RWBY: VOLUME 4 -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/5/17

 

If you're a RWBY fan, then you're already stoked for the next installment in the series as presented in this Blu-ray/DVD combo from Rooster Teeth and Cinedigm.  If not, then RWBY: VOLUME 4 (2017) should be a good introduction to those four color-coordinated heroines Ruby Rose (red), Weiss Schnee (white), Blake Belladonna (black), and Ruby's sister Yang Xiao Long (yellow).

Long story short: after a catastrophic war that almost destroyed everything, the world of Remnant has been divided into four kingdoms dedicated to maintaining peaceful relations.  Also drawing them together is a common enemy, the Grimms, a never-ending army of terrifying supernatural beasts that constantly attack both urban centers and outlying villages, drawn by negative emotions such as fear, panic, and hatred. 

The main line of defense consists of hunters and huntresses, those born with various super-powers who train from a young age at special academies until ready to take on the Grimms.  This is where we first met Team RWBY shortly before their academy was attacked and virtually destroyed by a combination of Grimms and a group of terrorists known as White Fang, made up of human-animal hybrids called Faunus under the command of a secret cabal of sinister villains.

 

Volume 4 opens after the previous season's terrific climactic battle has left all four kingdoms in chaos and the RWBY team scattered.  Weiss has returned to her palatial home where her stepfather runs the family "Dust" business in decidedly shady fashion and all is definitely not well.  Blake has also returned to her parents estate on the Faunus continent accompanied by Sun, a boisterous young fellow with an eye for her.  Ruby's sister Yang is still recovering from the loss of both her right arm in the battle and her self-confidence and resolve, which the girls' father is doing his best to restore. 

The main thrust of the season's story, however, is the cross-country trek of Ruby and her friends Jaune, Ren, and Nora (formerly of team JNPR until the tragic death of the valiant huntress Pyrrha) to reach the kingdom of Mistral.  It's one of those grand, heroic journeys filled with much self-discovery and character revelations, not to mention intense life-or-death battles with some of the largest, fiercest, and most horrific Grimms that we've seen thus far. 

The route takes them through the vast wilderness between populated areas and also through various secluded villages, some of which need their help vanquishing particularly hostile Grimms, and others which have already been utterly destroyed by either Grimms or marauding bandits.  One smoking ruin prompts Ren to recall his history as a boy whose parents were killed before his eyes by a bloodthirsty beast, and how he assumed responsibility for another lost soul, the destitute orphan Nora.

 

 

While Yang struggles to regain her confidence and learn how to use her new robotic arm, Blake and Sun's ocean cruise to the Faunus continent is both incredibly scenic--the show is pictorially intoxicating as usual--but highlighted by a spectacular battle with a flying sea dragon.  Once they've reached their destination, the drama continues with Blake's parents clashing with the socially-awkward Sun as well as two highly-suspicious emissaries from the White Fang group.

As usual, we're left with a cliffhanger ending to keep us on edge until the next season begins, with Ruby's team reaching Mistral but discovering that much is not as they expected.  Meanwhile, the main villains of the saga, led by mysterious white goddess Salem and her evil underlings (including last season's traitorous huntress Cinder) keep a low profile and bide their time for a later, more catastrophic strike, with only the near-invincible madman Tyrian directly engaging our heroes in fierce battle during their journey.

Through it all, RWBY VOL. 4 carries on this sharply-written series' tradition of scintillating dialogue and character interactions that make the less action-packed segments just as riveting as the frentic battles--which, as usual, are both lightning-paced and imaginatively staged, striking just the right balance between humor (especially with the girlishly excitable Nora) and dead seriousness, as when a key member of Ruby's group is critically injured.

Visually, the series is a feast of colorful CGI settings and pleasingly executed motion-capture figures that move well and are exquisitely designed. While I still prefer cel animation in my cartoons, I gladly make an exception when a three-dimensional CGI simulation of old-school anime such as this is rendered to such lavish and eye-pleasing effect. Voice performances and music are outstanding as well.

The "It's Also a Gun" Special Edition Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack contains both a Blu-ray disc and a DVD, along with a collectible Crescent Rose lenticular card featuring Ruby's distinctive scythe-shaped weapon ("It's also a gun").  Also available in Blu-ray/DVD and DVD editions.  Total story running time: 190 minutes.  Widescreen with English Dolby 5.1.  English captions are available.

Bonus featurettes include: "World of Remnant: Kingdoms", "World of Remnant: The Great War", "World of Remnant: Schnee Dust Company", "World of Remnant: Faunus", "World of Remnant: Between Kingdoms", "Behind the Scenes: A Grimm Introduction", and "Behind the Scenes: RWBY 4 Production Diary", plus audio commentaries. 

With RWBY: VOL. 4, this series remains one of my favorite and most eagerly-anticipated of any genre adventures being created today.  While not quite as action-intensive as the previous season, this one more than compensates with a richness of story and character that lends even greater impact to the slam-bang battle sequences.


Buy it from Rooster Teeth

Read our original coverage

Street date: June 6, 2017

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RWBY: VOLUME 4 -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

RWBY: BEACON, VOLUMES 1-3 (STEELBOOK) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/2/16

 

The creative team at Rooster Teeth and Cinedigm (the creators of RED VS. BLUE) have really outdone themselves with the stunningly beautiful and exciting American anime epic RWBY: BEACON, VOLUMES 1-3, the first major story arc in the ongoing series.  In fact, watching it may have gotten me so spoiled that from now on, few other examples of this k‌ind of animated adventure will live up to its level of wonderfulness. 

If that sounds like an exaggeration, it's because I tend to do that when I'm having a fantastic time.  I reviewed the third volume of this saga on its own earlier this year (which you can read HERE), and even without the first two as backstory it wasn't long before I was caught up in the sweeping tale of a futuristic world called "Remnant" (whose now-peaceful countries are the remains of a cataclysmic world war) in which super-powered teens train at academies to become huntsmen and huntresses who protect the world from evil.

This evil consists mainly of roving packs of huge, vicious animal-monsters known as Grimms.  However, human and semi-human villains plot against the forces of good as well, some of them even posing as students and infiltrating Beacon academy where our favorite superheroes-in-training strive to take their places as guardians of the world.

The main team of wannabe huntresses is known as RWBY (pronounced "ruby") whose color-coded members consist of the childlike, excitable Ruby Rose (red), ice-queen heiress Weiss Schnee (white), mysterious, moody Blake Belladonna (black), and Ruby's outgoing older sister Yang Xiao Long (yellow). Like everyone else at Beacon, each has her own individual super-power and preferred weaponry.  

At first they seem to be the usual girly-girls we find in such series as "K-On"--they're funny and sometimes a little ditzy in addition to being great athletes and warriors, and not above the occasional bout of slapstick comedy--but as the events of the story progress they and their classmates reveal many levels to their characters as the various interpersonal conflicts become progressively deep and emotionally resonant, and often carry over onto the field of battle. 

The sharply-written script is filled with snappy, natural-sounding dialogue that avoids being dumb or stilted. What's more, the large cast is loaded with appealing characters (the voice acting is superb), each of whom is fascinating in his or her own way.

Since this is a story about teens discovering themselves and each other, even the "cooler" and more seemingly invincible students get to reveal their sensitive, vulnerable sides as well as a few insecurities that are helped along by the understanding and empathy of their peers. 

Naturally, all of this teamwork, friendship, and acceptance contributes to a general feelgood ambience that's just pure fun.  There's even an impromptu group dance during the charming ballroom dance sequence that rivals the one in DEAD KIDS for pure uninhibited joy.

In sharp contrast, it's the somber, fiercely dramatic and often action-packed scenes where RWBY really goes into overdrive.  Consistently dazzling displays of imaginative fight choreography, brilliant direction, an excellent musical score, and eye-pleasing design shatter monotony and keep each new battle as fresh, thrilling, and unpredictable as the last.  The gorgeous candy-coated visuals have the look of vibrant cel art that's been brought to life with finely-rendered computer animation and motion-capture. 

Battle sequences come at the viewer at a breakneck pace that's edited rapid-fire but still easy to follow.  The battle between the young heroes and two terrible Grimms--a giant vulture and a monster scorpion--within the ruins of an ancient temple during a training mission is one of the most breathtaking and spectacular displays of animation of ANY kind that I've ever seen. 

Yang's deflating remark at the end ("Well...that was a thing") is just the sort of dead-on attitude of serious fun that permeates this entire collection.   One incredible action sequence follows another, including a furious competition between the different training academies which then becomes a spectacular and sustained battle royale when the villains, led by ultra-bad-girl Cinder and juvenile-delinquent-deluxe Torchwick, launch their final attack on Beacon. 

For me, a giddy feeling of "this is gonna be good!" preceeds each fight, which never disappoints. It's the kind of all-out wonderful genre goodness that makes me glad I became a nerd in the first place.  If I were still a smoker I'd have had to light up when it was over.

As I said in my review of volume three: "I don't often see a story escalate from colorful action-filled fun to catastrophic disaster epic the way RWBY: VOLUME 3 effortlessly does...this is great anime entertainment that left me wanting more."

The 3-disc Blu-ray set from Rooster Teeth and Cinedigm is packaged in a cool limited-edition steelbook case with plastic slipcover.  Total feature running time is 7 hours and 19 minutes.  There are no subtitles for disc one, but discs two and three contain English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. Each disc is generously endowed with commentary tracks, informative behind-the-scenes featurettes, character profiles and other backstory info, trailers, and other goodies.

While some hardcore anime fans tend to be more blase' about it (according to various forum posts), this is some of the best anime I've ever seen.  Heck, it's one of the best things of ANY kind I've ever seen.  Watching it gives me the same feeling of exploring something new and amazing that I had the first time I ever saw AKIRA.  And while that may only be my immediate excitement over it talking, it sorta tells you just how exciting it is.  RWBY: BEACON, VOLUMES 1-3 is spectacular in a way that no other medium could express, and watching it is pure, exhilarating entertainment.

RWBY: BEACON, VOLUMES 1-3 (STEELBOOK) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

KILL ZONE -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 10/4/09

 

"God is fair--evil deeds must pay a price" is the tagline in the trailer for KILL ZONE, aka "SPL", aka "SAAT PO LONG/SHA PO LANG" (2005), which proves true for both the bad guys and the cops who cross the line trying to bring them down. Another theme of the film is father-son relationships--most of the action takes place on Father's Day, most of the characters are fathers or sons and the events we see in their lives are in many ways influenced by this, right up to the shattering conclusion.

Detective Chan (Simon Yam) runs a task force that is dedicated to taking down the fearsome Triad boss Wong Po (Sammo Hung) by any means possible. The fact that he's about to retire makes a quick resolution to the matter even more urgent, and the tough, rule-breaking cops under his command are equally anxious to see Wong Po behind bars or dead. But Chan is about to be replaced by Inspector Ma Kwan (Donnie Yen), whom the team fears will hamper their efforts with his more by-the-book attitude, although he once deliberately left a bad guy permanently brain-damaged with a single punch. And although Ma doesn't officially start his duties until midnight, he tags along and is shocked by the extent to which Chan's team will go in order to see their own brand of justice done.

When they receive a videotape showing Wong Po assisting in the assassination of an undercover cop, they doctor the tape to suggest that Wong Po did the actual killing. This backfires when the truth comes out and Wong Po is released, swearing that Chan and his men won't leave the station house alive. To make good on his threat, he calls in his chief assassin, a young, weasel-faced martial arts expert named Jack (Jacky Wu) who enjoys killing people in messy ways. Of course, Chan's men all end up leaving the station house for one reason or another, and each has an appointment with Jack that they'll wish they'd missed. With all of this, even Inspector Ma Kwan is finally pushed beyond the limits of the law and decides that Wong Po must be stopped no matter what it takes.

Although there's plenty of action in KILL ZONE, the human drama is essential and well-wrought by director Wilson Yip (THE WHITE DRAGON, JULIET IN LOVE), whose classical style is refreshingly free of the usual MTV-type overuse of shaky camerawork and rapid-fire editing, which he uses only sparingly to evoke disorientation or chaos, and his occasional use of crane shots adds an epic sweep to several scenes. There's no style-for-style's-sake here, and the use of cinematic language (split screens, slow motion, etc.) is only for advancing the plot and not just to show off.

We're given time to get to know and care about the characters: Detective Chan is shown caring for his adopted daughter, whose parents were killed on their way to testify against Wong Po, even though his days are numbered due to a brain tumor; Detective Kwok (Danny Summer) anxiously awaits a Father's Day reunion with his formerly estranged daughter; and Detective Lok (Kai Chi Liu) is seen tearfully attempting a doomed reconciliation with his dying father over the phone. Even the evil Wong Po has a beloved wife and infant daughter to whom he is deeply devoted, which humanizes his character beyond the standard stereotype and makes him all the more interesting. The fact that all of the performances in this movie are excellent doesn't hurt, either.

The first display of martial arts doesn't even take place until half an hour into the film, but there's no shortage of action. We get several demolition derby-style car crashes, an intense police raid on one of Wong Po's crews, and other assorted events that keep things humming along until finally the chop-socky kicks in with Wong Po's initial arrest in the lobby of the hospital where his wife just gave birth. With a large, stuffed Pink Panther under one arm, he proves quite difficult to apprehend, and we get our first incredible display of mixed martial arts fighting as he takes on Donnie Yen's Ma Kwan for the first time in the film.

The fight scenes blend seamlessly with the drama thanks to the cooperation of Wilson Yip and action director Donnie Yen, who knows just what he wants to see on the screen and how to shoot it. Yen's philosophy is that if the fight choreography is performed by experts who know what they're doing, there's no need for quick cuts and flashy, distracting camerawork, and wirework and CGI can be kept to a minimum. This results in several amazing sequences in which the combatants go at it in long, wide-angle takes, with a realism and intensity rarely seen in Hollywood action flicks. The alleyway battle between Ma Kwan and Jack the assassin, one wielding a police baton and the other a long knife, is surely one of the greatest hand-to-hand combat scenes ever filmed, with Donnie Yen and Jacky Wu engaging in one long series of perfectly-choreographed moves after another. It's a thrilling sequence.

But even this is outdone by the final confrontation between Ma Kwan and Wong Po in the bad guy's lair. Using a huge, insanely-ornate real-life nightclub as the backdrop, Donnie Yen has devised a breathtaking free-for-all that takes advantage of Sammo Hung's unique size and skill (it's cool to see such a big guy displaying such dexterity in contrast with Yen's own look and style), to give Hong Kong action fans the match-up they've been waiting for. Again, many of the moves are played out in long takes because these guys know what they're doing and don't require special camerawork or editing to help put it across. Yen has also incorporated mixed fighting styles here, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which is composed mainly of close-quarters grappling moves that add a lot of excitement and visual interest. Wirework is used sparingly and in imaginative ways, but without the unreal look it tends to have in most films. And, of course, lots of stuff gets smashed up in cool ways.

The 2-disc DVD from Dragon Dynasty is a lot of fun. Hong Kong Cinema expert Bey Logan contributes a commentary track that is very informative and enthusiastic, without a single dead spot. The alleyway and nightclub fights are thoroughly examined with commentary from both Logan and Donnie Yen. There's also a "making of" featurette and extensive interviews with Yen, Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, Jacky Wu, and Wilson Yip, plus trailers and TV spots. So even when the movie's over, there's a lot of cool stuff to explore.

I can't recommend this movie enough. It's an impressive, thrilling piece of action cinema that fires on all cylinders from start to finish. Both the action and dramatic elements are well-served throughout, and all of it is done with meticulous care and filmmaking skill. And the fact that the story is given such prominence instead of merely serving as a vehicle for the fight scenes results in an ending that should stay with you long after the fade-out.

KILL ZONE -- DVD Review by Porfle

BOY WONDER -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/2/11

What if Bruce Wayne was just a poor urban kid?  And instead of justice for his parents' killers, he was fueled by a burning lust for revenge? What if, instead of flinging Bat-a-rangs at the bad guys, he just friggin' shot them? 

I went into BOY WONDER (2010) thinking it was going to be a streetwise-teen superhero flick, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  It isn't even a "cheer the vigilante" story (think DEATH WISH) because, even though Sean Donovan (Caleb Steinmeyer) does put a satisfying hurt on some guys who richly deserve it, he's way too messed up himself for us to consider him a hero.  In fact, in the latter half of the film he starts to lose it much the same way Michael Landon's troubled teen did in I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (both characters shock their peers by going mental at a party).

After watching his mother (Tracy Middendorf) get murdered during a carjacking as a kid, Sean becomes obsessed with finding the killer.  An indulgent police captain (Chuck Cooper) who was there that night allows him to peruse the mug shot files daily, little suspecting that Sean is taking note of particularly offensive individuals and visiting them after hours.  His training in boxing and martial arts comes in handy against pimps, drug dealers, and other violent scum, as does his automatic pistol.



Pretty soon the trail of bodies attracts the attention of newly-promoted homicide detective Teresa Ames (the lovely Zulay Henao), who follows it straight to Sean.  Meanwhile, a scumbag crime figure named Childs (James Russo) whom she sacrificed two years of her life plus her marriage to put away is cutting a sweet deal with the D.A.  Though this weakens her own faith in the system, she still believes in "due process", a term Sean bitterly scoffs at.  As she gets closer to arresting him, he makes a discovery about his mother's death that will make him more dangerous than ever.

Initially, though, watching Sean get jiggy with the bad guys really satisfied my revenge tooth in a big way.  Having grown up with an alcoholic father (Bill Sage) who abused him and his mother, he's particularly protective of damsels in distress.  He also takes on a huge mental case harassing people on the subway in one of the film's best confrontations (and the only time in which Sean appears in full regalia of black hoodie and streaked-on warpaint).  These are down and dirty clashes that aren't really "fight scenes" per se--BOY WONDER isn't about cool choreography and flashy moves but realistic, gritty violence that does Sean spiritual damage every time he inflicts it.

There's a lot of tension in the scenes between Sean and his recovering alcoholic dad, who wants to make amends for his years of drunken abuse.  This situation will deteriorate further in surprising ways.  The film's only humor comes in the scenes with Teresa and her endearingly insensitive big-lug partner Gary (Daniel Stewart Sherman), while their investigation provides some cockeyed police-procedural flavor as a counterpoint to Sean's nocturnal exploits.  The relationship between Sean and Teresa, at first sympathetic and civil, becomes an interesting battle of wits.  (The Chinese restaurant scene is a real hoot.)



Caleb Steinmeyer gives a powerful performance as Sean, the kind in which every move and facial nuance adds to our fascination with the character.  The rest of the cast are uniformly good as well, and, in the small but pivotal role of Childs, James Russo is as fun to watch as ever.  Writer-director Michael Morrissey directs with a sure hand and adds to the tension of the more frenetic scenes with a jittery editing style that's very effective. 

The DVD from Inception Media Group is in 16x9 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 surround sound.  No subtitles but closed-captioning is available.  Extras consist of a "making of" featurette and the trailer.

With a stunning final twist, BOY WONDER leaves the viewer with conflicting emotions that may take longer than the closing credits to work out.  What if Peter Parker went a little nuts after Uncle Ben died, and he traded in his web cartridges for brass knuckles and bullets?  Would he always take out the right people?  There are no easy answers, but watching this movie pose the questions is a whole lot of fun.

BOY WONDER -- DVD Review by Porfle

FORCED TO FIGHT -- Blu-Ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 12/14/12

I haven't seen that many movies featuring kickboxing champion Gary Daniels of THE EXPENDABLES fame, but the ones I have seen (TEKKEN, HUNT TO KILL) were more exciting than FORCED TO FIGHT (2011).  And that's not really saying much.

Daniels plays family guy Shane, a former underground fighter who now owns his own auto shop.  When kid brother Scotty (Arkie Reece, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, JOHN CARTER) tries to flee the fight scene after ripping off ruthless crime boss Danny G. (Peter Weller, ROBOCOP, "Dexter"), he's beaten within an inch of his life.  Shane then finds that he must re-enter the world of underground mixed martial arts in order to pay back Scotty's massive debt to the evil gangster. 

But the fighting life not only causes Shane to revert back to his old, violent self--alienating his wife Connie (Alexandra Weaver) and sensitive son James--but also proves difficult to leave once it has its hooks in him.  As Shane's fights gain massive pay-per-view hits on the internet, Danny G. has no intention of letting him go until he's used him up, even if it means threatening Shane's family so that he'll be...forced to fight.

With a visual style that only occasionally has its moments and a wavering hand-held camera that gets a little old after awhile, director Jonas Quastel and his co-writers have assembled a simple and very familiar plot out of parts we've seen several times before.  Shane's agreement to fight again leads right into the usual training montage, which gives way to the standard fighting-his-way-back-to-the-top montage, which is interspersed with scenes detailing the rapid breakdown of his family life as he reverts to an angry, contemptuous ogre practically overnight.
 
The fights themselves are meat-and-potatoes stuff, not that well choreographed or edited and directed in rather lumbering, unimaginative fashion.  A parade of uninteresting opponents engage Shane in fights with little variety or suspense, even when he must take on the most fearsome fighter of all, Dracul the Killer (Florin Roata). 

Performances are adequate at first but get worse as the story's dramatic requirements increase.  Daniels and Weaver are stiffly unconvincing in their emotional confrontations, while the direction and dialogue are equally awkward. 

As Scotty, Arkie Reece is fairly good in his scenes with Corbin Thomas as nephew James, where the two of them have an appealing chemisty.  Thomas, in fact, gives one of the film's most effective performances, as the insecure James loses one father figure and clings desperately to another.  Main acting honors, however, go to old pro Peter Weller who emotes broadly as the sadistic Danny G. and is a fun villain for us to root against.

The Blu-Ray disc from Image Entertainment is in 1.78:1 widescreen with DTS-HD master audio 5.1 and English subtitles.  Extras consist of the featurettes "Behind the Scenes with Peter Weller" and "Filming the Fights", plus a trailer.

FORCED TO FIGHT trudges along a well-worn path to its inevitable all-or-nothing fight finale.  If you find yourself hard-up for entertainment and in a very undemanding mood some time, you might want to check it out.  As for me, I doubt if I'll ever feel compelled to see it again.  Unless, of course, I'm...forced to watch.

  

FORCED TO FIGHT -- Blu-Ray Review by Porfle

TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/9/11

 

Sometimes a movie makes me really glad that CGI was invented, and TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE (2011) is one of those movies.  This photo-realistic digital action epic is the kind of sweet eye candy that makes my eyeballs feel good.

Xiaoyu and Alisa are two high school girls who both have a crush on introspective loner Shin, who's brawny and handsome but troubled, maybe even suicidal.  What the girls don't know is that Shin is the sole survivor of a genetic experiment and his rapidly mutating body is sought by two arch rivals, Mishima Zaibatsu and the sinister G Corporation.  What Shin doesn't know is that Xiaoyu is an unwilling agent of G Corporation and Alisa is a humanoid robot from Mishima Zaibatsu, and they're both under orders to locate him.

Behind all of this, as Tekken fans will have already guessed, is the blood-feuding Mishima clan.  Jin, the youngest, is the head of Mishima Zaibatsu while his father and mortal enemy Kazuya runs G Corporation.  Kazuya, with the help of evil warrior babe Anna Williams, hopes that isolating Shin's "Devil Gene" will help him control his own super powers, but Jin and his beautiful assistant Nina Williams (Anna's sister) are determined to thwart him by getting to Shin first.  Pulling everyone's strings in the background is mean old family patriarch Heihachi Mishima, whose intentions are even more insidious.



The film's opening, which resembles something out of AKIRA, thrusts us right into the action with a motorcycle vs. big rig collision on the freeway which leads to fierce hand-to-hand combat between the Williams sisters.  Here, we get an indication of how good the motion-capture animation is going to be in this movie, with the impossibly-stacked ladies literally looking like living dolls. 

It only gets better when Xiaoyu and Alisa meet on their high school campus and begin their friendly rivalry over Shin.  Sumptuously rendered backgrounds bursting with vivid color and detail are realistic yet fanciful at the same time, providing the backdrop for some gorgeous character design.  Faces and body language are highly expressive and nuanced, with little of the "uncanny valley" effect seen in other virtual characters. 

The direction, editing, and virtual camerawork are outstanding as well, as the filmmakers are able to meticulously construct fight scenes in a way that live action can rarely achieve.  The first really awesome example of this occurs when Alisa's programming forces her into battle against Xiaoyu in a thrilling and visually dazzling sequence.  A mix of lightning-fast moves and slow-mo are easy to follow even as the action rushes by almost in a blur.



The film climaxes with a half-hour series of bouts between the Mishimas as they assume their true beastly appearance and wreak all kinds of destruction, laying waste to the countryside.  Director Yoichi Mori keeps the action and suspense of this all-out war building until the blazing finish, with an appropriately grandiose musical score to propel things along. 

But just as important are the quieter scenes between Xiaoyu and Alisa, with Dai Sato's screenplay allowing them lots of charming interplay to offset the bad-girl posturing of the Williams sisters and the seething fury of the Mishimas.  Pink-haired robot Alisa is particularly endearing with her childlike innocence and wide-eyed fascination with human behavior, making it even more startling when her programming forces her into attack mode complete with chainsaw arms and rocket-powered wings.  Feisty and funny schoolgirl Xiaoyu is also a very likable and lifelike CGI creation. 

The DVD from Bandai Entertainment is in 16x9 widescreen with Japanese and English 5.1 soundtracks and English subtitles.  Extras consist of a movie trailer and a movie/videogame hybrid trailer.

Even if the story and characters weren't so compelling and the action so intense, TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE would be worth watching simply to bask in the strikingly good visuals.  You don't have to be a fan of "Tekken" or videogames in general to be entertained by this awesome example of superior digital animation.

TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE -- DVD Review by Porfle

Jean Harlow Dies During "SARATOGA" (1937), Stand-In Completes Scenes (Video)

 

Blonde bombshell Jean Harlow died in 1937 at the youthful age of 26.

The picture she was making with Clark Gable, SARATOGA, was incomplete.

Rather than recast, the studio finished her scenes using stand-in Mary Dees.

This was used as part of the picture's publicity campaign.  

I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

 

Jean Harlow Dies During "SARATOGA" (1937), Stand-In Completes Scenes (Video)

Stooges On Fire! Three Stooges Doing Their Own Fire Stunts (video)

Of all the dangerous stunts the Three Stooges did over the years...

...few matched the times when they were literally set on fire.

Moe flirts with flame in "A Plumbing We Will Go" (1940).
In "Pardon My Backfire" (1948), Moe lights up for real.
And again in the "A Plumbing We Will Go" remake, "Vagabond Loafers" (1949).
All three are set ablaze in "Income Tax Sappy" (1954).

But most harrowing of all...

...is Shemp's extended fire stunt in "Heavenly Daze" (1948).


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Stooges On Fire! Three Stooges Doing Their Own Fire Stunts (video)

7 Times John Wayne Got Killed In A Movie (video)

7 Times John Wayne Got Killed In A Movie

(SPOILERS!)

Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
Fighting Seabees (1944)
Wake of the Red Witch (1948)
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
The Alamo (1960)
The Cowboys (1972)
The Shootist (1976)

Originally posted on 5/23/18
I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

7 Times John Wayne Got Killed In A Movie (video)

TARA ROAD -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

(NOTE: This review originally appeared online in 2005.)

 

"Sometimes you must lose your life to find a new one."  Oh, brother...

What do you do when your life falls apart around you?  Well, if you're Marilyn (Andie MacDowell), a well-to-do New England wife who's feeling estranged from her husband after their teenaged son gets killed during his 15th birthday party, and Ria (Olivia Williams), an Irish mother of two who just found out that not only is she pregnant again, but so is her husband's mistress...

...you swap houses.  Yes, that's the gimmick that TARA ROAD (2005) uses to take these two hapless women on an emotional journey of self-discovery and all that stuff.  After a handy plot contrivance, Marilyn ends up in Ria's house in Dublin and Ria leaves her kids with her cheating husband and his girlfriend and whisks off to New England to move into Marilyn's house.  But they're not just swapping houses, they're swapping lives.  And learning about themselves...and growing, and...excuse me, I think I'm gonna barf...

First of all, Ria's a wuss.  Her husband Danny (Iain Glen) makes his shocking announcement--you know, about his girlfriend being pregnant and whatnot--and all she can do is desperately clutch at him and practically beg him to stay with her.  Marilyn, on the other hand, is a cold fish who has a faithful husband who loves her, yet she rejects him because she's so wrapped up in her own self-pity.  In one early scene, she's so upset about the loss of their son that she even knocks her glass of iced tea off the table while sitting by the pool.  So these two women damn well better learn about themselves and grow and all that stuff during this movie, or I'm really gonna be ticked off.

When we see them wandering through each other's houses, it's supposed to be a meaningful "moment", judging from the soft string music and the solemnity on their faces.  For some reason, going through each other's underwear drawers and tripping over each other's kid's toys is meant to be a deeply emotional experience for them and us, although I didn't really get why.

Of course, a big part of the story will be the alternately zany and heartwarming culture shock that is generated when Ria and Marilyn encounter each other's friends.  Ria discovers that Marilyn has the standard "brassy broad" gal pal who seems to constantly flounce from one of these movies to the next--the frizzy-haired, obnoxious fashion disaster, Carlotta ("Ab Fab" script editor Ruby Wax).  There's also a funny black friend named Heidi (Jia Francis), because rich white women always have a funny black friend.  Ria is invaded by them upon her arrival and is flustered and nonplussed by their raucous American behavior since people aren't brassy and obnoxious and black in dear ol' Dublin, doon't ya know, and they get tipsy and have girl-talk and it's all just so delightful!  Not.

Meanwhile, Marilyn is ransacking her way through Ria's private photographs and looking wistful as sad music plays on the soundtrack.  At this point I have absolutely no emotional investment in this character, yet I'm supposed to be all weepy over her.  Actually, I can't stand her.  Anyway, she encounters Ria's restauranteur-gardener friend, Colm (Stephen Rea) and her other friend Rosemary (Maria Doyle Kennedy), and they're so low-key and sweetly encouraging and relaxing to be around--just what poor Marilyn needs, bless her heart.  Various other people flit in and out of her vicinity and talk Irish at her, which she finds enchanting.  It's as though she's stumbled into some kind of Tolkien fantasy full of playful hobbits.

I check the DVD time and find that only one-fourth of the movie has elapsed so far.  Oh...my...god.

Ria meets Marilyn's brother-in-law Andy (Jean-Marc Barr) and they hit it off because he's one of those fantasy chick-flick guys who is soft-spoken, wimpily handsome, and talks about his feelings yet knows when to listen, so it looks like a romance is in the offing.  I can't believe I'm talking about this stuff.  Please shoot me.

Did I mention that Marilyn has two giddy, flamboyantly-gay friends who supply comedy relief by queening it up whenever they're onscreen?  Of course she does.  Ria cute-meets them and gets a job cooking in their bakery.  Then she goes out with Andy for a romantic, emotional dinner that ends with Irish coffee by the pool.  She's finding herself!

Things get more complicated when Danny's business goes bust and he starts running around doing desperate things and turning into even more of a bad guy.  And Rosemary is revealed to be not quite the good friend to Ria that she was thought to be, so Ria must learn to be more assertive and self-reliant at last.  While all this is going on, Marilyn begins to inch her way back to happiness when she's reunited with her husband and finally learns to accept her son's death.  And yes, both women grow in the process.  Hallelujah!

This movie wants to take us on an emotional rollercoaster ride but it's more like getting stuck in traffic with a carload of people you can't stand and nothing on the radio but Barry Manilow.  The story is dotted with scenes meant to elicit instant reactions from us without really trying--a crying scene here, a party scene there, another plot complication, more crying--like a bad painter dabbing colorful flower petals on a bland still life. 

It's all deadly slow and lifeless, and when it was over, I felt like I'd just been released from bondage.  If you have a high tolerance for boring chick-flicks you may enjoy TARA ROAD, but it's definitely not my cup of Sleepytime Herbal Tea.

 

 

TARA ROAD -- Movie Review by Porfle

FISHY STONES -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/24/18

Here's another of the South African apartheid-era films, made for black audiences, which are now being rescued from oblivion, restored, and released by IndiePix Films. 

As with the others I've recently seen, FISHY STONES (1990) is a low-budget affair that falls squarely into the category of films that I enjoy because they show filmmakers with severely limited resources doing their best to come up with something entertaining.

Here, it's director Tonie van der Merwe (UMBANGO, OPERATION HIT SQUAD) again, concocting a modest comedy/drama about two diamond thieves (Popo Gumede and Hector Mathanda of UMBANGO as "Robert" and "Makhosi") who must toss their bag of "fishy stones" out the window during a police chase in hopes of returning later to recover it. 

The diamonds are later discovered by David and Alex, two teenage boys on a camping trip.  When Robert and Makhosi escape from jail and return to find their diamonds missing, they descend upon the hapless young boys with threats and intimidation.  The rest of the film is a back-and-forth conflict between the two good guys and two bad guys with the missing diamonds in the balance.

Tonie van der Merwe's direction is passable and occasionally imaginative as it was in UMBANGO. The film even opens with a nifty car chase between the two diamond thieves and the local cops, with some well-rendered "poor man's process" shots.

The rest of the story takes place almost entirely in economical outdoor locations, mainly the forest where the two boys stumble across the bag of diamonds while camping out.

Diamond thieves Robert and Makhosi are, respectively, the handsome brains of the duo and its extremely low-I.Q. comic relief.  As Makhosi, the manic, gap-toothed Hector Mathanda (who also plays a mad bomber in GONE CRAZY) ably conveys a sort of sublime idiocy that helps turn most of their scenes together into amusing comedy routines even when they're at their most desperate.

While spying on David and Alex's camp, it's funny to listen to the two crooks argue about who's going to watch which boy (Makhosi claims that since he has smaller eyes, he can see the skinny boy better and thus Robert should keep watch on the fat one). 

They also fight over whose diamonds they are ("My diamonds! Mine!" the childish, intellectually-challenged Makhosi keeps insisting), finally turning on each other and wrestling for their only gun.

After the action of the first act, FISHY STONES settles into a leisurely pace that doesn't generate all that much suspense but does keep us interested in how things will eventually turn out. 

Some will find the long stretches of dialogue and meandering bits of business boring, with David and Alex lying around their camp hashing over what they're going to do with the diamonds (most likely they'll turn them in to the police) as Robert and Makhosi argue endlessly and get on each other's nerves while lurking in the bushes.

As for me, I managed to settle into FISHY STONES' modest groove and enjoy it as a likably low-key and ultimately harmless adventure that goes down easy. 


TECH SPECS
Actors: Popo Gumede, Hector Mathanda, Mandla Ngoya
Format: Color, NTSC
Language: Zulu w/ English Subtitles
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Rated: NR
Studio: Indiepix Films
Extras: Trailer

indiepix.com
gravelroadafrica.com
retroafrika.com

FISHY STONES -- DVD Review by Porfle

The Ross Sisters: "Jerkin' Back and Forth" (Devo) From the film "Broadway Rhythm" (1944) (video)

 

This is the fabulous Ross Sisters and their mind-boggling contortion act...

...from the film BROADWAY RHYTHM (1944)...

...set to the Devo classic "Jerkin' Back and Forth."


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

 

The Ross Sisters: "Jerkin' Back and Forth" (Devo) From the film "Broadway Rhythm" (1944) (video)

UNDISCOVERED -- Movie Review by Porfle

(NOTE: This review originally appeared online at Bumscorner.com way back in 2005.)


The dog rides a skateboard!

I'm serious! She pushes it along with one paw, and then jumps on and whizzes down the street! Holy smokes! It's freakin' awesome! The DOG rides a freakin' SKATEBOARD!

And when she rounds the corner and disappears, then the last thing that might possibly elicit any interest in the movie known as UNDISCOVERED (2005) also disappears. But I'll always have that memory--the dog rides a skateboard. (sigh)

And now, the review proper:

Aspiring musician Luke Falcon (yes, that's really his name in the movie) encounters a woman on the subway who is REALLY HOT, according to the script. Her name is Brier (Yes! Holy gosh, yes! That's really her name!) and she's a model, and she thinks he's really hot too! But before they can consummate their bond of mutual hotness, a closing subway door comes between them. Brier picks up a glove that Luke has dropped and holds it up. "You dropped your glove!" she astutely observes. Luke, being the quintessential romantic guy that women who read romance novels swoon over, immediately throws the other glove at her just as the door slams shut. Oh, my garsh! He's the king of the "meet-cute"!

I first encountered the term "meet-cute" thanks to Roger Ebert. I think he made it up, but I could be wrong. Anyway, to me it seems as though as soon as Roger identified the phenomenon of the "meet-cute" then sensible filmmakers would begin to avoid it lest they be accused of indulging in cliche'. But not the makers of this film. They embraced it. They began their film with a classic, nerve-wracking, teeth-grinding "meet-cute."

Not only that, but right afterward Luke informs his brother that he has been "smitten." Guys, how many times have you ever told another guy that you've just been "smitten"? Enough times to get your ass kicked? Well, just minutes into the movie it's overwhelmingly apparent that Luke should get his ass kicked but good, but he doesn't. He's too busy moving to L.A. to pursue a career as a rock star. A rock star that you may listen to, but not me, because his songs suck. Oh, my gompers, do they suck. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Guess what? Brier's moving to L.A., too. She's a model, but she wants to be an actress, so she's going to take acting lessons and try to break into the acting business. Can she act? Only as well as the actress playing her, which, unfortunately, means "no." But who cares, because--oh, joy--one of her fellow acting students is none other than Ashlee Simpson! Yippee! It just keeps getting better!

Can Ashlee act? That's a pretty interesting and important question, since acting would seem to be a real career booster for her. Lots of successful singers have become big-time actresses, thus bolstering their "double-threat" entertainment value. Will Ashlee be one of them? No, she won't. Her acting style consists of goofy smiles, googly eyes, and coy, cutesy expressions. But it fits right into this coy, cutesy movie, so all's right with the world, eh? Harrumph!

Well, in a nod to cinematic believability, it turns out that Ashlee (or Clea, as she in known in the movie) is Luke's best friend, and she takes Brier to the nightclub where Luke is performing his insanely crappy songs. Yes, that's right -- two strangers who had a brief "meet-cute" in New York and then seperately moved to L.A. just happen to run into each other just as soon as they get there. Why, it's fate! Or bad writing, or something.

But there's Luke (played by Steven Strait, now appearing as "Stevie" in the Starz series "Magic City"), singing his boring widdle butt off in a nightclub while record company executive Fisher Stevens (a welcome sight since he's the only person I recognize so far besides Carrie Fisher, and he actually sorta knows how to act) describes him in a manner that I can readily agree with: "This guy here...he sings from his heart. I wanna throw up."

Anyway, Luke (whom Clea describes as a cross between Jeff Buckley and Elvis Costello, although Jeff Foxworthy and Lou Costello would be more apt musical comparisons) seeks to resume his aborted acquaintance with the lovely and talented (OMG!) Brier ("When are we gonna break outta the 'friend zone'?", he asks -- no, really!), but she rejects his romantic advances because she just can't seem to shake her squishy feelings for the genuine big-time rock star she's been dating. That is, the grunge relic who cheats on her with a succession of groupies and doesn't call her for months at a time. Oh, good choice, Brier.

But Clea talks some sense into her, or at least what she can manage to approximate as sense ("I don't think you fall out of love until you fall into someone else" she actually says, which I can't believe wasn't the official tagline for this movie), and they both suddenly devise a brilliant plan to create such a buzz about Luke that he will become an honest-to-goodness big-time rock star for real! And THERE'S THE SET-UP! TA-DAAAA!

Brier calls her former modeling agent, played by the unfortunate Carrie Fisher, to help out with the big Luke Falcon publicity blitz. Carrie is older and plumper than she was in her Princess Leia days (not that there's anything wrong with that), and appears to be less than ecstatic about being seen in this huge, gobbling turkey. She's probably wishing that Han Solo would swoop into the frame and lug her away. Or at least shoot her.

Well, things trudge boringly along after that--Luke's hot for some committed-relationship action, but Brier keeps vaccillatin', Luke loses his record deal, etc.--I don't want to spoil the plot for you, blah blah blah, and after some more stuff happens, there's a sickly-sweet happy ending. There's always a happy ending in these stories, right? Except for THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN, one of the worst teen comedies ever made, which, incredibly, is better than UNDISCOVERED.

That movie had a very, very sad ending, but it made me very happy since I couldn't stand Lawrence Monoson, the blubbering idiot who starred in it. But that's neither here nor there, although for some reason talking about one really bad movie inspires me to yap about all the other bad movies that have contributed to the living hell that is life on this here fab-u-licious Earth of ours.

On the technical side: the meandering camerawork seems to have been done by a near-sighted wino with ADD, because he keeps wandering around finding interest in other things besides the actors. And someone keeps screwing around with the focus, too. Is this what they call "MTV-style" cinematography? If it is, then MTV sucks. I could find three-year-old kids who could handle a camera better than this.

The editing, of course, is an entirely different thing altogether. That is, what is meant to represent editing in this film is entirely different from whatever is generally known in film circles as "editing." But what the hell--as long as the kids get their "MTV-style" fix, if indeed that's what they're looking for when they go to the movies, then here it is. Total crap, wrapped up in a badly directed, poorly edited "MTV-style" package--so EAT IT, KIDS! YUM-YUM!

Watching this filmic endeavor, I kept being reminded of another really bad movie that seared itself onto my cerebral cortex several years ago--IF EVER I SEE YOU AGAIN, the magnum opus of producer/director/writer/composer/star Joe Brooks of YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE fame. Both movies are really, really BAD-bad, both feature sappy love stories with plenty of awful, grinning-like-a-loon, super-duper cutesy-poo bad acting and blood-curdling music, and both left me feeling as though I had just been fished out of a vat of toxic chemicals at the Axis Chemical Company. It's not often that I compare a movie to IF EVER I SEE YOU AGAIN, my personal fixation of total, gibbering cinematic horror, but in this case I'm going to make an exception. UNDISCOVERED is just as bad. It's the IF EVER I SEE YOU AGAIN of a new generation.

I should probably say something in conclusion, even though I think I've already pretty much said everything I wanted to say about this movie, so I'll end with one of those cleverly snarky movie review-type comments: "UNDISCOVERED is a movie that should REMAIN undiscovered!" (LOL!) But, to be fair, it wasn't a total loss. There was, after all, the skateboarding dog. HOLY STUPID PET TRICKS! THE DOG RIDES A SKATEBOARD! YEEE-HAAAA!!!

UNDISCOVERED -- Movie Review by Porfle

The Three Stooges' Larry Fine In His Only Solo Cameo ("Stage Mother", 1933)

 

Ted Healy and his 3 Stooges, Howard Fine and Howard...

...filmed scenes together for 1933's "Stage Mother" but they were cut. All that survived...

...was this one brief glimpse of Larry on his own for the only time without Moe.

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

The Three Stooges' Larry Fine In His Only Solo Cameo ("Stage Mother", 1933)

BEHEMOTH -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 3/24/11

When a SyFy original movie has the words "worldwide destruction" in the synopsis, you can pretty much bet you're going to hear about it more than see it, with most of the action taking place in a centralized location with occasional dollops of bad CGI.  In BEHEMOTH (2011), the location is a mountain community in the wilds of Canada, and the CGI dishes up one of the goofiest monsters this side of REPTILICUS.

A rash of earth tremors and some mysterious deaths have the citizens of Ascension on edge, including concerned geologist Emily Allington (Pascale Hutton, GINGER SNAPS: UNLEASHED) and government agent Jack Murray (Ty Olsson, "Defying Gravity").  A lovable, quasi-senile old professor, William Walsh (William B. Davis, who was Cancer Man on "The X-Files"), believes that the ravaged Earth has dredged up a mythical beast to purge itself of Mankind as it sometimes does whenever we get too destructive with our global warming and whatnot. 

Ed Quinn ("Eureka") makes a pretty stalwart hero as logger Thomas Walsh, William's son and Emily's old boyfriend, who ends up guiding Jack up the quake-prone Mt. Lincoln in search of some vital equipment left behind by two missing agents.  Naturally, Emily insists on going along, and, even more naturally, Thomas' headstrong younger sister Grace (Cindy Busby, "Heartland") and her dopey boyfriend Jerrod (James Kirk) are camping out on the same mountain.
 


The behemoth, it turns out, is so big that it practically wears the mountain like a backpack and can flex its enormous CGI tentacles for miles.  Just as the romantic Jerrod picks the perfect moment to hit a knee and propose to Grace (thus marking himself for death), a giant eyeball pokes out of a hole in the rock wall and peers angrily at the two lovebirds.  Their reactions are somewhat comical as they scamper off down the mountain screaming "What was that!  What was that!" as a tentacle makes a grab for them.  This would probably be a good time to mention that some of the acting and dialogue in this flick aren't quite up to par.

Meanwhile, Thomas and Emily are having their own tentacle problems as they search for Jack's missing equipment, which turns out to be an anti-behemoth weapon.  We know exactly what they're going to do with it, too, because it's foreshadowed in the most obvious terms possible by one of William B. Davis' early lines.  Speaking of which, Professor Walsh and his waitress friend Zoe (Jessica Parker Kennedy) get trapped in a diner that's gone down a sinkhole and has tentacles sliding past the window like city buses.
 


The screenplay takes its time slowly building up to the action until finally it's time for the cameramen to start shaking their cameras around and the characters to start freaking out while the behemoth lobs its appendages at them.  As Professor Walsh works his tired old bones to a frazzle trying to rescue the infuriatingly-stupid Zoe, the big finale features the behemoth sticking its giant, roaring head out the top of Mt. Lincoln while tentacles writhe around it.  This is a sight that will either stupify viewers or have them rolling on the floor in bad-movie delight. 

The DVD from Vivendi is in widescreen with English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.  Closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.  No extras.

BEHEMOTH is the kind of monster movie that used to run on a drive-in double bill before turning up years later on "Mystery Science Theater 3000."  If you can appreciate bad movies of recent vintage in addition to the finely-aged ones, you'll probably find it a somewhat enjoyable viewing experience.  If not, however, you should follow the advice of the town sheriff and evacuate the area around Mt. Lincoln as soon as possible. 

BEHEMOTH -- DVD Review by Porfle

FEROCIOUS PLANET -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 7/1/11

About halfway through the TV-movie FEROCIOUS PLANET (2011), star Joe Flanigan brings viewers who have joined the film in progress up to speed:  "This is a hell of a day...a science experiment goes wrong, sticks us in a monster-filled parallel dimension with six hours to get home."  Viewers looking for something really good to watch immediately switch channels, while those of us with nothing better to do stick around and are mildly entertained for awhile.

If you catch the movie from the beginning, it doesn't take long to see that this entry in the SyFy Channel's "Maneater" series is one of those bad-CGI "monster of the week" flicks that they seem to churn out like sausage these days.  Alternately lighthearted and lightheaded, it at least manages to rise above its much stupider brethren by avoiding, for the most part anyway, the farcical and ridiculous.  Even so, this is hardly ever more than just a bunch of people in the woods running away from some fake-looking monsters.

Joe Flanigan plays a wrongly-disgraced Army colonel now doing security work in a lab where Dr. Jillian O'Hara (Dagmar Döring) and her nervous assistant Brian (Robert Soohan) are demonstrating their new invention to a skeptical senator (John Rhys-Davies with a really bad accent) and the President's science advisor, Dr. Karen Fast (Catherine Walker) in hopes of securing more funding.



Sort of a parallel-worlds viewer, the machine malfunctions and sends the group, along with part of the building they're standing in, into one of those hostile worlds filled with large creatures who want to eat them.  With only six hours to fix the device and return home, they must venture into the woods to find fifty gallons of water to power it (I didn't catch why) while avoiding the jaws and claws of numerous hungry whatsits.

Filmed mostly in the woods in Ireland, FEROCIOUS PLANET plays kind of like one of the more run-of-the-mill episodes of "Stargate: Atlantis" with Flanigan pretty much doing his Lt. Colonel John Sheppard character.  The humor is weak ("We're gonna need a bigger boat!" Flanigan incongruously quips upon first sight of a big creature) as is most of the other dialogue. 

Direction and camerawork are bland, while the performances are competent enough.  I liked Catherine Walker as Dr. Fast, whose dedication to scientific discovery compels her to set off on her own toward a distant building in hopes of meeting extraterrestrial beings.  What happens to her is pretty much the only thing in the whole movie that I cared anything about.
 


The rest of the story is your basic "fix the machine in time to get back home before the monsters get us" stuff, with various supporting characters periodically snuffing it in semi-gruesome ways.  This usually involves CGI gore, which isn't real gore like they had back in the good old practical-effects days so it has little dramatic effect.  The creatures come off okay in closeup, but for the most part they're so artificial-looking that they constantly took me out of the movie.

The DVD from Vivendi Entertainment is in widescreen with English Dolby 5.1 sound.  No subtitles, but does feature closed-captions.  There are no extras.

As a made-for-TV creature feature, FEROCIOUS PLANET isn't one of the worst I've ever seen but it definitely doesn't come close to being one of the best.  While watchable and even kind of fun at times, it isn't something I'd go out of my way for.

FEROCIOUS PLANET -- DVD Review by Porfle

Beautiful End Credits Music For "VALLEY OF GWANGI" (1969) by Jerome Moross (video)

 

Jerome Moross was the genius behind such musical scores as "The Big Country", "The War Lord", and "Wagon Train."

One of his most rousing and robust scores was for the Ray Harryhausen dinosaur western "The Valley of Gwangi."

Here is the beautiful romantic theme he wrote for the the end cast credits, which sends the movie off on a high note.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

 

Beautiful End Credits Music For "VALLEY OF GWANGI" (1969) by Jerome Moross (video)

The Three Stooges In "Myrt & Marge" (1933) (video)

 

One of the earliest screen appearances of The Three Stooges was a substantial role in the 1933 comedy-musical "Myrt and Marge."

They were still being billed as "Howard, Fine, and Howard."

And they were still the "stooges" of top banana Ted Healy.

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

The Three Stooges In "Myrt & Marge" (1933) (video)

"The Silencer" -- Song Written & Performed by Carole Pope For The 1992 Film Of The Same Name (video)

 

Carole Pope wrote and performed this Bond-style song for the 1992 Crown International spy film of the same name, which starred Lynette Walden and Chris Mulkey. Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

"The Silencer" -- Song Written & Performed by Carole Pope For The 1992 Film Of The Same Name (video)

Extreme Product Placement in Marx Bros' "LOVE HAPPY" (1949) (video)

 

 

"Love Happy" was conceived as a solo vehicle for Harpo. 

But, as usual, Chico needed the money. And Groucho got lured into it too. 

Before it was over, the producers were short on cash as well... ...and sold ad-space in the movie. 

Thus, the big chase finale is wall-to-wall product placement. 

 (See if you can spot the blooper in the Mobilgas shot at 1:15.) 

 

 I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

 

Extreme Product Placement in Marx Bros' "LOVE HAPPY" (1949) (video)

The Hunt For Sammy Petrillo (video)

 

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

The Hunt For Sammy Petrillo (video)

SGU: STARGATE UNIVERSE 1.5 -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

 Originally posted on 7/29/10

 

If you read my review of the first half-season of "SGU: Stargate Universe", you'll know that I liked it a lot but had certain reservations about it.  Judging from various message board posts and such, I'm sure many viewers felt the same way.  Fortunately, the release of SGU: STARGATE UNIVERSE 1.5 proves what I'd been hoping for--that the previous episodes were slowly leading up to a marked increase in the action and excitement levels of the show and that certain irritating aspects would be eliminated.  Which is exactly what has happened, barring one or two exceptions.

As before, a number of military and civilian personnel are stranded on a city-sized Ancient starship that's on a seemingly neverending journey through the cosmos, stopping for a few hours whenever it encounters a planet with a stargate and then jumping back into faster-than-light speed.  With Colonel Young (Louis Ferreira, DAWN OF THE DEAD remake) in command, the entire group is under military control, which leads to constant conflicts with the brilliant but unstable Dr. Rush (Robert Carlyle, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH) and civilian leader Camile Wray (Ming-Na, ER). 

The professional and personal relationships between them and the rest of the ship's inhabitants generate much of the show's dramatic interplay, including a love triangle between true-blue soldier Lt. Matthew Scott (Brian J. Smith), fish-out-of-water senator's daughter Chloe Armstrong (Elyse Levesque), and the lovestruck Eli (David Blue), a neurotic nerd-savant hijacked into service because of his mad gaming skills.  Alaina Huffman plays Lt. Tamara Johansen, the closest thing to a medic on the ship, who carries some pesky romantic baggage with Col. Young.  And then there's Sgt. Greer (Jamil Walker Smith), who's so gung-ho that he seems to relish the thought of occasionally blowing away a civilian or two just to keep them in line.

The first half of the season spent a lot of time setting up the premise and then meandering along with stories about the hazards related to their mysterious starship and the heartbreak of being away from home while trying to find love among the stars.  But now that the writers have worked some of this stuff out of their systems, the show has gotten into gear and started kicking some ass.  With the appearance of a new race of enemy aliens--spindly blue CGI-generated creatures who covet our heroes' Ancient starship--we finally get some cool space battles (as always, the special effects are gorgeous) and deadly shipboard encounters.  Also, the military vs. civilians conflict embodied by Young and Rush erupts into a full-scale mutiny in one of the season's best episodes. 

One of the main improvements is the absence of those damn Kino diaries, which offered characters the chance to philosophize, navel-gaze, and blubber away precious show time with a blatant and boring writer's convenience.  The formula was pretty much the same every time--the subject fiddles with the Kino camera ("Is this on?"), starts to record a personal diary entry, gets either teary and emotional or speechless with inner turmoil, and then slaps their hand over the lens.  It was one of the worst aspects of the show and to my great relief has now been confined solely to the extras menu where it belongs.  However, we must still contend with the frequent appearance of those contemplative montages set to some truly awful emo ballads.  These really need to get sucked into a black hole along with the Kino diaries.

As usual, Robert Carlyle is the main on-camera talent here and makes the abrasive Dr. Rush a continually fascinating character whom we're never quite sure whether to admire or distrust.  Some insight into his backstory give us a little more understanding of his motives and attitudes.  Louis Ferreira's soulful, haunted Colonel Young holds our interest by going against the "infallible leader" type, playing a commander whose decisions may not always be 100% correct and are often swayed by emotion.  Watching these two characters either butt heads or struggle to cooperate for the good of the crew is one of the best things about the show. 

As the dreaded season cliffhanger (I hate those) draws nigh, Young's suspicion that his arch-enemy Colonel Telford (a solid Lou Diamond Phillips) is a mole for the Lucian Alliance leads to Dr. Rush undertaking a highly perilous undercover mission in Telford's body via the communication stones.  Rhona Mitra makes for a very formidable villain as the ruthless Commander Kiva, who has located another Icarus base and is attempting to dial the elusive ninth chevron.  The story arc which follows combines the pulp sci-fi action and suspense of the other Stargate shows with SGU's own darker edge, culminating in a blazing stargate invasion of the ship, a hostage crisis, and a countdown to total destruction, among various other points of interest.

 
The three-disc set (10 episodes) from 20-Century Fox and MGM is in 1.78:1 widescreen with English 5.1 Dolby and Spanish Dolby surround.  Captions are in English, Spanish, and French.  Each episode features a cast and crew commentary.  Extras also include about fifteen "Destiny SML" featurettes and several Kino diaries.  (Blu-Ray contains additional extras.)

With SGU: STARGATE UNIVERSE 1.5, the idea of mixing the sci-fi fun and excitement of the earlier Stargates with a darker, more serious sensibility--something which the first half of the season didn't quite pull off--seems to have finally started realizing its potential and yielding some first-rate episodes.  And suddenly the future of this show is well worth looking forward to.



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SGU: STARGATE UNIVERSE 1.5 -- DVD Review by Porfle

SGU STARGATE UNIVERSE 1.0 -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 2/15/10
 

 

Having somehow managed to avoid every single previous film and TV incarnation of "Stargate", I delved into the 3-disc DVD set SGU STARGATE UNIVERSE 1.0 (2009) not knowing quite what to expect. After a marathon viewing of all ten episodes (which constitute the first half of the first season), I find that while it isn't mindblowingly awesome, it's still a compelling start with the potential for greater things.

Fans of the saga up till now will know all this, but for us novices: billions of years ago, a race of aliens known as "The Ancients", from whom we are descended, built a series of ring-shaped portals called "stargates" which use wormholes to allow intergalactic travel. Having discovered one of these stargates on another planet, Earth scientists and military have been trying to unlock the "dial-up" code which will access the stargate's transportation function. But just as they do so, Icarus Base is attacked by hostile aliens known as The Lucian Alliance and all military and civilian personnel are forced to escape through the stargate to an unknown destination seconds before the planet explodes.

After their chaotic arrival, they find themselves on an immense, automated starship built long ago by the Ancients, which is speeding through hyperspace billions of light years from Earth for some unknown purpose. The ship, it turns out, slows down whenever it approaches a planet with a stargate, giving the crew a specified time to explore the planet and gather whatever materials they need from it before the ship automatically jumps back into hyperspace. Damage from some long-ago battle has made repair of its life-sustaining functions imperative, and as the passengers struggle to survive they also must deal with interpersonal conflicts and the uncertainty of ever being able to return home.

I like a good "spaceship exploring the cosmos" series and this one is shaping up pretty well so far. Not much has been done with the stargates as of yet--the crew only visit two or three planets in this set--but there's more than enough stuff going on aboard the Destiny to keep things hopping. As is often the case in sci-fi, the military and scientific factions frequently have heated disagreements over their priorities and there's a constant power struggle between stalwart Colonel Everett Young (Justin Louis) and the brilliant but arrogant chief scientist Dr. Nicholas Rush (Robert Carlyle), with the hapless civilians caught in the crossfire.

Carlyle, a fine actor who played a formidable Bond villain in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, makes Dr. Rush a fascinating character whose motives we're never quite sure of. At times he seems to place more importance on research and discovery than on preserving the lives of his shipmates, and some suspect that their presence aboard the Destiny may even be his doing. As his nemesis Colonel Young, Louis brings a soulful intensity to the role which has made him one of my favorite actors since he played Sarah Polley's ill-fated husband in the remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD. The interplay between these two solid actors makes for some of the show's best moments.

Among the military characters are Young's second-in-command, the troubled but heroic Lt. Scott (Brian J. Smith), hotheaded but dependable Sgt. Greer (Jamil Walker Smith), and cowardly, rage-stoked loose cannon Sgt. Spencer (Josh Blacker). Back on Earth, the Destiny's progress is monitored with intense interest by Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill (an amiable Richard Dean Anderson) and Colonel David Telford (Lou Diamond Phillips at his best), who will try not only to usurp Colonel Young's command but, eventually, his lonesome wife as well.

The civilians include Ming-Na ("E.R.") as Camile Wray, a human resources executive who thinks she should be in command, Alaina Huffman as plucky and wise medical officer Tamara Johansen, and David Blue as nerdy math genius Eli Wallace. Eli, recruited straight out of his mom's basement because he was able to break a vital stargate code imbedded into an online videogame, is the vicarious wish-fulfillment character for gamer geeks in the audience and alternates between being amusing and irritating. Another old favorite, Christopher McDonald, plays Senator Alan Armstrong, whose daughter Chloe (Elyse Levesque) finds herself the romantic interest of both Eli and Lt. Scott.

Proving of utmost importance to both the show's characters and its writers are the "communication stones", an Ancient device which allows the Destiny's passengers to temporarily swap bodies with certain Earth personnel. This makes way for a lot of emotional and sometimes soap opera-level scenes of Scott, Chloe, and Young, among others, sharing intimate moments with their friends and loved ones. Telford's body-swaps with Young pose a problem when he aggressively asserts his authority while aboard the Destiny and then later, during a momentary glitch in the transfer, finds himself having sex with Young's wife. (Oops!) The whole idea of someone inhabiting my body and then going off and having sex with people I don't know sorta gives me the willies anyway--who knows what you could catch?

These slow-burn stories are pretty leisurely-paced, with the only whiz-bang space-battle action taking place in the hectic first episode. However, I found them engrossing and often quite intriguing when not bogged down by unnecessary melodrama. In "Light", the ship is knocked off-course and is headed directly for a sun, which means that fifteen passengers must be chosen by lottery to escape in the shuttle while the rest face their impending doom. "Time" finds several of the main characters on a lush jungle planet where they are attacked--and killed--by vicious reptilian creatures, while the rest of the passengers start dying off due to a mysterious virus they've contracted there. (Okay, you know the main characters aren't really going to all die, but it's still an interesting episode.)

In "Life", Dr. Rush discovers a chair which may impart vital knowledge of the ship's functions to whomever sits in it, but only at great risk to his life (not unlike similar devices in FORBIDDEN PLANET and the ST:TOS episode "Spock's Brain"). "Justice", the final episode in the set, begins with one of the main characters shot dead and the gun being discovered in Colonel Young's quarters, leading to him losing his command and finding himself on trial for murder. A shocking revelation and an intriguing cliffhanger ending, with both Young and Rush apparently starting to lose it big-time, round out the set.

My main complaint about SGU STARGATE UNIVERSE is its tendency to grind to a halt in order to indulge in labored, overwrought melodrama, complete with maudlin plinky-piano music, which seems grafted onto the stories rather than contributing to their forward momentum. These detours from the main thrust of the plot are the sort of stuff you usually see under "deleted scenes" in the Extras menu and rightly so. One of the good things about a sci-fi show like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is that it incorporates the interpersonal drama into the stories so well, something which SGU needs to work on in future episodes.

A major storytelling device which has its ups and downs is the floating camera sphere known as the "Kino", which is important to the crew for reconnaissance (it can be sent through the stargate to retrieve vital advance data) and surveillance, but which is also used by the writers to indulge in weepy, angsty diary entries by the Destiny's inhabitants. (As one IMDb commentator complains: "All they do is stand around on this dark dull boring spaceship moaning about stuff.") We get enough of that kind of soul-baring blather during Dr. Johansen's psych evaluation-confessionals, and all of this emo introspection justs gets to be too much after awhile.

Technically, the show is well-designed with some very nice fly-by shots of the Destiny streaking through hyperspace and a wealth of interesting though often underlit interior sets. Many of the ensemble scenes are directed with a documentary approach rather than the usual one-camera routine, allowing castmembers to use a looser and more theatrical acting style. Joel Goldsmith's music is a plus (except for the drippy plinky-piano stuff), although I could do without the emo-ballad montages.

The 3-disc DVD set from MGM and 20th-Century Fox is in 1.78:1 widescreen with English 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish Dolby Surround. Subtitles are in English, Spanish, and French. All episodes feature chatty commentary tracks with the cast and producers. Extras also include an extended version of the pilot "Air", conversations with the cast, numerous Kino diary entries and miscellaneous footage, and a helpful featurette for "Stargate" newbs entitled "Stargate 101: Presented by Dr. Daniel Jackson", which gives a basic history of the franchise.

SGU STARGATE UNIVERSE 1.0 lays the groundwork for what could be an exciting and provocative series that still has much room for improvement. I'll be looking forward to what's in store for us in the future, but for now, these ten introductory episodes provide a generous amount of thought-provoking sci-fi entertainment. Hopefully, the writers have a clear-cut destination in mind for the Destiny and for the show itself instead of trying to drag it out indefinitely--I'd hate to see it turn into "Gilligan's Starship."

Read our review of Season 1.5 here.

SGU STARGATE UNIVERSE 1.0 -- DVD Review by Porfle