CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: THE COMPLETE EIGHTH SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

Back in the 80s when Larry David was just a skinny, frizzy-haired young castmember of ABC's "Fridays"--which was sort of a bratty bastard nephew of "Saturday Night Live"--I didn't think he was particularly funny or talented.  His success, not to mention obvious comedic abilities, as co-creator of "Seinfeld" came as a big surprise.  And when he took center stage with HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm", scoring big both as the show's driving force and onscreen star, I finally had to admit that this former "Fridays" nobody really had something funny going for him. 

The 2-disc set CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: THE COMPLETE EIGHTH SEASON serves up ten episodes of what some consider to be the funniest show on television.  "Seinfeld" fans should have a ball watching it since it displays that show's brand of humor in its undiluted form, with no laugh track, sitcom trappings, or surrogates (such as Jason Alexander's "George Costanza") acting out Larry David's skewed outlook on life for him. 

Captured in an almost cinema verite' style that's often painfully close to real life, each scene is improvised by the actors as they work with a barebones story outline which is fleshed out mainly by their own spur-of-the-moment dialogue.  This makes everything seem more natural while yielding some wonderfully comic exchanges with a welcome spontaneity you won't find on the usual sitcom. 

Also undiluted here is the show's rich vein of "Jewish" comedy, which was evident on "Seinfeld" but rarely alluded to.  "I love being a Jew" says David's co-star Jeff Garlin (who plays his chubby best friend and manager) in disc two's panel discussion, and clearly one reason for this is the fact that it gives him a chance to play up the humorous aspects of his own religious and cultural background to the hilt. 

This includes the sort of clash between "casual" and Orthodox Jews that has Larry and Jeff gleefully patronizing a Palestinean chicken restaurant (with anti-Semitic owners) every day while their friends are busy trying to protest it out of business.  Larry's friend Funkhouser (Bob "Super Dave" Einstein), who's currently undergoing a reaffirmation of his Jewish heritage complete with yarmulke and lengthy mealtime prayers, catches him in bed with a gorgeous Palestinean woman who shouts such things as "Take that, you filthy Jew!" while an ecstatic Larry enjoys what he later calls the best sex of his life.

Larry's divorce from wife Cheryl (series regular Cheryl Hines) is complicated when he discovers that his lawyer, Berg ("Mr. Show" veteran Paul F. Tompkins), isn't Jewish but Swedish, prompting him to switch to a guy named Hiriam Katz who turns out to be a complete washout.  With the divorce, as you might guess, comes a whole new era of single-guy dating for Larry which supplies a wealth of hitherto unexplored comic material for the show.

As always, Larry's social forte is doing or saying whatever is the most inappropriate for any situation.  In one episode, the daughter of a friend comes to his house to sell Girl Scout cookies and suddenly has her first period, whereupon Larry gives her one of ex-wife Cheryl's tampons and barks the instructions aloud through the bathroom door. 

In another episode, Larry's tendency to speak his mind about what annoys him in others (making smacking noises after a sip of liquid, saying the word "LOL!" instead of actually laughing, using "smilies" while texting, etc.) results in him being dubbed "the Social Assassin", with friends soliciting him to point out such things to their own loved ones that they're afraid to mention.  Naturally, all of this eventually backfires on Larry as does just about everything else.

Jeff Garlin and Susie Essman play Larry's bickering married friends Jeff and Susie, an easygoing, henpecked schlub and an acid-tongued fashion disaster.  Richard Lewis is funny at basically playing himself, a neurotic, obsessive hypochondriac.  (In one episode, Richard is horrified when the stripper he's dating decides to get her breasts reduced due to an ill-timed remark from Larry.)  J.B. Smoove adds additional ethnic humor to the show as Leon, who seems to have permanently moved in with Larry in order to mooch off him.

Guest stars appearing as themselves include Rosie O'Donnell, competing with Larry for the affections of a gorgeous bisexual woman, Michael J. Fox, whose Parkinson's disease is actually mined for big laughs as Larry's infinite capacity for pettiness rears its head yet again, and Ricky Gervais, another victim of Larry's ability to turn any situation into a social minefield. 

Other guests include Michael McKean, Ana Gasteyer, Michael Gross, Harry Hamlin, Robert Smigel, Aida Turturro, Gary Cole, Wanda Sykes, Bill Buckner, and "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" legend Jo Anne Worley. 

The 2-disc DVD from HBO Home Entertainment is in 16:9 widescreen with English and French Dolby 5.1 sound.  Subtitles are in English, French, and Spanish.  Extras consist of "Leon's Guide to NYC" (to where the show relocates late in the season), and a lengthy roundtable discussion featuring Larry, Jeff, Susie, and Cheryl.

One of the few shows in which a line like "My father just died" gets a laugh, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is just the thing for those who thought "Seinfeld" was just a little too genteel.  If you want to find out the meaning behind phrases such as "chat and cut" and "sorry window", CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: THE COMPLETE EIGHTH SEASON is your gateway to inappropriateness.



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CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: THE COMPLETE EIGHTH SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

MONROE: SERIES 1 -- DVD review by porfle

I've never watched "House", which this has been compared to, so on its own merits I would judge "Monroe" to be a pretty compelling medical drama with an interesting lead character.  In Acorn Media's 2-disc DVD set MONROE: SERIES 1, the main emphasis is on how ace neurosurgeon Gabriel Monroe (James Nesbitt) navigates the considerable pitfalls of his personal and professional lives without losing his devil-may-care disposition.

Nesbitt's usual fine performance will be the main draw for fans of his outstanding undercover cop series "Murphy's Law", and he's no less watchable here.  His specialty seems to be maintaining an outwardly cavalier attitude that masks great emotional depth and turmoil, which is pretty much standard operating procedure for our nimble-fingered hero.

At first I thought the personal-life stuff was just going to be a drag on the show (as it was on "Barney Miller" before they simply dropped it entirely) but eventually his problems with wife Anna (Susan Lynch) and moptop son Nick (Perry Millward) gain their own resonance in relation to his everyday struggles with life. 

The fact that his own 13-year-old daughter Charlotte died of a brain hemmorhage following an accident (which prompted Monroe to have an affair, which is why Anna is now leaving him) figures importantly in his character, especially in the sixth and final episode. 

Sharing center stage with Monroe at the hospital is heart specialist Jenny Bremner (Sarah Parish, so impressive in her guest role as a shape-shifting troll in the second season of "Merlin").  Bremner is the consummate professional yet she lacks the patient empathy that Monroe exudes in such abundance. 
Naturally, her coldness masks personal concerns that we'll explore during the season along with her amusingly abrasive relationship with Monroe, especially when she starts to have a secret affair with Monroe's best friend, anesthesiologist Lawrence Shepherd (Tom Riley).  Parish's able handling of the character helps ground the stories and balance out all that breezy nonchalance that Monroe affects to help get him through the day.

As in most medical dramas, Monroe and Bremner give their interns hell at every opportunity in order to toughen them up for their chosen career paths.  Luke Allen-Gale is Monroe's main target as the privileged Daniel Springer, hovering between neurology and cardiology as he labors in vain to see which of the no-nonsense surgeons he can impress the most. 

Michelle Asante plays Kitty Wilson, a young black woman whose tendency to faint dead away at the opening of every skull tells us that she'll make it with flying colors--that's just how it works on these shows--while Christina Chong and Andrew Gower play Witney and Mullery, the chief objects of Bremner's harsh tutelage.

Unlike the barely-controlled chaos of "ER", "Monroe" has a comfy, unhurried feel in which even the sterility of the operating room has a warm glow.  The drama of the generally feelgood storylines is never heavy or jarring enough to impose on the homey-cozy atmosphere surrounding Monroe and his coworkers as they hang out together discussing their love lives, playing poker, or dealing with personality clashes that never get all that serious. 

This means that if you want really hard-hitting emotional turmoil you're in the wrong hospital, but if you're looking for the dramatic equivalent of comfort food, you're likely to find each episode of "Monroe" a full-course meal.  This is reflected even in the soft-focus, muted look of the show, which is often a little too visually interesting for its own good. 

Rarely will you see so much visual dilly-dallying including fadeouts within fadeouts, focus fiddling, meandering camerawork, odd compositions, and an overabundance of song montages to emo songs that I don't even like in the first place.  Mostly all of this works for such a relaxed, non-threatening show, but it can get to be a little much.  

Storywise, "Monroe" plays it safe with the usual tales of couples or families coping with the life-threatening illness of a loved one while caring doctors try to help them through it without getting too emotionally involved themselves.  Since there are so few surprises in that area, the main interest for me is in the operating scenes--it's just inherently fascinating to watch someone cut open another person's skull and try to fix their brain like a glorified TV repairman, or stick their hands into a patient's chest to try and get their heart going again.  The doctors' attempts to lighten things up--music, casual chatter, feigned nonchalance--merely heighten the feeling that something truly amazing and scary is going on.

The 2-disc, 6-episode DVD set from Acorn Media is in 16:9 widescreen with Dolby sound and English subtitles.  There are no extras.

While "Monroe" lacks the cutting (no pun intended) edge or sharp (okay, I intended that one) tone of the grittier medical shows, it makes up for this with interesting character interplay and a warm, humanistic approach.  There's also the fact that James Nesbitt and Sarah Parish are very interesting actors who are fun to watch, which lends MONROE: SERIES 1 those same qualities as well. 


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MONROE: SERIES 1 -- DVD review by porfle

MURDOCH MYSTERIES: SEASON 4 -- DVD review by porfle

With all the CSIs and their ilk jamming the airwaves, we seem to take for granted the fact that, long ago, somebody had to come up with all those brilliant forensic investigation techniques that hasten the resolution of all those baffling murder mysteries.  And that somebody, according to MURDOCH MYSTERIES: SEASON 4, is a Victorian-era Toronto police detective named William Murdoch.

He's back in this 4-disc DVD set from Acorn Media with 13 more episodes of delightfully droll and absorbingly interesting mysteries to spin the cogs of his wildly inventive mind.  It's Canada of the late 1890s--the "Age of Invention"--and Murdoch is on the cutting edge of it all, to both the delight and bafflement of his tough but indulgent boss Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig). 

As wonderfully played by Yannick Bisson, Murdoch is the most straitlaced, unassuming, and rigorously moral of gentlemen, a devout Catholic who crosses himself at every crime scene and eschews glory for the satisfaction of inventing new ways of fighting crime. 

During season four alone he invents the security camera (or as he calls it, the "scrutiny camera"), sonar for locating a sunken steamboat with an illicit cargo, explosive dye cannisters to foil bank robbers, phone-tapping, the pistol silencer, photo faxing, and a host of other rudimentary yet charmingly "futuristic" gadgets that somebody else got the credit for later.

Murdoch's main foil is Constable George Crabtree (Johnny Harris), an intelligent but overly enthusiastic young cop whose delight in such scientific advancement goes hand in hand with a geeky fascination with anything weird or seemingly supernatural.  In "Bloodlust", Crabtree's excitement over the new Bram Stoker sensation "Dracula" actually aids in solving a murder in a girls' boarding school which is apparently plagued by a vampire. 

Crabtree also has a penchant for inadvertently inventing things--in the episode "Downstairs, Upstairs", for example, his examination of Murdoch's scale model of a mansion where a murder took place, including locations such as the library and the observatory, leads him to create the board game "Clue"!  (Which Murdoch, of course, scoffs at--who'd want to play a game about murder?)

Another scale model figures prominently in one of the season's finest episodes, "Dead End Street", in which an idiot savant named Lydia (Liisa Repo-Martell) builds a perfect replica of the street she lives on, complete with her view of a murder she witnessed through a nearby window.  In an example of the show's endlessly creative visual style, Murdoch imagines himself doll-sized as he strolls the tiny street looking for clues among the tiny stand-up figures of Lydia's neighbors. 

Just as season three ended with Murdoch fumbling the ball in his romantic relationship with beautiful medical examiner Dr. Julia Ogden (the stunning Helene Joy), this one agonizes over the awkward situation of Murdoch and Ogden continuing to work together while she's engaged to another man (Jonathan Watton). 

In "Murdoch in Wonderland", this builds to a season-ending wedding which coincides with Murdoch being jailed himself as the prime suspect in a murder that occurs during an "Alice in Wonderland" party (the Mock Turtle gets bludgeoned by a croquet mallet with Murdoch's "fingermarks" all over it).  Even with all this, Murdoch finds a way of getting into even deeper trouble for the season cliffhanger.

The series is beautifully designed and richly mounted, with a strong period atmosphere augmented by well-chosen locations and some fairly nifty CGI overviews of the city.  Direction is uniformly fine, with Bisson himself helming the episode "Buffalo Shuffle" in which Murdoch travels to a children's hospital in Buffalo at the request of Dr. Ogden, who suspects foul play in a little boy's death.  

In "Tattered and Torn", the discovery of three dismembered bodies encased in cement blocks puts Murdoch at odds with a stuffy, old-fashioned medical examiner from Scotland Yard (Paul Rhys, marvelous in a recurring role) who's filling in for Dr. Ogden.  Victor Garber (TITANIC) guest stars.  "Kommando" features a series of murders within a Toronto military regiment, with a terrible shared secret as the motive.

"Monsieur Murdoch" is a scintillating mistaken-identity mystery in which Murdoch works with a flamboyant French detective, Inspector Marcel Guillaume (Yannick Soulier), whose vastly different methods and scandalously uninhibited lifestyle have the conservative Murdoch reeling.  "Confederate Treasure" puts forth an interesting premise--that certain Canadians wanted the South to win the Civil War and set a dastardly plot in motion to help achieve that goal! 

"Dial M For Murdoch" has some delightful bits of business concerning a spunky telephone operator (Rachel Wilson) who overhears a murder on the phone and insists on helping Inspector Crabtree solve the case.  (This is the one where Murdoch invents the phone tap.)  The twist ending is somber and unsettling.  In "The Black Hand", that pistol silencer comes into play as a ruthless assassin from the dreaded USA crime syndicate starts racking up victims in Toronto. 

"Voices" features Michelle Nolden as Murdoch's estranged sister Susannah, who is Mother Superior in a convent where the partially-buried body of a murdered priest is discovered in a grave intended for a deceased nun.  In "The Kissing Bandit", a woman present at a bank robbery finds herself smitten with the dashing thief who gives her a big wet one before making his getaway.  Later, the Robin Hood-style robber drastically alters his tactics by coldbloodedly shooting down one of his victims.  But is it the same man behind the mask?

The four-disc set from Acorn Media is in 16:9 widescreen with Dolby sound and English subtitles.  Extras consist of several brief featurettes.  A 3-disc Blu-Ray edition is also available.

With Yannick Bisson's earnest and endlessly endearing Murdoch leading a stable of very likable characters through some fascinating and richly atmospheric mystery adventures, MURDOCH MYSTERIES: SEASON 4 provides a wealth of rewarding entertainment that fires on all cylinders--just like one of those newfangled internal combustion engines.


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MURDOCH MYSTERIES: SEASON 4 -- DVD review by porfle

BAD ASS -- DVD review by porfle

If you've followed actor Danny Trejo's career from the young prison boxer (which he actually was at the time) of RUNAWAY TRAIN to the fearsome knife-throwing assassin in DESPERADO to the even more fearsome killing machine Machete in MACHETE, then no doubt the lively trailer for BAD ASS (2012) made you think "Hey, this could really be cool."  And if you're like me, actually watching the movie made you think "Hey, this is really...ehh."

Not that seeing perennial bad ass Trejo, now in his late 60s, as a geriatric do-gooder bopping around in a baseball cap, baggy shorts, and sneakers isn't funny and somewhat endearing.  The scene in which he intervenes between two hostile skinheads and an old man on a city bus, kicking their butts and becoming a YouTube hero in the bargain, is feelgood stuff that satisfies my urge to vicariously dole out vigilante justice to those who deserve it. 

Other scenes with Trejo's "Frank Vega" character taking on various attackers and administering gut-busting stomach punches and granite-knuckled haymakers, all in a quest to find the killers of his best friend Klondike (Harrison Page) while the police do nothing, have a similar visceral appeal.  But the movie surrounding all of this is a hit-and-miss affair that resembles some cheesy 70s flick you might have paid scant attention to at the drive-in whenever there wasn't something kinetic taking place on the screen. 

Of course, this may have been director and co-writer Craig Moss' intention and, if so, he has succeeded.  The cheese factor begins early with a flashback of young Viet Nam veteran Frank (Shalim Ortiz) unsuccessfully readjusting to civilian life while wearing what looks like a Halloween wig that was cut and styled at a dog-grooming parlor.  The actress playing the elder Frank's mother (Tonita Castro) later on appears to be between 5-10 years older than him at most. 

When Frank comes to the rescue of pretty young Amber (Joyful Drake), the battered wife next door, their May-December romance is handled in about as embarrassing a fashion as you might imagine.  Amber's son Martin (John Duffy) sports a 70s-style 'fro and is one of those hip wisecracking kids we're supposed to find funny even though we actually want to place-kick him through a bay window.  The dialogue during all this is pretty wince-inducing although Danny, bless his heart, brings his best game to the whole thing, even giving us a crying scene at one point.

Forgetting the film's dumber elements and concentrating on the action is your best bet.  Ron Perlman makes a brief appearance as the city's crooked mayor, but it's his henchman Charles Dutton who gets quality screen time with Frank when he discovers that the local hero is in possession of a flash drive (given to him by Klondike) that could send the mayor to prison. 

Once Frank is captured and tortured via some painful-looking booby electrodes, Dutton does the actor equivalent of Hulking out with some big, and I mean really big-big bad-guy acting that culminates in one of those epic dirty fistfights that makes you wish the camerawork and editing were better.  And right before that, we get a crash-tastic chase between two city buses which pretty much makes the whole movie worth watching. 

The DVD from 20th-Century Fox Home Entertainment is in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.  Extras consist of a director's commentary track and a making-of featurette.

The oddest thing about this film is that in the midst of Frank's occasionally lighthearted quest for justice (Danny Woodburn, the midget from "Seinfeld", has a funny cameo) there's a jarringly nasty scene that's so violent, with the basically decent Frank suddenly turning so heartlessly sadistic, that it's like something out of a torture porn flick.  Yet in his commentary, director Moss seems to regard this as just another cool scene topped off with a couple of funny zingers.  It's just this sort of thing that makes BAD ASS such a disjointed and not particularly cohesive movie--not really bad but not all that good, either.

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BAD ASS -- DVD review by porfle

Anchor Bay Entertainment Proudly Presents "THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON" on Blu-ray and DVD August 28th!

ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT BRINGS BACK THE DEAD WITH “THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON” ON BLU-RAY™ AND DVD AUGUST 28, 2012

A LIMITED EDITION ZOMBIE HEAD DESIGNED BY MCFARLANE TOYS ALSO AVAILABLE

BEVERLY HILLS , CA – The series Variety called "creepy from the first frame" gets a release on Blu-ray™ and DVD that will make the dead rise! Anchor Bay Entertainment proudly releases the AMC original series THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON on August 28th, with an SRP of $69.99 for the Blu-ray™, and $59.98 for the DVD. A truly unique and very limited edition zombie head case created and designed by McFarlane Toys will also be available as Blu-ray™ only for a SRP of $99.99.  Pre-book is August 1st.  The 4-Disc sets will contain all 13 episodes of the second season and will be loaded with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, featurettes and audio commentaries.

THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON is the much anticipated next chapter to the acclaimed post zombie apocalypse series. When we last left the “The Walking Dead,” the characters were in the midst of a high-intensity struggle to survive, fleeing the CDC as it burst into flames. In Season 2, they are still fighting zombies, and each other, facing more threats and obstacles than ever before.

Based on the hugely successful and popular comic books, written by Robert Kirkman, AMC’s “The Walking Dead” captures the ongoing human drama after a zombie apocalypse. The series follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually), who are traveling in search of a safe and secure home. However, instead of the zombies, it’s the living who still remain that may be the biggest threat. Jon Bernthal (Rampart) plays Shane Walsh, Rick's sheriff's department partner before the apocalypse, and Sarah Wayne Callies (“Prison Break”), is Rick's wife, Lori. THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON cast also includes Laurie Holden (Fantastic Four), Steven Yeun (My Name is Jerry), Norman Reedus (The Boondock Saints), Jeffrey DeMunn (The Shawshank Redemption), Chandler Riggs (Get Low), Iron E. Singleton (Seeking Justice) and Melissa McBride (The Mist). Guest stars for the second season include Lauren Cohan (“Chuck”), Scott Wilson (Monster) and Pruitt Taylor Vince (Constantine).

“The Walking Dead” is a hit with both audiences and critics.  The first season won the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or Special and was nominated for Emmys® in Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series and Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series. Season 1 also garnered a Golden Globe® nomination for Best Television Series - Drama, and was named to the American Film Institute’s (AFI) Top 10 Programs of the Year (2010), among other accolades.

Season 3 of “The Walking Dead” premieres on AMC in October.

About AMC
AMC reigns as the only cable network in history to ever win the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row, as well as the Golden Globe® Award for Best Television Series - Drama for three consecutive years.  Whether commemorating favorite films from every genre and decade or creating acclaimed original programming, the AMC experience is an uncompromising celebration of great stories.  AMC's original stories include “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Walking Dead,” “The Killing” and “Hell on Wheels.”  AMC further demonstrates its commitment to the art of storytelling with its slate of unscripted original series, as well as curated movie franchises like AMC’s Can’t Get Enough and AMC’s Crazy About.  Available in more than 97 million homes (Source: Nielsen Media Research), AMC is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. and its sister networks include IFC, Sundance Channel and WE tv.  AMC is available across all platforms, including on-air, online, on demand and mobile.  AMC: Story Matters HereSM.

About Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is the home entertainment division of Starz Media, LLC. It includes the Anchor Bay Films and Manga Entertainment brands. It distributes feature films, children’s entertainment, fitness, TV series, documentaries, anime and other filmed entertainment on Blu-ray™ and DVD formats. Headquartered in Beverly Hills , CA , Anchor Bay Entertainment has offices in Troy , MI , as well as Canada , the United Kingdom and Australia . Starz Media is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation.


THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON Blu-ray™
Street Date:                 August 28, 2012       
Pre-book:                     August 1, 2012
Cat. #:                         BD25260
UPC:                           0 1313 25260-9 6
Run Time:                   Approx. 600 Minutes
Rating:                        Not Rated
SRP:                            $69.99
Format:                        Widescreen Presentation 1.78:1
Audio:                         English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and French Dolby Surround 2.0
Subtitles:                     English and Spanish

THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON DVD
Street Date:                 August 28, 2012       
Pre-book:                     August 1, 2012
Cat. #:                         DV25247
UPC:                           1313 25247-9 5
Run Time:                   Approx. 600 Minutes
Rating:                        Not Rated
SRP:                            $59.98
Format:                        Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio:                         English Dolby Digital 5.1 and French Dolby Surround 2.0
Subtitles:                     English and Spanish

THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON Limited Edition Blu-ray™
Street Date:                 August 28, 2012       
Pre-book:                     August 1, 2012
Cat. #:                         BD25332
UPC:                           0 1313 25332-9 2
Run Time:                   Approx. 600 Minutes
Rating:                        Not Rated
SRP:                            $99.99
Format:                        Widescreen Presentation 1.78:1
Audio:                         English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and French Dolby Surround 2.0
Subtitles:                     English and Spanish


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DVD
Blu-Ray
Limited Edition Blu-Ray

Anchor Bay Entertainment Proudly Presents "THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON" on Blu-ray and DVD August 28th!

Must-see DVDs - "Doc Martin", "New Tricks", and Home Video Debut of a Classic ABC Miniseries on June 5 from Acorn

On June 5th, Acorn has three must-see DVDs, including "Doc Martin, Series 5", Acorn’s newest best-selling series, and a perfect alternative now that House has ended; the long-awaited home video debut of the classic, Emmy®-winning ABC miniseries "Washington: Behind Closed Doors"; and another season of one of the most-watched shows on British television, "New Tricks, Season 7."

---------------------------

DOC MARTIN, SERIES 5
Debuts on DVD on June 5, 2012

Smash-hit British dramedy starring Martin Clunes; Currently airing on public television

“Sweet, stirring, and completely addictive” —Slate
“Delightfully quirky” —Los Angeles Times
“Outstanding” —The Globe and Mail
“Absolutely bloody hilarious” —London Evening Standard
“This show is just what the doctor ordered.” —TV Times

Silver Spring, MD —The huge hit dramedy currently airing on public television stations across the U.S., Doc Martin, Series 5 debuts on DVD from Acorn Media on June 5, 2012. Akin to House and Northern Exposure, BAFTA Winner Martin Clunes (Men Behaving Badly, Shakespeare in Love, Reggie Perrin) stars in the series as a misanthropic, socially maladjusted doctor forced to relocate to a rustic seaside village, where he immediately clashes with the town’s eccentric citizens. Emmy® winner Eileen Atkins (Cranford, co-creator of Upstairs, Downstairs) joins the cast in Series 5. The DVD 2-disc set includes eight episodes, plus 62-minutes of behind-the-scenes segments ($39.99, www.AcornOnline.com). Doc Martin is a huge hit in the U.K. with 10 million viewers, and its gaining momentum on public television; it’s the highest-rated program on KCET/Los Angeles. A sixth season will begin production in 2013.

In Series 5, fatherhood hasn’t softened the dour Dr. Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes). He’s about to take a new position in London when events conspire to keep him in Portwenn. His infant son with Louisa (Caroline Catz, Murder in Suburbia) needs a name, his replacement doesn’t seem up to the job, and he receives devastating news. Like it or not, he’s stuck in the scenic Cornish village with its quirky inhabitants—most of whom have grudgingly grown rather fond of the grumpy doctor.

Although Martin has largely mastered his fear of blood, he still has no clue how to manage his life. How can he cope with sleepless nights, an aunt with issues, a flaky new receptionist, Louisa’s hippie mother, and the usual village dramas?

Filmed in the idyllic Cornwall village of Port Isaac, Doc Martin won the Best TV Comedy Drama at the British Comedy Awards. The series premiered on ITV in the U.K. in 2004 and has aired for five series. Series 5 premiered on public television in April 2012. Acorn Media previously released Doc Martin, Series 2 – 4 in individual sets (2009-2010) and a Doc Martin Collection: Series 1-4 (2011).

BONUS: Behind-the-scenes segments (62 min.), cast filmographies, and photo gallery

Street: June 5, 2012                                      SRP: $39.99

DVD 2-Disc Set: 8 episodes on 2 discs; approx. 368 min., plus bonus; 16:9 widescreen; SDH subtitles

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WASHINGTON: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Emmy-winning political drama seen on ABC; Starring Cliff Robertson, Jason Robards, Stefanie Powers, and Robert Vaughn

Home Video Debut on DVD June 5, 2012

“Fascinating political intrigue” —The New York Times
“Very entertaining” —The Washington Post

Silver Spring, MD —Showcasing high-stakes political intrigue at its best, the award-winning miniseries inspired by the Nixon presidency, Washington: Behind Closed Doors, debuts on home video from Acorn Media on June 5, 2012. Based on the post-Watergate novel, The Company, by former Nixon advisor John Ehrlichman, the seven-time Emmy® nominated program stars Cliff Robertson (Falcon Crest, Spider-Man, and Best Actor Academy Award for Charly), two-time Oscar winner Jason Robards (All the President’s Men, Julia), two-time Emmy nominee Stefanie Powers (Hart to Hart), and Robert Vaughn (The Magnificent Seven), who won for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series. Broadcast on ABC in 1977, the acclaimed miniseries co-stars Andy Griffith (Matlock) and John Houseman (The Paper Chase). The DVD 3-disc set includes six episodes, plus an 8-page viewer’s guide with articles on the historical background of the program ($59.99, www.AcornOnline.com).

CIA director Bill Martin (Cliff Robertson) knows that an incoming president means a new direction for the country—and another set of eyes on the top secret Primula Report. Martin tries to build a rapport with his new boss, but President Richard Monckton (Jason Robards) is more interested in settling old scores and cleaning house with the help of the FBI.

Against the backdrop of a war in Southeast Asia and antiwar protests at home, this political drama tells the story of an increasingly paranoid president, an administration under siege, and a reckless group of White House aides desperate to hold on to power.

BONUS: 8-page booklet with articles on the historical background of the program, the Vietnam War, peace movements in America, Nixon’s visit to China, and the Watergate scandal; plus brief biographies of the political figures of the period

Street: June 5, 2012                                      SRP: $59.99

DVD 3-Disc Set: 6 episodes; approx. 550 min.; 4:3 full screen; SDH subtitles

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NEW TRICKS, SEASON 7 Debuts on DVD June 5, 2012

One of the most-watched shows on British television; Seen on BBC and PBS

“Mysteries are top notch, twisty and ingeniously solved…Great fun”—PaperMag
“Well-cast cop drama” –The Independent
“Drama of the highest quality” –The Mail on Sunday
“Fresh and clever” —London Evening Standard

Silver Spring, MD — Featuring strong writing, wry humor, and a splendid cast, the long-running, award-winning series New Tricks, Season 7 debuts on DVD from Acorn Media on June 5, 2012. Amanda Redman (Sexy Beast), Dennis Waterman (The Sweeney, Circles of Deceit), Alun Armstrong (Garrow’s Law, Bleak House, Patriot Games), and James Bolam (The Beiderbecke Affair) star as a team of semi-retired and somewhat curmudgeonly detectives investigating cold cases. In this wildly popular series, aging cops and traditional sleuthing trump high-tech gadgets and modern criminology. New Tricks has run on the BBC for eight seasons since 2003 and has already been renewed for a ninth and tenth season. The series has enjoyed ongoing broadcast exposure in North America on public television, garnering fans on both sides of the Atlantic.  The DVD 3-disc set includes all ten episodes from Season 7, plus a bonus behind-the-scenes featurette and bloopers ($39.99, www.AcornOnline.com).

James Bolam, Alun Armstrong, and Dennis Waterman star as three detectives pulled out of retirement to unravel cases that stumped the Metropolitan Police. Their beautiful boss, Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman), keeps them on track and mostly out of trouble as they follow their hunches and bend the rules. This time around, the team has its hands full with unsolved murders, an 18-year-old abduction, and a 30-year-old robbery that threatens the team’s very existence. Guest stars include Rupert Graves (Death at a Funeral), Paul Rhys (Chaplin), Samantha Bond (Downton Abbey), and Siân Phillips (I, Claudius).

Episodes: Dark Chocolate, Good Morning Lemmings, It Smells of Books, Coming Out Ball, Dead Man Talking, Fashion Victim, Left Field, Gloves Off, Where There's Smoke, The Fourth Man

Street Date: June 5, 2012                 SRP: $39.99

DVD 3-Disc Set: 10 episodes; approx. 582 min., plus bonus; 16:9 widescreen; SDH subtitles

BONUS Behind-the-scenes featurette (8 min.) and bloopers (10 min.)

Acorn Media previously released New Tricks, Seasons 3-6 as DVD 3-disc sets ($39.99).


Acorn’s and Athena’s DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn Media at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com and www.athenalearning.com.

Must-see DVDs - "Doc Martin", "New Tricks", and Home Video Debut of a Classic ABC Miniseries on June 5 from Acorn

THE COLLAPSED -- DVD review by porfle

The making-of featurette is called "Apocalypse on a Budget", and you'll get the idea when all of civilization falls apart during the main titles--via a brief newsclip montage of rioting in the streets--and we join the Weaver family's struggle to survive already in progress.  There have been so many end-of-the-world thrillers by now that we don't need any more exposition or explanation than that.  All we need is a new and creative variation on the premise, which THE COLLAPSED (2011) manages to provide very well despite that modest budget.

For the first ten or fifteen minutes, you might think you're watching a loose remake of Ray Milland's minor classic PANIC IN YEAR ZERO (1962).  There's Mom and Dad and Bro and Sis, making their way into the sticks to escape the chaos of a fallen city and facing their own descent into savagery as they're forced to defend themselves against ruthless marauders. 

Again, dear old Dad steps up to his new responsibilities with a hardness that surprises the others.  This time, though, Mom and Sis aren't such weepy, whiny pacifists, and Bro is the one who tends to get a tad angsty and existential about the whole thing.  Still, there's a familiarity to their flight from gun-toting bad guys and subsequent cross-country trudge to a small community where another son is hoped to have survived. 

But just when we think we have the rest of the story pretty well figured out, THE COLLAPSED pulls the rug out from under us with a plot twist that's shockingly unexpected, leaving PANIC IN YEAR ZERO behind and taking us down a path where we don't know what the hell's going to happen next. 

Add to this the fact that during their entire trek, an unseen and seemingly demonic presence has been following them every step of the way.  As each family member senses it with some growing, fundamental dread, we begin to wonder just what really happened in lieu of the usual zombies, nuclear war, or natural disaster to bring the world to its current state. 

This mysterious supernatural element is the kicker that sends THE COLLAPSED from its cozy "I know what's gonna happen next" comfort-viewing status into the realm of the really weird, making it one of the most suspenseful and surprising of the recent indy post-apocalyptic thrillers. 

It's a good example of how some enthusiastic filmmakers with a little imagination can transcend things like unpolished acting (although the cast acquit themselves well), limited settings (most of the story takes place in the woods), and an almost total lack of SPFX save for some early shots of the ruined city and some minor gore effects here and there.  The story is straightforward and simple but the places it goes will keep you guessing right up until a final revelation that scores high enough on the "WTF?" meter to place it smack dab in the middle of the Twilight Zone.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 sound.  Subtitles are in English (and whoever wrote them had a field day describing that mysterious supernatural presence).  Extras include one commentary track with writer-producer-director Justin McConnell and co-producer Kevin Hutchinson, and another with actor John Fantasia ("Dad" Weaver).

There's also a music video for the end-titles song "Devil in Disguise" by Rob Kleiner, trailers, a photo gallery, cast and crew bios, and a weblink to unlock the "Apocalypse on a Budget" making-of documentary.  Kleiner's entire musical score is available as a free MP3 download but you can also listen to it in its entirety here, uninterrupted, essentially making the DVD a soundtrack CD. 

THE COLLAPSED currently enjoys an IMDb score of 2.9 out of 10 (from 110 votes), so, needless to say, my mileage varied.  I found it as entertaining as one of those little TV-movies on "The ABC Movie of the Week" back in the 70s--like BAD RONALD or DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK--that would strike a chord with viewers and become a cult favorite over the years.


Buy it at Amazon.com

THE COLLAPSED -- DVD review by porfle

CORIOLANUS -- DVD review by porfle

This is one of those movies where the early notes I jot down are pretty unfavorable, but as it begins to grow on me I find myself having to rethink what I've written about it.

Not that I'm totally sold on director-star Ralph Fiennes' updated Shakespeare drama CORIOLANUS (2011).  Ever since filmmakers started trying to transplant the Bard's plays verbatim into modern settings, the results haven't always been pretty.  For one thing, I just don't think 21st-century characters can recite Shakespeare's poetic prose in a casual way without viewers being constantly distracted by the utter incongruity of it all.

But Fiennes, along with screenwriter John Logan, tries to get us accustomed to this early on with Senator Menenius (Brian Cox), of "a place that calls itself Rome", awkwardly conversing with Coriolanus' mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) and wife Virgilia (Jessica Chastain) about the military hero's recent victory over Volsce invader Aufidius (Gerard Butler).  Cox, always a fine actor, struggles manfully while the great Vanessa Redgrave does as well as anyone possibly could to make her lines seem conversational.

After we get through this gulp of unwieldy dialogue, the rest doesn't taste quite as bad.  This is especially true in the more confrontational scenes such as Coriolanus' vicious hand-to-hand battle with Aufidius, a former friend turned arch enemy, as they utter some of literary history's most elegant putdowns.  (The gritty urban warfare scenes themselves are nothing special, sporting the usual artless, faux-newsreel shaky-cam, so it's a good thing the film focuses on drama over action.)

Later, when Coriolanus is prodded into running for high office despite his steadfast unwillingness to pander to the people ("Good mother, I would rather be their servant in my way, than to sway with them in theirs"), it's fun listening to his devious political foes Sicinius (James Nesbitt, "Murphy's Law") and Brutus (Paul Jesson) spinning their plot against him and exhorting the fickle crowds to demand his execution or exile.  A sort of televised "town meeting" provides the setting for one heated exchange, while TV news anchors and political pundits serve as the play's chorus.

Cox and Redgrave have settled comfortably into their roles by this time and start reeling off the Shakespeare like the old pros that they are.  When Coriolanus' forced exile takes a drastically unexpected turn, Redgrave is particularly outstanding when the prideful mother must beseech her son to alter his current course of vengeance against Rome and its people. 

Fiennes himself dominates the film with a heady combination of Shakespearean intensity and tough-guy bombast (with the help of the burly Butler as Aufidius), wading through early scenes in a horror-show mask of gore before settling into the character of the battle-scarred warrior unfit for political gamesmanship.  The latter persona is the more interesting, as Coriolanus stands unyielding against the internal corruption he feels is more destructive to Rome than its external enemies. 

The DVD from Anchor Bay and the Weinsteins is in 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  Extras consist of a director's commentary and a "making-of" featurette.  The film also comes in a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack.

If turning a Shakespeare play into a modern-day war movie with the original dialogue intact sounds like a dumb idea to you, you're not alone because that was my first impression as well.  But the conceit gradually becomes more interesting than awkward, ultimately generating a strange fascination that I found pretty involving.  You may want to turn the subtitles on and read along with the actors while watching CORIOLANUS, because the dialogue goes by pretty fast and, more than anything else, it's what this movie is about.


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DVD
Blu-Ray/DVD combo

CORIOLANUS -- DVD review by porfle

MEMORIAL DAY -- DVD review by porfle

Some war flicks serve up non-stop, blazing battle action for us to pound down popcorn by, while others are dark political nightmares that have us suffering the existential horror of it all.  And then there's MEMORIAL DAY (2011), the kind of war movie that just wants to get inside some soldiers' heads for awhile.

While Staff Sergeant Kyle Vogel (Jonathan Bennett) serves in Iraq, his experiences keep drawing him back to a lazy Memorial Day in 1993 when, as a 13-year-old boy in Minnesota, he found his grandfather's WWII footlocker filled with "souvenirs."  Bud Vogel (James Cromwell) tells Kyle to put it back, but the boy insists on hearing some of the old man's war stories.  Bud makes a deal--three items, three stories, and if Kyle behaves like a man, Bud will talk to him like one.

That special afternoon between Bud and Kyle on the porch, embued with all the golden-hued notalgia of a lemonade commercial, is the heart of MEMORIAL DAY, when the mentally failing old man recalls his precious stories one last time for the boy who is now mature enough to appreciate them.  Kyle's first choice, naturally, is a pistol, but rather than yielding a tale of daring adventure it takes the old man back to one of those days that still haunts him deep in his soul. 
All of the action we see during these flashbacks is peripheral to such emotional trauma, with soldiers such as Bud not only losing beloved comrades but sharing moments of grief and anguish with the enemy as well.  A battle in a Belgian forest in '44 serves mainly to establish the bond between the men involved (along with how Bud happened to get shrapnel from a potato masher in his butt), while another confrontation ends with Bud losing his best friend via an almost anticlimactic final shot. 

Director Samuel Fischer handles the WWII sequences in a more traditional style than the "Saving Private Ryan"/"Band of Brothers" look we expect nowadays.  The latter is used during the present-day Kyle's day-to-day experiences in Anbar Province, Iraq, which are also shown to consist of long periods of dull drudgery and mounting tension punctuated by moments of horror and chaos.  Again, the brief battle scenes are practically beside the point, and one mission to capture a terrorist leader, which is given considerable build-up, is aborted before it begins.

When a shrapnel injury lands him in the hospital, a sympathetic nurse (Emily Fradenburgh) allows Kyle to wax reminiscent himself, his stories often containing parallels to those of his grandfather as he harkens back to that long-ago Memorial Day.  Thus, we learn that a soldier's life is pretty much the same no matter the time or place, with the emotional significance of an event taking precedence over anything else.

Cromwell, who by now could probably play a part like this in his sleep, gives his usual sturdy performance as old Bud, while his son John plays the younger version in flashbacks.  The fact that John looks and sounds so much like his old man, in addition to being a pretty good actor himself, gives these scenes added authenticity.  As the older Kyle, Jonathan Bennett underplays enough to come across as a regular guy. 

The DVD from Image Entertainment is in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound.  Extras consist of a commentary from director, producer, and actor John Cromwell, and a very brief behind-the-scenes short.

If you're expecting lots of action, be prepared to spend a leisurely afternoon on the porch with Grandpa during much of MEMORIAL DAY, which lives up to its title in a wistful, contemplative, and melancholy way.  This is the story of everyday soldiers doing a job which, at times, happens to exact an overwhelming emotional toll that stays with them for the rest of their lives.  However, chances are that this well-meaning but ultimately rather bland movie won't affect you nearly that long, because although it does what it sets out to do fairly well, it never comes close to the kind of emotional crescendo that it labors to achieve.


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DVD
Blu-Ray

MEMORIAL DAY -- DVD review by porfle

Monroe w/James Nesbitt, Murdoch Mysteries 4 make U.S. debuts on DVD from Acorn

James Nesbitt (Murphy’s Law, The Hobbit) stars in new medical drama MONROE, Series 1 -- Makes U.S. Debut on DVD May 29, 2012

“Blessed with heart and brain” —The Sunday Times

“Sharply written” —The Guardian

Silver Spring, MD — With a dose of House’s dark humor and an infusion of humanity and warmth, the gripping medical drama, Monroe, debuts on DVD from Acorn Media on May 29, 2012. Acclaimed Irish actor James Nesbitt (Murphy’s Law, Woody Allen’s Match Point, and the upcoming Hobbit films) stars as Dr. Gabriel Monroe, a neurosurgical genius with a quick wit and a heart to match his titanic ego. Following no rules but his own, Monroe infuriates colleagues and terrifies interns with his glib repartee and arrogant self-regard. Monroe offers a riveting look inside the high-stakes medical profession (DVD 2-disc set, 6 episodes, $39.99, www.AcornOnline.com). Series 1 premiered on ITV in March 2011; a second season has been commissioned. Monroe made its U.S. debut on Acorn’s streaming service, Acorn TV, earlier this year but has not aired on U.S. television.

Pitting his formidable skills against high-risk medical emergencies is only one of Monroe’s challenges. He and his team must also navigate the toll that medicine takes on patients and doctors—especially when dealing with their personal lives. As slick as he is with a scalpel, Monroe struggles at home as a husband and father, and at work he clashes with brusque heart surgeon Dr. Jenny Bremner (Sarah Parish, The Pillars of the Earth). Tom Riley (Lost in Austen) also stars.

Street: May 29, 2012                         SRP: $39.99

DVD 2-Disc Set: 6 Episodes; Approx. 274 mins. – British drama - SDH subtitles

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Forensic Sleuthing in the Age of Invention; Fourth season of the charming period mystery on Blu-ray and DVD; Available to U.S. audiences for the first time

MURDOCH MYSTERIES, SEASON 4 -- U.S. debut on Blu-ray and DVD May 29, 2012

“If you haven’t seen it, you must” —The Globe and Mail

“Excellent adventure” —Midwest Book Review

“Truly outstanding” – The Fort Bend/Southwest Star

“Yannick Bisson is perfect as Murdoch.” —Deseret News

“Smart, fast-paced fun” —The Globe and Mail

Silver Spring, MD —Combining the period appeal of Sherlock Holmes with the forensic fascination of CSI, Murdoch Mysteries, Season 4, debuts on Blu-ray and DVD from Acorn Media on May 29, 2012. Based on the characters from award-winning author Maureen Jennings’ Detective Murdoch novels, the acclaimed Canadian series has garnered 25 Gemini® nominations to its credit, including Best Writing and Best Dramatic Series. Set in Victorian-era Toronto, this smart, compelling series follows Yannick Bisson (Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye) as Detective William Murdoch as he pushes the boundaries of criminal science to solve the city’s most baffling murders. Distributed by ITV Studios and available to U.S. audiences for the first time, the 4-volume DVD boxed set and 3-disc Blu-ray set include all 13 episodes from season four, plus a behind-the-scenes featurette ($59.99 each, www.AcornOnline.com). A fifth season has already been produced, and a sixth season begins production in spring 2012.

Season 4 pits the kindhearted Detective Murdoch against a would-be vampire, a costumed killer, and ruthless mobsters, inspiring him to whip up a slew of innovative crime-fighting techniques along the way. But while Murdoch nabs the culprits with the help of politically ambitious inspector Thomas Brackenreid (Thomas Craig, Where the Heart Is) and eager constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris, Hatching, Matching & Dispatching), he struggles to subdue his feelings for former sweetheart Dr. Julia Ogden (Gemini® winner Hélène Joy, Durham County).

The series guest stars Victor Garber (Alias, Titanic), Simon Williams (Upstairs, Downstairs), Peter Keleghan (The Red Green Show), and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper in a cameo.

Season 4 debuted in Canada on CityTV in June 2011. Acorn Media previously released Season 1-3 on DVD as well as on Blu-ray for Seasons 1 and 3. The Murdoch Mysteries website is www.murdochmysteries.com

Special Features: Behind-the-scenes featurette (15 min.), and alternate love letters (2 min.)

Street: May 29, 2012 - 13 episodes – Approx. 598 min., plus bonus - SDH subtitles

Blu-ray 3-Disc Set (SRP: $59.99) / DVD 4-Vol. Boxed Set (SRP: $59.99)


Acorn’s and Athena’s DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn Media at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com and www.athenalearning.com.

Monroe w/James Nesbitt, Murdoch Mysteries 4 make U.S. debuts on DVD from Acorn

Classic Romance-Thriller "CASABLANCA" To Be Screened One Night Only On Facebook

HUMPHREY BOGART-INGRID BERGMAN CLASSIC “CASABLANCA” TO BE SCREENED FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY ON FACEBOOK

MOVIE FANS CAN WATCH A COMPLIMENTARY SCREENING AND COMMENT IN REAL-TIME DIRECTLY ON FILM’S FACEBOOK PAGE

SCREENING TO TAKE PLACE THIS WEDNESDAY AT 7 PM ET/PT

BURBANK, CALIF., May 15, 2012 – Here’s looking at you kid! Warner Bros. Digital Distribution today announced the legendary film “Casablanca” – which critic Leonard Maltin calls “the best Hollywood movie of all time,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and winner of three Academy Awards®, including Best Picture (1944), can be viewed directly on the “Casablanca” movie Facebook Page.  On Wednesday, May 16 movie fans across the United States are invited to microwave some popcorn and gather by the warm glow of the computer monitor to enjoy a complimentary showing this timeless love story at 7 pm ET and 7 pm PT.

This complimentary screening of “Casablanca” celebrates the recent launch of the “Casablanca 70th Anniversary Three-disc Blu-ray + DVD Combo Edition” from Warner Home Video.  This limited and numbered gift set edition will introduce two never-before-seen documentaries – “Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic,” and “Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You Never Heard Of.”  The new documentaries will complete the most extensive collection of content in one gift set -- more than 14 hours of bonus material that also includes a compilation of three comprehensive feature length documentaries: “The Brothers Warner, You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story” and “Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul.”  The “Casablanca 70th Anniversary 3-Disc Blu ray + DVD Combo Edition” is now available for $64.99 SRP.

This special screening event also celebrates “Inside the Script,” a new digital publishing initiative that gives movie fans an innovative new way to go deep inside their favorite films.  “Inside the Script” is a series of highly illustrated eBooks that contain the film’s actual shooting script, rare materials from the Warner Bros. Corporate Archive and much more. The first series of “Inside the Script” titles are based on cinematic treasures including, “Casablanca,” “Ben-Hur,” “An American in Paris” and “North by Northwest,” and are currently available via iBookstore, Kindle and NOOK by Barnes & Noble. 

“Inside the Script” offers movie fans an all-access pass to go behind-the-scenes of the films they know and love. Every “Inside the Script” title includes the film’s complete shooting script in a customizable eBook format; dozens of chapters about the script and the film that detail the movie’s development; rare historical documents such as production notes, storyboards and candid photos; and an interactive image gallery of costumes, on-set stills, movie posters, set designs and behind-the-scenes photos. 

Highlighted elements from “Casablanca: Inside the Script” include:
- Jack Warner’s telegrams and memos
- Producer Hal Wallis’ script and production notes
- Production Code Administration letters, notes and seal of approval
- Telegram from producer Hal Wallis refuting his fight with Jack Warner

Note: Movie fans must begin watching “Casablanca” prior to 9 pm PT through the film’s Facebook Page.  Only one screening per Facebook account is permitted.  Additional details on the screening can be found at the “Casablanca” movie Facebook Page.      

About the Film
“Casablanca” has remained a beloved favorite for almost seven decades, and was voted the screen’s greatest love story and the #3 film of all time by the American Film Institute (AFI). This classic wartime romance also took Oscars® for Michael Curtiz (Directing -1944); Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch (Writing – Screenplay -1944 ) and the studio (Outstanding Motion Picture -1944 ).

“Casablanca”: easy to enter, but much harder to leave, especially if you're wanted by the Nazis. Such a man is Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one - especially Victor's wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the ex-lover who broke his heart. Ilsa offers herself in exchange for Laszlo's transport out of the country and bitter Rick must decide what counts more - personal happiness or countless lives hanging in the balance.

About Warner Bros. Digital Distribution
Warner Bros. Digital Distribution (WBDD) oversees the electronic distribution of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group’s content through Video-On-Demand, Pay-Per-View, Electronic Sell-Through and Subscription Video-On-Demand via cable, satellite, online and mobile channels.   WBDD also distributes content through third party digital retailers and licensees.  A worldwide industry leader since its inception, WBDD also manages the Studio’s E-commerce sites that include WBShop.com and WarnerArchive.com.  Twitter: @WBDigitalDist

Buy the Casablanca 70th Anniversary 3-Disc Blu ray+DVD Combo Edition at Amazon.com

Academy Award(s)® and Oscar(s)® are both registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Blu-ray Disc™ and Blu-ray™ and the logos are the trademarks of Blu-ray Discs Association

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Classic Romance-Thriller "CASABLANCA" To Be Screened One Night Only On Facebook

Anchor Bay Entertainment takes the ride in "BLACK LIMOUSINE" coming to DVD July 10th

IN HOLLYWOOD SOME PEOPLE TAKE THE RIDE...OTHERS HAVE TO DRIVE

"BLACK LIMOUSINE" STARRING DAVID ARQUETTE AND BIJOU PHILLIPS

Rolls out on DVD July 10 from Anchor Bay Entertainment

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Tinseltown isn’t always as bright as it may seem. Anchor Bay Entertainment is proud to announce the release of Black Limousine on DVD July 10, 2012.  Directed by the founder of Cineville Carl Colpaert (G.I. Jesus), this surreal Hollywood story created a buzz on the film festival circuit, winning the audience award at the Santa Cruz Film Festival. Black Limousine is stylish and unique with a top-notch cast and memorable performances by David Arquette (Scream 4, “Dancing with the Stars”), Bijou Phillips (Almost Famous), Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill Vol. 1), Nicholas Bishop (“Body of Proof”) and Lin Shaye (There’s Something About Mary).

Jack MacKenzie (Arquette), once a hot Hollywood composer, has fallen on hard times.  Having resorted to taking a draining job as a limo driver just to make ends meet, he is a broken man, trying to put his life back together by picking up the pieces of a shattered family and career. Jack’s sprit and sanity have been crushed by the loss of his first daughter and he has turned to alcohol to deal with the grief.

Jack catches a break when he is assigned to drive A-List Actor Thomas Bower (Bishop) back-and-forth to the set of his latest film, during which time the two build a friendship of sorts. Bower remembers the score Jack had previously written for a science fiction epic, and appears interested and willing to help him get re-established. Jack also strikes up a sexually charged relationship with Erica Long (Phillips), a model and singer, who is struggling with demons of her own.

Battling his repressed memories, depression and addiction, Jack starts to lose control of the one thing he values most - his mind. He must now pull himself together before something goes horribly wrong. However, in the city of dreams…life isn’t always at it seems.

With powerful performances and thought-provoking themes, Black Limousine will bring to mind the recent critical hit Drive. Here is a beautiful and haunting examination of a man driven to the brink of madness, dreamlike and harrowing; Black Limousine is truly an unforgettable ride.

Black Limousine DVD
Street Date:                 July 10, 2012
Pre-book:                    June 13, 2012
Cat. #:                         AF25057
UPC:                           0 1313 25057-9 4
Run Time:                   110 minutes
Rating:                         Rated R
SRP:                           $22.98
Format:                       Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio:                          Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:                     English

Buy it at Amazon.com

Anchor Bay Entertainment takes the ride in "BLACK LIMOUSINE" coming to DVD July 10th

JULES VERNE'S MYSTERIOUS ISLAND -- movie review by porfle

Never having read the original novel (I have to save some of the classics to help occupy my golden years) I can't point out all the ways in which JULES VERNE'S MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (2010) differs from its source material.  For Verne's sake, though, I'll assume that most of the dumber stuff is new.

This SyFy Original Movie starts off during the last days of the Civil War, with a group of Union soldiers escaping their rebel captors in a hot-air balloon which then gets sucked into a time vortex within the Bermuda Triangle and deposited on the titular island.  I sense one or two deviations from Verne already.

We can tell which ones are the Confederate soldiers because they all have googly-eyed hick expressions, holler "Woooo!" and "Yee-haa!", and are either bad guys like Pencroft (J.D. Evermore) or deserters like Tom Ayrton (Lawrence Turner), both of whom also end up on the balloon.  Lochlyn Munro's Captain Cyrus Harding of Boston, on the other hand, is Mr. Wonderful. 

Cyrus' men are the semi-wonderful Neb (Edrick Browne), a black soldier who trades racial sneer-downs with Pencroft, and comical derp Private Herbert (Caleb Michaelson).  Pruitt Taylor Vince appears briefly as roguish journalist Gideon Spilett, but his character manages to fall out of the balloon right after takeoff. 

This being SyFy, I was expecting a menagerie of giant bad-CGI creatures to be roaming the island and was disappointed to find our heroes menaced only by a bunch of guys in hairy monster suits.  There is an oversized octopus who attacks anyone trying to leave by boat, but we see only its undulating tentacles (which seem to be a SyFy specialty). 

Things get relatively interesting when a small airplane flies out of the time vortex and crashes, the only survivors being Julia "Jules" Fogg (Gina Holden) and her incredibly annoying kid sister Abby (Susie Abromeit), whom I desperately wanted to see get eaten by, well, anything. 

They're from the year 2012 so they update the olden-times guys on things such as who won the "Civil War", who our current President is (Neb gets to say "neener-neener" to Pencroft over this one), and how being a rock star has nothing to do with actual rocks.  Jules is clearly intended for our man Cyrus romance-wise, while Abby seems to prefer Neb at first and then switches to Herbert since they have more in common, like stupidity.

Eventually they all stumble onto a mansion which turns out to belong to none other than Captain Nemo of the super-submarine Nautilus (William Morgan Sheppard), who has lived there since he created the time vortex and got sucked into it himself along with his now-dead crew.  Sheppard, recently seen as the stuffy Vulcan Science Academy dude in STAR TREK, is a distinguished actor with an impressive history, but here he just seems tired and not very excited by the whole thing.

About halfway through the movie, Jules finally notices the enormous active volcano right outside their doorstep, which is currently threatening to erupt and kill them all.  This adds an element of urgency to the meandering story (at around 91 minutes, this movie has a lot of time to kill) and gives the characters something to do as they endeavor to rebuild their balloon and power it with Nemo's electrical engine. 

With not a whole lot going on during much of its running time, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND could have benefited from some of those hokey CGI monsters SyFy churns out like sausage.  At the very least, they might've evoked pleasant memories of the Ray Harryhausen version with its awesome stop-motion creations.   

Production values are meager while technically the film is barely a cut above Timothy Hinds' infamous H.G. WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS.  Mark Sheppard (who in flashback plays the younger Nemo to his father's elder one) directs as though he's doing a longer segment of "Battlestar Galactica", and the same style that works for a television episode just doesn't carry over well to a feature film.  The doggedly generic musical score doesn't help. 

The DVD from Green Apple Entertainment is in 16x9 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 surround sound.  I watched a screener so I can't comment on extras if any.

Bland and at times inept, JULES VERNE'S MYSTERIOUS ISLAND still manages to be mildly entertaining if you happen to be in a particularly undemanding mood.  But the unresolved ending, which leaves things open for either a sequel or yet another "lost in time" TV series, may have you wanting to eject the DVD and Frisbee it into the nearest waste vortex.   


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JULES VERNE'S MYSTERIOUS ISLAND -- movie review by porfle

BEYOND -- DVD review by porfle

Not your usual supernatural chiller, BEYOND (2011) is a competently-made police procedural in which the main procedure happens to be following psychic leads.

Jon Voight gives his usual solid performance in a role he seems to enjoy playing.  Detective John Koski, who's nearing retirement, excells in finding kidnapped kids although he's still haunted by the one that got away.  When a young couple's daughter Amy is abducted, Koski is put on the case by Chief Musker (Dermot Mulroney), who is the child's uncle. 

Teri Polo plays the mother, Sarah, and if you're a fan of this underappreciated actress you'll like her here.  Sarah is contacted by Farley Connors (Julian Morris), a television psychic who claims to be having visions of Amy.  As you might guess, Koski hits the roof when he finds out, but as you also might guess, he eventually starts taking Connors' psychic impressions a little more seriously.

The real supernatural aspect of BEYOND is Amy's relationship with her "imaginary" friend, Rory, whom we discover soon enough is the ghost of a little girl who met a bad end.  Sarah, her nanny Megan (Skyler Shaye, BRATZ), and Connors even go so far as to fire up the old Ouija board in Amy's room, in addition to coaxing Rory to leave messages on the girl's Etch-a-Sketch. 

It sounds creepy, but aside from some bad vibes emanating from Amy's rocking chair, these scenes aren't really played for major chills.  In fact, nowhere in the film will you find any attempt to actually frighten us, not even the usual jump-scares.  That in itself is kind of refreshing, with seemingly every director these days trying his hand at jarring us out of our seats one way or the other. 

The film's main conflict is between earnest psychic Connors, who wants to use his "gift" to help find the little girl, and crusty old Koski, who thinks he's a fraud who may even be involved in the kidnapping.  Voight easily gives their scenes together enough electricity to keep them interesting without having to do any "big" acting--his performance is low-key and realistic. 

Polo and Mulroney (who is finally looking like a grownup instead of your daughter's scuzzy boyfriend) also add their talents to help elevate what pretty much looks like a well-done TV-movie.  Location filming in Anchorage, Alaska gives everything a chilly, often gloomy atmosphere.

The story maintains our interest as it builds to the exchange of ransom money for Amy, with her father (Ben Crowley) following cell phone directions to the drop point as Koski tails him, but the film never really generates a whole lot of tension or suspense. 

Pacing is slack and things take their time unfolding--even the mildly-surprising twist ending is played out with the patience of a fly fisherman.  Of course, this isn't necessarily a bad thing unless you're expecting nail-biting thrills.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  No extras.

Neither very good nor very bad, BEYOND easily suffices as a mildly absorbing time-waster that's quite watchable.  But while the idea of blending cop movie and ghost story is interesting, the execution seems to lack any real impact. 


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BEYOND -- DVD review by porfle

THE THEATRE BIZARRE -- DVD review by porfle

From "Night Gallery"-level chills to art house pretention to EC comics-style irony, THE THEATRE BIZARRE (2011) is, like other anthology films done by a gang of directors, similar to one of those mystery grab bags kids used to order from the back of a monster magazine.

Of course you have your wraparound segment, which in this case concerns a strange young woman named Enola Penny (Virginia Newcomb) whose apartment is across the street from an old abandoned theater with which she's abnormally obsessed.  One night as she's gazing at it through her window, the doors open by themselves and beckon her into its dark, spooky interior.

What she finds onstage is a troup of decaying clockwork figures jerkily performing under the direction of creepy master of ceremonies Peg Poett.  If you're a fan of Udo Kier, you should enjoy seeing him cavort as the robotic storyteller whose bizarre tales seem to draw Enola deeper into the world of the unreal until, as the film's finale, the segment ends precisely as we predict. 

Kier's first tale of the bizarre is "The Mother of Toads" by Richard Stanley (HARDWARE) about a young couple vacationing in France.  Karina (fave actress Victoria Maurette) just wants to have a good time, but anthropologist Martin (Shane Woodward) is caught up in the local pagan history when they meet witch Mere Antoinette (Catriona MacColl) at a street fair. 

Martin can't resist an invitation to her secluded hovel to see her copy of the fabled Necronomicon, which will lead to the usual dire consequences when Mere Antoinette turns out to be none other than the titular sorceress.  The segment is richly Lovecraftian with an adult-oriented "Night Gallery" vibe and laced with grotesque imagery (along with some nice nudity when statuesque Lisa Crawford steps into the Mere Antoinette role during Martin's supernatural seduction). 

Buddy Giovinazzo's "I Love You" makes an abrupt tone change with its story of clinging, emotionally-needy Axel (André Hennicke) not taking the news very well when the love of his life Mo (Suzan Anbeh) announces that she can't stand living with him anymore and is leaving him for someone else.  Aside from the blood, this could be any Euro-cinema relationship drama centered mainly on two people trading tortured dialogue in an apartment.  It's pretty good dialogue, as is the acting, but the predictable twist ending is only mildly effective.

Gore effects legend Tom Savini directs "Wet Dreams" and plays the psychiatrist friend of Donnie (James Gill), a stereotypical male chauvinist who abuses and cheats on demoralized wife Carla (scream queen Debbie Rochon in a strong performance).  Along with an affair with his friend's wife, Donnie's been having nightmares involving horrific forms of castration (the segment's main preoccupation) including a lobster-claw vagina that recalls Lovecraft again. 

Dr. Maurey (Savini) tells Donnie to simply close his eyes and count to three as soon as he realizes that he's dreaming, which should awaken him.  But this won't save him when Carla's own dreams start to take over his reality.  While its women's-revenge-fantasy theme is about as subtle as a bucket of bricks, "Wet Dreams" has that EC comics "ironic retribution" feel to it which--along with James Gill's comically exaggerated performance and some extreme gore effects--makes it one of the film's more wickedly amusing stories. 

Hardly seeming to belong in such a collection of dark horror tales is Douglas Buck's exquisite tone poem "The Accident."  Hauntingly expressive child actress Mélodie Simard plays a little girl who's curious about the hows and whys of death after she and her mother (Lena Kleine) witness a fatal motorcycle accident on a country road. 

There's no real plot or resolution here--the little girl's contemplative impressions of the incident form a leisurely-paced succession of dreamlike images as she questions her mother about death at bedtime and Mom does her best to answer.  And that's it.  It may not sound like much, but upon second viewing I was near tears the whole time, stunned by the subtle beauty and emotional depth of this delicately-rendered fable.  More than anything else, for me anyway, it's what makes THE THEATER BIZARRE a keeper.

Karim Hussain's "Vision Stains" jars us out of this tender reverie with one of the film's most startling tales.  Kaniehtiio Horn is The Writer, a young woman insanely driven to experience and record the memories of the other destitute women she murders by extracting the fluid from their eyes at the point of death and injecting it into her own.

Hussain's handling of the segment is as woozily off-kilter as its premise, probably the most "bizarre" concept in the entire film, and plays upon our eye-injury fears with the help of a very convincing practical effect--namely, an oversized articulated eye used in some cringeworthy closeups.  The Writer's quest for knowledge will eventually lead to a fate familiar to fans of Roger Corman films.

Finally, there's David Gregory's sickly "Sweets", which may put you off dessert for awhile.  Candy addict Greg (Guilford Adams) goes into withdrawal when his girlfriend Estelle (Lindsay Goranson), with whom he's shared many moments of confectionary bliss, announces that she's leaving him.  As Greg devolves into a mass of syrupy hysteria, the strangely distant Estelle responds to his pleas with a monotone string of cliches such as "It's not you, it's me" and "I need space."

Something's definitely not right about Estelle or her effect on the bloated, pathetic Greg, and anyone who's ever read "Hansel and Gretel" will have little trouble figuring out why.  The climactic scene occurs inside an underground restaurant populated by weird Goths overindulging in grotesque delicacies, and ends with the film's most over-the-top gore.  The old-school practical effects used to achieve this are impressive, but, despite being somewhat amusing, the segment isn't.

The DVD from Image Entertainment is widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound, and closed-captioning but no subtitles.  Extras include a short behind-the-scenes featurette, directors' interviews, a trailer, and a commentary track featuring the directors along with certain cast and crew members.

THE THEATER BIZARRE is a worthwhile trip for horror fans through some dark, strange territory, with each story offering its own unique style and approach.  Like those richly colorful Warren comics from the 60s and 70s that director Richard Stanley cites as one of his inspirations, the film is always interesting to look at but the stories range from the memorable to the forgettable. 


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THE THEATRE BIZARRE -- DVD review by porfle

CHASING HAPPINESS -- movie review by porfle

It begins and ends with Bollywood beauty queen Kashmira Shah doing a bellydance, which is not a bad way to begin and end a movie, let me tell you.  What's not so great is all the in-between stuff that makes CHASING HAPPINESS (2011) one of the least happiness-inducing comedies that ever pickled your funnybone.

This dreary romp concerns the adventures of four housemates trying to come up with the monthly rent as New Year's Eve approaches.  The group's queen bee, Jen (Elisa Donovan, CLUELESS, "Sabrina the Teenage Witch"), is secretly in love with Rapheal (Claude Duhamel), the guy she pimps out to rich, horny housewives under the guise of being a "sex therapist." 

Gorgeous babe Andrea (Cerina Vincent, who was the yellow Power Ranger and the naked foreign exchange student "Areola" from NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE) runs an illicit poker game in the dining room which will eventually lead to grief.  Meanwhile, exotic Karina (Shah) hones her bellydancing skills in the backyard when she isn't using it as an outdoor "wellness clinic" for gullible yoga students. 

Producer Beni Tadd Atoori's debut as writer-director plods along with all the lighthearted ambience of a slasher flick but with leaden humor instead of death.  The murky lighting is similar too, while the awkward photography often appears to have been done by a camera mounted on a radio-controlled blimp.  Though shot in 2011, the film resembles some obscure flick you might have rented from a Mom-and-Pop video store back in the 80s.

The story's main focus is on the terminally unattractive Rapheal, his sex-hungry customers, and the fact that his oversized willy is shaped "like a coat hanger."  He's supposed to be from Tijuana, although Canadian actor Claude Duhamel's peculiar accent made me think the character was Scottish for about half the movie. 

A side story in which a troubled woman actually does come to him for sex therapy shows promise but doesn't go anywhere, while the subplot about Jen's secret love for him is resolved by her getting a new hairstyle.

Aside from how great Cerina Vincent looks, which gives the poker scenes their main reason for existing, just about the only bright spot in CHASING HAPPINESS is Kashmira Shah.  Her bellydancing is easy on the eyes, especially in the party sequence near the end of the movie when her cheerfully erotic performance is lovingly captured by Atoori with his best staging in the entire film. 

Kashmira's bubbly personality buoys all her scenes, and in an early sequence she reveals a hidden facet to her performance which comes as a delightful surprise.  This occurs during a "wellness" class with a comical Indian yoga master leading his students in a series of ridiculous exercises and urging them at one point to engage in "farting" as a means of cleansing the spirit.  It isn't BLAZING SADDLES, but it is, for better or worse, the funniest scene in the movie.

This being Beni Tadd Atoori's first outing in the director's chair, he can only go up from here and I hope that he does.  Until then, both unsuspecting viewers and bad-movie fans have CHASING HAPPINESS to tide them over until something better comes along, which should be just about any second now.


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CHASING HAPPINESS -- movie review by porfle

THE AGGRESSION SCALE -- DVD review by porfle

With so much crud coming out on DVD these days, it's always nice to run across a mid-budget action-suspense thriller that jumps out of the pack and turns out to be, in its own modest way, surprisingly awesome.  THE AGGRESSION SCALE (2010) did just that for me, especially since my expectations weren't all that high to begin with.

Crime boss Mr. Bellavance (Ray Wise) wants the money that was stolen from him by one of his employees, so he sends a gang of ruthlessly efficient hitmen led by Lloyd (Dana Ashbrook) to kill their way through a list of suspects until they find it.  The first part of the story shows a few of their kills and lets us know what a bunch of really mean guys they are as they strut around in "yeah, we bad" slo-mo. 

Meanwhile, Bill (Boyd Kestner) has just used a bunch of money he "found" to get his troubled son Owen (Ryan Hartwig), who has a history of violent behavior, out of the looney bin and move his new blended family way, way out into the country.  This includes new wife Maggie (Lisa Rotondi) and her sullen daughter Lauren (Fabianne Therese), who's going through a "I hate everything including you" phase. 

At first, it seems as though we're going to spend a lot of time having to watch Bill and his family awkwardly cope with their new life together--and not really caring a whole bunch about it--but that's blown all to hell when Lloyd and his crew burst through the front door.  At that moment, the film shifts into high gear and never stops.  Director Steven C. Miller proves he isn't fooling around by staging one of the most cold-blooded executions I've seen in quite a while.

Tall, scary skinhead Chissolm (Derek Mears) goes upstairs to hunt for the kids, which is when the silent Owen begins to come out of his shell and display talents on loan from Rambo.  It's great fun watching this commando-savant, whose experience with bullies has taught him that a good defense is a kick-ass offense, silently pondering his next move and then carrying out hastily improvised survival plans while his older sister loses it.

Also quite satisfying is seeing the bad guys react in sheer amazement to how two kids are causing their own brutal efficiency to fall apart around them.  (I love it when an incredulous Chissolm looks at Lloyd and says, "Can you f***ing believe this shit?")  After Owen and Lauren's escape, the action setpieces include some tense cat-and-mouse stuff in and around a moving van and then in the forest surrounding the house, where Owen is able to come up with some nasty woodland surprises that they forgot to teach us in Cub Scouts.

Performances are fine, with Ryan Hartwig deftly using facial expressions to make the most of his non-speaking role.  Fabianne Therese is convincing enough as his irritating stepsister without actually being too irritating.  Eventually they evolve into a team that we can root for.

The actors portraying Lloyd's sadistic cohorts manage to be both scary and funny.  Dana Ashbrook gives Lloyd just enough menace to avoid coming off as a cartoonish villain, while his fellow "Twin Peaks" alumnus Ray Wise is appropriately vile in a smaller role as Mr. Bellavance.  Steven C. Miller maintains a breakneck pace and wrings as much nail-biting suspense as he can from Ben Powell's taut script, with a driving musical score augmenting the action.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.40:1 widescreen with English Dolby 5.1 and Spanish Dolby 2.0 sound.  No subtitles.  A fifteen-minute "making of" featurette is the sole extra.

THE AGGRESSION SCALE thwarts expectations by making us think it's a variation on THE DESPERATE HOURS and then hanging a sharp left turn into HOME ALONE territory, albeit on a much more lethal level.  A final Rube Goldberg-type contraption thrown together by Owen stretches credulity a bit, but by that time I was ready to see every last one of those evil bastards get everything that was coming to them. 


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THE AGGRESSION SCALE -- DVD review by porfle

"Bad Ass" Starring Danny Trejo Arrives on Blu-ray and DVD June 5

DANNY TREJO IS MEAN, ANGRY AND … BAD ASS

Explosive, Action-Packed Film Inspired By Epic Beard Man Viral Video
Lands On Blu-ray and DVD June 5

Los Angeles, CA (May 1, 2012) – Kicking criminal butts and taking the law into his own hands, Danny Trejo (Machete, “Sons of Anarchy”) ignites the screen in the gritty, violent and enthralling film Bad Ass, arriving on Blu-ray and DVD June 5 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Inspired by the viral video of a vigilante citizen taking action into his own hands, Bad Ass also stars Ron Perlman (“Sons of Anarchy,” Hellboy) and Charles S. Dutton (Alien 3).

Decorated Vietnam hero Frank Vega returns home only to get shunned by society leaving him without a job or his high school sweetheart. It’s not until 40 years later when an incident on a commuter bus, where he protects an elderly black man from a pair of skin heads, makes him a local hero and he’s suddenly celebrated once again. But his good fortune suddenly turns for the worse when his best friend Klondike is murdered and the police aren’t doing anything about it.

Directed by Craig Moss (The 41 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall And Felt Superbad About It), Bad Ass is inspired by the Epic Beard Man video that captured two men’s highly charged verbal and brutal physical altercation on a public bus in Oakland, California. Posted to YouTube, the video spread like wildfire and the heroic elder bearded man was anointed Epic Beard Man. The video has garnered more than five million views.

The Bad Ass Blu-ray and DVD has a featurette and audio commentary. Both the Blu-ray and DVD are now available for pre-order. Prebook is May 9.

Bad Ass Blu-ray and DVD Special Features
? Audio Commentary
? “Birth of Bad Ass” featurette

About Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC (TCFHE) is a recognized global industry leader and a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company. Representing 75 years of innovative and award-winning filmmaking from Twentieth Century Fox, TCFHE is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming, acquisitions and original productions on DVD, Blu-ray Disc Digital Copy, Video On Demand and Digital Download. The company also releases all products globally for MGM Home Entertainment. Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce throughout the world.

Bad Ass Blu-ray: (Catalog #2280685)
Street Date: June 5, 2012
Prebook Date: May 9, 2012
Screen Format: Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English / French / Spanish
U.S. Rating: R
Total Run Time: 107 minutes (including special features)
Closed Captioned: Yes

Bad Ass DVD: (Catalog #2280681)
Street Date: June 5, 2012
Prebook Date: May 9, 2012
Screen Format: Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English / French / Spanish
U.S. Rating: R
Total Run Time: 106 minutes (including special features)
Closed Captioned: Yes

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"Bad Ass" Starring Danny Trejo Arrives on Blu-ray and DVD June 5