(Note: This version of War of the Worlds is a direct-to-video release from Pendragon Pictures. It is not to be confused with the Steven Spielberg (DreamWorks) version or the David Latt (Asylum) version, despite the fact that all three movies were released in the same month of the same year.)

The Movie

There once was an indie filmmaker who longed to adapt War of the Worlds into a faithful movie version, one that took place in the same 1898 London that the book did. The filmmaker slaved away for endless hours, and then near the end of his project, up popped Steven Spielberg with his own mega-expensive version. And the indie filmmaker was unhappy. But he finished his movie anyway, and was smart enough to get it released on to DVD just as Spielberg's version was sweeping the multiplexes.

And here it now is. Wow.

Well, two things are plainly clear as you witness the massi...Read the entire review

Victory over VHS oblivion! After 42 weeks among CineSchlock-O-Rama's Most Wanted, the unyielding vigilance of all CineSchlockers has been rewarded with our first capture! Yes, that grand experiment in casting against type, Murder in Coweta County (1983, 96 minutes), has finally received its digital due thanks to the cinematic Samaritans at Sterling Entertainment. This made-for-CBS breakthrough was directed by Gary Nelson and based on true events first popularized in Margaret Anne Barnes' book. The story itself is compelling enough, but what broadens the flick's appeal is beholding Mayberry's finest Andy Griffith seethe pu...Read the entire review

This title was featured in
Best of Schlock 2000

First-time director, but longtime FX guru, Michael Lantieri (Jurassic Park) and screenwriter Hans Bauer (Anaconda) both know the nature-run-amok formula well, but they extend this creature feature to a superior level of smaller-budget filmmaking. It's the story of an island infested with 15-foot Komodos whose natural food sources died, leaving people as lizard chow du jour. No breasts. Five corpses. Six dead beasts. Station wagon munching. One doggie snac...Read the entire review

Now here's a real disappointment. The Highwayman (1999, 93 minutes) had such drive-in gold potential. Ya got the scrumptious Laura Harris who charmed all in The Faculty as Southern-honey Marybeth Louise Hutchinson. The great Canadian creep-o Stephen McHattie (possibly Lance Henriksen's long-lost brother). Plus, the Iron Eagle films' Louis Gossett Jr., and Gordon Woolvett, the gay road pizza from Bride of Chucky. But I've identified who slashed the tires on this one: lead crook Jason Priestley and screenplay scribe Richard Beattie. Jason parlayed a teen-idol gig on "Beverly Hills 90210" into a directing job on the show, that is, when he wasn'...Read the entire review