The War Of The Roses (Blu-ray Review)
In the 80s, cinema had a comedically adventurous trio consisting of a romantic couple and its third wheel in Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. They had gone through some Indiana Jones-inspired adventures in Romancing The Stone and its sequel Jewel Of The Nile. The first was a well respected and loved adventure. The sequel’s reception left people a bit cold. Follwing Nile and as a director, DeVito had one darkly comic venture under his belt, Throw Momma From A Train. Instead of attempting a third piece to the Romancing The Stone series, DeVito opted to bring it together in this dark comedy about divorce featuring a legendary violent battle between the sexes to close the film out. The film was brought to big success and many consider it the trios best outing of all. Continue reading ‘The War Of The Roses (Blu-ray Review)’
We all love a good psychological thriller from time to time. One that has us guessing and trying to piece together clues while at the same time keeping us in suspense and trying to get a good scare out of us. Then we get some wonderful twist and our minds are blown. 6 Souls does a decent job of taking us for that kind of ride. The film deals in multiple personality disorder. It very much follows the same kind of subject matter as a thriller from the 90s, Primal Fear. This one is a bit loose in its playground however and deals more supernaturally. The film is a 2010 release, but I can’t remember it getting any sort of big theatrical run. It seems like it could have had a solid September or October run had it been marketed appropriately. 
Following Annie Hall, auteur Woody Allen began a hot streak through the 80s and somewhat carrying into the 90s. Most of his best and most brilliant work comes from this period. In 1986 he was awarded his 2nd Oscar for original screenplay for Hannah And Her Sisters. The film also scored the first ever sweep of the supporting category, nabbing Michael Caine and Diane Wiest statues. In its release, Hannah And Her Sisters also became Woody Allen’s highest grossing picture, outdoing the likes of Annie Hall and Manhattan. The film was critically praised and has had a legacy of being one of Allen’s best and what’s considered an all time great film in general. 
Modern made fairy tale movies don’t come all too often. And ones made for everyone in the family and kid friendly even rarer. In 2004, Miramax tried their best, delivering Ella Enchanted. The film works as a star vehicle for the up and coming (at the time) Anne Hathaway. It was based off a popular young adult book with which I’m not familiar. From my research, the film is apparently a bit of a departure from the book, but keeps the genuine idea and spirit intact. The story of which is basically one inspired from another classic fairy tale but that’s just a small bit of its base. It really is its own thing when it’s all said and done. And its star, Hathaway, is quite her charming self. She gets to display talents in a fair range of physicality (slapstick) and her musical dynamics in singing. Unfortunately for Miramax, this film did not perform as well as Hathaway at the box office. But, maybe this is still a catalog title for young ones and fairy tale enthusiast to enjoy. 
Stoker is one of those movies where I had every intention of seeing theatrically, but for whatever unknown reason or another the stars just didn’t align properly in my favor. Sadly, it came and went and I was forced to wait until now to finally check it out. In the meantime, I heard so many positive things about it. However, what really attracted my attention to this body of work is when I found out Prison Break’s Wentworth Miller actually penned the screenplay. He did so under a pseudonym of Ted Foulke in order to have his work taken seriously, but nevertheless you could say after I learned that I have been “stoked” to check out Stoker. You see, I’m a huge fan of his an actor so when I found this out I just had to see what all the buzz was about. It was being lauded as pretty good and to this day the film holds around a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Considering Man of Steel, a movie so many people seemed divided on, only holds a rating of 56% (keep in mind that Fast & Furious 6 has a 71%), how good or bad can Stoker be? I was hoping it would be the case of the former, but that’s what we are gathered here to talk about anyway today. So let the “stoking” begin! 
When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot. Fame and fortune are his for the taking. That is until he meets three witches: Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity and even a bit of wizardry, Oscar transforms himself not only into a great wizard but into a better man as well. 
This title piqued my interest when it came through. A zombie tale based off of a graphic novel I’d never heard of. It deals with zombies and one is a superhero of sorts. It was a fully imagined CG movie as well. The key demo for it appeared to be the older, mature crowd. A zombie who is all about being ready and able to “kick ass” is how the box tries to sell it. Well, I’ve never seen that approach to the zombie genre (one I’m a sucker for), so bring it. I had not seen a trailer or anything from it, but I felt optimistic going in blind. Unfortunately this turned out to be a complete failure for me at every turn. Maybe I was too old for this. Maybe I’m not of the ilk that would enjoy something like this. I wasn’t familiar with the source material, but I’m pretty positive I wasn’t really missing out on anything. As a film itself, it’s quite a challenging piece to get through and it’s also a short one to boot. 
Magicians, or Illusionists, have sort of become a dying breed in modern times. In the 80s and 90s they were a pretty big deal. There were television specials, tours and merchandising. Growing up, one of my favorite celebrities was David Copperfield. I taped his television specials and went and saw him when his tour came to my hometown. For those who read my 
As a child growing up in the 80’s I always lived in fear of losing one of my hands after I witnessed Darth Vader cut of his own son’s hand in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. I went to great lengths to devise robotic hands and whatnot out of any material I could find lying around the garage and house. Sadly, cardboard limbs just don’t suffice for the real thing. See what kind of traumatic effect violence in films can have on our youth? Haha. However, it’s good to know that if I learned nothing else after watching today’s Blu-ray subject, American Mary, the human hand can be reattached if it hasn’t been more than 8 hours since the amputation. Of course, situations may vary. But hey! That’s very nice to know. And we all know that knowing is half the battle. Furthermore, I also learned the same holds true for the arm clocking in at no more than 4 hours since amputation and fingers at 12 (DISCLAIMER: I have no factual data to prove this…just going by what was taught in the movie’s classroom). With that being said, the future is looking bright for my phobia that still to this day haunts me. But I digress… 
There is a big mystery regarding Anchor Bay’s Charlie Zone. Why is this movie called Charlie Zone? It’s not a character’s name or code name. It’s not a place. It’s not a mission. What is it? I have no desire to backtrack through it to find out in the event I missed it. I didn’t catch it the first time. The film is a dull journey to rescue a junkie and return her to her family that keeps opening new door after new door in terms of the mission’s severity. It’s all really confusing and drags on. The film also has a hard time balancing what it really wants to be. It tries its hand at drama, action, thriller, mystery and even horror, falling flat and uninteresting with every attempt. The movie does think it’s smarter than it is which kind of feels insulting to the viewer. You’ll never guess anything that’s coming, mostly because you have no clue as most turns are not earned or built up very well. 
The Philadelphia Experiment is a remake of the 1980s time travel thriller of the same name. I’ve never seen the original. My only knowledge or memory of anything regarding the film is what the VHS box looked like for The Philadelphia Experiment 2, a video store staple in the 1990s. I never picked it up, but it seemed to haunt the SciFi/Horror sections at just about every video store in town back in the day. The events in The Philadelphia Experiment are based upon a legendary urban legend of a government invincibility project regarding cloaking ships in WWII that allegedly took place in the 1940s. The film is only based upon just that notion as it goes far deeper than anything regarding the details what supposedly took place in that experiment. 
