Blended (Blu-ray Review)
When it comes to the films of Adam Sandler, critics either have their negative review written before they see the film or just avoid the movie all-together. Personally, I can’t say I’m a big fan, but I’m sort of indifferent. Back in the 90s and early 2000s he made a good handful of movies I did enjoy. In fact, his first pairing with Drew Barrymore The Wedding Singer is actually an all time favorite film of mine. Sandler and Barrymore’s chemistry was off the charts and they rekindled that years later in a follow up 50 First Dates which I thought was “ok” (ending just felt creepy and depressing to me). When Blended was announced as another pairing of the two, I was actually sort of looking forward to it. Then, of course like clockwork is was instantly reviled and panned. And unlike most Sandler movies, it barely scraped past its budget at the box office. As you can see, even with the negative critic reaction, I was still somewhat optimistic going into this one (it should be noted that audiences did seem to be ok with it as it scored a 67% on RT and 6.5 on IMDB). Continue reading ‘Blended (Blu-ray Review)’
I remember it like it was only yesterday. The year was 2006. It was a cold, blistery night in the month of December in Cleveland, OH. I had just taken lunch at my third shift job and ventured out into the tundra to hit up Wal-Mart. I was literally one patron away from scoring a Sony PlayStation 3 on its debut night. I was livid and pissed, but what could I do? I have to work for a living and so the weeks went on when just before the Christmas holiday after almost giving up I called a far away Wal-Mart during the witching hour of 3 AM and low and behold they had one in stock. I begged them to hold it for me. They said I had one hour to come and get it. As soon as my co-worker got back from lunch I rushed out and drove like a maniac 45-minutes away to claim my prize. It was finally mine! The cheapest (at the time) and still best Blu-ray player (IMO) on the market was finally mine! 
After three years in a row now (
Where do I begin here? Something like this is gonna go one of two ways. There’s a 98% chance something like Jersey Shore Massacre is going to be a complete piece of dung. In fact, that’s almost the obvious judgement to come from just hearing the title. Then you have that 2% off-chance that it could be a pleasurable piece of garbage or at least be exploitative enough to not be a complete waste of time going through it. It’s with this two-sided coin that I decided to roll the dice with this film. Which, so happens to be the follow up to a film (not yet on Blu-ray…don’t worry…coming soon though!) called Girls Gone Dead. 
One of last year’s biggest surprises and best boxed sets was Scream Factory’s Vincent Price Collection. Not only did it pack together 6 of his classics, including 4 from the Corman era and 2 horror staples, it also had excellent bonus material that really gave you a feel for how some of us saw Vincent growing up. I’m talking about those intros to the movies that were included. Well, Scream Factory knows how much we loved that set and they’re doing an encore, this time with 7 movies. And for those non-horror people, the titles on this one might be more of the household name variety. Today, Scream Factory has unleashed the specs for this exciting followup to last year’s set. Also, they are offering to send it to you a month early if you pre-order from their website! Cool deal, eh? Scroll down to get all the wicked, ghoulish details of the Vincent Price Collection II! 
I’m a big big fan of up and coming indie horror director Ti West. He reached me in an incredible way with his breakout film House Of The Devil and I’ve been following his career with great excitement ever since. His follow up, The Innkeepers was a great little follow up with a more modern approach. After it was announced he was doing a sci fi movie with Liv Tyler, but that hasn’t taken off yet. Ti then partnered up with Eli Roth to do The Sacrament. I’ll be honest, when it was first announced they’d be using the found footage aesthetic I was a little disappointed. But, Ti West did make an interesting little piece in the first V/H/S movie AND he’s a rather smart and creative director, so there had to be some logical reasoning behind it or a plan. 
Hammer Horror’s followup to The Woman In Black came a few months ago with The Quiet Ones. Its another spook show, but this time based on real events. That real event was “The Philip Experiment”. In short, in 1972 some Canadian parapsychologists tried to create a ghost as they believed the power to do so may have been in the human mind. While they could never get “Philip” to physically appear before them, they were successful in making contact and some communication with this ghost. The film based off the events was less successful, taking in under $10 million in US box office and $17 million worldwide. Could it be that people are over ghosts/possession movies or was it that Occulus that came out just before this one gave audiences their fill? I don’t know the answer to that, but we can go ahead and take the journey for ourselves in this review. 
The year 1989 is seminal year in my life in film. It had the summer that saw my love of film grow exponentially with such franchise films at Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and License To Kill. One conversation concerning 1989 seems to have sort of been forgotten over the years. That year had five films involving deep sea science fiction adventures. Most notably remembered is James Cameron’s The Abyss, but there was also DeepStar Six, The Evil Below, Lords Of The Deep and today’s film we’re here to discuss; Leviathan. Leviathan is surprisingly the first one of these films to make the jump to Blu-ray (DeepStar Six will make its debut on the format in Japan on November 5 of this year). While not under the Collector’s Edition banner, Scream Factory has still given this underappreciated film some great extras. 
The Muppets was a ceremonious return of our Jim Henson puppeteered crew of Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear, Gonzo and all our Muppet pals. It was also a pretty sweeping success, so of course with there was going to be a sequel. However, Jason Segel made it clear he was one-and-done so he was out. Where to go next? Well, they decided the Muppets are the star so lets just make a movie more focused on them. The budget was kept similar but the results didn’t yield as much of the success as the former. It managed to make just under half the what the first one did worldwide. Luckily, as I said the budget was kept in check. Will this be the last we see of our beloved Muppets for a while or is there enough belief to give it another go? We’ll have to see. But today, let’s talk about this sequel, Muppets Most Wanted. 
When I moved to Austin, TX over a year ago from Cleveland, OH I expected my change of scenery to be quite stimulating and invigorating, but you all know that whole grass is always greener on the other side thing, right? While the skies may not be grey all the time like in Cleveland, I would take that downtown skyline any day over the mini buildings that litter downtown Austin. However, I say that not to be mean or derogatory, but only to illustrate a point because the same comparison can be made when analyzing recent DC super hero films to Marvel ones. Although I believe the Nolan Batman trilogy to be some of the best superhero films ever made, I can clearly see where comic book purists can get off complaining that the onscreen events are too dark, brooding and unconventional in terms of how a comic book movie should look, pop and shine on the big screen. I can accept that, so can most people, but also many cannot. So where exactly am I going with all this nonsense? 
Blue Underground is returning to the Blu-ray business and kicking things off with a double feature. A double feature from a pair of films featuring the collaboration of director Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso, director of…Troll 2? Yes, THAT Claudio Fragasso. Hell Of The Living Dead and Rats: A Night Of Terror were films that Fragasso wrote and then co-directed with Mattei. As a double feature, they are perfect for each other as they both feature groups trying to survive being hunted by a pack of vicious creatures out to eat them. Double features are sometimes enough for these obscure releases, but Blue Underground has gone and attained some new interviews for this disc as well! 
The Railway Man is based on the World War II memoir of Eric Lomax, who is our character of focus in the film. I found the film to look and feel a little like those “safe” movies due to its gloss, polished aesthetic. But with the power of its performers and events depicted in the film, it proves to be a bit more than that. For what it was, I thought it was an engaging and pretty strong film. I was surprised in my research afterward to see how many critics found it to be merely decent and judged it as primarily that “safe” film I thought I was getting, but wasn’t delivered. While based on a true story and a memoir, I really didn’t want to get into spoiler territories with the review, as I think not knowing what lied ahead, or how things resolved were better off a surprise when watching the film. 
