L.A. INK: SEASON 1, VOLUME 2 -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 10/21/08

 

L.A. INK: SEASON 1, VOLUME 2 isn't something I would normally have been very excited about watching. But by the time I'd become familiar with the interesting characters and appealing documentary-style approach of this TLC reality series, I went through the rest of the 3-disc set's thirteen episodes like a Nacho Grande platter.

Contrary to my initial expectations, the show isn't bogged down by a bunch of soap opera crap--when the focus is on the artists' personal lives, they aren't exploited or sensationalized. Most of what we see is work-related, as in Hannah's prolonged absence from the shop while she debates over whether or not to stay in Chicago, or Kat's continuing problems with lackadaisical shop manager Pixie. Superdad Corey's desire to spend more time with his family and Kim's search for love are other concerns.

But L.A. INK is mainly about the customers and their reasons for wanting the particular tattoos that they come in to get (usually something commemorative, memorial, or motivational, although some of the requests are just plain silly). Each time someone walks into the shop, there's an anticipation of what they'll want and why, and how it will turn out.

Watching the tattooing process is fascinating in itself. Personally I could never muster the courage to draw permanent pictures on someone else's body. It's a huge responsibility, yet Kat and her crew are incredible artists who are amazingly confident. Once the customer conveys what they want, they intuitively whip out a preliminary sketch that fulfills the requirement perfectly and then they execute it with often astounding results.

As I got to know the artists and their work, I couldn't wait to see how some of the challenging ideas presented to them would turn out. This is especially true when a firefighter from New York enters with a large 9-11 commemorative painting and asks Corey to reproduce the whole thing on his back. Another highlight is watching Hannah and her talented tattooist brother perform a tag-team masterpiece on another woman's back. Backs, of course, are the largest "canvas" on the human body and it's interesting whenever someone wants the entire area covered by some grand design.

It doesn't take long for us to get to know these people and their particular styles. Corey, a burly guy's guy who's also a devoted family man, is a self-described "classic California tattoo artist" with a realistic style and awesome freehand skills. Hannah is a sensible, somewhat maternal presence with a more colorful, fanciful style. Kim, the personable and very cute young divorcee, has a penchant for flowers and inanimate objects. Kat Von D herself excells in beautiful retro-style, almost photo-realistic portraits. And Pixie, the flighty, irresponsible shop manager, seems to excell in causing trouble.

Roy Orbison's son Alex "Orbi" Orbison is Kat's supportive boyfriend who must help her conquer a nasty drinking problem while trying to muster the courage to pop the question. Guest tattooist Bob Tyrrell fills in for Kat during her hospital stay and performs some cool horror-related stuff, including a great portrait of Vincent Price. Tom Green makes an appearance to deliver a surprise birthday present to Kat's sister Karoline. Ja Rule drops by for a tattoo. And when Pixie goes to a guy named "Dr. Tattoff" to get a tattoo painfully removed, he turns out to be none other than Will Kirby, the infamous "Dr. Will" of CBS' "Big Brother."

In one episode, Kat shows her immature side by letting her idiot friend Bam Margera (whose specialty is ruining things and creating chaos) talk her into building a full-blown skate ramp in the shop. Hannah, showing her more grownup side, is against it. In another, the emphasis is on Kat's health when medical tests reveal that she has ovarian cysts which require immediate surgery. Kat's attempt to break the Guinness world record for most tattoos done in a 24-hour period makes for a lively and suspenseful segment. But the biggest fireworks occur in the episode entitled "The Worst Day Ever", in which Pixie's chronic slacking off on the job finally leads to a bitter confrontation in which she threatens to punch out Kim before storming out of the shop while customers look on.

The often lush, color-saturated photography looks really good, and most of the cutesy camerawork and editing are confined to scene transitions. Some of it appears staged to a certain extent, especially in the occasional scenes which have suspiciously thorough camera coverage from different angles, as though the director set everything up and then said "okay, you guys can have your impromptu personal conversation about subject 'A' now." But this happens in most "reality" shows and doesn't really bother me as long as the gist of the actual events is conveyed.

The three discs come in a fold-out slipcase which, along with the menus, is very nicely designed. The episodes are widescreen with Dolby sound. There aren't any extras, but I found the 544 minutes of content sufficient.

One of the best things about L.A. INK, which I found to be a pleasant surprise, is that unlike much reality programming it isn't about a bunch of flakes doing stupid things for us to laugh at. It's actually, for the most part, a pretty serious and substantive show. And after all, drawing permanent pictures on someone else's skin is serious business.

 

L.A. INK: SEASON 1, VOLUME 2 -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE CHAOS EXPERIMENT -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/3/09

 

Val Kilmer continues to turn up in the darndest things these days. This time, he's playing a psychotic bundle of nervous tics named Jimmy Pettis, who shows up at a newspaper office in Grand Rapids, Michigan one day and calmly informs the editor-in-chief that he's just locked six people in a steambath in order to demonstrate the social chaos that will occur all over the world in 2012 because of global warming. Read that sentence again if you want--I'll wait.

During THE CHAOS EXPERIMENT, aka "The Steam Experiment" (2009), we see the inconvenient truth of how quickly societal constraints and civility break down and sheer self-centered panic takes over when you trap a group of strangers in a room and turn the heat way up. Especially when most of those people aren't very well-balanced in the first place.  

Eric Roberts, who recently had a plum role as a mob boss in THE DARK KNIGHT, plays former pro football player Grant, who must not be doing very well these days seeing that he fell for Pettis' online dating service scam. The same goes for dweeby Christopher (STARSHIP TROOPERS' Patrick Muldoon) and hotheaded Italian stallion Frank (Quinn Duffy). The three ladies involved are the gorgeous but hostile Jessie (Eve Mauro), the dangerously neurotic Margaret (Cordelia Reynolds), and a diminutive blond named Catherine (Megan Brown).

After a round of introductions, director Philippe Martinez does all the heterosexual males in the audience a huge favor by having Jessie remove her bikini top, strut across the room in slow motion, and recline invitingly on a tiled bench, all to the strains of Ravel's "Bolero." For me, the movie will never get quite that good again. Soon after, someone discovers that the door has been locked from the outside and the steam is rising. In no time a claustrophobic Frank, who's blood is already up from Jessie's teasing performance and mocking derision, goes bonkers and gets violent, and must be dealt with.

In quick succession each of the other prisoners starts to lose it big time. The weird thing about this is that we never get the impression that very much time has passed at all, or that the rising heat is particularly life-threatening. So the fact that all of these people just freak out in no time flat seems a bit extreme. I'd hate to see what would happen if they got stuck in an elevator--they'd probably start eating each other.

A couple of their escape attempts are pretty cool, especially when Grant manages to break the little window in the door and Jessie pokes her head out to see what's what. Mainly, though, the chaos erupts too soon and escalates at an unbelievable rate until we have people killing each other like wild animals or committing suicide in utter despair after what only seems to us like a couple of hours in the steamroom. Martinez has designed all of these scenes to have a washed-out yellowish hue and uses lots of slow-motion, dissolves, montages, and other effects to distance us from what's going on, as though we're watching somebody's hazy fever dream.

Meanwhile, awesomely cool method actor Armand Assante arrives at the newspaper office as Detective Mancini and makes the movie somewhat more enjoyable for us Armand Assante fans. Mancini hauls the uncooperative Pettis into the interrogation room down at the station and they face each other across a table for much of the rest of the movie. Their conversation is mostly a shaggy-dog story intercut with scenes of the unfortunate hostages, giving Assante a chance to be cool and Kilmer a chance to audition for the role of the Joker in the next Batman movie. I'll eat my terrycloth bathrobe if his performance here isn't influenced by Heath Ledger's in THE DARK KNIGHT, only without the crazed laughter or any of that demented brilliance. I like Kilmer a lot when he's being Doc Holliday, Inish Scull, the guy from HEAT, or even, yes, Batman, but in this movie he just isn't on.

The DVD is letterboxed with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. There are no extras.

THE CHAOS EXPERIMENT is an okay time-waster that isn't horrible but, aside from that rather stimulating "Bolero" scene, isn't particularly good, either. The presence of three of my favorite actors--Assante, Roberts, and Kilmer--is a definite plus, although even they can't do much to liven up this unbelievable and often dull story. A last-minute attempt at a twist ending sends the movie off with a groan.

THE CHAOS EXPERIMENT -- DVD Review by Porfle

EDEN LAKE -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 1/7/09

 

There's a grand tradition of movies in which happy-go-lucky city folk venture into some rural setting and wind up being terrorized by psychotic locals. Most of these movies, unfortunately, aren't nearly as good as, say, THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE or DELIVERANCE, and the formula more often than not results in just another inept, forgettable piece of cinematic flotsam with people running around in the woods screaming for an hour-and-a-half.

Not so, however, in the case of EDEN LAKE (2008), one of the most harrowing, painfully suspenseful, and relentlessly downbeat horror thrillers I've ever seen.

It's a pretty simple set-up: Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender) drive to the country to camp out on the shore of a beautiful, secluded lake, where Steve plans to pick just the right moment to whip out an engagement ring and pop the question.

But their romantic sunbathing reverie is marred by a motley group of punk teens who blast their boom box, ogle the bikini-clad Jenny, and allow their scary-looking Rottweiler to menace her while Steve is taking a dip.

Well, Steve, of course, must do his "guy duty" and confront the surly bunch. Led by the older and considerably meaner Brett (Jack O'Connell), the kids steal Steve's land rover and go for a joyride. When Steve tries to wrestle the keys away from them, Brett's beloved dog is accidentally killed, which sparks Brett into a murderous rage.

Steve and Jenny are forced to flee for their lives, but fate conspires against them at every turn, and they both end up tortured and brutalized beyond anything they could have imagined.

When EDEN LAKE was over, I felt as though I'd just awoken from an extremely vivid and disturbing nightmare. Everything that could possibly go wrong for Steve and Jenny does go wrong as they descend quickly and inexorably into hell. Much of the film is hard to watch--not because it's especially gory, but because the situations are so intense and realistic.

When Steve is captured and bound with barbed wire and Brett bullies the others into taking turns slashing him with knives and box cutters, it's effective on a realistic level because the violence isn't being committed by monsters like Leatherface or over-the-top caricatures of inbred hillbillies. These are just ordinary kids--on bicycles no less--giving in to their darkest impulses in a way that happens far too often in real life, stripping the story of the usual comforting veneer of fantasy that has us laughing along with Rob Zombie's cartoonish maniacs or wondering what cool method of execution Jason will use on his next faceless victim.

Jenny fares no better as she finds herself lost in the woods with no way to call for help and little chance of escape. Naturally, a metal spike goes through her foot at one point and she spends a lot of time crawling through mud and slime, reduced to the level of a terrified animal.

One scene in which she locks herself in a shack with the injured Steve and tries desperately to tend to his grievous wounds, unable to stop the gouts of blood pouring from deep cuts, is difficult to endure simply because of the crushing sadness and despair that it evokes. And because the killers are still closing in and there's nothing she can do about it.

It gets worse. Eventually EDEN LAKE begins to resemble a twisted version of THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS with its nonstop series of horrors heaped one right after the other upon the hapless couple. Some instances, such as Jenny being forced to hide in a filthy dumpster and emerging with a coating of the most rancid slime imaginable, took me out of the movie for a bit as I thought, "Sheesh, what next?" But these moments actually help the film, serving to give us a breather from all the tension before sucking us right back in and ramping up the suspense again.

The cast does a good job of selling it all. Kelly Reilly (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE) is outstanding and entirely believable as sweet-tempered preschool teacher Jenny, while Michael Fassbender (300, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) is likable as Steve even when he isn't leaving well enough alone. All of the teen castmembers are good, especially Jack O'Connell as the monstrous Brett.

First-time director James Watkins does a very surehanded job working from his own screenplay and the cinematography is way above average. David Julyan, who has scored films such as MEMENTO, THE DESCENT, and OUTLAW, avoids horror cliches and emphasizes the emotional devastation of the lead characters instead. This is especially true in the final minutes, when the last grimly-ironic pieces fall into place with a sickening thud and the music becomes heartbreakingly mournful.

It's in this last act that the hopelessness running through the rest of the story is finally driven home in the most downbeat manner possible. You won't often see a scene this powerful and bleak. The situation is so nightmarishly awful that violence and gore are no longer even necessary here--by this time, writer-director Watkins has so thoroughly woven a web of tragedy and despair that we're left stunned and haunted by it all, which is his intention.

In 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital sound, the DVD looks and sounds good. Extras consist of a brief "making of" featurette and a trailer.

A highly-effective and skillfully manipulative piece of filmmaking, EDEN LAKE effortlessly rises above most other films of its ilk. It's hardly the usual horror flick that relies on shock cuts to make you jump or clever gore effects to make you say "Cool!" Instead, it batters the viewer with nonstop dread and ultimately becomes a deeply depressing experience. I was relieved when it was over, as though I'd finally woken up from the nightmare, but I still can't get it out of my mind.

EDEN LAKE -- DVD Review by Porfle

PULSE 3 -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 12/19/08

 

I missed the first installment in what is now the PULSE trilogy, but I did catch the second one and found it entertaining enough to look forward to part three. And here it is-- PULSE 3 (2008), the final segment in the saga of a global apocalypse that occurs when a freak technological discovery opens up a portal between the world of the living and the dark, terrifying dimension of the dead.

The last movie ended with a newly-orphaned little girl named Justine (Karley Scott Collins) boarding a bus which would take her to an isolated refugee colony in West Texas, far from any visual communications devices or internet connections through which the soul-sucking ghosts enter our world. Now seventeen and chafing from the confines of her near-primitive lifestyle, Justine (the winsome Brittany Renee Finamore) runs away from her foster parents and heads for Houston after discovering a working laptop computer and making friends with an unseen IM buddy named Adam.

After barely surviving a harrowing encounter with a lonesome cotton farmer along the way, Justine reaches the ruined city to find it inhabited only by baleful ghosts. Her search for Adam leads her right into the clutches of an old acquaintance from the previous film, The Man With A Plan (Todd Giebenhain). Holed up in his red-lined loft (the color red repels the ghosts), this psychotic yet highly-intelligent wacko has been developing a plan to foil the spirit invasion in conjunction with the military. The main drawback is that his plan involves lots of nuclear weapons. Locked in a red room with a captive ghost, Justine must find a way to escape and make contact with Adam--if he's even still alive.

PULSE 3 never builds up much of a head of steam and isn't quite the finale I'd expected, but it's still an entertaining and well-made grade B horror flick. Like the previous film, much of it is done with green-screen, both in exterior and interior shots, which might prove distracting or even off-putting for some viewers. Still, the photography is good and the film is technically superior to a lot of equally low-budget efforts I've seen. Director Joel Soisson's script offers an intriguing mystery concerning Adam's character, along with several imaginative vignettes along the way.

First off is the cool opening sequence which shows college student Adam (Rider Strong) carrying on a long-distance romance with an Egyptian girl named Salwa (Noureen DeWulf) via several monitor screens situated in the various rooms of their respective apartments. They chat, watch movies, have dinner together--everything short of actual physical contact. When the spirit invasion begins, Adam must witness Salwa's demise through her cell phone camera as she wanders onto a fire escape in a trancelike daze and jumps off.

My favorite sequence is when Justine, tired from her long journey toward Houston, spends a night with the lonesome cotton farmer, Wilkie (Thomas Merdis in a very good performance). At first she fears that the outwardly-nice but sorta creepy Wilkie may try to make sexual advances toward her, but his true intentions are even more terrifying and result in the film's goriest and most disturbing segment. Also quite entertaining is Justine's encounter with The Man With A Plan in his gadget-filled loft, which was filmed in an abandoned YMCA's indoor running track. Todd Giebenhain's performance is a hoot as he paces around the track, manically spouting reams of dialogue about his plan for wiping out the ghosts using the EMP from several airborn nuclear blasts.

The ghosts themselves aren't employed as effectively here as in the previous film, but there are some unnerving scenes and a few good shock cuts here and there. The filmmakers do a good job of depicting Houston as a ruined, empty city, and the scenes of Justine's shantytown home in the middle of nowhere are equally well designed and atmospheric.

The DVD is in matted widescreen format with good image and sound quality. Special features include a nice, low-key commentary with writer/director Soisson, Producer Mike Leahy, editor Kirk Morri, and star Brittany Finamore, plus a brief making-of featurette and some trailers.

How much you like or dislike PULSE 3 will have a lot to do with your expectations. As the conclusion to a trilogy, it falls far short of its potential and doesn't satisfy the anticipation the second chapter left me with. It's episodic, underpopulated, and sparsely plotted. But as a minor horror flick done by imaginative filmmakers on a low budget, I found it fairly entertaining and fun.

 

PULSE 3 -- DVD Review by Porfle

PULSE 2 -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/30/08

 

2006's PULSE, based on the Japanese horror film KAIRO, began what will be a trilogy about an apocalyptic invasion by supernatural entities after a freak technological glitch inadvertently bridges the gulf between the living and the dead. PULSE 2 (2008) gets right on with the story and pretty much assumes that those of us who didn't see the first film will catch up, giving us just enough exposition along the way to keep the slowly-unfolding mystery intriguing while maintaining a high creep factor.

The afterlife, it turns out, is a dark and lonely dimension. So when a portal to the world of the living is opened up, ghosts begin to pop up all over the place--via computers, cell phones, and televisions--and suck the will to live from anyone they touch. These victims, in turn, either commit suicide or die from a horrible disease that quickly turns them to carbon dust. When divorced mother Michelle (Georgina Rylance) wakes up in her apartment amidst a cloud of this dust and finds that her young daughter Justine is missing, she fears the worst. But things are much darker and more sinister than even she suspects.

Meanwhile, Michelle's ex-husband Stephen (Jamie Bamber, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) and daughter Justine (Karley Scott Collins) are hiding out in a cabin in the woods, where they hope to remain isolated from the plague that is spreading everywhere. Stephen's insufferable girlfriend Marta (Boti Bliss) shows up and, after accidentally turning on his laptop, they discover that he's receiving dozens of email messages reading "Help Me" over and over--from a dead person. Their location now exposed by this Internet connection, Stephen and Justine are then forced to flee cross-country in search of a safe zone beyond the reach of technology, with malevolent spirits hot on their trail.

For a sequel, PULSE 2 is a fairly stand-alone story that had me in suspense throughout. While the open ending left me anticipating part three, there was enough of a resolution to keep it from feeling as wide open as the middle entries in other trilogies often are.

Much of the early part of the film has an eerie "Twilight Zone" feel as we try to figure out what's going on. The ghosts look like old, flickering black-and-white video images, which is a pretty cool idea. Writer-director Joel Soisson does a good job of staging the scary stuff, giving us some mildly effective shock cuts while establishing an overall atmosphere of dread.

There isn't a lot of gore, although an extreme BCM (Bad Cat Moment) may have cat lovers hitting the fast forward button. Here, Michelle's Aunt Carmen (veteran actress Lee Garlington) and Uncle Pete are on either side of a locked bedroom door, and one of them is a ghost. Later, a delightfully nasty scene has an infected woman seducing a fat guy and then literally being reduced to black goo beneath his heaving body as they make out on the floor. Other instances of violent suicide and hostile ghost attacks help to keep things interesting.

As it's hard to depict the end of the world on a low budget, a large amount of PULSE 2 is done with green screen. Granted, this is some pretty good green screen--I've definitely seen a lot worse. But while you don't notice it as much in a futuristic or fantasy setting, it's pretty obvious when used for everyday backgrounds like houses, city streets, forests, deserts, etc. I got used to this after awhile and it didn't bother me, but for viewers with a less willing suspension of disbelief this element will probably prove a major drawback.

Karley Scott Collins handles the crucial role of Justine very convincingly for such a young actress. Jamie Bamber and Georgina Rylance are also good as her parents, Stephen and Michelle, whose custody battle over Justine really gets serious when one of them joins the ranks of the living dead. The rest of the cast is fine, particularly the ever-reliable Lee Garlington as Aunt Carmen and Boti Bliss (who looks like she could be Ashton Kutcher's sister) as the sexy but unstable Marta. Special mention goes to Todd Giebenhain as Ziegler, a sarcastic, wrapped-in-red computer geek (the color red repels ghosts) who holds Justine hostage until Stephen ventures into a haunted warehouse to fetch him a particular electronic component. It's a good bet we'll see him again in part three.

The DVD is in matted widescreen format with Dolby 5.1 and English and Spanish subtitles. Extras include a group commentary track, two deleted scenes (an unfinished one shows the actors performing in front of the green screen), and a preview of PULSE 3.

After sneaking a peek at the IMDb page for this movie, I notice that so far it isn't exactly taking the world by storm. For me, it was consistently entertaining, with a certain Dean Koontz vibe that I found appealing. PULSE 2 isn't a classic, and there's that little matter of the ubiquitous green screen, but for a low-budget, direct-to-video apocalyptic horror flick I'd say it's well worth checking out.

 

PULSE 2 -- DVD Review by Porfle

DEATH DEFYING ACTS: HOUDINI'S SECRET -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 10/29/08

 

Mixing a dash of truth with heaping helpings of fiction, the UK-Australian film DEATH DEFYING ACTS: HOUDINI'S SECRET (2008) finds legendary escapologist Harry Houdini in Edinburgh, Scotland during his final 1926 European tour (truth), where he meets and falls in love with a beautiful con woman named Mary McGarvie who claims she can help him contact the spirit of his dear, departed mother (fiction). The result is a handsomely-mounted romantic fantasy with an intriguing "what if?" premise and some interesting performances.

Mary and her young tomboyish daughter, Benji, live in an impossibly cozy shack in a cemetery and earn a living performing in a local music hall as "the tantalizing Princess Kali and her dusky disciple." This gives Catherine Zeta-Jones a chance to look fabulous in a skimpy harem costume while she and a brown-faced Benji wow the rubes with their fake psychic act. When Houdini triumphantly enters the city to an ecstatic reception, his standing offer of $10,000 to anyone who can prove their psychic veracity by reciting his mother's dying words to him is an irresistible opportunity for the mother-daughter team.

They set about trying to dig up personal information on Houdini to aid in their deception, and in the process Harry and Mary begin to fall for each other. This unusual romance, and how it effects both a jealous Benji and Harry's doting manager-slash-keeper Mr. Sugarman (Timothy Spall), keeps the story moving until the moment of truth in which Mary is expected to wield her psychic powers before an expectant Houdini and a horde of eager reporters.

Guy Pearce plays Houdini as a gruff but friendly egotist with an imposing personality and boundless energy. The usually rail-thin Pearce comes as a shock in his first shirtless scene--with his new muscular frame he hardly looks like the same person we saw in L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, MEMENTO, or THE TIME MACHINE. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a more restrained presence, but her Mary is just as strong-willed as Houdini and rejects his amorous advances until she's sure he regards her as more than a casual fling. As it turns out, Harry's interest in her is based in large part on her uncanny resemblance to his mother, which gives the story an added element of--well, weirdness.

The most interesting performance comes from 14-year-old Saoirse Ronan as Benji. She's a remarkably skilled, thoughtful actress who pretty much steals every scene she's in while doing so in a subtle and natural manner. Her Benji narrates the film, which we see mainly from her viewpoint and experience through her character. Much of the story's emotional resonance comes from the conflict between her devotion to her mother and her hero-worship of Houdini, who is, after all, the object of their deceptive scheme.

Director Gillian Armstrong (MY BRILLIANT CAREER, LITTLE WOMEN) handles the action well and gives the film a hazy, golden-hued, nostalgic look. Lush period detail fills the frame in every scene. The main titles display Armstrong's sometimes quirky visual sense--we see a strait-jacketed Pearce enter the water from below the surface and then drift into closeup, where he floats motionless and calmly holds his breath in one long, unbroken take until the credits are done. It looks like a SPFX shot but it isn't, and Pearce's breath control is the result of training with a professional.

We don't see much of Houdini's performance magic after that, although his famous water torture escape is very nicely duplicated early on. Armstrong imaginatively uses this device as a means for mystical floating visions to appear to whoever is inside it. Houdini sees a ghostly image of his mother, complete with pennies over her eyes; Benji, after accidentally falling in, sees a red-haired angelic harbinger of Houdini's death.

For me, the highlight is the sequence in which Mary is expected to channel the spirit of Houdini's mother before the assembled press and reveal her last words to him. It doesn't go off as expected, and there's a startling twist in which the boundary between fakery and actual spiritualism is apparently blurred. Surprisingly, it's Saoirse Ronan's performance in this scene which is the most impressive.

The widescreen picture and sound are good. The commentary track is just the kind I like--both continuous and well-balanced between being scene-specific and generally informative. It's also amusing the way director Armstrong keeps up a constant monologue while producer Marian Macgowan, who has a better memory for details, inserts various names and other factual data almost seamlessly into the pauses. Additional features consist of a "making-of" featurette and a trailer. There are no deleted scenes because, as Armstrong tells us, the script by Tony Grisoni and Brian Ward was so tight that it didn't require any trimming after it was filmed.

Not quite a remarkable film, DEATH DEFYING ACTS: HOUDINI'S SECRET is still an involving and visually satisfying historical fiction that benefits from its lead performances, imaginative story, and fine period setting. The rather peculiar romance between Harry and Mary is far more intriguing and adult than the usual Harlequin nonsense, while the mystical elements give it a nice dark tone and are left tantalizingly unresolved.

 

DEATH DEFYING ACTS: HOUDINI'S SECRET -- DVD Review by Porfle

BOY A -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 10/4/08

 

Over the years, I've occasionally seen movies that are so sad that they make me feel bad for days. This usually means that it's a good movie that has accomplished what it set out to do, which is to make me sad. BOY A (2007) is one of those movies, and boy, did it ever.

"Boy A" is the designation used during a sensational murder trial to refer to one of two young boys charged with the murder of a little girl. Now, years later, the older Jack (Andrew Garfield) is finally being paroled after growing up in captivity, and faces the world with a new name and a new chance at life. With the help of a caring parole officer-slash-social worker named Terry (Peter Mullan), Jack begins to settle into his job and make friends, and even form a tentative romantic relationship with pretty co-worker Michelle (Katie Lyons).

Eager to do well in his new life and wide-eyed with wonder at the world around him, Jack is likable from the start. But we worry that he may harbor violent tendencies that could emerge at any time, especially when he jumps in to fight off some thugs who attack his new friend Chris (Shaun Evans) during a drunken night out clubbing. However, an unexpected event crops up--one which seems contrived at first, but is played very well--which gives us a whole new concern. When Jack and Chris happen upon an auto accident and save the life of a little girl, they're thrust into the limelight, where Jack now runs the risk of being recognized by an unforgiving public who still perceive him as a monster.

Andrew Garfield is terrific as Jack, with an acting style that's totally natural and unforced--he's able to gain our empathy from the first scene and hold it for the rest of the movie. The realism and understatement of his performance make an already well-written screenplay even more effective. Since he's basically a boy in a man's body, his efforts to make friends and his first fumbling love scenes with Michelle are almost painful to watch, and we're happy for him every time he makes a breakthrough and inches closer to achieving a normal life.

As Jack's parole officer Terry, Peter Mullan (TRAINSPOTTING, BRAVEHEART) does a fine job of conveying compassion and concern for Jack, which, we'll discover later, is partly an effort to make up for a failed relationship with his own son. And in the flashback scenes which show us what led up to the initial crime, Taylor Doherty is outstanding as Phillip, an abused and very troubled boy whose friendship and influence over the young Jack prove disastrous.

Everything in Mark O'Rowe's screenplay is so deftly underplayed and effective that there's no need for big, showy scenes to reach out and grab us. John Crowley's direction is similarly restrained yet creative, brimming with imaginative compositions and impeccable photography. The score by Paddy Cunneen is similarly artful and evocative.

The DVD is in 1.85:1 widescreen format with Dolby 5.1 and English and Spanish subtitles. There aren't any extras, but after the last shot of this movie, I was too stunned to care.

BOY A has no showstopper ending filled with histrionic acting and heart-tugging melodrama, yet it's as emotionally devastating as anything I've seen. Some very talented filmmakers have given us a story that's deeply moving, involving, and worthwhile, but make no mistake--they want us to feel bad. Boy, do they ever. And when Jack's wonderful new life comes crashing down around him like a house of cards, it's like one of those nightmares that won't let go even after you wake up.

 

BOY A -- DVD Review by Porfle

DEAD IN 3 DAYS -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 3/4/09

 

At first, the Austrian horror film DEAD IN 3 DAYS, aka In 3 Tagen bist du tot (2006), seems to have all the makings of yet another forgettable teen slasher flick. But it quickly proves to be a sober, atmospheric murder mystery-thriller with believable characters and a suspenseful story that held my interest till the very end.

A close-knit group of childhood friends celebrating their graduation from school each start getting a text message on their cell phones that reads: "Dead in 3 days." When one of them disappears from a dance, the others report it to the police but aren't taken seriously until his body is found floating in a nearby lake, bound and weighed down by an anchor. Then, when Nina (Sabrina Reiter) is abducted from her home and barely escapes alive from the hooded killer's lair, it becomes clear that the group of friends have been marked for death. So they have three days to figure out who's after them and why.

An early incident in which they run over a small deer on an isolated road and are forced to club the suffering animal to death brings the inferior I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER to mind, but fortunately this merely hints at a more extreme occurrence in their past that binds them together and will soon come back to haunt them. (Which was a relief since I wasn't all that interested in watching a horror movie about a deer avenger.) This establishes a tone of shared guilt that will increase as the story progresses. With the first murder, which is shown in agonizing detail from the victim's point of view, it's clear that no one is safe and that anything can happen.

The teens, thank goodness, are fairly well-developed characters and not just cardboard cutouts. They work at part-time jobs, argue with their parents, have unstable home lives, etc. and aren't always entirely likable. Even when they have sex, it's unexploitive and not simply to get us stoked up for their slaughter by-the-numbers. The fact that we care about them creates genuine tension instead of just the usual build-up to the next jump scare.

That said, this is a pretty scary movie at times, with touches of old-school graphic violence. The "fish tank" scene is well-staged and harkens back to 80s films like HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE and SILENT PARTNER--as soon as Clemens (Michael Steinocher) notices the tank's dangerously sharp edge while filling it with fish, it's pretty obvious that somebody's eventually going to have a bad throat day.

While these instances of gory violence are shocking, they're not really what the movie is about. Ultimately it's the mounting tension and a heavy atmosphere of suspense and dread that drive the story and keep us on the edge of our seats. Directors Andreas Prochaska and Stewart St. John involve the viewer with unique camera angles (especially a good use of overhead and POV shots) and consistently compelling photography. This is a very visual movie, with muted colors--even the daylight scenes have a hazy look--and the deliberate pace gives us time to be immersed in the mood.

Certain dramatic moments are emphasized by switching to slow-motion and/or silence. When the first victim's body is found, there's no dialogue for several minutes, with only the images telling the story and conveying the emotions. It's a reminder of how effective silent movies could be at times, without all the noise and chatter. At other times there's even a Dario Argento-like quality in the use of interiors and exteriors to help build an overall sense of unease. In some shots you might almost think it was Argento's camera lingering over eerie windswept trees or prowling down shadowy hallways. All of this is bound together by a recurring water motif, the reason for which becomes clear at the end.

The DVD is in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital sound and your choice of English dub or original German soundtrack with subtitles. There are no bonus features.

Once the surviving members of the original group figure out what's going on and who's after them, they decide to sneak away from police protection and take on the killer themselves. Incredibly dumb, yes, but it does lead to a bloody, intense finale that left me with that special glow that comes from having just watched a really good horror movie. For its rich, inventive visual style alone, DEAD IN 3 DAYS is well worth watching.

 

DEAD IN 3 DAYS -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/30/09

 

If you ever wanted to see Rob Zombie's mind take a technicolor dump, then THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO is just the movie for you.

Combining a whirlwind of influences from Ralph Bakshi, John Kricfalusi, Adult Swim, R. Crumb, underground comics in general, HEAVY METAL, old theatrical cartoons, classic Universal horror flicks, and probably a ton more that I missed, this colorful and visually delightful conglomeration of dirty jokes and ADD-friendly action comes at us like all the different elements are being stuffed into a cannon and fired through the screen. Some of it sticks, while a whole bunch of it just flies in all directions. It's as though Robin Williams' genie character from ALADDIN improvised the script while tripping his ass off on acid and crystal meth.

El Superbeasto is a Santo-like Mexican wrestler-slash-actor (he wears a suit and a mask) with a magnificently massive ego who loves gorgeous babes with magnificently massive hooters. His sister, Suzy X, is an eyepatch-wearing super-sexy superheroine who battles Zombie Nazis with the help of her lovesick and painfully horny robot pal, Murray (who is right out of the 1939 Bela Lugosi serial THE PHANTOM CREEPS).

Meanwhile, their nerdy high school nemesis Steve Wachowski has reinvented himself as Dr. Satan and is searching for a woman with the numbers "666" on her ass. Once he marries her, according to legend, he'll be transformed into a fearsome, unstoppable colossus to whom El Superbeasto will never, ever give another wedgie again. The woman with the fateful mark on her tush turns out to be spectacularly-endowed stripper Velvet von Black, who is kidnapped by Dr. Satan's gorilla henchman Otto as a smitten El Superbeasto follows the trail. All of this results, as you may have guessed, in a final showdown with El Superbeasto and Suzy X battling a super-sized Dr. Satan, his minions, and those pesky Zombie Nazis.

It goes without saying that this movie doesn't take itself very seriously, which is a plus. I didn't find all of it funny--the jokes, good and bad, just keep pummelling us non-stop until the whole thing is somewhat numbing--but it's tuneful and fun. Amidst all the frenetic activity, I found the quiet, subtle scenes with ape-henchman Otto and Lenny the schlubby elevator operator in Dr. Satan's castle to be the most laugh-out-loud funny. As for the songs by Hard 'N' Phirm, they're often delightfully twisted and amusing comments on the action. The Zombie Nazi theme is especially fun as it reels off lyrics that are simply the most painfully obvious stream-of-consciousness exposition set to music.

Creatures of all kinds fill the screen along with a bevy of outrageously sexy (in a cartoon sense, that is) babes. Velvet von Black is so hot, in fact, that her theme song contains the line: "She could suck the gay right off a painting of a unicorn." Another song which is heard as Dr. Satan enjoys a wank in his private bed chamber tells us:

"It's all right to jerk off to cartoons
The Japanese do it every day
So rub one out for the USA."

Super-stacked action babe Suzy X keeps her robot ally Murray in a constant state of excitation, especially when he transforms into a vehicle that Suzy operates via a strategically-placed joystick. And, needless to say, there's a Suzy vs. Velvet catfight setpiece.

Younger viewers may recognize a few of the guest cameos that pop up all over the place, but the majority of cultural references that Rob Zombie has lovingly stuffed into this movie will just sail right over their heads. The first few minutes should be a real treat for Universal horror fans--they're a reproduction of the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN'S opening titles right down to the music, visuals, and that famous "friendly warning" from Edward van Sloan.

The vocal talent is pretty impressive. I'd never heard of comedian Tom Papa, who voices El Superbeasto, but he's very good. Sheri Moon Zombie is perfect as Suzy X since she already sounds like a cartoon anyway, and Rosario Dawson ably spouts all of Velvet von Black's incessant homegirl blather. "Mr. Show" faves Brian Posehn and Tom Kenny breathe comic life into Murray and Otto, respectively, while Paul Giamatti is dastardly nerd Dr. Satan.

 

Other notable voices include Danny Trejo as Rico, Dee Wallace as Trixie, Tura Satana as Varla, Geoffrey Lewis as Lenny, Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson as Amber, Clint Howard as Joe Cthulu, Daniel Roebuck as talk show host Morris Green, Ken Foree (DAWN OF THE DEAD) as Luke St. Luke, and Laraine Newman as Betty Sue Lou. Sid Haig and Bill Moseley reprise their characters Captain Spaulding and Otis Driftwood.

The DVD's 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen image and Dolby 5.1 surround are very good. English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired are available. Extras consist of some deleted scenes and shots, plus about half an hour of alternate scenes in various stages of completion.

I didn't find THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO to be totally engaging, but I enjoyed it anyway thanks to its constant barrage of colorful eye candy, sex 'n' violence, and good-natured stupidity. The numerous film and pop-culture references are also fun. I never read Rob Zombie's comic book on which this is based, but the film reminds me of the kind of underground comics that I used to skip over to get to the R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton ones, and then eventually come back and read later. They weren't as good but they had their own charms.

THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO -- DVD review by porfle

PROTEGE -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 2/20/09

 

If you saw DONNIE BRASCO (or better yet, read the riveting book by Joe Pistone, who lived it), you'll already have an idea of the conflicting loyalties and constant fear of discovery experienced by undercover cop Nick (Daniel Wu) in the offbeat Hong Kong cop thriller PROTEGE, aka "Moon To" (2007).

For years Nick has been living as the trusted protege to Lin Quin (a makeup-aged Andy Lau), an ailing heroin kingpin who wishes to make a last big score so that his family will be set for life when he dies. Not the usual cartoon villain, Lau portrays Quin as a practical businessman who loves his family and rationalizes that his drugs only ruin the lives of weak-willed lowlifes. But when a botched drug raid indicates a rat within the organization with Nick as a suspect, Quin displays his ruthless and lethal side in a tense interrogation scene.

As Donnie Brasco developed warm feelings for his aging mob mentor Benjamin 'Lefty' Ruggiero over the years, so Nick finds himself caring for the dying Quin and his unsuspecting family. But the pain and suffering caused by Quin's heroin is brought home when Nick meets Fan (Zhang Jing Chu), a single mother living in his apartment building with her adorable three-year-old daughter. Fan is a wretched addict hiding from the abusive husband (Louis Koo) who got her hooked and who uses their own daughter to help him smuggle drugs. As Nick becomes more involved with Fan, trying his best to help her and her daughter, his inner conflicts slowly begin to reach a breaking point.

PROTEGE isn't your typical Hong Kong actioner--there isn't a single chop, kick, or really outlandish stunt--but the human drama is pretty intense. Just as you start to think it's going to be all about police vs. bad guys, the story goes in unexpected directions as Nick's relationships with Quin and Fan keep him in constant emotional turmoil.

The very first scene gives a good indication that we're in for something unusual. With brilliantly sunlit clouds swirling past outside, Fan shoots up in her crumbling apartment, then slowly sinks onto the couch, dead to the world. As harsh light shines through paper-patched windows and ragged curtains drift in the breeze, a bright red doll carriage rolls into the frame. Fan's daughter approaches her mother tentatively, plucks the needle from her arm, toddles over to the wastebasket, and daintily drops it in, as though she's done this countless times before. The scene is both horrible yet somehow dreamily ethereal, and a provocative way to start a movie.

Former Shaw Brothers actor Derek Yee's direction is sharp and imaginative yet remarkably unflamboyant, allowing him to emphasize certain scenes using only subtle stylistic changes. When he slowly rocks his camera from side to side during Nick and Fan's disturbing sex scene (Nick is awakened on the couch by a heroin-addled Fan and then frightened by her ecstatic convulsions during intercourse) it isn't merely to make the visuals more kinetic but to convey her disorientation from reality and his own confused feelings.

Certain moments related to Fan's shocking deterioration seem right out of a horror movie, while time-lapse shots of roiling clouds speeding past her slumlike apartment building (Yee photographs this location and its slovenly interiors beautifully) are unsettlingly surreal. Conversely, the film assumes a colorful travelogue look when Quin takes Nick to Thailand to meet the main man in the heroin chain. Beautiful country settings with hazy blue mountains and dazzling poppy fields serve as a stark contrast to the dark, miserable end result of such an endeavor.

Yee's screenplay is intended to enlighten us about the various aspects and consequences of heroin trafficking, and from this pastoral starting point (which sometimes has the bland instructional tone of an educational film) we're shown how the raw materials are refined in Quin's warehouse "kitchen" and turned into bricks of almost pure heroin for distribution. Early on, a mixup of ingredients that threatens to ruin an entire batch leads to a tense montage with Quin and his employees scrambling to salvage it. Yee and editor Kong Chi-Leung speed things up here and almost have us rooting for the bad guys to succeed, which gives us an idea of what Nick's daily life must be like.

The one really riveting action sequence in the film comes when a group of Customs officers, unaware that Nick is an undercover agent, apprehend him after he leaves the kitchen and brutally beat him until he leads them back to it. Suddenly all hell breaks loose as Quin's "cooks" dash to destroy the evidence while the Customs officers break down the steel door. Their leader is played by Liu Kai Chi, who was a renegade cop in 2005's KILL ZONE (aka "Saat po long") and is even more wonderfully out-of-control here. Graphic violence ensues, and a harrowing escape attempt from a window to a balcony below leads to one of the most realistic high-fall death scenes ever filmed. This sequence definitely got my heart pounding for awhile.

Daniel Wu brings a quiet strength and intensity to his role--we can see how Nick cares not only for Fan and her child but for the devastation Quin's family will endure when his crimes are exposed. Andy Lau is so likable as Quin that we can almost sympathize with him until he expresses his contemptuous disregard for the misery he causes. As Fan, Zhang Jing Chu does a remarkable job conveying a delicate waiflike quality one moment and then transforming into a mindless degenerate the next. (Described as a "cunning linguist" in Bey Logan's commentary, she had to learn Cantonese for the part.) Louis Koo comes off as a bit of a caricature as her no-good husband, yet he's interesting to watch and his eventual fate is nicely-played. Director Yee himself appears as Nick's boss on the police force. As for Liu Kai Chi, well, he's a wild man. I love the guy.

In 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital sound, the DVD looks and sounds fine. While this Dragon Dynasty release contains only one disc, there are the usual substantive extras, including the highly-informed and enthusiastic commentary we've come to expect from Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan. There's a well-produced "making of" featurette that lasts almost half an hour, followed by low-key, thoughtful interviews with Daniel Wu, Zhang Jing Chu, and producer Peter Chan. These indicate the depth of interest in the subject by all involved and how much research was done, particularly in talking to actual addicts and trying to discern what leads them to pursue heroin use at the cost of their own lives. The theatrical trailer is included, and the film can be watched in either the original Cantonese or the English dub with subtitles for the hard-of-hearing.

PROTEGE is that rare thriller that is so emotionally involving that it doesn't need to keep the viewer's interest stoked with a succession of fights and stunts. Rapid-fire editing and flashy camerawork are used sparingly (and are all the more effective for it in certain scenes), with the emphasis placed instead on rich characterizations, gripping suspense, and some images that are genuinely haunting. "Why do people take drugs?" Nick keeps asking himself throughout the story, and at the end, he finds out the hard way.

 

PROTEGE -- DVD review by porfle

"THE TOURNAMENT" -- Fast-Paced, Action Thriller Bows Onto DVD October 20

With a $10 million cash prize and title of World’s No. 1 Assassin on the line, a group of contestants comprised of the world’s greatest professional killers fight it out to the death in THE TOURNAMENT, debuting on DVD October 20 from Vivendi Entertainment and The Weinstein Company. Boasting a stellar cast including Golden Globe®-winner Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible Trilogy), Robert Carlyle (28 Weeks Later), Ian Somerhalder (“Lost”) and Kelly Hu (X-Men: The Last Stand), the tension mounts as the number of players decreases and the stakes get higher for each of the assassins.

Watching the assassins hunt each other down from the safety of a secret room, all bets are off and the tables are turned when the gamblers’ location is revealed. Including “The Making of The Tournament” featurette, THE TOURNAMENT will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.97.

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"THE TOURNAMENT" -- Fast-Paced, Action Thriller Bows Onto DVD October 20

"THE KILLING ROOM" Debuts on October 13 From Genius Products

When four individuals volunteer for a seemingly innocent research study to earn some extra cash, no one is prepared for the horrific twists and turns to come when THE KILLING ROOM debuts on DVD October 13 from Genius Products. The “rough and tough psychological thriller” (Fearnet.com) directed by Jonathan Liebesman (Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) features an all-star ensemble including Academy Award® winner Timothy Hutton (“Leverage”), Academy Award® nominee Chloe Sevigny (“Big Love”), Clea Duvall (Identity), Peter Stormare (Fargo), Nick Cannon (Drumline) and Shea Whigham (Splinter).


Quickly realizing they are in for much more than they bargained for, the volunteers are told that only one person will make it out of the room alive in what turns out to be a brutal and chilling classified experiment. “Shrewd, smart and thought provoking” (Bloody-Disgusting.com), THE KILLING ROOM garnered much attention after the 2009 Sundance Film Festival premiere. A suspenseful flick that will keep viewers on the edge-of-their-seat through to the shocking ending, THE KILLING ROOM is “a very taut thriller” (FirstShowing.net). The DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.95.

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"THE KILLING ROOM" Debuts on October 13 From Genius Products

"BATTLE OF THE WARRIORS" and "RISE OF THE GARGOYLES" on DVD Sept. 8 From Genius Products

With an enormous army looming at the gates to their kingdom, the people of Liang turn to a mysterious stranger to rescue them from siege and conquest. Ferocious battles and gripping suspense highlight this epic tale of swords, strategy, and heroism.

Starring: Two-time Hong Kong Film Award-winner Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers) and Fan Bingbing (Flash Point), with action choreography from Stephen Tung (Jet Li’s Hero).


Special Features:
Audio commentary by Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan
Price: $19.97
Street Date: September 8, 2009
MPAA Rating: R
Run Time: 133 minutes
Languages: English, Mandarin
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Closed Captioned

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Paris, the city of lights, becomes the city of Hell when a mysterious winged creature is unleashed from its cavernous catacombs in the supernatural thriller Rise Of The Gargoyles, arriving on DVD September 8 from Genius Products and RHI Entertainment.

A Syfy Channel original movie, Rise Of The Gargoyles is the 15th installment in the fan-favorite “Maneater Series” and follows an American professor conducting an excavation of an ancient local church, whose interest is piqued by a series of brutally animalistic killings. Teaming up with a French reporter in an effort to understand and ultimately stop the nightmarish murders, the twosome quickly realize that this is no random killing spree – it’s Judgment Day.


Directed by Bill Corcoran (Vipers), Rise Of The Gargoyles features an impressive ensemble cast that includes Eric Balfour (“24,” The Spirit, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Tanya Clarke (Delivery Method, “CSI: Miami”) and Nick Mancuso (Ticket to Heaven, Heartbreakers). A fast-paced “guilty pleasure” certain to entertain as well as mortify, Rise Of The Gargoyles will be available for the suggested retail price of $14.95.

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"BATTLE OF THE WARRIORS" and "RISE OF THE GARGOYLES" on DVD Sept. 8 From Genius Products

"METEOR" Crashes Onto DVD Sept. 1

The Fight To Save The Human Race From Annihilation Begins On DVD September 1st From Genius Products And RHI Entertainment

Featuring Earth Shattering Performances By Christopher Lloyd, Jason Alexander, Billy Campbell, Stacy Keach And Marla Sokoloff

SANTA MONICA, CA – Life, as it has existed for over 200,000 years, hangs in the balance as two massive rocks collide in space and head for Earth in METEOR, landing on DVD September 1st from Genius Products and RHI Entertainment.

In a remote observatory, a scientist discovers a meteor approximately three times the size of Mount Everest barreling its way towards the Earth, and alerts the military to avert the impending disaster. As showers of smaller meteorites begin to destroy major cities around the globe, local authorities try to calm the growing panic and herd the masses into safety shelters. The fate of millions rests in the hands of a few as the race against time to save the Planet from ultimate destruction begins.

Starring Emmy® winner Christopher Lloyd (“Taxi,” Back to the Future), Golden Globe® nominees Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”), Stacy Keach (“Prison Break”) and Billy Campbell (“Once and Again”), as well as Marla Sokoloff (“The Practice”), Ernie Hudson (Dragonball Evolution) and Michael Rooker (“Criminal Minds”), the two-part NBC mini-series, METEOR, features eye-popping special effects, explosive human drama, and hair-raising action and will be available on DVD for the suggested retail price of $19.95.

SYNOPSIS:

Following an unparalleled series of meteor fireballs plummeting toward Earth, a renowned scientist, his assistant, and an on-target conspiracy theorist race against time to expose a government cover-up, reveal the truth, and prevent a massive meteor from destroying the planet.

BASICS

Price: $19.95

Street Date: September 1, 2009

Pre-book Date: July 21, 2009

Catalog Number: 1000839

Language: English 5.1

Running time:188 minutes

Rating: NR

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"METEOR" Crashes Onto DVD Sept. 1

Connect Like Never Before to the World's Greatest Collection of Martial Arts & Asian Action Movies

Fans Get Non-Stop Access, Exclusive Content, and Latest News Via Facebook, MySpace and YouTube

Genius Products and The Weinstein Company enable martial arts fans and film buffs to interact with the lauded Dragon Dynasty label in a whole new way, with the premiere of their branded Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube pages. The three new pages provide a gathering space for the fan community and an inside look at exclusive content, including interactive photo galleries and dozens of videos of the most brilliantly choreographed fight scenes of all-time, all completely free of charge.

Dragon Dynasty brings home the world's greatest martial arts and Asian action films, featuring the groundbreaking work of international superstars and legendary filmmakers, including Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, John Woo, Yuen Woo-ping, and many more. Fans experience the best of classic and contemporary smash hits from the world's most exciting genre, with cutting-edge digital video and audio remastering and exclusive, never-before-seen bonus features.

Current titles featured include THE ENFORCER, THE LEGEND OF FONG SAI-YUK, SUPERCOP, AN EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS, as well as the upcoming DVD release THE 5 DEADLY VENOMS, arriving August 18.

About Genius Products

"Genius Products, Inc. is the owner of Genius Products, LLC, a leading independent home-entertainment distribution company that produces, licenses and distributes a valuable library of motion pictures, television programming, family, lifestyle and trend entertainment on DVD and other emerging platforms through its expansive network of retailers throughout the United States."

About The Weinstein Company

The Weinstein Company was created by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films Corp. in 1979. TWC is a multi-media company that officially launched on October 1, 2005. Dimension Films, the genre label that was founded in 1993 by Bob Weinstein, is also included under TWC banner. The Weinsteins are actively working on the production, development and acquisition of projects for TWC.

Connect Like Never Before to the World's Greatest Collection of Martial Arts & Asian Action Movies

"The Chaos Experiment" On DVD August 4

A madman bargains the lives of six hostages for press coverage of his threatening environmental theory when the Hitchockian thriller The Chaos Experiment debuts on DVD August 4 from Genius Products. Starring Val Kilmer (The Doors, Batman Forever), Emmy® nominee Armand Assante (“Gotti,” ”Jack the Ripper”), Oscar® nominee Eric Roberts (Runaway Train) and Patrick Muldoon (“Melrose Place,” “Days of our Lives”), the film is from director Philippe Martinez (Citizen Verdict, Wake of Death).

Spiraling into a world of delusion and madness after professional disgrace over his outlandish hypotheses, a professor (Kilmer) lures six unwitting participants into an experiment to prove his theory of how global warming will drastically effect civilization, causing aggression, madness and chaos. While his subjects remain locked in a stream room with its temperature rapidly increasing to 130 degrees, he walks into the offices of a local newspaper demanding that his ideas be printed on the front page of the paper or the six victims would die within hours.

Racing against the clock to get to the truth, a detective (Assante) must determine whether or not the experiment is the delusional musings of a disturbed man or the maniacal work of a deadly psychopath. The Chaos Experiment DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.95.

BASICS

Price: $19.95

Languages: English

Running time: 96 minutes

Rating: R

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"The Chaos Experiment" On DVD August 4

"An Empress And The Warriors" Special Collectors' Edition Comes to DVD 7/21/09

A threatened kingdom locked in an epic battle for survival searches for a hero in AN EMPRESS & THE WARRIORS, debuting July 21st as a Special Collector’s Edition DVD from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company, under their heralded Dragon Dynasty label. AN EMPRESS & THE WARRIORS is a “fast-moving crowdpleaser” (Variety) that features stunning epic battle sequences, brilliantly designed costumes, weapons, and armor, and slick camerawork certain to keep fans riveted to their seats.

Synopsis:

When the Kingdom of Yan’s longtime leader is murdered by his own nephew, the monarch’s only daughter (Chen) ascends to the throne. As the kingdom is threatened by an invading army, she must join forces with a local general (Yen) and go to battle to avenge her father’s death and bring safety to her people.

Special Features:
Feature Commentary by Hong Kong Cinema Expert Bey Logan

Basics:

Price: $19.97

Street Date: July 21, 2009

Order Due Date: June 9, 2009

Catalog Number: 1000276

Rating: R

Run time: 95 minutes

Language: English and Cantonese

Subtitles: English and Spanish

Closed Captioned

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"An Empress And The Warriors" Special Collectors' Edition Comes to DVD 7/21/09

Vikings Take On a Terrifying New Enemy in "OUTLANDER"

The Battle for the Future Begins On DVD May 19 From The Weinstein Company and Genius Products

SANTA MONICA, CA - Action, sci-fi, and fantasy come together in explosive fashion when OUTLANDER comes to DVD May 19 from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company. In a story described by reviewers as "Beowulf meets Predator" (Boston Herald), a spacecraft crash lands in ancient Norway, bringing with it a bloodthirsty alien beast. As the creature ravages the Viking world, one soldier, the only surviving member of his clan, attempts to form an alliance with two warring Viking tribes, combining advanced technology with Iron Age weaponry to hunt the beast before it can destroy them all.

From the producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, this "sci-mythic" epic stars Jim Caviezel (Déjà Vu, The Passion of the Christ), Sophia Myles (Underworld, Underworld: Evolution), Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman (Hellboy films, Blade II) and John Hurt (Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). Fast-paced, daring, and imaginative, OUTLANDER is "visually spectacular" (Chicago Daily Herald). In the words of Detroit News, "Honestly: Best. Movie. Ever." The OUTLANDER DVD will be loaded with special features and available for the suggested retail price of $19.97.

Synopsis
Jim Caviezel stars in this action-packed, sci-fi adventure about an extra-terrestrial who crash lands on Earth in the time of Vikings. Caught between rival warrior tribes, the stranger soon realizes he's brought a stowaway: a hellish, fire-breathing monster who's now feeding on unsuspecting villagers. After proving his worth to his captors, the traveler joins the valiant hunt to kill the bloodthirsty creature. Featuring Ron Perlman and John Hurt as opposing kings, Outlander fuses stunning special effects, fast-paced action, and a unique period setting to explosive effect.

Bonus Materials
Deleted Scenes
Commentary by Writer/Director Howard McCain, Writer Dirk Blackman, and Producer Chris Roberts and John Schimmel
Visual Effects Tests
Animatics
Production Design Galleries

Basics
Price: $19.97
Street Date: May 19, 2009
MPAA Rating: R
Run Time: 115 minutes
Languages: English
Dolby 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH and Spanish
Closed Captioned

Buy it at Amazon.com

Vikings Take On a Terrifying New Enemy in "OUTLANDER"

"DANTE 01"--Science Fiction Nightmare Lands On DVD April 21st From The Weinstein Company And Genius Products

"Like an amphetamine powered version of Doom"­ quietearth.us

SANTA MONICA, CA ­ A new arrival at an appalling space prison unveils adisturbing tale in Dante 01, arriving on DVD April 21st from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company under the Dimension Extreme label. "Visually riveting" (Variety) and equally as horrifying, Dante 01 is the hotly anticipated solo directorial debut from French filmmaker Marc Caro (City of Lost Children, Delicatessen).

The sole survivor of an alien encounter and convicted of his crew¹s murder, Saint Georges is banished to Dante 01, the intergalactic facility for the criminally insane. Home to the Universe¹s most deranged criminals, the prison serves as a testing ground for a new protocol, humans as guinea pigs. Armed with mysterious powers from his alien encounter, Georges finds himself caught in a battle to suppress the monstrous power within him before it infects the other dangerous occupants of Dante 01, unleashing a violent rebellion that could turn the terrifying, labyrinthine world upside down. Dante 01 will include a making-of featurette and will be available on DVD for the suggested retail price of $19.97.
Synopsis
At the edge of the galaxy, drifts Dante 01, a hellish space station designed to contain and study the worst of the criminally insane. After an unidentified mute inmate arrives on the ship, he begins to reveal frightening alien powers.

Basics
Price: $19.97
Street Date: April 21, 2009
Rating: R
Running time: 82 minutes
Languages: English Dolby 5.1 and French Dolby 5.1
Subtitles: English and Spanish
Closed Captioned
Buy it at Amazon.com

"DANTE 01"--Science Fiction Nightmare Lands On DVD April 21st From The Weinstein Company And Genius Products

"PROTÉGÉ" Makes Dragon Dynasty DVD Debut February 24th

Based On An Incredible True Story, Award-winning Action Thriller Starring Three Of Hong Kong's Hottest Stars From the Weinstein Company and Genius Products

"Enormously entertaining"
- LoveHKFilm

SANTA MONICA, CA – For an undercover drug trafficker, the fine line between right and wrong is tested beyond its limits when PROTÉGÉ debuts on DVD February 24th on the Dragon Dynasty label from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company. With a cast of Asian cinema superstars including Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers), Daniel Wu (Legend of the Black Scorpion), Louis Koo (Flash Point) and Jingchu Zhang (Seven Swords), PROTÉGÉ earned Lau a 2007 Hong Kong Award for Best Supporting Actor and received nine Hong Kong Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Zhang) and Best Supporting Actor (Koo).

Based on true stories of undercover agents on the police force, PROTÉGÉ follows their story among the clandestine drug world, as they struggle to balance both justice and crime. Packed with extensive all-new bonus features (see details below), the PROTÉGÉ DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.97.
Synopsis
Protégé is the saga of a young cop infiltrating the deepest levels of a secret drug ring. He survives seven years of violent, nail-biting close calls, as he works his way from dealer to heir apparent. Every step consolidates his power and reveals another piece of his boss’s operations, bringing him closer to destroying a brutal heroin empire…or inheriting it.

Special Features
Commentary By Hong Kong Cinema Expert bey Logan
The Making Of Protégé
Undercover & Over The Edge: An Exclusive interview With Leading Man Daniel Wu
Chasing The Dragon: An Exclusive interview With Leading Lady Zhang Jing-chu
The Dealer: An Exclusive Interview With Producer Peter Cha
Original Theatrical Trailer

Basics
Price: $19.97
Street Date: February 24, 2009
Catalog Number: 81703
Rating: NR
Run Time: 108 minutes
Languages: English Dolby 5.1 and Cantonese Dolby 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish and English SDH
Closed Captioned

Buy it at Amazon.com

"PROTÉGÉ" Makes Dragon Dynasty DVD Debut February 24th