The Possession of Michael King (Blu-ray Review)
August 3rd, 2014 by Gerard Iribe
Michael King (Shane Johnson) doesn’t believe in God or The Devil. Following the sudden death of his wife, the documentary filmmaker decides to make his next film about the search for the existence of the supernatural. Michael decides to make himself the center of the experiment – allowing demonologists, necromancers, and various practitioners of the occult to try the deepest and darkest spells and rituals they can find on him – in the hopes that when they fail, he’ll once and for all have proof that religion, spiritualism, and the paranormal are nothing more than myth. But something does happen. An evil and horrifying force has taken over Michael King. And it will not let him go. Dale Dickey (IRON MAN 3), Tomas Arana (GLADIATOR), and Julie McNiven (Mad Men) co-star in this intense supernatural spine-tingler from the producers of WHITE NOISE and THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT.Continue reading ‘The Possession of Michael King (Blu-ray Review)’
For me, Without Warning is one of the most exciting releases of 2014. No, its not Twin Peaks or Batman 1966 finally coming out, but its up there. Had I heard much about it before this release? No. I really dig the fact that Scream Factory has gotten this 34 year old film that’s never seen a home video release and are putting it out on Blu-ray and putting bonus material on it to boot. I’m all about film preservation and restoration. I’m not one who likes films to be forgotten no matter how bad they could be. Without Warning has pretty much been forgotten for a long time. How many people have been able to see this one since 1980? I’ve heard there have been bootlegs over the years, but the answer is not many. And of those, who remember it? Well, paint me with excitement as I finally got to see one of those truly “lost” films of horror yesteryear. 
As I mentioned in the press release for the Blu-ray release of Motel Hell from Scream Factory, I have never seen Motel Hell before. However, when you say the title, I can describe every detail of its VHS box art for you. This thing was an absolute staple in the horror section at VHS rental stores back in the 80s and 90s. Even the tape rental section at the local grocery stores carried this one. And at every video store I always had the goal to watch every horror movie in the horror section. But, I’ve obvioulsy failed as I never ever picked this one up. I have no idea why, I just might have thought the box looked more weird than scary. Back then I always went home with whatever I thought would frighten the living bejeezus out of me. 
Another month, another remake, director Phil Alden Robinson’s The Angriest Man in Brooklyn is a remake of a 1997 Israeli film The 92 Minutes of Mr. Baum. Both films deal with the idea of anger and mortality. The new version has a recognizable cast of Robin Williams, Mila Kunis (who is also an Executive Producer), Melissa Leo, and Peter Linkage. The story deals with a bitter Henry Altmann (Robin Williams) who is bridled with anger and has to cope his life choices when a bitter and mentally beaten down medical professional (Mila Kunis) accidently gives him an incredibly small time table to live. The film takes you on what could be Henry’s final moments in life while the people who care for him are scrambling to find him in Brooklyn. 
Video game movies have yet to really “take off” like the comic book ones. There’s many attempts, but aside from the Resident Evil franchise, none have really taken off. They don’t usually dominate the box office and are usually met with mixed critical reviews at best. However, fans will tell you, these games have such great stories at the video game stage but they just don’t quite translate for some reason to the big screen. I don’t know what it is, but maybe they’re just more cinematic at the console level with interaction instead of being a feature film. Who knows. Back in the spring, we got an adaptation of Need For Speed. Its something that seemed like you could translate and then infuse your own touch as a filmmaker with. It was open for a story to be added to the car racing. However, this one didn’t quite stick with America, but it did do quite well with overseas audiences. It now comes to Blu-ray where maybe it will pick up some people that didn’t get to the theater to see it. 
Prior to this Collector’s Edition, those of us in the US have had a rare chance to see this film correctly. Its been available on VHS and DVD. However, that DVD carried over the 4:3 pan & scan aspect ratio. There was a Canadian edition that featured the correct presentation and it also came with a slew of extras. None of that would be found on the US edition that came out. It was bare bones. Pine not for that stuff anymore, as Scream Factory has come to the rescue with their Collector’s Edition of Ginger Snaps, giving us fans pretty much everything and anything we’ve ever wanted from this fantastic Werewolf movie. With Scream Factory at the helm of one of my all-time favorite films, this surely would be a treat. 
Coming of age comedies are something I can find myself being a sucker for if they can get the right in or hook for me. As I grow older, it becomes more of a challenge to understand today’s youth because I’m not one of them and I don’t know what’s hip with the kids. I must say last year had a fantastic run of these movies with ones like to The Way Way Back, The Spectacular Now, Kings Of Summer and The To List to name a few. Ping Pong Summer is a much much much more independent film than any of those films, but still nonetheless takes their lead. It’s summer in the 1980s, and in a little lake town its time for some ping pong, love and learning experiences. 
If you’ll remember last weekend I reviewed Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak franchise in its entirety from the box set. And after how much of a disappointment those sequels wound up being, you can imagine my hesitancy going into the sequel to another Tony Jaa film, The Protector 2. Would we actually get a sequel this time? Would there be some of the same characters? Will this take place in the present day or some extremely distant past? Maybe we’ll got to some incredibly distant future this time. Well, rest assured, this is indeed a full fledged sequel to The Protector. Tony Jaa returns as Kham, and the dude is still all about his pet elephant. Mark even comes back too. 
All I knew about the first Rio going into this was that it was the film that topped the box office the weekend Scream 4 was released. It was a huge hit, taking almost half a billion dollars worldwide. In order to properly review Rio 2, I had to watch Rio before this and wow…I’m surprised there was a bunch of buzz regarding what the film is about. It’s basically the story of trying to get 2 birds together to umm…well…let’s not have the birds and bees discussion right now. And there’s also this crazy moment where they use the main character’s wing taking shape for its first flight to symbolize his first erection. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. Craziness. Where would Rio 2 go? Well, let’s go there and find out. 
I don’t know what it is with the Golden Age of slashers that amuses me so much, but its something I’ve always been fond of and never really tired of. Even bad ones (there’s plenty) I tend to enjoy. There were so many of these things from 1980-1984 its not even funny. So many, that there are a whole lot of them that have gone missing forever. With home video releases over the years we think we’d have them tracked, but some didn’t make it to VHS or went out of print real fast, a lot didn’t make it to DVD and even more have not made it to Blu-ray. However, being the collector’s medium, the slasher films of the 80s have been getting some attention and royal treatment in the past few years. Here today is the Canadian slasher film Curtains, which Synapse Films has rescued and put it onto DVD (by itself) and Blu-ray for the first time ever. Its crazy that this is the first time as Curtains is one of the finest slasher films from the era. But many of you probably don’t even know this one. 
Here comes the Ong-Bak trilogy in time for the release of The Protector 2. This is the home franchise for martial arts and Muay Thai expert Tony Jaa. For those of you wondering right off the bat, no, there is nothing new to this box set that hasn’t been out already. The only addition is a really nice sleeve to put all 3 films in. So, no there is no reason to pick this up if you already have it. The cases, discs and bonus features are all identical aside from the fact that they all now have a trailer for The Protector 2 on them preceding the menu. If you don’t own the Ong-Bak trilogy though, we have plenty to discuss today! 
When I think back to my earliest childhood and ponder about television shows that aired way before this sexy beast who’s typing this ever walked the Earth, I fondly recall such shows a Happy Days, Leave it to Beaver and of course who can forget everyone’s favorite, crazy redhead, Lucille Ball, and her equally crazy onscreen husband, Desi Arnaz, in I Love Lucy. In all honesty, that’s one of those rare black & white series, in my opinion, that truly has transcended the generations as I can still turn it on the boob tube now and laugh equally as hard at Lucy and her onscreen antics as I did when I was a child at the dinner table or as a teenager after school (we did not have the Internet back then and only six television channels). So imagine my joy when CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount announced they were bringing I Love Lucy to my favorite home media format, Blu-ray. And not only that, but every episode has been transferred from the original camera negative, producing crisp details, and rich sharp blacks. Come on! I’ll show you around this 6-disc Blu-ray television set! 
