Britgeek here.
Here we are again, arriving at another loaded edition of my review column, featuring bite-size write-ups of the latest DVD and Blu-ray releases to land in the UK, from gross-out gore movies to bland comedies and remastered classics.
HOSTEL: PART III (Blu-ray)
Available now on Blu-ray & DVD
Directed by horror veteran Scott Spiegel (INTRUDER, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: TEXAS BLOOD MONEY), HOSTEL: PART III swaps the grunge of that thought-to-be-abandoned factory in Slovakia for the bright lights of an equally-as-deadly Las Vegas. Elite Hunting has extended its vicious might to the gambling capitol of the world and four friends are about to experience the sheer horror of the members-only club first-hand, Sin City-style.
I'm a big fan of Eli Roth's first two HOSTEL films. While I think the original is superior in terms of storytelling, the sequel, from a technical aspect, feels like the work of an improved film-maker. HOSTEL: PART III on the other hand is a step down in both, although it's far from a terrible follow-up, kicking off with a brilliant opening scene that misdirects the audience perfectly.
It has a noticeably lower budget, which ironically clashes with Elite Hunting's set-up in the film, as it's a little too high-tech. The idea of exploring different “chapters” of the club around the world is interesting, but compared to Las Vegas, I just find the aforementioned grunge of the Slovakian location to be that much darker and creepier. Having said that, Spiegel has added a somewhat synthetic layer of grime to the piece by shooting on Super 16 for that scratchy film quality.
Extras: An audio commentary with director Spiegel and star Kip Pardue.
30 MINUTES OR LESS (Blu-ray)
Available now on Blu-ray & DVD
The director of ZOMBIELAND once again teams up with Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg in 30 MINUTES OR LESS, a comically-bankrupt, goofy movie that bears an eerie similarity to horrifying – and certainly not funny – true events from years ago.
Eisenberg plays a slacker-cum-pizza-delivery-guy who winds up with a bomb strapped to his chest courtesy of two bumbling dreamers who force him to rob a bank. Provided he wishes to keep hold of his life, he must do as they say.
I enjoyed ZOMBIELAND, but 30 MINUTES OR LESS, which more or less attempts the same style of humour, has all the fun sucked right out of it. The characters are hard to like and Eisenberg's talents are wasted. It oozes over-the-top ridiculousness but is unable to balance things out with its utter lack of laughs.
Extras: Picture-in-picture video commentary with director Ruben Fleischer and stars Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride and Nick Swardson; Blowing Up with the Cast & Crew of 30 MINUTES OR LESS: the actors reflect on the experience of working with their co-stars; The Perfect Crime: Action and Comedy in 30 MINUTES OR LESS; ten deleted scenes; three outtakes; and the trailer.
THE GUARD (DVD)
Available now on DVD & Blu-ray
Buddy cop comedies are very hit and miss, but THE GUARD falls firmly into the former. It's dark, frequently hilarious and sharply written.
Playing out like a spaghetti Western (with a soundtrack to boot), THE GUARD stars Brendan Gleeson as a police officer who refuses to play by the rules and Don Cheadle as an FBI agent whose main concern is sticking to them. Cheadle is flown over to Ireland to assist with an investigation into an international drug smuggling operation, and is met by far more than just a culture shock as he teams up with Gleeson.
And that's one of the many reasons why THE GUARD is so much more than your average buddy cop movie. Not only is the culture clash explored, but so are the racial differences between the lawmen and the difference between their agencies. Casting them together seems as unlikely as their characters working in harmony, but Gleeson and Cheadle have chemistry in spades. Just brilliant.
Extras: Behind the scenes featurette; deleted and extended scenes; outtakes; THE SECOND DEATH (a short film); an audio commentary with writer/director John Michael McDonagh and stars Gleeson and Cheadle; and the trailer.
SHARK NIGHT 3D (Blu-ray)
Available now on Blu-ray 3D & DVD
College students meet Lake Crosby. Lake Crosby meet killer sharks. College students meet... Yeah, you've got it.
Sharks have a long and largely unfortunate history in cinema. JAWS is my favourite film of all time and since then we haven't seen a movie that even comes close to its brilliance. I could write the book on killer shark flicks. I've seen them all, and only two since 1975 have been graced with a considerable budget: DEEP BLUE SEA... er, is what it is, and SHARK NIGHT, the first time we've seen the man-eating predators of the deep flying out of the screen since JAWS 3D, is one to avoid.
What it is is a missed opportunity. Had it gone down the same route as PIRANHA 3D and maintained the same levels of over-the-top violence and shameless gags, SHARK NIGHT could have been a real winner. Instead, it's a film that takes itself far too seriously, features little blood, sharks that look like they've been pulled right out of the latest Syfy production, and paper-thin characters. Director David R. Ellis was at the helm of THE FINAL DESTINATION, which was a fun time at the movies, so what happened here?
Put it this way: I got a laugh out of the appearance of Cookie Cutter sharks.
Extras: SHARK NIGHT's Survival Guide: facts about sharks and how they were incorporated into the film; Fake Sharks Real Scares: the animatronics and digital effects of SHARK NIGHT; and Elli's Island: a featurette on director Ellis.
RED STATE (DVD)
Available now on DVD & Blu-ray
RED STATE marks a step in a more mature direction for cult favourite Kevin Smith. Almost devoid of the wry humour and raunchy gags of which he is best known for, the film takes a turn that may be uncomfortably dark for even his most die-hard fans. Looking beyond all the controversy and PR hoopla that has surrounded the film since production, however, RED STATE ultimately feels like Smith exercising film-making muscles he simply doesn't have.
Based on the infamous Fred Phelps and the madhouse known as the Westboro Baptist Church, Smith shoehorns political, social and religious commentary as if raising his hand to say, “Hey, look, I'm smart.” He is famed for his vast array of pop culture references, but one of the biggest downfalls of his dabble into putting religious extremism on film is his attempt at being current.
In RED STATE, horny teenagers use Craigslist to locate an older woman for a threesome, but find themselves lured into a trap by a homophobic congregation known as the Five Points Church, led by an utterly wasted Michael Parks. Soon enough their lives are threatened and the sound of gunshots brings about a SWAT presence outside the church, leading to a spaghetti Western-like stand-off.
In what would have been a fantastic performance had he had a script that didn't weigh him down almost into non-existence, Parks is given so much religious spiel that his character is shoved down your throat. He's an incredible actor and does everything right by his character, but it's Smith's choices as both writer and director that all but kill his role as the prime antagonist.
To cut what could possible turn into a diatribe as long as the one delivered by Parks to his fellow churchgoers when we're first introduced to him, RED STATE is an absolute mess from a film-maker who has never really found his feet.
Extras: Making RED STATE; The infamous Sundance speech; A Conversation with Michael Parks; deleted scenes; trailers; and a poster gallery, all with introductions by Smith.
PUNISHMENT PARK (Blu-ray/DVD)
Available now on Blu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition
Peter Watkins' 1971 film PUNISHMENT PARK is an incredible pseudo-documentary. It's gripping, disturbing and, four decades after its release, as relevant as ever.
Frighteningly realistic, if you weren't aware that the movie is just that – a movie – it'd be easy to mistake it for a genuine documentary. And PUNISHMENT PARK is most definitely not the kind of film that most associate with the “mockumentary” style of film-making, such as THIS IS SPINAL TAP. There isn't a single laugh to be had at the expense of those who stand – and die – before the camera in this film: anti-Vietnam war activists who are given the opportunity to participate in what is known as Punishment Park instead of imprisonment, a cat-and-mouse chase across 50 miles of sun-scorched California desert, where the days are burning hot and the nights are freezing cold. Their target? The American flag. Their pursuers? A small army of police officers with rifles held tightly in their hands.
What if something like Punishment Park actually existed? To me at least, it doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility, which is a scary thought indeed. Until a time where such a reality exists, however, we have this magnificent doco-but-not-a-doco to keep us shocked to the core from the comfort of our own homes.
Extras: An introduction by writer/director Watkins and a 2004 audio commentary by film tutor and Watkins expert, Dr. Joseph A. Gomez.
REVENGE: A LOVE STORY (DVD)
When a young woman is raped by police officers, her boyfriend Kit, a skinny street vendor who spends most of his time steaming meat buns, decides to exact revenge on his tormentors in the most gruesome of ways.
Love stories are often the most twisted kind and China's REVENGE: A LOVE STORY is certainly not a film to watch if you're looking for something upbeat. It's a brutal, depressing ride with lashings of sadism and a number of extremely grotesque images from the very beginning. It's well made and offers just enough bleakness to shock you upon its climax, while still enabling you to enjoy the gore-drenched carnage you witnessed from the opening scene of this sordid tale.
Extras: A making-of feature; an interview with producer Conroy Chan; featurettes about Terracotta Distribution and the Terracotta film festival; plus a selection of trailers from other releases.
THE CHANGE-UP (Blu-ray Triple Play)
Available now on Blu-ray Triple Play & DVD
Perhaps the crudest and lewdest body swap comedy of all time, THE CHANGE-UP sees best friends Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds switch lives and explore the aspects of each other that they've either lost or never found. Reynolds is a loser who spends his time smoking pot, bedding women and starring in softcore pornography, while Bateman is a successful lawyer who has neglected his wife and children in favour of pursuing his dream job of partner at the firm he works for. Most of the film unfolds conventionally for such a comedy, but the way in which the body swap occurs is the opposite: the characters make a wish while urinating into a fountain. Yes.
Director David Dobkin and the writers are responsible for two films that I don't think a great deal of, those being WEDDING CRASHERS and THE HANGOVER respectively, but they've managed to score somewhat of a hit with THE CHANGE-UP. It's a fun – if overlong – gross-out comedy, just not particularly memorable.
Extras: This release includes both the theatrical and “Unrated” versions; Fist Fight deleted scene; gag reel; behind the scenes featurettes Time for a Change and Family Matter; and an audio commentary with director Dobkin.
TWO-LANE BLACKTOP (Blu-ray)
Minimal dialogue. Flat landscapes that stretch for miles. Nameless characters. Just three of the elements that make TWO-LANE BLACKTOP one of the great American road movies.
Starring five-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter James Taylor as The Driver and The Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson as The Mechanic, TWO-LANE BLACKTOP is a journey across Route 66; a journey taken by two artists whose canvas is the wide, open road to Nowhere; characters who live out a lonely existence and whose only affections appear to be towards their car, a battered yet powerful 1955 Chevy. It's not a car chase movie and it's not a destruction derby. There's something deeply poetic about the subdued nature in which TWO-LANE BLACKTOP plays out, and yet the impact felt when one resonates with the scenes is incredibly powerful and almost infectious.
This is a first-rate release from The Masters of Cinema Series. Not only is the supplemental material great, but the film itself looks the best it ever has in high definition. A stunning release for a truly stunning and influential work of cinema.
Extras: Original mono track; 5.1 surround sound; optional music and effects track; an audio commentary with director Monte Hellman and associate producer Gary Lurtz from 1999; three featurettes (On the Road Again, Somewhere Near Salinas and Sure Did Talk to You); screen tests; and the original theatrical trailer.
TOMIE: UNLIMITED (DVD)
Available now on DVD & Blu-ray
A year after high school student Tomie dies in a horrific freak accident, her photographer sister Tsukiko is plunged into a terrifying nightmare when her lost sibling knocks on the door of her family home.
An adaptation of the Japanese horror manga series, TOMIE: UNLIMITED marks the ninth time that the source material has made the jump to cinema and the second time that the series has been rebooted. It's also the closest adaptation to the literature yet, which is far from surprising as some of the more bizarre and inspired elements of the film look as if they could only have come from manga.
Unreservedly twisted and deranged, TOMIE: UNLIMITED is yet another bloody treat from Asia. Director Noboru Iguchi (MACHINE GIRL) doesn't have much of a leash on the story as it weaves in and out of logic, but this albeit messy low-budget horror will please gore fans.
Extras: A discussion with director Iguchi and the trailer.
GAME OF DEATH (DVD)
It's no secret that GAME OF DEATH has a complicated history. Director and star Bruce Lee had shot over 100 minutes of footage before he worked on ENTER THE DRAGON, his first and only Hollywood studio movie, but died before he could return to production on the former, which started out as a film known as THE GAME OF DEATH. The alteration to the title came about when ENTER THE DRAGON director Robert Clouse was drafted in to shoot additional scenes so that a new film could be constructed out of archival footage, scenes from THE GAME OF DEATH and entirely new material.
Lee's original vision for the film was based around his character being forced to fight his way up a tall tower in order to rescue his love interest, but that story was completely lost when it came to the movie that was posthumously thrown together: a largely dull and uninteresting crime film that mostly featured poor Bruce Lee body doubles disguised with taped-on beards and enormous sunglasses. It gets better towards the end when more footage of the real Bruce Lee is used and we're treated to his martial arts prowess, but really it's a disaster of a movie.
Even if you watch it just the once, it's definitely interesting to see what became of THE GAME OF DEATH. The second disc in this set is a must-have, too, as it offers 40 minutes of footage cut together in accordance with Lee's very own script notes, and features fascinating lost material uncovered by Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan ten or so years ago.
Extras: Three deleted scenes; alternative title sequence; extended ending; an audio commentary with Bey Logan; animated biography of Bruce Lee; trailers for other Cine Asia releases; Bruce Lee trailer archive; rare photo archive (including production stills, posters and original lobby card artwork); LEGACY OF THE DRAGON: a documentary; a feature on the history of Jeet Kune Do; biographies of the principal cast; GAME OF DEATH Revisited: a 40-minute cut of the original footage in accordance with Lee's script notes; a Jeet Kune Do seminar with Dan Inosanto; an interview galley; and a GAME OF DEATH retrospective.
THE BIG BOSS (DVD)
Bruce Lee finds himself tempted by the darker side of life in THE BIG BOSS (also known as FISTS OF FURY), the star's first major film, which he also co-wrote. Lee plays Cheng Chao-an, a factory worker who is oblivious to the fact that his place of work is a front for a drug smuggling operation, orchestrated by a man known as the Big Boss. His colleagues aren't so blind, however, and protest, but find out the hard way that their criminal employer is not one to be messed with.
The story of THE BIG BOSS unfolds in a less than inspiring fashion, but who really watches Bruce Lee movies for the plot? The action is where it counts and the film boasts fight sequences that really pack a punch, especially the climactic battle. It's distractingly silly in some parts, but Lee's first foray into major motion pictures is a bloody slice of hard-hitting entertainment.
Extras: An audio commentary with Andrew Staton and Will Johnston; trailers for other Cine Asia releases; The History of THE BIG BOSS: A photographic retrospective; Deleted Scenes Examined: The story of the elusive original uncut print; Bruce Lee biography; UK Platinum Edition trailer; UK promotional trailer; original theatrical trailer; Hong Kong promotional trailer; rare uncut 8mm UK trailer; original 35mm UK title sequence; textless 35mm title sequence; gallery of original lobby cards; and three featurettes with Paul Heller, Fred Weintraub and Tom Kuhn.
LE SILENCE DE LA MER (DVD/Blu-ray)
Available now on Blu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition
The great Jean-Pierre Melville's very first feature film, LE SILENCE DE LA MER, has arrived on Blu-ray and DVD in a Dual Format Edition courtesy of Eureka Entertainment's The Masters of Cinema Series. Adapted from the 1942 novel by Jean Bruller, which was originally published in secret, the film is certainly atypical and mostly takes place in one location, but one that offers exquisite photography and a story that is both fascinating and modest.
Set in Nazi-occupied France, it concerns an old Frenchman and his niece as they listen in almost absolute silence to the sprawling thoughts of a German lieutenant who politely pops in each evening. He bears no hostility to those whose house he has occupied, yet has embraced the war with the belief that the resolution will bring about peace in Europe. He speaks almost romantically of France and Germany, two countries he holds dear to his heart.
The film is narrated by the old man, yet for the majority of the piece his character doesn't say a word, instead choosing to listen intently to the German while reading and sipping coffee beside the fireplace as his niece knits. The lieutenant, played by Swiss actor Howard Vernon, essentially speaks in soliloquy and paints a picture of an esteemed soldier who is both courteous and cultured. LE SILENCE DE LA MER feels almost like a play yet offers something, to this day, completely different from other movies concerning the Second World War.
Extras: MELVILLE OUT OF THE SHADOWS, a documentary; the original theatrical trailer; and a featurette with Film Studies professor Ginette Vincendeau discussing the film.
Until next time.
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