Lord Of Illusions – Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray Review)
Its no wonder that after the back to back experiences of Nightbreed and Lord Of Illusions, that horror maestro Clive Barker hasn’t take the director’s chair since. It wasn’t as much an extreme case with Lord Of Illusions, but once again the studio did not seem to understand Barker’s vision for the film. And during this time, the studios in general didn’t seem to understand that horror could branch out and be other things and still include horror. Barker’s horror’s were of a unique mind, but the studios seemed to think he was just some guy who made Freddy or Jason movies. For this film however, Barker agreed to make a generic and no frills cut that would appease the studio. Barker made the agreement on the guideline that when it came to video his original director’s cut would become readily available. Scream Factory has gone ahead with its debut on Blu-ray and brought you both cuts, just like they did with Nightbreed. Continue reading ‘Lord Of Illusions – Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray Review)’
I first was introduced to Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods when I was in eighth grade/middle school/whatever. My school contained both high school and middle school grades in one building. The high school was putting on this particular number for the annual spring musical. I had no idea what I was in for when I got my ticket. There was something to do with fairy tales and whatnot but I had no real idea. I found myself pretty taken with it as it had a mix of fairy tale play and wonder along with a comedic mix of cleverness and adult humor. That production furthered my interest in wanting to join the drama department when I would be in high school, and I did just that. Also, being a fan of this musical I sought out the taped performance I’m about to review today. It was either a VHS rental or on PBS, one or the other, but I did see it long ago. I imagine this release is tailored to Disney’s upcoming cinematic adaptation of the musical. 
In 1954, Irving Berlin followed up his film Holiday Inn with White Christmas. The film brought one of the songs from Holiday Inn front and center and in the title. It was supposed to also reunite him with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, but Astaire wound up backing out and balking at the project. In his place Crosby was paired with Danny Kaye. The film was wildly successful and the highest grossing film of 1954. It made a whopping 12 million dollars, which was big time money back then in the movie industry. The film has had a strong legacy, being one that people, families and friends gather every year to sit around and watch to celebrate the holidays just like It’s A Wonderful Life, Elf, Christmas Vacation or The Santa Clause. Okay, so nobody watches the last one. Just checking your attention. This is Paramount’s second crack at this one on Blu-ray and this thing is absolutely LOADED with extras. Let’s dig in! 
Reclaim, which stars Ryan Phillipe, Rachelle Lefevre and John Cusack, was primarily a Video OnDemand release back in September. It did see release in a very limited fashion theatrically. This is the second film of this kind of ilk that I’ve caught to review recently that had John Cusack. The other was The Prince, which featured him prominently on the cover art, but he was barely in the film. That isn’t the case here in Reclaim, as he has a pretty significant part in this with plenty of screen time. Reclaim is yet another example of an adult thriller with actual stars hitting pretty much directly for the OnDemand market, whereas a similar film probably would have featured a wide theatrical release in the 1990s. 
Take that, Marvel! The Norwegians have beat you to Ragnarok by a whole four years and before you even had a chance to mutter up the words. Enjoy your little copycat adventure Thor, Loki and Jane Foster! Okay, okay, so this film is likely to not resemble that upcoming third Thor film in the slightest, but I thought I’d take that open opportunity and run with it. Although, funny enough, in the opening moments of the film, the name “Odin” is indeed referenced. No, this film comes from the director of Cold Prey 3 (A Norwegian slasher series that is pretty darn good, even if that was the weakest entry in it so far), so I was pretty interested from the get go on this one. In fact, this is Mikkel Brænne Sandemose’s follow up to that film, which was his feature film directorial debut. 
Into The Storm came out this summer during the reign of Guardians Of The Galaxy. The film had a pretty solid opening weekend, but in the end couldn’t manage to recoup its budget from the domestic audience. However, overseas this movie seemed to work like gangbusters. To date, it has taken in $112 million. And that makes sense. Its a movie based on big disaster action sequences that play on their own without having to follow that in depth of a plot. The only thing that would have worked it even better would be the addition of having it released in 3-D over there. Steven Quale directs his follow up to Final Destination 5 (The best film of that series), showing even more penchant for disastrous attack situations. If you’re not familiar with Quale, he comes from the James Cameron tree, in terms of background leading up to directing. He’s done various crew and second unit work for Cameron’s films like Avatar, True Lies and The Abyss. 
Way back when I wrote my theatrical review of The Expendables 3 I talked about how I initially promised myself I would have nothing to do with this movie after I learned about the abysmal PG-13 rating the filmmakers trimmed it down to be to comply with requirements of the much feared MPAA in order to get it out to a wider audience (more about that later). If it had not been for a trip up to Cleveland, OH to visit all my family and friends I can pretty much guarantee that I would have never partaken in a screening of The Expendables 3. I subjected myself to the theatrical experience to kill two birds with one stone, visit my most favorite Cleveland marketing team leader (she knows who she is) and also my favorite theater ever, that of Cinemark Valley View. I have so many memories there and obviously now The Expendables 3 is one of them. So let’s dispense with all the filter and formalities I’m employing here and talk about Barney (Stallone) and his old and new gang, and what does and does not happen here. 
It should be no surprise to anyone that the dynamic duo, hilarious tag team of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are back reprising their respective roles from 2012 in the appropriately titled 22 Jump Street (I’ll expand upon that more down below). I last talked about 21 Jump Street in my Blu-ray review over 
Jersey Boys has been an uber popular music for the last many years. It travels city to city and wows and pleases audiences across the United States. The film is a jukebox musical, meaning it features already established pop songs. But, that’s because its telling the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons so you kinda have to be that type of a musical. This film adaptation was once a passion project of Jon Favreau, but it wound up falling dead and never going anywhere. Then, oddly it was resurrected and Clint Eastwood was the guy at the helm. It seemed an odd marriage, and as you’ll see, it was one. Personally, I’d never had the pleasure of seeing the stage production of Jersey Boys and I really don’t think this film was any sort of supplement. 
Does everyone remember the Ed Harris-Eva Longoria-Michael Pena border crossing uber drama that took the box office by storm this past summer? No? Oh yeah, cuz it only opened in three theaters and expanded to a total of fourteen by the end of its run. As a matter of fact, its theatrical run ended just a few weeks ago to be precise. It only took just under $60,000 in its domestic run, but according to Wikipedia the film has wound up doing over $25 million globally. That’s not too shabby for a little film like this boasting more character acts and no real star power. The movie about border crossing, the controversies and the dangers of also marks the feature film debut of writer and director Michael Berry. 
If there is one film that deservingly has the right and proudly should be able to give the middle finger write at box office pundits (that don’t write for Forbes), its Tammy. This $20 million budgeted “one for me” film opening with a good $21 million opening weekend over 4th of July and because it didn’t do Transformers Independence Day numbers was considered a massive bomb and failure. Also people were claiming it was the end of Melissa McCarthy’s fame. WHOOPS! The film then went on to score almost $90 million to finish its run, flirting with making 5x its budget back. That’s massive success. Not a failure folks. And it was also a very solid opening weekend for a low key film that basically only promoted that Melissa McCarthy was in it and she was being one of her normal comedic characters. Despite whatever my thoughts on the film, I take great pleasure in seeing that Ben Falcone and everyone involved with Tammy got the last laugh. 
