DARK HOUSE -- movie review by porfle

 

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]

Loud, obnoxious, and dumb, DARK HOUSE (2009) is like a cross between a slasher flick, a ghost story, and a funhouse ride.  Its 80s-retro vibe even reminded me a little of Tobe Hooper's FUNHOUSE (along with films such as the obscure cult fave SILENT SCREAM), only minus most of the fun and plus a heaping helping of cheese.

The story opens with a little girl being dared by her friends to enter the neighborhood "scary house" (actually, it looks more quaintly picturesque than scary) and finding the bodies of seven murdered children strewn about.  Their foster mother, Miss Darrode (Diane Salinger), is in the kitchen grinding her hands off in the garbage disposal.  She thinks that by killing them, she's just saved the souls of her evil foster children because she is that most dreaded of all horror movie psychos--a religious fanatic! (Gasp!)

Fourteen years later, Claire (Meghan Ory) is, not surprisingly, undergoing therapy, and her doctor urges her to return to the house and confront the fears which continue to haunt her, hoping that she'll regain her buried memories of the event.  Conveniently enough, the members of her college drama class have just been hired by flamboyant horror showman Walston (Jeffrey Combs) to work in his brand new hologram-enhanced spookhouse attraction, which is located in none other than the Darrode house. 

Claire's friends are a sorry bunch of stereotypical kill fodder that we can't wait to see get theirs.  There's Rudy, the arrogant jock; Ariel, the dumb blonde nympho; Bruce, the nerd; Eldon, the black guy; and Lily, the Goth chick.  That's literally the extent of their character development, and from the first moment we see them in drama class "acting out" their true feelings for each other, we hate their guts.  Then Walston flits in to pitch his new haunted house idea to them, and we hate his guts, too, because the wonderful Jeffrey Combs has been given a truly awful character to portray and he tries way too hard to sell it.

The filmmakers tip their hand the moment we enter the house, when a misty black shape can be seen flitting about.  Then we get a demonstration of the holographic attractions, including a psycho clown with an axe, a mad scientist, a dungeon master, various zombie types, and, my favorite, a really freaky-looking young lady with long, sharp fingernails who reminded me of "The Angry Princess" from THIR13EN GHOSTS.  They aren't very scary but are fun to look at as they spring out at us as though we were watching a 3D movie.  (SCTV's Dr. Tongue would love it.) 

Naturally, the malevolent spirit of Miss Darrode enters the computer that runs everything and turns the holograms deadly.  There's not a whole lot of suspense and most of the characters are done away with rather summarily, one breaking her neck from a tumble down the stairs and a couple of others dying off-camera.  The first of the drama students to die (see if you can guess who) gets a mace to the head by that scariest of all horror characters, a medieval knight.  The resulting gore effect is done digitally instead of with good old-fashioned physical effects, which is always a disappointment--you just can't fake a genuine exploding head with CGI. 

The film's main asset is Diane Salenger as Miss Darrode.  She's pretty unsettling at first--an early jump-scare with her insane face shooting toward the camera is a real jolt--but she's overused to the point where all her prolonged screaming and twisty-faced mugging into the camera gets old.  (I'd love to see what a really good Japanese or Thai horror director could've done with her character.)  Before long, the jump-scares themselves begin to feel like someone continually goosing us until the effect is diminished.

Direction by Darin Scott is slick but doesn't quite capture the sort of fun-spooky William Castle atmosphere he seems to be going for.  Things get less dumb-fun and more serious in the final act, when the hidden secrets behind Miss Darrode's murder spree and Claire's amnesia are revealed, although the more we're shown the more confusing things seem to get.  I think I caught most of it but by then the film's dogged attempts to terrify me had become rather numbing.

I watched a screener of this movie so I can't comment on DVD specifics.  According to Fangoria.com, special features will include "a commentary track by Scott and producer Mark Sonoda, the 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers." 

DARK HOUSE is just diverting enough to be worth watching if you don't have anything better to do.  But you have to go into it the same way little Claire crept into the spooky old Darrode house all those years ago--expecting the worst.

 

DARK HOUSE -- movie review by porfle

ROAD KILL -- movie review by porfle

 

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


Two young couples motoring across the long, lonesome highways of the Australian Outback are menaced by a massive double-sized tractor-trailer rig known as a "road train" (the film's original title) in 2010's ROAD KILL, a fairly effective horror-thriller that takes a different route than you might expect. 

The premise immediately brought two movies to my mind upon first viewing.  One is Steven Spielberg's classic made-for-TV thriller DUEL, in which Dennis Weaver plays a harried salesman whose tiny car is the prey for a crazed trucker in the middle of nowhere.  Yet another Aussie thriller, ROAD GAMES, is also set in the Outback and features a trucker (Stacy Keach) and a comely young hitchhiker (Jamie Lee Curtis) in a cat-and-mouse game with a traveling serial killer. 

But just when I'm thinking ROAD KILL is going to be a rehash of these two plots, it decides to go somewhere else entirely.  The two couples--Craig and Nina, and Marcus and Liz, who have a history of jealousy and rivalry simmering below the surface of their fragile friendship--are run off the road by the roaring behemoth just when we think we're at the start of a long chase sequence.  This is the last such scene we'll see until much later in the film when there's one more high-speed clash between truck and automobile.

Climbing out of the wreckage with Craig (Bob Morley) badly injured, they stumble along until they find the road train parked by the side of the highway with nobody in it.  They get in just as a crazy man emerges from the bushes blasting away at them with a pistol, and Marcus manages to get the thing moving.  Lulled by hours of monotonous motion, they drop off to sleep--even Marcus seems to doze at the wheel as the truck continues to rumble onward.  Suddenly it stops, and they awaken to find that Marcus has accidentally turned off onto a side road and gotten them lost.  Or...was the truck acting on its own?

Yes, with our four main characters now stranded in the wilderness, ROAD KILL becomes a haunted truck story.  While a bitterly quarreling Marcus (Xavier Samuel, TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE) and Liz (Georgina Haig) strike out for the main highway on foot, Craig and Nina begin to sense a pervasive evil eminating from those two locked containers.  I'll skip the details of what follows, but it includes possession, betrayal, and the horrific discovery of what's really going on inside that damned truck.  Meanwhile, Marcus and Liz have some pretty shocking experiences of their own before they make it back just in time to get in on the gory fun.

Dean Francis' capable direction (this is his first feature) keeps the suspense pretty taut considering that most of the movie consists of four characters and a truck.  Good performances by the cast help to put over a script that often doesn't make a whole lot of sense (and doesn't really try to), with Sophie Lowe as Nina carrying most of the acting load and giving us at least one character we can identify with who isn't a total jerk.  She even gets to drive that damned truck when they finally get it back out on the highway for the exciting gear-grinding conclusion.

I watched a screener so DVD specs were unavailable.  Fangoria.com lists the special features as "audio commentary by director Dean Francis, a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes, the 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers."  One thing's for sure--if the nerve-wracking soundtrack for this flick doesn't threaten to jar your skull right out of your head, you've got stronger ears than I have.

I'm not sure how rewatchable ROAD KILL will be once you've slowly and patiently peeled the onion away from its mysterious core, but that first time was definitely enough to maintain a firm grip on my attention span.  And I now have an interesting new mental image for the term "monster truck." 

ROAD KILL -- movie review by porfle

PIG HUNT -- movie review by porfle

 

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


I didn't know it was such a short drive from San Francisco straight into the heart of DELIVERANCE country, but in PIG HUNT (2008), five friends from the city end up stranded in Yokelvania and running for their lives from homicidal hicks, cutthroat cultists, and a man-eating hog big enough to keep two Piggly-Wigglys stocked in bacon and pork chops for a year. 

When a loony forest-dwelling uncle dies, nephew Johnny (Travis Aaron Wade) inherits some land and the old shack where he grew up.  Johnny and his girlfriend Brooks (Tina Huang) decide to spend a pig-hunting weekend there with three friends--green, trigger-happy Marine Ben (Howard Johnson, Jr.), chubby tenderfoot Quincy (Trevor Bullock), and slacker Wayne (Rajiv Shah).  In the woods, they run into some of Johnny's childhood acquaintances, hillbilly brothers Jake and Ricky (Jason Foster, Nick Tagas), who go along for the hunt.  Jake tells them of a legendary 3,000-pound boar hog named Ripper who supposedly roams the woods, but of course they don't believe him. 

Things turn ugly when the hunters stumble upon a huge marijuana field hidden in the forest.  While Jake and Ricky want to sack up a few hundred pounds of prime weed, Johnny's for alerting the authorities to their find.  An altercation results in death for one of the brothers, and the other, stoked for revenge, runs off to gather the rest of his kill-crazy clan.  The city kids flee to the supposed safety of a hippie commune run by a mysterious stranger (Bryonn Bain) where they find themselves in even deeper hog-poop than before.  Carnage ensues when city dwellers, yokels, cult crazies, and a 3,000-pound surprise guest hog start makin' bacon out of each other.

While lesser hands may have botched such a promising premise, director James Isaac (JASON X, SKINWALKERS) scores a bullseye by mixing gory TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE-style backwoods horror with a wicked sense of fun.  The long build-up of the film's first half explodes into kinetic energy when the hillbilly clan goes into action against Johnny and his friends, racing headlong down dirt roads in their trucks, dune buggies, and motorcycles in the first of several sequences that look like the filmmakers had a ball shooting and editing them.  When they converge on two of the main characters back at the old shack there's a frantic sense of real terror as they scramble desperately to escape the mindless killers. 

Meanwhile, Ben stumbles into a scene right out of his most surrealistic fantasy when he comes across about a dozen beautiful naked women lounging around the local swimmin' hole.  I have to hand it to the writers here--this scene really adds that certain special something to the story.  Ben ends up like a shiek in a harem, complete with hookah, and thinks he's gone to heaven.  Hog heaven, that is, which he's about to abruptly discover.

One of my favorite scenes occurs after one of the yokels bursts in and starts blasting away.  As he holds the main cult babe at gunpoint, she plucks a boar's tusk from her necklace and jams it into his eyeball.  Johnny grabs the gun and points it at her, but waits.  As cult-babe is viciously rearranging the hillbilly's face, she glances up a couple of times to make sure Johnny's going to hold off and let her finish before pulling the trigger.  It may not sound like much in the description, but the way it's acted, shot, and edited makes it one of the coolest moments in the film.

And then there's the Ripper.  For most of the film his presence is shown by a JAWS-style POV accompanied by low, throaty growls and brief glimpses of blazing eyes and jagged tusks.  When he finally makes his grand entrance in the final act, complete with a dead bit player dangling from his mouth, the rig that the SPFX guys have come up with to depict this massive pork-orca is so over-the-top outlandish that it's hilarious and impressive at the same time.  CGI would've rendered a smoother, more active creature, but ruined the more satisfying effect achieved by good old-fashioned methods and judicious editing.

I watched a screener so DVD specs and details on special features were unavailable.

A capable cast playing fairly interesting characters for a change helps kick PIG HUNT up a notch over similar films.  (Trevor Bullock as Quincy is particularly good as he reacts convincingly to his impending death at the hands of the hillbilly clan.)  Add to this a sense that the filmmakers are having all sorts of fun making this movie, and you've got a no-holds-barred backwoods blowout that's just as much fun to watch.

 

PIG HUNT -- movie review by porfle

HUNGER -- movie review by porfle

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


With a name like HUNGER (2009), I was expecting yet another vampire or zombie flick.  Fortunately, this is something else entirely--it's one of those "predicament" stories where the characters are placed in a seemingly inescapable situation which slowly degenerates as their desperation grows, along with their hunger.

Five people awaken to find that they've been kidnapped and imprisoned in a dark underground pit.  When the lights come on, they're surrounded by stone walls with the only exit being at the top of an overhead shaft.  Four barrels contain plenty of drinking water, but there's no food.  A clock mounted on the wall is designed to tick off the next thirty days one by one, which, according the attractive blonde surgeon Jordan (Lori Heuring), is roughly the amount of time a person can manage to survive without eating.  It doesn't take long for them to figure out that they are little more than human lab rats in a ghastly experiment. 

With this interesting premise established, L.D. Goffigan's script takes us through the early stages in which personalities are revealed, alliances are formed, plans are made, and escapes are attempted.  Grant (Linden Ashby) is the level-headed older guy who takes charge and immediately sets to work trying to scrape some bricks loose from the wall.  Anna (Lea Kohl) is the mousey girl who's a hair's breadth away from freaking out, and Alex (Julian Rojas) is the insecure loner who isn't far behind.  The one we start to worry about the most right off the bat, though, is Luke (Joe Egender), an antisocial hothead with violent tendencies and a ruthless will to survive.  But we know that any one of them is capable of killing since, as we discover, each of them has killed before for various reasons.

Like a slow fuse, the story takes its time setting up what's to come and letting the situation gradually worsen.  Tension mounts as we wait for someone to snap, which is heightened when one of the subjects discovers a big, sharp scalpel (just right for slicing human flesh) which has been placed in their prison.  Sure enough, hunger trumps humanity and the five captives begin to turn on each other with horrifying results, while those who refuse to surrender to savagery become entrees on the grisly bill of fare--all of which is dispassionately observed by their captor whose motives are revealed through tragic flashbacks. 

Director Steven Hentges displays a talent for keeping all of this claustrophobic interplay consistently suspenseful and involving, allowing the story to unfold in a deliberate and believable manner until it's time for the inevitable bloody horror to begin.  With only one interior location for most of the film and a limited cast, he turns what was probably a pretty small budget into a stylish film that looks good.  Performances are fine, particularly from a low-key, intense Lori Heuring as Jordan and a frighteningly manic Joe Egender, who reminds me of Giovanni Ribisi, as the unstable Luke.  Linden Ashby is ideal as Grant, the authority figure whom we hope can keep things under control, while Lea Kohl as Anna and Julian Rojas as Alex emerge as unpredictable wild cards later on.

I watched a barebones screener so I can't comment on DVD specs.  According to Fangoria.com, extras will include "director’s commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers."

HUNGER is a tense, engrossing survival thriller that's all the more disturbing since these aren't zombies lurching around ravenous for human flesh, but regular people who have been driven to madness.  Who will survive, and what will be left of their humanity?  A final battle of wits between the last test subject(s) and "The Scientist" leads to a stirring conclusion which left me fully satisfied.  (BURP!)

HUNGER -- movie review by porfle

GRIMM LOVE -- movie review by porfle

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


Why the hell would anyone want to be a cannibal, or a cannibal's  dinner?  I haven't a clue, but according to the fact-based GRIMM LOVE, aka "Rohtenburg" (2006), such a subculture exists and they're pretty serious about it. 

While part of the Fangoria FrightFest series, this isn't really a horror film at all, the gruesome elements shown so matter-of-factly that it de-emphasizes the horror and softens our repulsion.  In fact, at times it even feels a little like a tragic romance.  It would be different if Simon Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann) were portrayed as an Ed Gein type, preying on unwilling victims and reveling in mindless sadism, yet he's anything but.

Katie Armstrong (Keri Russell) is an American grad student in Germany gathering research on notorious cannibal Simon for her thesis.  She has an unhealthy fascination for him and his crimes which will eventually cause her a great deal of emotional turmoil as she delves deeper into the case.  Meanwhile, we're shown flashbacks of Simon's unhappy childhood as he's separated from his father and forced to live with a mentally unstable mother who will never release him from her arthritic grasp as long as she lives.  Once freed to live out his increasingly twisted desires, Oliver turns to the internet in search of willing and equally-troubled subjects to help him fulfill his one great desire--to feed upon human flesh.

He meets Simon (Thomas Huber), who, for reasons that are depicted in further flashbacks, yearns to be taken apart and devoured like the character in a Grimm's fairytale he was read as a child.  Even a loving relationship with his handsome boyfriend Felix (Marcus Lucas) can't quell this obsession.  Oliver and Simon, isolated at last from the judgements and condemnations of the normal world, revel in a brief episode of intense mutual fulfillment which they perceive as something beautiful.

The cliche' "You complete me" would be pretty appropriate here, as they reciprocate each other's impulses and fulfill each other in the most basic fundamental way imaginable.  Maybe the most disturbing thing about the film is how understated and unsensational it is, as our sympathy for Oliver and Simon almost allows us feel, as they do, that the culmination of their mutual desires is natural and even necessary.  GRIMM LOVE certainly makes no attempt to frighten us or even to establish a creepy atmosphere.  Director Martin Weisz is interested only in presenting a very dark, slowly-unfolding character study which contemplates a terrible depravity with a certain amount of empathy for its hopelessly deranged participants.

As Katie, Keri Russell is good but doesn't get to do much emoting until the end, when we find out whether or not she's really as much of a sick puppy as we fear.  It's interesting to watch how Katie's initial perceptions of Oliver are affected as the comfort zone between her imagination and stark reality is diminished.  Thomas Kretschmann (KING KONG, BLADE II) manages to convey Oliver's inner pain and yearning with barely an overt gesture or expression--his feelings are deeply repressed.  As Simon, Thomas Huber gives the most moving performance as a man still wracked with sadness, regret, and fear even as he surrenders to the terrible bliss of his heart's fatal desire.

I watched a screener so DVD specs were unavailable.   According to Fangoria.com, extras will consist of "director’s commentary, deleted scenes, 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers." 

GRIMM LOVE is, ultimately, a weird love story about two people striving to satisfy their bizarre, overwhelming physical and emotional needs by reaching out to make a symbiotic connection.  The fact that what follows is utterly horrific and revolting is shown only through the shocked reactions of a third-party observer--the film itself seems blandly sympathetic.  "He was a nice boy," an old neighbor of Oliver's tells Katie, and we're tempted to agree even after we've witnessed his ghastly crime. 

GRIMM LOVE -- movie review by porfle

FRAGILE -- movie review by porfle

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 28, 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


While the first half may cause drowsiness, eventually FRAGILE (2005) begins to take effect, with a generous dose of gloomy British atmosphere and enough creepy ingredients to elicit symptoms of restlessness and anxiety in most viewers.

Calista Flockhart stars as Amy Nicholls, the new night nurse at a secluded children's hospital in England.  The hospital is closing down but a train disaster has delayed the evacuation of the young patients to their newer accomodations, and Amy finds herself working in a creepy, decrepit old building whose entire second floor has been mysteriously sealed off completely.  She discovers that some of the children have suffered broken bones for no apparent reason, and one of the girls, a terminal patient named Maggie (Yasmin Murphy), blames this on a malevolent apparition she calls "the mechanical girl", who lives on the second floor.

Amy forms a close bond with Maggie and eventually becomes convinced of the ghostly presence herself.  Venturing up to that spooky second floor in search of answers, she finds evidence of a former patient named Charlotte whose nightmarish experiences in the hospital may be the source of the haunting.  But when she finally convinces her superiors to get the children out of there as soon as possible, it may be too late to save them from the terrible wrath of "the mechanical girl."

Director and co-scripter Jaume Balagueró ([REC]) uses the first half of the film to build up a fair amount of suspense and rainy-day, gothic English mood.  Several of the early scenes have the potential for your usual jump scares, but for the most part Balagueró wisely holds off on these in order to increase our tension for what's to come.  This begins to pay off when the (pretty freakin' awesome-looking) ghostly entity makes its grand entrance late in the film and fulfills our anticipation quite nicely.  I didn't find any of this to be all-out terrifying, but it's definitely very enjoyably unsettling, with a chaotic climax that mixes cool special effects with some cliffhanger excitement. 

Calista Flockhart is impressive in the lead role, enough to actually make me temporarily forget that she was "Ally McBeal."  As Maggie, Yasmin Murphy proves to be quite a talented child actress.  VAN HELSING's "Count Dracula", Richard Roxburgh, does a low-key job as Dr. Marcus, who's skeptical at first but eventually comes around and helps Amy battle the supernatural, while HARRY POTTER regular Gemma Jones is the annoying head nurse Mrs. Folder.  Another VAN HELSING alumnus, Elena Anaya, plays day nurse Helen Perez.  Colin McFarlane, who was Commissioner Loeb in BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT, is likable as Roy, a kindly orderly who befriends Amy and the children.  I don't think it's giving away too much to reveal that at least one of these characters will die a wickedly OMEN-style death before it's all over.
 

I watched a screener so DVD specs were unavailable, but according to Fangoria.com the extras will consist of "a behind-the-scenes featurette, a look at the creation of the film’s visual FX and the 8 FANGORIA FrightFest trailers."

FRAGILE isn't bash-you-over-the-head, turn-your-guts-inside-out scary, but it should suffice until something more horrible comes along.  That second floor is wonderfully creepy, and "the mechanical girl" is the stuff of nightmares.  The ending may turn some viewers off, but what the hey--it appealed to my sentimental side.

FRAGILE -- movie review by porfle

THE TOMB -- movie review by porfle

[Note: Fangoria magazine teamed up with Lightning Media and Blockbuster for a series of eight horror/thrillers which were available exclusively on DVD, VOD, and digital download Sept. 2010 under the "Fangoria FrightFest" banner. This film is part of that series.]


Horror fans expecting this entry in the Fangoria FrightFest series to satisfy their sweet tooth for sanguinary scares may be in for a rude awakening when they watch THE TOMB, aka "Ligeia" (2009).  Or perhaps "awakening" isn't quite the right term, since this pedestrian Goth-boiler is more apt to elicit an opposite reaction. 

Wes Bentley (AMERICAN BEAUTY) plays college literary professor Jonathan Merrick, whose engagement to sweetie-pie Rowena (Kaitlin Doubleday) is threatened when he falls under the spell of a beautiful dark-haired Russian student named Ligeia (Sofya Skya).  Ligeia marries the pie-eyed prof and whisks him off to her castle in the Ukraine, where he discovers that his new wife is engaged in a dastardly scheme to prolong her life by sucking the souls from her victims by means of a weird mechanical contraption.  When faithful Rowena rushes to Jonathan's aid, the terminally-ill Ligeia chooses her as the next vessel for her wicked soul and retains her hold over unsuspecting Jonathan.

Despite some nice photography and great Russian locations, THE TOMB resembles one of those obscure low-budget flicks you might've run across in a video store back in the 80s.  Direction is a little shaky at times, and the editing is loaded with those annoying speed-up/slow-down moments and other unnecessary gimmicks.  Everything makes noise, too--jarring bangs and clangs are meant to startle us while some of the whiplash camera pans sound like a jet taking off.

Even so, the film seems as though it may be going somewhere interesting early on, when we see Ligeia applying her soul-sucking device to her victims' faces and extracting their life essence into vials.  (Although what she eventually does with these is just a tad goofy.)  When we relocate to her Russian castle, however, it starts to feel as though we're trapped inside one of those old Gothic romance comics that DC used to put out.  There's a lot of business with creepy crypts, dark basements, windy parapets, and women creeping around in the dark in their nightgowns, with very little of it managing to raise any hackles or scare up as much as a shiver.  The disjointed story sometimes makes it seem as though scenes are missing, especially when major characters die and people barely notice.

Sofya Skya is interesting as a spidery seductress who resembles a young Morticia Addams, or perhaps a grown-up Wednesday.  As the blonde, purehearted yin to her evil yang, Kaitlin Doubleday ("Cavemen") is adequate.  The main problem in the acting department is a glowering Wes Bentley, who wanders blandly through the role of Jonathan as though he thinks they're still doing a read-through.  It's funny that when I saw him in WEIRDSVILLE (which I liked), he reminded me of a young Eric Roberts--one of my favorite actors--since Roberts appears here in a tiny, thankless role meant only to add his name value to the cast.  Ditto for a disinterested Michael Madsen, grunting his way sleepily to another paycheck.  Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (PEARL HARBOR) fares somewhat better as another hapless professor lured into Ligeia's evil web.

I viewed a screener so DVD specs weren't available.  According to Fangoria.com, extras will include "behind-the-scenes footage, 8 FANGORIA FRIGHTS cable special and the eight FrightFest trailers."

Wes Bentley recites "The Conquering Worm" over the closing credits, which is about as close to Edgar Allan Poe as THE TOMB ever gets.  As a horror flick it barely registers, with a story that's so rote that if it were a fill-in-the-blanks quiz we'd all get an A+.  Even the "surprise" ending is right off the rack.

THE TOMB -- movie review by porfle

BORDER LOST -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/1/08

 

The tagline reads "3 men, 2000 miles, and a ton of ammo." Hmm...so far, so good.

According to the foreword, illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. are constantly being preyed upon by sadistic Mexican bandoleros. BORDER LOST (2008) is the story of a small U.S. task force trying to keep this from happening even as clueless politicians are trying to shut them down.

When one of their number is murdered and his fiancee kidnapped by the most vile outlaw leader, Hector, the three remaining "desert cowboys" (as they are called by the locals) ignore orders to stay out of Mexico and cross the border armed to the teeth and mad as hell.

Their leader is the hardbitten veteran cop Manny, played by Emilio Roso. Roso has an old style tough-guy face and a weighty presence, whether he's working over a bad guy or playing a tender love scene with the beautiful Vanessa (Marian Zapico).

His partner, Gabe (Protasio) is another experienced cop who's handy with a gun although he tends to go off half-cocked at times. Jake (Wes McGee), the rookie member of the group, is invaluable as a dead-eyed sniper.

In a harrowing scene early on, we see a group of illegal immigrants on a nighttime trek through the desert being robbed and terrorized by Hector's thugs, who rape and kill at their whim. Then we get our first look at the cowboys in action as they bust some bad guys in a dingy bordertown.

The action is lean, well-staged, and exciting. Plenty of shoot-outs and other graphically violent incidents occur along the way, with circumstances causing the agents to become increasingly ruthless and driven by rage, leading up to their daring and bloody siege against Hector and his men at their desert compound.

The freestyle direction by David Murphy and Scott Peck, which takes full advantage of some great authentic locations, is sometimes just as over-the-top as the acting, and the whole thing is often topped with a generous layer of Monterey Jack cheese. This isn't necessary a detriment, though, especially if you're jonesing for a quick action-flick fix.

DVD specs include a letterboxed 1:78:1 image, optional Spanish subtitles, and a trailer. Image and sound are good, with an effective Latin-tinged score by Christopher Peck.

The sun-bleached, documentary-style look of the film resembles the Mexico sequences in Steven Soderbergh's TRAFFIC. It also tries to duplicate that movie's realistic performances and verisimilitude, but this is most often overcome by action-movie cliches and pure melodrama. Strangely enough, the combination seems to work. BORDER LOST is, at its heart, a shoot-em-up revenge flick that Schwarzenegger and Seagal fans should enjoy, but with a unique ambience and attitude of its own.

BORDER LOST -- DVD review by porfle

ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 1/31/13

 

Some superhero movies are multi-million-dollar epics that dazzle, amaze, and enthrall.  And then there's ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE, aka "Vs" (2011), which barely manages to keep from falling apart at the seams, or simply imploding due to lack of substance, long enough to limp to the fadeout.

Granted, it's a game effort for such a low-budget film (less than $1 million) but I've seen a lot more done with a lot less so it really should've turned out better.  In fact, director Jason Trost's other 2011 film THE FP is superior in every way, not the least of which being that it's way more entertaining.  Here, it seems as though the goal of putting together something that qualifies as a "superhero movie" was accomplished with minimal thought or artistic effort.

Taking place in a seemingly deserted small town during the course of a single night, the story begins with three superhero-garbed men and one woman waking up in different locations, each with some kind of wrist implant.  The implants, it turns out, rob them of their superpowers so that their arch-enemy, Rickshaw (James Remar), can force them to participate in a series of life-or-death challenges for his revenge and amusement, with the lives of various innocent people in the balance. 

The heroes, who (we learn in passing) gained their powers from a fallen meteor, have a stormy personal history that caused them to disband years earlier.  Charge (Trost), the nominal leader, and Shadow (Sophie Merkley), sort of a "Sue Storm/Invisible Girl" knock-off, are former lovers, while the younger Cutthroat (Lucas Till, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) still resents Charge for treating him like a kid brother.  The Wall (Lee Valmassy, who gave an outstanding performance as the bad guy in THE FP) is a rather nondescript character who doesn't get much to do for most of his screen time. 

One distinctive feature of this team is that they have some of the chintziest costumes in superhero history.  Even taking into account the fact that they don't have people like Lucius Fox or Martha Kent designing their threads, this poor man's Fantastic Four would probably get thrown out of a Halloween costume party.  Charge is especially guilty of fashion fail, with a costume that looks like he just threw himself on a live grenade and landed on his face.  Perhaps this is intentional, since the hokiness of these characters is probably pretty close to what it would look like if actual people suddenly decided to become superheroes (a la Kick-Ass). 

Remar, who served as narrator for THE FP, is the traditional "name star" coming in to do a day or two of low-impact acting (in this case, mostly sitting behind a desk egging on the main characters via a TV screen to a dreary version of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata") as cackling bad guy Rickshaw.  His evil plan for our heroes has them running from place to place trying to save various groups of wired-to-explode civilians and, in most cases, failing. 

In one instance, Charge's solution to Rickshaw's challenge is so utterly nonsensical as to throw the whole movie out of whack, storywise.  It's, like, literally the last thing you'd expect a superhero to do because it's so...well, dumb.  Only occasionally does the dialogue manage to make things a bit more bearable, as in the following exchange:

Shadow: "What about the garage?  Isn't there something in there that could help, medicine or something?"
Charge: "Vitamin C isn't going to remove a 12-inch stab wound from his lower intestine, Jill."

Elsewhere, they come up against a couple of flamboyant goons played by more veterans of THE FP, Sean Whalen and Nick Principe (who also co-starred in the first "Chromeskull" film, LAID TO REST), in some bland battle action that does little to juice things up.  Principe is Sledgesaw, a relatively nondescript strongman character, while Whalen is the flamethrower-wielding Manpower, who dresses like a psychotic Uncle Sam for some reason.  Besides some generic Rickshaw henchmen in funny-animal suits, these are the film's only "super" villains. 
With their wrist implants conveniently taking away their powers, the word "super" doesn't even apply to our main characters.  This makes things easier on the filmmakers and less interesting for the viewer.  The closest we come to seeing a hero exercise a superpower is during a flashback when Shadow disappears (off-camera) after a lovers' tiff with Charge.  That's literally all the film has to offer in that department.

The rest of the time, everyone stands around and argues a lot or jogs through the deserted streets to the next location where they argue some more as civilians continue to explode around them.  Some actual suspense is briefly achieved a couple of times, but it's not enough to prevent the film from having what I found to be a rather enervating effect before long.

The DVD from Image Entertainment is in 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound.  Closed-captioned but no subtitles or extras.

With neither the fun of a "Spiderman" or "X-Men" flick or the substance of a "Dark Knight" tale, the main impression left by ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE is an overall dreariness that's even a bit depressing at times.  Minimal production values, uninspired cinematography, barely passable acting, and a scattershot plot amount to what might be considered a pretty fair student film but hardly something you'd want to go out of your way to see.

ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE -- DVD review by porfle

THE FRANK DARABONT COLLECTION -- Blu-ray review by Porfle (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION/ THE MAJESTIC/ THE GREEN MILE)

Originally posted on 2/20/15

 

Checking his IMDb credits, I was shocked to find that, while a prolific producer and writer, Frank Darabont had only helmed a total of four features. In fact, if you added 2007's THE MIST and his 1983 Stephen King short story adaptation "The Woman in the Room", then Warner Brothers' new 4-disc Blu-ray set THE FRANK DARABONT COLLECTION would serve as a complete overview of his career as a big-screen director.

As it is, though, we get three of his most important films--THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE MAJESTIC, and THE GREEN MILE--in all their Blu-ray splendor, attractively packaged (in a rigid page-turner slip case adorned with photos from the films) and loaded with extras.

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THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)

For his debut feature film, Frank Darabont burst out of the starting gate with a vengeance by directing one of the most beloved American classics of modern film as well as writing the screenplay.

When I first heard that a movie was being made from Stephen King's novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" I figured that the short, somewhat sketchy story would have to be heavily padded out to make an entire feature. Darabont proved otherwise by augmenting King's prison yarn in ways that were a deeply satisfying enhancement to the original material, and then turning THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994) into an engrossing, visually and emotionally rich cinematic experience that few who have seen it will ever forget.

The story involves a brilliant young banker named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) unjustly convicted and sentenced to life for the murder of his wife and her lover. Aging lifer Red (Morgan Freeman) gradually forms a grudging respect for Andy due to his quiet perserverance and refusal to be cowed or dehumanized by the prison system, which is embodied by a hypocritical warden (Bob Gunton as Warden Norton) and the brutally sadistic guard Capt. Hadley (Clancy Brown).

Andy becomes an invaluable resource to his jailers when he starts doing their tax returns for them and helping the warden launder all the money he's skimming from various illegal endeavors. But whenever he steps out of line by asserting his basic humanity, he's slapped down hard. This comes to a head when a new inmate (Gil Bellows) who may have information about the true killer of Andy's wife is murdered by the warden and Hadley.

After this, it appears as though Andy, who has become something of a heroic inspiration to his fellow convicts, has finally been beaten down and demoralized. There even comes a point in which they and we fear he's on the verge of suicide.

But the beleagered and embittered Andy Dufresne has a trump card up his sleeve, one which he's been holding for several years until just the right time to play it. And when he does, it leads to one of cinema's most dazzling and satisfying examples of comeuppance and righteous revenge, not to mention the exhilarating redemption promised by the title.

Proving himself a consummate screen artist, Darabont presents this story with the richest period production design and cinematography that the viewer could wish for and populating it with a cast filled with great A-list and character actors, each of whom seems inspired by his role.

Robbins is keenly attuned to what makes Andy Dufresne tick, letting us see both the sharply-perceptive intellect and deep emotions beneath the character's sometimes aloof manner. As Red, Freeman (whose character provides the film's soulful narration) expresses wisdom, melancholy, and an aching remorse for the crime he committed as a youth, and we're glad when Andy is able to instill in him--as well as the other prisoners--a feeling of hope after years of despair.

Darabont contrasts this with the frequent brutality of prison life, including Andy being beaten and raped by the monstrous Bogs (Mark Rolston of ALIENS and ERASER) and "The Sisters" while being subjected to lengthy stays in solitary confinement whenever he courts the warden's displeasure. A particularly sad interlude occurs when an old, institutionalized con named Brooks (played by the great James Whitmore) is released against his wishes and finds himself half a century behind the times in a world that's completely alien to him.

Yet even at its darkest THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION doesn't revel in graphic violence or ugliness for its own sake. Darabont displays admirable taste and restraint, relying on his rock-solid screenplay to convey what is needed while filming it in a beautifully classical, deliberate style that takes its time and eschews such things as shaky-cam and attention-deficit editing.

The actual prison location is remarkable. The abandoned complex, filmed shortly before a date with the wrecking ball, looks almost like a medieval castle, while Darabont's team has worked their movie magic with the interiors. The vast, specially-built cell block that houses our main characters is worthy of a Ken Adam 007 set.

Among those familiar faces adding their acting talents to the project are William Sadler (the main bad guy from DIE HARD 2, later to appear in Darabont's THE GREEN MILE), Jeffrey DeMunn (THE GREEN MILE, THE MAJESTIC), Larry Brandenburg (FARGO's Stan Grossman), Neil Guintoli (MEMPHIS BELLE), David Proval ("The Sopranos"), Jude Ciccolella (SIN CITY), and Paul McCrane (ROBOCOP, THE BLOB, "ER").

While stuck with a title that didn't exactly draw people into theaters or encourage positive word-of-mouth (nobody could remember it), THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION overcame initial bad box office and a seven-nomination strikeout at the Oscars to become one of the most popular home video and cable-TV favorites of all time. (As of this writing, it's voted #1 by members of the Internet Movie Database.) Redemption indeed, both in the film's heartrendingly upbeat ending and in real life as well.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Commentary by Writer/Director Frank Darabont
2 Documentaries:　
Hope Springs Eternal: A look Back at The Shawshank Redemption
Shawshank: The Redeeming Feature
The Charlie Rose Show Segment Featuring Darabont, Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman
Comic Spoof The Sharktank Redemption
Stills and Collectibles Galleries
Theatrical Trailer

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THE MAJESTIC (2001)

With THE MAJESTIC (2001), Frank Darabont dives all the way into the deep end of the nostalgia pool and wallows in cloying sentiment to the point of going under.

Throwing subtlety to the wind, the formerly restrained director indulges an apparent penchant for smarm while his first non-Stephen King effort ultimately morphs from a would-be tearjerker into a heavy-handed message film--a fantasy Hollywood wish-fulfillment tale in which our main character, emitting gleaming waves of Capra-esque integrity while wielding the Constitution like Captain America's shield, bucks the nasty government bad guys to a standing ovation during a HUAC hearing.

Jim Carrey divests himself of his usual mega-farcical persona and goes serious as ambitious hack screenwriter Peter Applegate, who gets accused of being a communist during the red-scare witch hunts of the 50s. When the drunk and depressed Peter accidentally drives off a bridge and is washed up onto a secluded California beach with no memory of his former life, he makes his way to a small town where he's mistaken for a missing WWII soldier named Luke who's been declared dead after several years.

Martin Landau (ED WOOD, X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE) plays Luke's father Harry Trimble, ecstatic over his son's apparent return and suddenly eager to reopen his derelict movie theater, the Majestic, with Luke's help. Meanwhile, Peter/Luke becomes a hero and inspiration to the entire town, not to mention Luke's former girlfriend, the lovely Adele (Laurie Holden of Darabont's hit TV series "The Walking Dead" ). 

After suffering many losses during the war, the embittered town's dormant heart is reawakened (symbolized by the Majestic's gala, blazing-neon resurrection) by the presence of their beloved prodigal son. Peter, on the other hand, feels unworthy of such admiration, knowing somehow that he hasn't earned it. Still, he does his best to live up to everyone's image of him--especially since the love between him and Adele has been rekindled--and finds himself settling into his new life as a truly changed man.

Almost as in a Ray Bradbury short story or an episode of "The Twilight Zone", the town seems to represent Peter's idea of Heaven after his symbolicdeath, and for awhile, we almost expect something supernatural to happen. Unfortunately, what does eventually transpire--Peter's discovery, arrest, and eventual grilling before a hostile Congressional committee--is disappointingly mundane and contrived in comparison.

To his credit, Carrey is pretty good in this serious role but unfortunately just carries too much baggage to make us forget him as Ace Ventura, Fire Marshall Bill, the Mask, etc. The film's standout is, unsurprisingly, Martin Landau as Harry, while a radiant Laurie Holden proves to be as much at home on the big screen as she was in "The Walking Dead."

The rest of the film's rather impressive cast includes James Whitmore (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION), David Ogden Stiers, Gerry Black (RE-ANIMATOR, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION), Bob Balaban, Ron Rifkin, Allen Garfield, Chelcie Ross (THE LAST BOY SCOUT), Jeffrey DeMunn (SHAWSHANK, THE GREEN MILE), Hal Holbrook, and, in the "movie within a movie" scenes, Cliff Curtis (COLLATERAL DAMAGE, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD) and cult icon Bruce Campbell. Darabont also snagged some big name actors and directors to do offscreen voice work.

The Blu-ray disc is a bit skimpier on the extras this time around. In addition to a sequence (approx. 5 minutes) from the fictitious 50s adventure yarn "Sand Pirates of the Sahara" with Campbell and Curtis, there are some deleted scenes and a trailer.

It wouldn't be so bad if Darabont weren't trying so hard to channel Frank Capra and mold Carrey into Jimmy Stewart for the film's paint-by-numbers resolution, which ultimately attempts to recreate the tearfully joyous finale of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Like its honey-glazed period atmosphere, THE MAJESTIC's sentiment comes off as too sickly-sweet and unreal to be nearly as truly effective as either Capra's films or Darabont's own earlier triumph.

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THE GREEN MILE (1999)

Four years after 1994's THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, Frank Darabont once again tapped master storyteller Stephen King (in addition to his own screenwriting talents) for another prison tale, THE GREEN MILE.

I recall the novelty of reading King's tale when first published not as a lengthy single volume but as a series of small paperbacks released in serial form a la Charles Dickens. I was skeptical when I heard that this riveting but highly unusual tale would be turned into a movie, a skepticism that Darabont proceeded to dash into smithereens by creating what I consider to be his finest and most thoroughly accomplished work to date.

The story takes place on Death Row in a Southern prison circa 1935, where head guard Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) strives to treat the condemned men with a fair amount of dignity and compassion until their date with "Old Sparky." Brawny, reliable Brutus "Brutal" Howell (David Morse) is his right hand man, aided also by the other guards Harry Terwilliger (Darabont regular Jeffrey DeMunn) and young Dean Stanton (Barry Pepper, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN).

Paul's biggest headache, besides the occasional psycho prisoner such as fiend killer "Wild Bill" Wharton (Sam Rockwell, GALAXY QUEST, GENTLEMEN BRONCOS), is a cruel, cowardly weasel of a guard named Percy Wetmore, brilliantly played by one of my favorite actors, Doug Hutchison (MOOLA). As the spoiled nephew of the governor's wife, Percy threatens to tattle on Paul whenever he doesn't get his way or is caught abusing the prisoners. It's Hutchison's best role since that of inhuman super-creep Eugene Tooms on "The X-Files."

While his connections could secure any job he wishes, Percy remains on Death Row because he aspires to be lead guard during an execution. Anxious to be rid of him, Paul grants him this opportunity. But it turns disastrous when Percy deliberately botches the electrocution of a hated inmate, turning it into a horrifying, agonizing ordeal (which Darabont stages with exquisite aplomb) both for him and the mortified onlookers in the film's most grueling, deliciously Grand Guignol sequence. (The SPFX as the ill-fated inmate's smoking body jerks, spasms, bursts into flames, and finally roasts alive are gruesomely convincing.)

While all this horror is going on, the Green Mile--named for its faded green linoleum--receives its strangest guest yet, a monstrously huge but mild-mannered black man named John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), convicted of murdering two little girls but seemingly unable to hurt a fly. Duncan, whose only previous film credit was in ARMAGEDDON, sought the services of an acting coach for the role and this paid off handsomely when he delivered a bravura performance as the doomed behemoth with the mind and heart of a child.

The film plunges full-bore into the supernatural when it's discovered that Coffey has miraculous healing powers which he uses to bring life back to the pet mouse of fellow condemned man "Del" Delacroix, an eccentric Cajun (Michael Jeter), after Percy cruelly stomps on it. (The mouse, "Mr. Jingles", will be a crucial element of the story in unexpected ways.)

After Coffey heals his painful bladder infection as well, Paul suddenly gets a wild, farfetched idea upon which he's willing to stake not just his job but his very freedom--that perhaps, somehow, John Coffey might be able to heal the dying wife of his boss and friend, Warden Hal Moores (James Cromwell). But if Coffey is capable of doing this, how in the world can Paul preside over the man's execution? Especially now that he's convinced Coffey is actually innocent?

It's a dilemma to haunt the viewer for some time to come, as impeccably rendered by Darabont with the skills of a master screen craftsman. Here again he tells the story unhurriedly and in a formal, old-school fashion that evokes the satisfaction one feels delving into a fine novel. Beautifully designed sets and another ideal prison location, this one with a distinct Gothic atmosphere, combine with gorgeous cinematography to create a film whose period ambience is intoxicatingly effective.

Hanks is at his best here, as is Morse, both portraying the kind of good and stalwart men you'd want in such positions. (Ditto for actors DeMunn and Pepper as their fellow guards.) Duncan gives the performance of his career and earned the Oscar nomination he received for it. James Cromwell and Patricia Clarkson, as Warden and Mrs. Moores, help make their strange encounter with John Coffey unforgettable, while always likeable Bonnie Hunt provides endearing moral support and domestic romantic interest as Paul's wife, Jan.

Gary Sinise (FORREST GUMP), Eve Brent, and SHAWSHANK alum William Sadler appear briefly as well, and in the film's wraparound segments, an older Paul Edgecomb is portrayed by none other than the great character actor Dabbs Greer in one of his juiciest and most high-profile roles ever.

As in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, Darabont and King present prison inmates who are more like members of a social club than hardened criminals in order for us to more easily accept and identify with them. The first one to walk the Green Mile is Graham Greene's Arlen Bitterbuck, who gets one wonderfully poignant scene in which he wistfully recounts his happiest moment in life to Paul. Michael Jeter is profoundly effective as Del in his scenes with Mr. Jingles the mouse, which never fail to have me blubbering like a baby even more than the film's powerful finale. As Wild Bill, Sam Rockwell is both repellent and perversely hilarious. Harry Dean Stanton is also funny in a smaller role as a prison trustee.

THE GREEN MILE ultimately becomes not only a highly absorbing tale of life on Death Row from both sides of the bars, but also a fascinating and moving morality tale that mines some of our deepest and most profound emotions. Darabont achieves a perfect balance here between the story's darker, uglier aspects, which manage to hold us in morbid fascination even at their most repellent, and the joyously uplifting passages that radiate with the compassion, empathy, and love which human beings sometimes display in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Walking the Mile (Extended Version) NEW! High-def documentary feature starring Tom Hanks, Frank Darabont, Stephen King, and Mr. Jingles, the mouse
Commentary by Frank Darabont
The Teaser Trailer: A Case Study
Walking the Mile: The Making of The Green Mile
Miracles and Mystery: Creating the Green Mile- Stephen King: Storyteller
Miracles and Mystery: Creating the Green Mile- The Art of Adaptation
Miracles and Mystery: Creating the Green Mile- Acting on the Mile
Miracles and Mystery: Creating the Green Mile- Designing the Mile
Miracles and Mystery: Creating the Green Mile- The Magic of the Mile
Miracles and Mystery: Creating the Green Mile- The Tail of Mr. Jingles
Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Frank Darabont
Michael Clarke Duncan's Screen Test
Tom Hank's Old-Age Makeup Tests
Rare Unused Teaser
Trailer

　

Buy it at the WBShop.com

Own "The FRANK DARABONT Blu-ray Collection" on February 24th. The collection includes 15th Anniversary Edition The Green Mile, Blu-ray Debut of The Majestic and The Shawshank Redemption.

(Images used in review are not taken from the Blu-ray discs)

 

THE FRANK DARABONT COLLECTION -- Blu-ray review by Porfle (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION/ THE MAJESTIC/ THE GREEN MILE)

TO -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 5/23/11

 

Japanese director Fumihiko Sori (APPLESEED, VEXILLE) brings two futuristic tales from Yukinobu Hoshino’s "2001 Nights" manga to vivid life in TO (2011), giving us sci-fi and anime fans enough brain candy to gorge ourselves on.

Impeccably rendered spaceships and settings serve as a backdrop for the CG motion-capture characters.  Neither too cartoony nor too realistic (and deftly avoiding the dreaded "uncanny valley" effect) this cross between 2D and 3D character animation blends the best elements of both to create what Sori calls "3D live anime, Japanese-style full CG animation with the feeling of cel images."  The result is a strongly appealing hyper-anime aesthetic with the subtle facial nuances and body language of live actors.

"Elliptical Orbit" opens with the enormous space station Midnight Bazooka, which propels containers of supplies toward a moonbase via a long firing chamber, doing a slow fly-by right out of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and STAR WARS as it orbits Earth.  Captain Dan and his crew are visited by the starship Flying Dutchman on its return from a 15-year mission to bring a cargo of liquid protons from a faraway mining planet.  The ship's captain, Maria, has remained her young, beautiful self during periods of extended hypersleep while Dan has aged, yet their deep emotional bond clearly remains strong.



As they catch up on old times, the Bazooka is invaded by a force of armor-suited terrorists bent on firing the Dutchman's cargo of liquid protons at the distant moonbase and destroying it.  Dan, Maria, and their respective crewmembers join to fight the invaders in a fierce space battle that takes a heavy toll on the outnumbered and outgunned good guys.  While the spectacular SPFX and dazzling sci-fi trappings are consistently impressive, equal attention is given to the thoughtful and adult-oriented human story, ultimately revealing an added dimension to Dan and Maria's relationship that is hauntingly resonant.

The second story, "Symbiotic Planet", is a Romeo and Juliet tale of two lovers from different bases on the same alien world.  Ion, a member of the American-European outpost, and his sweetheart Alena of the Eurasian contingent, meet secretly every night until forbidden to do so by their superiors.  The opposing camps are at such a hostile impasse over territorial rights that even a visiting UN delegation fails to avert impending military conflict between the two.
 


As hostilities reach their peak, Ion is exposed to alien spores in the research lab and must seal himself in as his body begins to change.  Eventually the entire compound is infected by the unknown organism, disabling its occupants as enemy fighters arrive bearing missiles of destruction.  Their only hope for survival is a strangely transformed Ion, whose pacifism may prevent him from pressing the button which activates the base's lethal defense system.  Beautiful visuals and gripping suspense highlight this sensitive cautionary tale.

Both stories are a pleasing blend of action and emotionally compelling character interplay.  "Elliptical Orbit" delivers more in the way of nuts and bolts sci-fi and shoot-'em-up space opera along with its moving story, while the more esoteric "Symbiotic Planet" explores the contrast between an ethereally peaceful planet and the inherently warlike humans who infect it with the same hatred that has ravaged their own homeworld.
 


The 3-disc Blu-Ray/DVD combo from Funimation is in 1.78:1 widescreen with English (dubbed) and Japanese Dolby 5.1 surround sound.  Subtitles are in English.  Each episode (combined running time: approx. 86 minutes) comes with an interview with Sori and his main voice actors, promos, trailers, teasers, and TV spots. 

Sharply written and "performed" by wonderfully lifelike CG characters, and set in a virtual world that's a constant pleasure to behold, TO is superb sci-fi that is both thought-provoking and visually dazzling.  If "2001 Nights" contains more stories of this caliber, I can only hope that Fumihiko Sori will continue to tell them.


Buy it at Amazon.com

TO -- DVD review by porfle

TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 11/9/11

 

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

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

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



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

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

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



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

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

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

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


Buy it at Amazon.com

TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE -- DVD review by porfle

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 3/6/12

 

If you aren't that familiar with the real Marilyn Monroe, you'll undoubtedly learn a little more about her from MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (2011).  But if you are, you probably  won't recognize her in the inexplicably miscast Michelle Williams.  That glaring bone of contention aside, however, it's a pretty good movie.

Based on the true diaries of Colin Clark, the story begins with the upper-class young film fan getting a menial third-assistant-director job with Laurence Olivier's production company just as American movie idol Marilyn Monroe is arriving in England to star with Sir Larry in 1957's THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL.  While the emotionally unstable Marilyn drives Olivier up a wall with her quirky Method acting and unreliability, a star-dazzled Colin finds himself being adopted by her as an intimate friend to whom she can let down her guard and reveal her true self.

Amidst some nicely-rendered period trappings and atmosphere--and an occasional low-budget look, especially in the meager crowd scenes--the film starts out with the tone of a mildly amusing light comedy but gradually reveals its serious nature as we realize the toll that superstardom is taking on vulnerable Marilyn.  But while managing to convey the actress' endearing little-girl-lost quality to a certain degree, Williams also makes her appear sweetly retarded, especially in her ditzy on-set behavior during shooting. 

What's worse, Williams looks nothing like Monroe and is unable to convincingly mimic any of her body movements or facial expressions.  Her performance itself is fine--if she were playing a fictional character I'd have no complaints--but in this particular role, her casting is a puzzlement.  It's like getting Kirsten Dunst to play Mae West.  And with the winsome Emma Watson portraying a studio employee who catches Colin's eye before Marilyn enters his life, we have the odd situation of a lowly costume girl being cuter and sexier than the big MM.

However, none of this prevents Williams from doing her best with the well-written script and managing to give us a character we can sympathize with.  Her scenes alone with Eddie Redmayne's lovestruck Colin are a bittersweet peek at the everyday girl Marilyn yearned to be, with hints of a loveless childhood that caused her to seek love and acceptance wherever she could find it.  Their outing together at Windsor Castle contains a key scene in which, confronted by an admiring kitchen staff, she turns on her "Marilyn" character for them just as she might adopt any other fictional pose. 

As the story grows more substantial, other characters gain a depth that's only hinted at earlier on.  Colin's bright-eyed neophyte becomes more three-dimensional as Marilyn's dependence on him as a friend makes him rise to the challenge of being one.  Kenneth Branagh has a field day playing old-school thespian Olivier's frustration with his leading lady, eventually revealing his own fears of inadequacy as a film actor in comparison to the young actress' natural affinity for the camera. 

Julia Ormond plays Olivia's wife Vivien Leigh, the aging GONE WITH THE WIND ingenue who sees Marilyn as a sign that her own time is passing.  Judi Dench, best-known these days as 007's boss, is Dame Sybil Thorndike, an old acting crony of Olivier who takes the insecure Marilyn under her wing.  Paula Strasberg, Marilyn's acting coach and all-around enabler to her unconventional behavior, is played by Zoë Wanamaker, while Dougray Scott is well cast as playwright Arthur Miller in scenes that depict Marilyn's doomed third marriage.  Derek Jacobi (I, CLAUDIUS) appears in a cameo.

The Blu-Ray/DVD combo from Anchor Bay and the Weinsteins is in 2.35:1 widescreen with 5.1 DTSHD-MA (Blu-Ray) and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (DVD).  Subtitles are in English and Spanish.  Extras consist of a commentary with director Simon Curtis and the featurette, "The Untold Story of an American Icon."

In a movie about acting, we the viewers are asked to do a little acting ourselves in accepting this image of Marilyn as being as charming and irresistible as the characters in the film keep saying she is.  If you can do that, then MY WEEK WITH MARILYN succeeds as the touching love story of two wildly diverse people and their brief bond of mutual empathy.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN -- DVD review by porfle