide.  Strangely, he's just about the only male character who seems to demonstrate consistently positive traits--faithful husband, devoted father, caring grief counsellor--and he's so matter-of-fact while going about his misdeeds that we get little sense of how truly evil and deranged he would have to be underneath his bland exterior.

A not-altogether-successful attempt is made, through crosscutting, to draw parallels between Spector and Gibson as we see them going about their lives.  Both are predators of a sort--she conquers her male prey through impersonal sex while he dominates and kills his victim.  He runs, she swims; she pores over her case notebook while he studies his trophy scrapbook; and so on.  In one curious scene,  a shot of a dead victim sprawled across a bed is juxtaposed with a similar view of Gibson in a matching reclining pose after sex.

The murder sequences,  of course, are repellent but not played to chill or thrill except when things go wrong and chaos ensues,  as in episode four's botched attack.  This bit of excitement comes none too soon, as it's around this point that the series starts to drag a bit despite some mildly shocking moments which, even so, might have been directed a bit more sharply.  Other subplots which don't seem all that relevant distract from the main drive of the story.

As Spector fights to keep himself together,  a punchy phone conversation with DS Gibson provides the series with some of its most scintillating moments.  However,  this is the closest we'll get to a climax in series one, as the final episode ends with a cliffhanger that promises to stretch things out even more next season.  I would've preferred a resolution,  but if the writers go in a different,  unexpected direction next time it should keep things interesting.

The 2-disc set from Acorn Media is in 16:9 widescreen with Dolby Digital sound and English subtitles.  The sole extra is a 12-minute behind-the-scenes featurette.

THE FALL: SERIES 1 is substantial, involving drama that's worth watching,  although somewhat of a disappointment compared to some of the better Brit cop shows I've watched.  In some ways it even comes off as a bit half-baked at times.  And while I'm keen to find out what happens next season,  I'm not exactly on pins and needles.

Buy it at Amazon.com

THE FALL: SERIES 1 -- DVD review by porfle

AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT: SERIES 7 & 8 -- DVD review by porfle

After being produced by British television from 1988-1996 and then lying dormant for years, the chronicles of private detective Hercule Poirot were once again brought to life by A&E and Granada Television for a series of feature-length TV movies.  The first four of these titles, starring the returning David Suchet in his brilliant portrayal of the eccentric Belgian sleuth, are remastered  and collected in Acorn Media's 2-disc set AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT: SERIES 7 & 8, which, as always, is a must for fans.

"The Murder of  Roger Ackroyd" (2000) finds Hercule Poirot in retirement, puttering in the garden of his rural cottage where, for the fussy, obsessive-compulsive little gentleman, even such a modest pasttime requires impeccable attire and spit-shined patent leather shoes.   (Not to mention, as always, a perfectly-waxed moustache.) 

Yet the great Poirot cannot remain idle and finds that he must occupy his mind by solving mysteries.  A local factory owner, Roger Ackroyd (Malcolm Terris), obliges by turning up murdered in the study of his mansion, in a most complex set of circumstances withseveral likely suspects to choose from.  It takes little effort by the village M.D.,  Dr. Sheppard (Oliver Ford Davies, "Sio Bibble" of the STAR WARS prequels) to coax the detective out of retirement in order to aid in the investigation. 

Happily, since most of the series' regulars are M.I.A. here, Poirot's old friend Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) from Scotland Yard makes a welcome visit to the village and inspires him to get those "little grey cells" working again.  Japp's presence is in stark contrast to the less-than-friendly young local inspector who, at first, regards Poirot as an overrated nuisance and a threat to his ego.  Such characters are a staple in Dame Christie's works, although this one changes his tune soon enough once he sees Poirot in action.

As always, interesting guest performances (including a pre-"Battlestar: Galactica" Jamie Bamber) bring a host of quirky characters to life, while an uncharacteristically action-oriented finale with the armed suspect leading our detectives a merry chase through a hazardous factory setting may remind you of the Axis Chemicals sequence in Tim Burton's BATMAN. 

But my favorite part is a wonderful moment in which two men entering Poirot's residence early on notice that the clocks all chime in perfect synch and that the kitchen is arranged with an almost unsettling precision.  (This, in addition to his dapper gardening attire, is a delightful shorthand for Poirot's razor-sharp fastidiousness.) 

Exquisite art deco production design and lush period atmosphere are an indulgence common to all four mysteries featured here, including the next, "Lord Edgware Dies" (2000),  which was previously filmed as the 1985 TV-movie "Thirteen at Dinner" with Peter Ustinov as Poirot and David Suchet as Chief Inspector Japp!  Here,  a vivacious Hollywood actress named Jane Wilkinson (Helen Grace) becomes  the prime suspect in the murder of her millionaire husband Lord Edgware (John Castle) despite the fact that he had recently granted her a much-wanted divorce. 

In expected fashion, we find that just about all of the guest characters had a reason to wish the victim dead and an opportunity to carry out the deed, giving Poirot's deductive skills another strenuous workout.  With its nightclub backdrop and movie-star main suspect, the episode boasts an appealing theatrical air that Poirot adopts in his final reveal--which, as in this set's other tales, is drawn out and wrung dry of every last melodramatic drop.  (Poirot savors this reward for his efforts more than money--the chance to show off to his amazed onlookers the results of what his "little grey cells" have wrought.)

With Poirot's return from retirement comes a welcome reunion with regular castmembers Hugh Fraser as his dull but steadfast legman Hastings,  and Pauline Moran as secretary extraordinaire Miss Lemon, both of whom brighten the proceedings immeasurably thanks to the exquisite chemistry they share with Suchet.  Unfortunately, this set of four films contains the last appearances by these two supporting characters to date, along with the indefatigable Chief Inspector Japp, although I understand that they may reappear in the series' final season.

"Murder in Mesopotamia" (2001) finds Poirot in yet another exotic setting, this time an archeological dig in Iraq where the expedition leader's wife,  Mrs. Leidner (Barbara Barnes)--who has confided to him that she is the target of threatening letters--is bludgeoned to death in a room that had no apparent means of entry by the assailant.  This particularly devious murder taxes Poirot to his limit, while the foreign customs and traditions of Iraq disrupt his ritualistic sense of order to an alarming extent.   Fortunately, his staunch friend Hastings appears on the scene to render aid after suffering a financial and marital setback. 

Finally,  "Evil Under the Sun" (2001) offers yet another remake of a theatrical "Poirot" film.  I don't know how these compare since I haven't seen the 1982 film,  but I do know that Suchet's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS stacked up quite favorably to the Albert Finney version in my opinion (as described here). 

After a visit to Hastings' new restaurant venture "El Ranchero" lands Poirot in the hospital with food poisoning, he's ordered to take a rest cure at an island resort.  With Hastings in tow he arrives at the scenic location in time to meet the usual colorful assortment of eccentric guests and then, his instincts sparked by various suspicious signs, he senses an impending murder in the offing. 

Unable to avert the strangulation death of another vibrant but irritating young film actress, Arlena Stuart (Louise Delamere), Poirot then applies himself to sorting through another assortment of suspects who all seem to have had a reason to want the woman dead. 

Again,  the disruption of Poirot's daily rituals while on holiday becomes a major annoyance as minute changes to his established routine prove comically distressing for him.  The increased length of these later stories allows the filmmakers to linger over the sort of character details that should delight fans of the fussy Belgian detective, while both delving deeper into the complexities of each mystery and giving Poirot ample time at story's end to take the assembled suspects on his customary "journey toward the truth." 

The 2-disc set from Acorn Media in in 16:9 widescreen with Dolby Digital sound and English subtitles.  No extras.

While there's still plenty of the old lightheartedness on hand, this set foretells the more somber tone the series will later adopt with its slower, more solemn version of the familiar theme music and a truncated main titles sequence that eliminates the former jollity of the visuals.  This, as I understand, reflects a similar turn toward a more serious tone in the Christie novels, although having seen some of the later adaptations I must say I missed the more breezy and somewhat comic moments such as the self-mocking passage in which a former acquaintance of Poirot,  Mrs. Danley, who was on hand during a murder investigation in Egypt, states: "I can't believe it--a second time.   Why is it that when you're around, people seem to drop like flies?"

Buy it at Amazon.com
DVD
Blu-Ray

Other "Poirot" DVD reviews from HK and Cult Film News:
POIROT AND MARPLE FAN FAVORITES
POIROT: SET 1 and SET 2
POIROT: THE MOVIE COLLECTION SET 6
POIROT: SERIES 5
POIROT: SERIES 6

AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT: SERIES 7 & 8 -- DVD review by porfle

HARD LUCK -- movie review by porfle

(NOTE: This review originally appeared online in 2006 at Bumscorner.com.)


It's hard to settle into HARD LUCK (2006) because it's hard to figure out what kind of movie it's trying to be.  When bigtime street hustler Lucky (Wesley Snipes) ends up in prison, he falls for his case worker and they end up moving to New Orleans after his release and settling into a love nest, but their happiness is interrupted when Lucky falls ill and is rushed into surgery.  When he wakes up, the hospital is flooded and there are dead people floating around in the hallway.  That's right, Hurricane Katrina.  When he makes his way home, his wife is gone and he ends up on the wrong end of a National Guardsman's rifle. 

So, is Lucky going to be some kind of bad-luck Forrest Gump, stumbling haplessly in and out of historic situations and giving director Mario Van Peebles a chance to make more political statements?  Nope, he moves back to New York and starts at the bottom again, hawking cheap stolen merchandise on the streets for a young Jewish guy named Sol who wears Tony Montana leisure suits and says stuff like "Wut izzle, my nizzle?" Lucky also finds time to help run a recreation center for kids until the mean old government cuts their funding.  This is as close to "going straight" as Lucky can seem to manage.

By this time the opening credits were almost over, and I was still wondering where the movie was going.  Well, when Lucky goes along with Sol to his birthday party in a fancy strip club and ends up reluctantly accompanying him on a really big dope deal upstairs, with two briefcases full of half a million bucks and large scary guys with guns standing around, it looks like it's gonna be a crime drama.  Especially when the deal turns out to be a set-up by some crooked cops moonlighting with confiscated cash, which Lucky somehow manages to abscond with while everyone else is either blasting away or getting blasted. 

He steals a car belonging to Angela (Jackie Quinones), the buxom stripper who just gave him a lap dance, while she's still in it.  There's a cursory car chase with too much jittery editing and shots sped up for no reason (this movie has a lot of that sort of tomfoolery in it), and we soon wish Lucky had kicked Angela out of the car before taking off because she won't shut up.  Later on in their motel room, after a gratuitous but admittedly enjoyable scene in which Lucky makes Angela remove all of her clothing so she'll be less likely to run away, she opens one of the briefcases and finds out the hard way that they're both wired with exploding ink bombs. 

Which puts a crimp in Lucky's plan to simply return the money to the bad guys and be done with it.  So, with the cops--including Van Peebles himself as "Captain Davis"--and the bad guys both after them, Lucky and Angela must hit the road until he can find a way to disarm the other ink bomb and they can divvy up the remaining money.

Lucky and Angela bicker like an old married couple but we're just sure that by the time the movie's over, they'll be in love.  And we're treated to scenes like the two fugitives wearing old-people Halloween masks to hide their ink-covered faces, and Lucky accusing Angela of "blowing one" in the car.  As Haley Joel Osment sourly remarked in THE SIXTH SENSE, "I didn't know you were funny."  And it's with all of this set-up finally in place that it looks as though HARD LUCK has decided what to be--a comedy.  Or, rather, a kooky romantic comedy-slash-action flick.  But wait...there's more. 

During all of that other stuff, you see, we've been given glimpses of a totally-unrelated storyline concerning a middle-aged rural housewife named Cass (Cybill Shepherd) and her decades-younger Asian hubby, Chang (James Hiroyuki Liao), who live in a large farmhouse whose barn has been converted into an audio-visual recording studio.  But they're not just making any old home movies.  While frolicking around like lovestruck perpetual honeymooners, this odd couple likes to knock out random people with a tire iron, drive them home in their van, and horribly torture them to death in fun and unusual ways while making music videos of the procedure.  No, I'm not making this up.

Okay, so we know that eventually Lucky and Angela are going to cross paths with these lovable psychos, but why?  All I can figure out is that Mario Van Peebles and co-writer Larry Brand are going for a Tarantino thing here.  It's as though they really liked the "Butch and Marcellus meet Maynard and Zed" sequence from PULP FICTION and decided to do a whole movie about it. 

When the two couples first come into proximity with each other in a roadside diner, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny--I mean, Cass and Chang--are having some goofy stream-of-consciousness conversation in a booth while some kid runs around in a "Scream" mask going "RAAAAR!", and another couple we haven't met yet (Cass and Chang's next victims) are sitting at the counter having another conversation about why he should give up entering Extreme Fighting competitions, and then the camera starts floating around in slow-motion as various characters have inner soliloquies that bear little relevance to anything.  The director seems to be trying to deconstruct his movie the way Tarantino did with PULP FICTION, but he isn't nearly as good at fitting the pieces back together in interesting ways. 

Anyway, Lucky and Angela go off to the mansion of a mob-connected, flamboyantly-gay porn flick producer named Mendez (Luis Guzman, BOOGIE NIGHTS, TRAFFIC), who owes Lucky a favor, to switch cars, which gives Van Peebles another chance to inject some "wacky" into the movie as Guzman practically flies through the scene in a hair net and open-too-far bathrobe and the gay-o-meter turned up to "eleven." 

With this hilarity out of the way, Lucky and Angela head out again in their new car and promptly break down in the middle of nowhere.  They find an empty cabin to hole up in, where there's a mildly exciting shoot-out when some of the bad guys catch up to them, and Lucky must find a working phone because Angela has been shot.  But the only other house in the vicinity belongs to--you guessed it--Cass and Chang, who are even now gaily doing dreadful things to their latest torture victims.  I'll let you guess what happens next, and you'll probably be right.

My main reaction when HARD LUCK's closing credits finally scooted onto the screen was a muffled "what the f***?"  A lot happens in this movie, and some of it is entertaining, but the way it tries to assimilate all the different story and stylistic elements into a unified whole is like grabbing pieces from different jigsaw puzzles and jamming them together.  Mario Van Peebles has done much better stuff than this (POSSE, NEW JACK CITY), and Wesley Snipes probably spent the whole movie wishing he were back in BLADE II, or even DEMOLITION MAN--I know I did. 

And perhaps the worst thing about it is that, taken by itself instead of awkwardly stuck into another  storyline with a totally conflicting mood, the whole business with Cass and Chang probably could've made a really good twisted horror comedy all on its own.  It's not every day you see a perky, yet gleefully sadistic Cybill Shepherd in a Halloween mask and frilly apron, shoving a funnel down her bound victim's throat and dangling a live rat over it, or performing dental surgery on same with pliers and other tools.  If Mario Van Peebles had taken this plotline and run with it, he might've come up with a cult classic.

Buy it at Amazon.com

HARD LUCK -- movie review by porfle

"Ambushed" -- Anchor Bay Reunites "Expendables"' Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture, Plus Vinnie Jones with Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack and DVD Out Nov. 12

WHEN YOU’RE A DIRTY COP IN THE BIG CITY, IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE YOU’RE...AMBUSHED

REUNITING EXPENDABLES I AND II CO-STARS DOLPH LUNDGREN AND RANDY COUTURE, PLUS VINNIE JONES!

Get the Jump On Blu-ray™/DVD Combo Pack and DVD November 12!

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – On November 12, Anchor Bay Films will release Ambushed:  a hard-hitting thriller about the law’s battle to keep order, bringing back together hard-hitting Expendables I and II ex-pats Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture, with Vinnie Jones (Snatch, X-Men: The Last Stand, Swordfish) completing a holy trinity of action and thrills!  Directed by Giorgio Serafini, written by Agustin, and from the producers of Maximum Conviction, Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden and The Devil’s in the Details, Ambushed packs a punch full of fists and thrills, and will be available for an SRP of $29.99 for the Blu-ray™/DVD Combo Pack and $24.98 for the DVD.  Pre-book is October 16.

Ambushed charts the dark, seductive underbelly of Los Angeles, told from the point of view of two of its seedier denizens, mid-level drug pushers Eddie (Gianni Capaldi) and Frank (Daniel Bonjour). They want a chance to hit the big time. Unfortunately, they decide to achieve their goal by ripping off their middleman in a murderous bid for greatness, setting off a dangerous chain of events involving a ruthless crime boss, a dirty cop and the Federal agent chasing them all.

Agent Maxwell (Dolph Lundgren, One in the Chamber, The Package) is about to close in on an international cocaine smuggling operation run by criminal mastermind Vincent Camastra (Jones). When Agent Beverly Royce (Carly Pope, “24,” “Californication,” Concrete Blondes) goes undercover with the drug dealers, she finds herself in deeper than she can handle. Up against ruthless killers as well as dirty cop Jack Reiley (Randy Couture, UFC Hall of Fame, Hijacked, “The Unit”), Frank and Eddie will soon find that dreams built on corruption sometimes exact a heavy toll...

About Anchor Bay Films
Anchor Bay Films is a division of Anchor Bay Entertainment and provides quality distribution with operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and offers distribution capabilities in other key territories.  Anchor Bay Films uniquely offers the creative community a fully integrated distribution capability on all platforms and an international solution extending beyond the United States.  The company focuses on a platform release strategy for its films with an eye toward maximizing their potential across all ancillary distribution platforms.  Upcoming theatrical releases include Billy Bob Thornton’s Jayne Mansfield’s Car starring Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon and Ray Stevenson and No One Lives with Luke Evans.  Films in its library include the recent theatrical release of Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem starring Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison and genre favorite Ken Foree, 10 Years starring Channing Tatum and Rosario Dawson, the critically-acclaimed comedy City Island starring Andy Garcia and Solitary Man starring Michael Douglas as well as Kill the Irishman starring Ray Stevenson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken, Toronto Film Festival award-winner Beautiful Boy with Maria Bello and Michael Sheen and Cannes 2011 premiere Corman’s World.  Anchor Bay Entertainment (www.anchorbayentertainment.com) is a Starz (NASDAQ: STRZA, STRZB) business, www.starz.com.

AMBUSHED Blu-ray™/DVD Combo Pack 
Street date:                              November 12, 2013
Pre-book:                                 October 16, 2013
Catalog #:                                BD60834
UPC:                                       013132608341
Format:                                    Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35)
Audio:                                     Blu-ray™: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 / DVD: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:                                 English SDH, Spanish
Run time:                                97 Minutes
Rating:                                    R
SRP:                                        $29.99

AMBUSHED DVD
Street date:                              November 12, 2013
Pre-book:                                 October 16, 2013
Catalog #:                                AF60833
UPC:                                        013132608334
Format:                                    Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35)
Audio:                                     Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:                                 English SDH, Spanish
Run time:                                 97 Minutes
Rating:                                     R
SRP:                                        $24.98

Buy it at Amazon.com
DVD
Blu-Ray/DVD Combo

"Ambushed" -- Anchor Bay Reunites "Expendables"' Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture, Plus Vinnie Jones with Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack and DVD Out Nov. 12

LEONARD MALTIN'S 2014 MOVIE GUIDE -- book review by porfle

If you're like me, an integral part of your home movie-viewing experience has always been the latest paperback edition of Leonard Maltin's nutshell movie review books formerly entitled "TV Movies."  These days, of course, there are more movies than ever,  so Maltin's books have evolved into really hefty softbound doorstops--the latest of which, LEONARD MALTIN'S 2014 MOVIE GUIDE (subtitled "The Modern Era" as many older titles are now covered in a separate "classic movie" guide), is jam-packed with more movie summaries (over 16,000), cast lists,  running times, and other info than ever before.

Maltin, a respected movie critic and author of some great film reference books such as "Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals" and "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons",  admits that his inspiration was the original movie guide by Steven H. Scheuer, "Movies on TV" (1953-1993).  Scheuer's books contained capsule reviews and ratings of thousands of titles for those of us who craved info on all the films listed in the weekly TV schedules back before home video enabled us to choose what to show and when, and before infomercials drove the endless selection of afternoon and all-night movies off the air. 

I often disagreed with Scheuer,  who once referred to BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN as "trash" and dismissed A CHRISTMAS STORY as "Cute!  Cute!  Cute!", while regarding Maltin as more genre-friendly and sympathetic to my own tastes.  For example, Maltin rates the much-maligned THE DARK KNIGHT RISES three stars out of four ("...roundly entertaining,  with a highly-satisfying finale") and awards the "energetic, inventive" J.J. Abrams STAR TREK three-and-a-half.   The latest James Bond adventure,  SKYFALL,  scores a full four stars.

Occasionally ratings are revised--ALIEN now enjoys three-and-a-half-star classic status ("colorful, exceptional"), up from its previous two-and-a-half ("stomach-churning violence, slime, and shocks").  Nonetheless, there are times when I couldn't disagree with Maltin more.  Previous editions have contained confoundingly low (to me, anyway) assessments of such favorites as Tim Burton's BATMAN (2-and-a-half stars) and, worse, a low one-and-a-half stars to the delightful BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA.  This latest incarnation of Maltin's movie guide also dismisses my beloved MEMENTO as "pretentious pap" with, again, a withering one-and-a-half stars.

Still, no two people can agree on everything--indeed, the disagreements are as interesting to read as the instances in which our opinions are gratifyingly in synch.  In either case, it's always clear that Leonard Maltin knows a whole bunch about movies and has an unflagging enthusiasm for them.  Which makes LEONARD MALTIN'S 2014 MOVIE GUIDE just as irresistibly fun to delve into as it has always been. 

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LEONARD MALTIN'S 2014 MOVIE GUIDE -- book review by porfle

TWO TICKETS TO PARADISE -- movie review by porfle

(NOTE: This review originally appeared  online in 2006 at Bumscorner.com.)


Three past-their-prime blue collar shlubs on a roadtrip from Pittsburgh to Florida "find themselves" and discover what's really important in their lives in the comedy-drama TWO TICKETS TO PARADISE (2006), which was originally titled "Dirt Nap."  Their experiences during this life-changing journey are sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and sometimes bland and pointless.  This adds up to an affable guy movie that I neither loved nor hated, but kind of liked enough to not rip it out of my DVD player and shove it into the garbage disposal.

The cast is likable enough.  D.B. Sweeney, who played "Dish" Boggett in LONESOME DOVE and Travis Walton in FIRE IN THE SKY, is a washed-up former musician named Billy who drives a beer truck and is happy enough with his current circumstances until he walks in on his wife getting boffed by another guy.  His friend Mark has a wife, a kid, and a really bad gambling addiction that causes big, mean guys to threaten him with bodily harm.  He's played by one of my favorite actors, John C. McGinley, who was the "SWAT before dicks" guy in SE7EN and the weaselly sergeant who was always sucking up to Tom Berenger's character in PLATOON.  Billy's other friend, Jason (Paul Hipp), is a nerdy, happily single computer store salesman who just won two tickets to a big championship football game in Florida, which, incidentally, Mark has a bundle of money riding on. 

Since Billy is quits with his wife, Mark is being hunted by big, mean guys, and Jason doesn't have anything better to do, they all pile into Mark's car and head for Florida.  Much of the movie consists of their mildly entertaining adventures during the trip, such as accidentally burning down Vanna White's birthplace, tripping out on magic mushrooms, stopping to take a whiz in the dark of night and finding themselves surrounded by alligators, and unsuccessfully faking their own deaths. 

Their numerous philosophical and pop culture discussions consist of the kind of blather Quentin Tarantino might write if he had a spear sticking through his head.  Of course, we get the usual road-trip cliches like who gets to ride shotgun or pick the radio station.  But the closer they get to Florida, the less important the big game becomes as their interpersonal relationships implode and they begin to regard themselves as losers who have utterly failed to live up to their potential in life.

Thank goodness the more serious stuff is handled by such good actors and is fairly well-written.  McGinley and Sweeney in particular are very adept at this sort of thing and manage to give some depth to their characters, while Paul Hipp balances it all out as the less screwed-up character who has to endure their agonized dramatics. Thankfully, the scenes we're supposed to think are funny actually do prove amusing at times without descending into raucous slapstick, although little of it is memorably laugh-provoking or particularly imaginative.
 
Everything comes to a head when they finally get to Florida--one of them stumbles into an unexpected romance, another finally wakes up and gets his priorities straight, and the third ends up in the hospital with a cracked skull.  First-time director and co-writer Sweeney manages to get all of this on film pretty efficiently, with a good supporting cast including Pat Hingle, AMERICAN ANTHEM's Janet Jones, Moira Kelly, Rex Linn, Mark Moses, M.C. Gainey, and, in a brief cameo, Ed Harris as a one-armed carnival worker who teaches the guys a valuable lesson about lions and tigers. 

With this competent directing debut under his belt, D.B. Sweeney can hopefully move on to better things.  Meanwhile, TWO TICKETS TO PARADISE isn't likely to make a huge impression on anyone besides the usual hyper-excitable film festival attendees, but at least it's worth watching if you keep your expectations reasonably low.  And it might also help if you take a cue from our heroes and stock up on plenty of beer for the trip.


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TWO TICKETS TO PARADISE -- movie review by porfle

REDACTED -- movie review by porfle

(NOTE: This review first appeared online in 2007 at Bumscorner.com.)


"It's a pretty juicy story though, isn't it?  A band of brothers...losing their moral compass and trying to wreak vengeance on a 15-year-old girl."

This is how McCoy (Rob Devaney) describes the events he witnessed the previous night when two of his fellow squad members go on a rape and murder spree in Brian DePalma's REDACTED (2007), one of the most unrewarding and depressing viewing experiences imaginable.  And despite his loftily-stated goal of bringing attention to the war in Iraq, I couldn't help but imagine DePalma the sensationalistic filmmaker getting a charge out of being able to sink his cinematic teeth into such a "juicy" story himself while basking in both the critical plaudits and heated controversy it was sure to evoke.

The film is a mockumentary mash-up of various styles of footage from different sources--a somber French documentary about American soldiers guarding a checkpoint in Samarra (these scenes were directed by second unit director Eric Schwab), simulated Iraqi newscasts, security cameras, various streaming video of soldiers' wives, war protesters, and terrorists venting their feelings online, and home video shot by a gregarious young soldier named Salazar (Izzy Diaz), who hopes to break into filmmaking after he returns to the States.  His squad includes nice guy McCoy, a big, dumb redneck named B.B. Rush (Daniel Stewart Sherman), and a lanky psychotic redneck with the non-too-subtle name of Reno Flake (Patrick Carroll). 

Long periods of crushing boredom punctuated by moments of frantic terror, during which the soldiers manage to machine-gun several innocent civilians who misinterpret their orders to stop at the checkpoint, lead the less balanced squadmembers--the two South'ren boys, of course--to contemplate the dastardly act around which the movie revolves.  Inevitably, Rush and Flake end up entering the house of an Iraqi family and raping the 15-year-old daughter before killing them all, while Salazar records it all for posterity on a hidden helmet-cam and McCoy agonizes over his inability to stop it.  Later, while the military investigates the crime, some outraged terrorists kidnap one of the soldiers and mete out bloody justice of their own.

Lacking any cinematic stylings or engaging dialogue--this may as well have been shot by your dad instead of the man who directed CARRIE and SCARFACE--we're simply presented with a BLAIR WITCH-style home video of evil, sadistic American soldiers brutally raping an Iraqi girl and murdering her family like dogs, then terrorizing their weaker companions into silence.  Technically, it doesn't even succeed on a BLAIR WITCH level, because that sort of thing demands ultra-naturalistic acting and dialogue that look and sound completely unaffected.  Here, we're never convinced that these guys are anything but actors reciting lines by a filmmaker dramatizing his own agenda.  It doesn't help that, for legal reasons, the cast was forced to stick to a carefully-worded script that left little or no room for improvisation.

Daniel Stewart Sherman as the much too conveniently-named "Rush" comes off like a deranged Chris Farley character, while Patrick Carroll's Flake could've stepped right out of a Roger Corman flick.  Rob Devaney tries his best as McCoy, but just can't make his unwieldy dialogue sound natural.  Only Izzy Diaz as Salazar and Ty Jones as the ill-fated Master Sergeant Sweet come close to intermittently giving the impression of real people.  As for the actors who appear in the brief online segments, most resemble either overzealous performance artists or melodramatic TV characters.

REDACTED begins with a title that reads "This film is entirely fiction, inspired by an incident widely reported to have occurred in Iraq.  While some of the events depicted here may resemble those of the reported incident, the characters are entirely fictional, and their words and actions should not be confused with those of real persons." Then, little animated scratch-out lines slowly obscure the words, implying that the matter has been hushed up and swept under the rug, or "redacted."  Yet the original event that this fictional account was "inspired" by was well-documented and widely-reported, and the criminal soldiers have already been tried and convicted (one faces the death penalty). 

With no actual entertainment value to speak of, we know that we're in for nothing more than a slow descent into unrelieved unpleasantness.  The cartoonishly bad soldiers start out bad and steadily get as much badder as the script can contrive for them to get until the inevitable rape and murder sequence, which is, of course, bad.  But with the focus being on an isolated outrage committed by a mutant microcosm of the American military, and considering that DePalma's 1989 Viet Nam film CASUALTIES OF WAR covered the same territory in the same way, you have to wonder exactly what all-encompassing statement he's trying to make.

I'm pretty sure it isn't "Support the Troops."  While most anti-war films target governments and politicians who use soldiers as pawns, REDACTED takes aim at the soldiers themselves.  Put Johnny in a uniform and turn him loose in a foreign country, and he's just a hair's breadth away from devolving into a slavering, kill-crazy rapist.  Needless to say, if you have family members serving in the military overseas, you might want to skip this film during your next trip to Blockbuster.

Besides the soldiers-on-a-rampage sequence, the most disturbing part of the movie for me is the terrorist video that features the close-up beheading of a kidnapped soldier.  This is the old straight-razor-in-the-elevator, chainsaw-in-the-shower DePalma at work, using bloody horror to punch his audience in the gut.  While he gets to do it here in the guise of a political statement, it's hard not to imagine the old shockmeister getting off on the chance to film disgustingly lurid scenes like this.

Finally, DePalma depends on a gruesome photo montage of actual civilian war casualties, which are of course shocking and tragic, to give his film a powerful ending that the narrative itself fails to achieve.  Yet even here, at least two of the images are fake--one recognizable as a still from an earlier mock-u-doc segment of the film, the other being the admittedly heartrending final shot.  At any rate, it's unclear whether or not the last moments of REDACTED are simply a calculated effort to easily manipulate viewers' emotions and to evoke standing ovations at film festivals.


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REDACTED -- movie review by porfle

THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND -- DVD review by porfle

The sub-sub-sub-genre of a group of teens trapped on an island while getting gorily murdered one by one is given yet another recycling in the dumb but lively THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND (2009). 

A colorful but rather unnecessary prologue that seems to have sucked up more than its share of the budget tells of a 1927 archeological group in Turkey discovering the underground tomb of Pan, and with it instructions for assembling a strange board game whose players, we'll find, become possessed by evil spirits and made to believe that their worst suspicions about each other are true.  Which, as you might guess, leads to bloody warfare within whatever group happens to be playing the game. 

Right on cue, we meet a gaggle of generic modern-day teens arriving at an island in New England and staying in a house that just happens to be the current hiding place of The Game.  In a scene right out of THE EVIL DEAD, one of this new crop of doofuses ends up in the basement,  finds the item in question, and urges everyone to participate.  (This elaborate prop, by the way, is a pretty impressive-looking creation.)  The "truth or dare" nature of the game starts out as fun but quickly turns sour as the questions get more probing and personal. 

While these characters are the usual insufferable stereotypes spouting mindless "party hearty" dialogue that should actually embarrass the screenwriters, they do get a bit deeper and more three-dimensional (but not much) as the game eventually causes all their simmering jealousies and resentments--not to mention good old naked lust--to be stoked by the fires of Hell into violent action.  Thus, the lightweight sexual titillation and goofy teasing of the film's first half turn deadly with everyone running around taking turns trying to kill each other as Harry Manfredini of  "Friday the 13th" fame cranks up the scary music. 

At this point, what has been a rather bland affair suddenly takes a jarring turn into some wicked violence and makeup effects that are unexpectely gruesome.  The gore is all refreshingly non-CGI (digital effects are reserved for facial transformations, with the possessed teens sporting black, bleeding eyes) although the most extreme stuff is shown after-the-fact rather than during.  Still, there's a chainsaw bisection, plenty of knife and meat cleaver action, a shotgun to the head, and a few things I'll decline to mention lest I spoil what fun there is to be gleaned from this otherwise unremarkable slasher flick.

While a bit shoddy-looking in spots, the film mostly maintains a technical level equal to that of a high-end TV series episode.  (Night exteriors are particularly well-done.)  James Duval (Randy Quaid's older stepson in INDEPENDENCE DAY), T-2's Robert Patrick,  and the ever-popular Danielle Harris (CYRUS, THE VICTIM,  CHROMESKULL: LAID TO REST 2) lead a cast that is in no danger of sweeping the Oscars any time soon, although their acting seems to improve once the screaming starts.   Of particular interest to fans of Robert Rodriguez' PLANET TERROR are the irrepressible Crazy Babysitter Twins (Electra and Elise Avellan) as good-girl/ bad-girl sisters who both end up as very bad girls. 

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 anamorphic  widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  The sole extra is an alternate opening that actually beats the one used in the movie by a long shot. 

I can't recommend THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND with unrestrained enthusiasm,  although once the killfest finally got under way I did derive a certain amount of enjoyment from it.   It's an extremely dumb, predictable, and by-the-numbers flick, to be sure, but let's face it--you sit back to watch something like this, you pretty much know what you're in for.


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THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND -- DVD review by porfle

SILENT BUT DEADLY -- DVD review by porfle

These days when filmmakers want to set a story in Louisiana,  they go to Louisiana to film it.  Or, they do what director Stephen Scott did--film it in Ontario, Canada and call it Louisiana.  Not that it makes much difference, since most people who make it through the made-for-Canadian-TV horror comedy SILENT BUT DEADLY (2011) probably won't even remember where they are when it's over. 

The lame joke of the title sets the tone for the rest of the story that begins when mentally-challenged farmboy Thomas Capper (the ubiquitous Jason Mewes) slaughters his abusive dad (William Sadler,  DIE HARD 2) for killing his baby goat with a shotgun in retaliation for Thomas peeping in on his lesbian stepmothers, Anya and Titianna, who are Russian mail-order brides. 

While it's hard to fault any film that begins with naked Russian lesbians having sex and lines like "What is it now, you Soviet sluts?", we soon get the idea that this modest production isn't going to be very effective as a comedy or a gore film.  For one thing, all the blood 'n' guts action is done with bad CGI,  which is about as much fun as eating a fast-food taco with the wrapper still on it.  The comedy, on the other hand, is often of the kind in which whoever screams his or her lines the loudest is deemed the funniest. 

At any rate, Thomas leaves the farm with his true love, Lisa the goat, in tow, and ends up working on a film crew that's shooting on location in rural (wink, wink) Louisiana.  He gets the job by making the perfect goat-milk latte for crabby, egotistical director Victor, played by former "The Red Green Show" co-star Patrick McKenna.  But when the craft services cook kills Thomas' beloved goat for lunch,  the heartbroken farmboy goes on a murder spree in which every impliment of death within reach is employed for slicing 'n' dicing.

Along the way there's some mildly amusing confusion regarding the nationalities of various crewmembers, not to mention some very  pleasing nudity by flakey actress Jackie (Nicole Arbour) and cutie-pie Sandra (Kim Poirier, DAWN OF THE DEAD remake), a documentary filmmaker doing a story on the local cops as they investigate Thomas' initial goat-revenge murders. 

"Little person" Jordan Prentice (HOWARD THE DUCK,  WEIRDSVILLE) and Benz Antoine (DEATH RACE) are sporadically amusing as redneck sheriff  Shelby and his unflappable black deputy Jimbo, who, along with the likable Sandra, are the main reasons why SILENT BUT DEADLY  is as endurable as it is.   In fact, the film actually manages to generate a few fleeting sparks of funny once this odd law-enforcement team goes after the mad killer who's leaving a trail of bloody bodies strewn around the movie location.  Which is a good thing since star Jason Mewes is about as exciting a screen presence as that goat-milk latte he whips up.  

The film plods along trying to evoke a quirky, lighthearted, mildly irreverent sort of atmosphere and not succeeding very often, until it finally jerks to an abrupt end.  Nice cinematography and capable directing help make it as watchable as it is,  but  a bland script, fakey CGI gore effects, and uninteresting lead performance work against it.

The DVD from Inception Media Group is 16x9 widescreen with 5.1 digital surround sound.  Closed-captioning but no subtitles.  The sole extra is a trailer. 

SILENT BUT DEADLY is the kind of low-budget comedy made by people who obviously have plenty of comic sensibilities but can't quite turn them into a funny movie.  I can imagine sitting through it if it happened to pop onto my TV screen one day and I didn't have the energy to find something else to watch.  But as far as actually going out of my way to see it--naaaaaaah.


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SILENT BUT DEADLY -- DVD review by porfle

GHETTO DAWG 2: OUT OF THE PITS -- movie review by porfle

(NOTE: This was one of my first reviews, written in 2005 for Bumscorner.com.)


With a name like this, it has to be a piece of junk, right?  That's just what I expected when I sat down to watch this movie -- either a hip-hop update of those blaxploitation flicks from the 70s, a cheap NEW JACK CITY rip-off, or a feature-length rap video.  The last thing I expected was one of the best movies I've seen this year, which is why GHETTO DAWG 2:OUT OF THE PITS was such a genuine surprise.

Daniel Outlaw plays Donte, an aimless teenager who lives in a cramped apartment with his mother and sister.  We first see him as he sits on the bed watching his older brother Tyrone load his gun as he prepares to join three other soldiers who work for a corpulent Latino crime boss named Big Daddy (Lou Torres).  They're about to pay a visit to Angel (Wilfredo Sierra), the hood who runs Big Daddy's bloody dog-fighting competitions.  The leader of the group, Jojo (Paris Campbell), a cold-blooded hitman with a deceptively easy-going demeanor, has a bone to pick with Angel for fighting dogs in his neighborhood, and the meeting explodes into gunfire.  "If I don't come back, take care of my dog, man," Tyrone tells Donte before leaving.  He doesn't come back.

Donte is haunted by his brother's death and thinks only of revenge.  He brandishes a gun in front of the bathroom mirror in a scene reminiscent of the mirror scene from TAXI DRIVER, but instead of merely saying things like "You talkin' to me?", he spews angry rap lyrics directed at Angel.  When he finally gets a chance to carry out the hit, however, he is unable to pull the trigger.  Angel taunts and humiliates him at gunpoint for his lack of cojones, but his life is spared when Angel's girlfriend, Brynn (Janisha Faith), urges him to let Donte go.

Donte's grief-stricken mother sinks ever lower into drug addiction, constantly blaming him for Tyrone's death when she isn't lying around the apartment senseless.  Donte moves in with Jojo and begins to accompany him on his rounds as he goes about his job, which consists mainly of killing people for Big Daddy.  He's very good at this -- cold, calculated, and unfeeling -- a talent Donte feels he must learn in order to make himself capable of finally facing Angel once again and killing him.  But witnessing the results of bullets being fired into people at close range, some of them whom he has known since childhood, has the opposite effect on him.  He tells Jojo he can't do it, that he'll never be a killer like him. 

Meanwhile, Brynn has left Angel and gone to work turning tricks for Big Daddy.  While getting to know the likable young Donte, she begins to feel herself being drawn closer to him.  They form a relationship, and before long Brynn devises a scheme in which she and Donte can leave the city together with a large sum of money.  Big Daddy's money, to be exact -- while working for him, she has managed to learn the combination to his safe.  Pretending to come crawling back to Angel, she endures a night of humiliation at his hands (while wearing a dog collar and leash) simply to make off with his trademark hat while he sleeps.  The next day Donte enters Big Daddy's bar wearing the hat pulled down over his face and robs the safe.  As planned, Angel gets the blame.

Donte tells Jojo he's moving out and leaving the city with his girl.  But Jojo has one last job he wants Donte to help him with, one that should interest him -- Big Daddy has ordered him to kill Angel.  Donte resists but is talked into it.  He will enter Tyrone's dog in the fights, thus gaining access to Angel's stronghold, and while inside he will let Jojo in through the backdoor.  As Brynn sits impatiently at a nearby bus stop with the money, wondering why Donte hasn't shown up at the appointed time, Donte carries out his part of the plan and awaits the outcome.  But, as so often happens in movies where people wager their futures on carefully thought-out plans, things don't go as they're supposed to.

GHETTO DAWG 2:OUT OF THE PITS is a finely-crafted movie that benefits from excellent performances at every level, a great script by Christine Conradt, beautiful cinematography, and confident direction by Joshua and Jeffrey Crook that is very stylish without drawing attention to itself.  All of these elements come together so perfectly that the movie runs like a well-oiled machine, sustaining interest and suspense from beginning to end.  There are moments of shocking violence but they aren't enhanced by slow-motion or fancy editing -- they just happen, the way such things do in real life.

 I only found one scene that I thought really didn't work, in which Big Daddy and Jojo enact a variation on the "You think I'm funny?  Funny how?" scene from GOODFELLAS.  Other than that, though, this is a movie that everyone involved in obviously really cared about, and it shows.  I have a feeling it may eventually become a cult film.

As for the ending -- I'll simply say that it's somewhat downbeat.  And yet, it's so right.  The "dawgs" have been thrown into the pit, fought for their lives, and emerged either unscathed, bloody and wounded, or dead.  And when the credits came on after the fade-out, I just sat back for a minute or two and thought, "Wow..."

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GHETTO DAWG 2: OUT OF THE PITS -- movie review by porfle