DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Down and Derby DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/19999 Sat, 04 Feb 2006 06:00:57 UTC Skip It

THE MOVIE

The "soccer mom goes berzerk" mentality, where parents overtake their children in their enthusiasm for youth sports, is rife with comic possibilities. Just last season, "South Park" had Stan's dad getting drunk at the Little League games and fighting with dads from the opposing teams -- all while the children themselves tried to lose, because they hate baseball.

The makers of "Down and Derby" will not be happy that I invoked the vile name of "South Park" in a review of their sunny, squeaky-clean comedy, but them's the facts: "South Park" addressed the issue cleverly, while "Down and Derby" is imbecilic, unreasonable and wretchedly unfunny. It begins unpromisingly but with salvageable ideas; however, as early as the 30-minute mark, it has squandered its remaining opportunities and given itself over to full-blown irritation.

The subject is not Little League or soccer but ...Read the entire review

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Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids -Vol 2 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/19332 Sat, 17 Dec 2005 23:15:23 UTC Recommended

It'sBill Cosby, coming at you with music and fun. If you're not careful, you maylearn something before it's done. - Bill Cosby (obviously)

It's weird the things that stay with you. Sure, you might find yourself humming the latest Ashlee Simpson song as your local Clear Channel radio station plays it for the 3,423 time, but back in the 70's, things were a LOT different. Now, I don't wanna get all "Why, when we were younger we used to walk 564,593 miles to school in a snow storm with no shoes" on you, but the television medium was very different back then. There weren't 2,594 channels to choose from. TiVo didn't exist. For that matter, neithe...Read the entire review

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Big Ain't Bad DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18801 Sat, 19 Nov 2005 06:48:44 UTC Rent It

The Film:
Some movies are good. Some movies are bad. And some movies just are. In their own unique way, these films that are neither good nor bad, but rather an uncertain, ambiguous mishmash of both can be more frustrating than the worst bad films.

The romantic comedy Big Ain't Bad is one of those films that is neither good nor bad. It has, somewhere within its 108 minute running time, the potential to be a good film. And in fact, that are enough entertaining moments sprinkled throughout to make it watchable. At the same time, however, there are enough flaws to make it more of a missed opportunity than a true success.

Sean Blakemore stars as Ric, an up and coming businessman trying to make a success of his construction company. Ric is engaged to Natalie (Jade Dixon), who catches her husband-to-be in a meaningless one night stand while she is supposed to be out of town. Next thing...Read the entire review

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Motley Crue Carnival of Sins DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18714 Tue, 15 Nov 2005 22:48:22 UTC Recommended

The Movie

I can probably sum up this DVD by the fact that in one scene, Tommy Lee takes his "Tommy Cam" around the arena, basically goading girls into flashing their breasts for the big screen, and then asks for a moment of silence, gets down on his knees, hands folded, and says, "Lord, God, Jesus Christ, bless all the titties of America."

That's the beauty of the Crue in a nutshell. Unlike many of the peers from the decade of decadence, the Crue have carried on (albeit conspicuously in between failing solo projects) without making any pretenses about having matured or changed their focus: that being sex and rock 'n' roll (though only the occasional booze now). Combine that with the fact that their songs still hold up, and it's no surprise they can sell out arenas in '05, without being part of some pathetic package nostalgia tour.

Filmed earlier this year in Grand Rapids, Mich., "Carnival...Read the entire review

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A Different World - Season 1 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18736 Tue, 15 Nov 2005 18:25:09 UTC Rent It

The Series

It was only a matter of seasons before the astonishingly popular The Cosby Show would yield its first spin-off, and it only stood to reason that that offshoot would belong to Ms. Lisa Bonet. Her Denise Huxtable character spent The Cosby Show chugging through high school, so when it came time for Cliff's second daughter to head off to Hillman college, it was time for A Different World.

Me, I never really cared for the show. I watched The Cosby Show because I loved the Cosby-schtick. Ms. Bonet was never much of an actress or a personality, so after only a few early visits with A Different World, I just tuned out. A recent revisist with the show's inaugural season tells me that I probably made the right decision by playing video games after The Cosby Show was over. (I only played for a half-hour; Cheers was on at nine!)

The show pres...Read the entire review

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Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest 10th Anniversary DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18636 Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:15:38 UTC Rent It

The Movie:

The Ozzfest tour has been running for a long time, ten years as of the 2005 incarnation, and in honor of that milestone the tour is finally receiving its first DVD. Combining concert footage from the 2005 tour along with loads of backstage footage, interview segments, and other assorted video tidbits this is a pretty lengthy look at the concert event that has become a pretty regular Mecca for metal.

On of the coolest things about the tour is that it has always done a pretty good job of mixing the old guard of the genre with some of the best up and coming acts that maybe haven't quite broken out yet or who are just starting to peak. This gives the tour a very solid variety and even if not all of the bands are to everyone's tastes each and every year out, for the most part, the line ups have been very good.

The DVD, aside from the candid bits and behind the scenes bits...Read the entire review

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Shogun's Ninja DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18624 Wed, 09 Nov 2005 23:29:38 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

What do you get when you combine a bunch of guys in ninja suits, gratuitous violence, Sonny Chiba, Sue Shiomi, Henry Sanada, the omni-present Tetsuro Tamba and a monkey and put them all in a movie directed by Norifumi Suzuki (the same man who helmed Convent Of The Sacred Beast and Sex & Fury)? Why, Shogun's Ninja, that's what!

Making use of a great ensemble cast, the film follows the story of Takamaru (Sanada), the last of the family in charge of leading the Momochi clan. You see, as a young boy Takamaru's family were all slaughtered by Shogen Shiranui (Sonny Chiba), who was hired by a rival leader named Hideyoshi Toyotomi to kill them all so that he could move in on their turf. Well, Takamaru is back, after spending his formative years in Hong Kong learning kung-fu, and he wants to set things right in his old stomping grounds and rebuild the Momoc...Read the entire review

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Executioner/Executioner II DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18601 Mon, 07 Nov 2005 21:45:49 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:

The Executioner:

Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter, Kill Bill) stars with Yasuaki Kurata (Fist of Legend) in this classic Japanese action movie directed by Teruo Ishii (Street Fighter's Last Revenge, Female Yakuza Tale). The plot is pretty basic – the Japanese police just haven't been able to take down an international drug smuggling ring, lead by a mobster named Mario Mizuhara (Masahiko Tsugawa of The Tattooed Hitman), causing trouble in Tokyo. To counter this influx of illegal drugs, a former narcotics agent takes it upon himself to bring together a group of ex-cons to put a stop to their menacing ways.

Chiba's character, Ryuichi Koga, is a trained ninja and a master of hand to hand combat and stealth techniques (in fact, in Japan the film is known as Direct Hit! Hell Fist!, referring to the Hell Fist techniqu...Read the entire review

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Women's Prison Massacre DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18531 Thu, 03 Nov 2005 10:28:02 UTC Rent It

The Movie

With a title like Women's Prison Massacre, you walk in knowing you're dealing with a bad movie, but there's very little to prepare you for a sleazy cinematic poop-bath of this dizzying magnitude. Courtesy of the legendarily prolific Italian schlock-merchant Bruno Mattei (also known as Vincent Dawn or any one of two dozen other pseudonyms), Women's Prison Massacre is also known as Emmanuelle in Prison, Emmanuelle Escapes from Hell, and Blade Violent, but regardless of the name, you're getting 80-some minutes of the goofiest filmmaking under the sun.

The setting, not surprisingly, is a women's prison. For about a half hour we get a lot of poorly dubbed bickering between the lady inmates of the titular facility. The wardens are nasty hardasses, the prisoners are stone-cold wenches, the showers are frequently used and probably more than a little grung...Read the entire review

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Ultimate Fighter:Season 1 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18468 Sun, 30 Oct 2005 04:35:03 UTC Recommended

I am not a big fan of reality television. I've found myself sucked into programs, hating every minute, but consumed to know the outcome (I'm a fool for cliffhangers/"tune in next week" junk). So, I find myself watching two seasons worth of The Amazing Race only to realize every episode was repetitious melange of travel-weary couples grating on each others nerves, rushing through exotic locales so fast they cannot appreciate them, and mainly just watching racers stand around in some airport terminal bickering with a ticket agent. Frankly, I don't need to spend hours of my life watching such trivial things when I could be watching Buddha's Palm or The Story of Ricky for the twentieth time.

However, when Spike TV entered into a relationship with The Ultimate Fighting Championship, I couldn't resist because I am a mixed martial arts fan. Though the boxing reality show competitions o...Read the entire review

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The Ultimate Billy Jack Collection DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18456 Sat, 29 Oct 2005 17:55:15 UTC Rent It

Movie: The mythos surrounding the antihero has actually been around for a very long time although it wasn't until the 1960's and 1970's that the concept really took off in Hollywood productions. The idea is simple, you take a protagonist that isn't fettered by the usual societal norms, instead living up to a moral code of his own choosing, who does all the things you'd like to do but feel morally, ethically, or socially unable to do. For example, most of us have been taught that it's wrong to punch someone in the nose in anger over something they say to offend you. That doesn't mean you don't want to smack said person upside the head, just that you'll be frowned upon due to the programming most of us have had to live with in an orderly, civilized, society. The antihero is someone without the social graces to live by society's rules of conduct and as such, we feel guilty taking him on as a...Read the entire review

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Boo DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18455 Sat, 29 Oct 2005 13:17:21 UTC Rent It

The Movie

You can tell that Boo was written and directed by a true-blue horror geek. It's comprised almost entirely of concepts, characters, and conceits from a dozen other horror flicks. As the movie churned out I found myself thinking "Yep, that's from The Thing. And that other stuff is entirely like Session 9, plus there's a mild slasher vibe mixed with just a dash of Lovecraftian goopiness and a hint of gothic ghostliness. There's the disgustingly creepy sick woman from Pet Sematary! And the lead hottie clearly has a bad case of The Dead Zoneitis. Oh, look, that guy's body just melted."

Inaugural production of the new Graveyard Filmworks production house, Boo marks the feature filmmaking debut of Mr. Anthony Ferrante -- and if that name sounds remotely familiar, then congratulations on being a true blue gorehound. Mr. Ferrante spent several years...Read the entire review

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Beyond Desire DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17885 Mon, 26 Sep 2005 17:59:42 UTC Skip It

The Movie:
Elvira Fuentes (Leonor Watling) lives in Madrid with her silent, pensive mother and secretive sister in a simple tenement building toward the end of World War II. Her father, a doctor, was executed after being accused of communism, causing Elvira's family to lose everything. While awaiting her husband's release from prison and in need of money, Elvira secures a job as a maid to the wealthy Pablo (Leonardo Sbaraglia), an Argentinian businessman with ties to the Nazi Party. Pablo instantly senses Elvira's appreciation of beauty and culture, and over books and music and wine, they fall in love and begin an affair, much to the consternation of Pablo's companion and business partner, the hard-edged and practical Alina (Cecilia Roth), who instantly resents Elvira's presence and keeps her off-guard with a mix of thinly veiled threats and sexual innuendo.

Tensions mount when Elv...Read the entire review

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Project Grizzly DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17876 Mon, 26 Sep 2005 00:00:46 UTC Recommended

Some people are just odd. Not crazy, mind you, just odd.

North Bay, Ontario resident, scrap metal business owner, martial artist, and self styled frontiersman Troy Hurtubise was walking through the woods one day in the 80's when he suddenly came face to face with a grizzly. The bear knocked him down but, obviously, chose not to maul him to death. Since then, Troy has followed a very peculiar dream, to build a suit capable of withstanding a bear attack that he can use in his "close quarters bear research."

Troy is a strange one. Usually dressed in a buckskin Davy Crockett jacket with Bowie knives sheathed on his shoulder and hip, Troy has sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into making various versions of his Ursus grizzly bear protection suit, the latest version of which, Ursus Mark VI, resembles something between a Turkish sci fi movie robot and one of those suits guys get in so women self defen...Read the entire review

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Mpd Psycho II DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17872 Mon, 26 Sep 2005 00:00:46 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie
If Japanese cult-auteur Takashi Miike's Gozu was the first indication – at least to us here in the west – that he had a Lynchian bent to him then MPD Psycho is his Twin Peaks. Densely layered with images and subconscious urges MPD Psycho is a surreal, compelling meditation on the nature of evil. It is perplexing, confounding, a strong entry into the Miike canon and one of the better manga adaptations I have ever come across, successfully creating a distinctive visual world to capture tone and general strangeness that seldom survives the move from page to screen.

Opening with a scene of schoolgirls in uniform opening fire on a crowded chapel service before turning their weapons on themselves MPD Psycho Volume Two continues Miike's story of bar coded eyeballs, techno religious cults, flowers planted in brains, split personalities and a restless evil that can transmit itse...Read the entire review

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Happy Tree Friends:Winter Break DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17762 Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:16:44 UTC Recommended

The Show:

The cute and lovable woodland creatures from Happy Tree Friendsare back, this time in a holiday themed DVD that has all the blood andmayhem that we've come to expect from the show.  Running a reasonable$9.99 retail, this disc has roughly half an hour's worth of content, mostof which has appreared before on DVD.
 
The Happy Tree Friends, for those of you who haven't heard ofthe series, is a web based Flash cartoon that has a tremendous following. The 1½-minute shorts show the misadventures of a group of groupof adorable animals who always manage to get into very bloody accidents. Like Itchy and Scratchy, these shorts are very gruesome and hilariouslyfunny.
 
The main feature of the disc is the Winter Break Special, Acollection of six Happy Tr...Read the entire review

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Happy Tree Friends:Overkill DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17715 Fri, 16 Sep 2005 23:30:35 UTC Recommended

The Show:

The late ninety's saw a lot of Flash animation cartoons popping up onthe web.  Originally used for on-line games, creators quickly discoveredthat Flash could be used to make short movies right on your home PC. Some of the early experiments were artful and tried to tell a story andpush the limits of the media (BrokenSaints for example), but most of them were attempts at humor. I say 'attempts' because a lot of them failed to be either funny or entertaining.If you were willing to search long enough, however you could discover somelaugh-out-loud shorts that really delivered the goods.  One of thebest of these is Happy Tree Friends which has previously been releasedon three separate DVDs.  (Here are DVDTalk's reviews of the individualvolumes: Read the entire review

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UFC 52 - Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell 2 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17656 Tue, 13 Sep 2005 03:35:20 UTC Recommended

As much as I dislike "reality television," mixed martial arts has seen an unprecedented surge in popularity/exposure since the Ultimate Fighting Championship began a relationship with Spike TV, which produced a reality show, The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), last year. The Ultimate Fighter season two is currently airing Monday nights. In addition, Spike TV has aired two live cable UFC fight card events- The Ultimate Fighter season one finale and Ultimate Fight Night. In the first week of October, there will be two UFC events within one week, another free Ultimate Fight Night card and a UFC pay-per-view event. Then, in November there will be two more UFC events, The Ultimate Fighter season two finale and another UFC ppv. So, it is a pretty good Fall 2005 for mixed martial arts.

Airing on April 16th, 2005, a week after The Ultimate Fighter season one finale, was the highly advertised UFC 52: Couture Vs. Lid...Read the entire review

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The Cosby Show - Season 1 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17085 Mon, 08 Aug 2005 07:47:38 UTC Recommended

The Series

I'll spare you all the glowing and gushing adjectives; everyone knows that The Cosby Show was one of the warmest, wittiest, and most consistently entertaining sitcoms ever produced. Even in its later seasons, when it threatened to become sort of a new character explosion and mini-soap opera, this series still offered the wonderfully talented comedian Bill Cosby at the top of his game.

I grew up on this show, I still find it extremely appealing, and I think it was a great "mainstream" success for black culture in general. Clearly I'm a big fan of The Cosby Show and I was happily looking forward to rediscovering the first season on DVD.

But guess what?

The episodes included on this 4-disc set ... they're the syndicated versions. Yes, seriously.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of "syndicated" episodes, here's a really short primer: "extraneous" footag...Read the entire review

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Swords of Vengeance DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16953 Fri, 29 Jul 2005 07:23:14 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:

Look at the cast and crew for this one and you'll understand why Japanese cinema fans get a boner over this movie – and rightfully so! With Sonny Chiba, Toshiro Mifune, and the omnipresent Tetsuro Tamba all get in front of the camera for this one, lensed by the late, great Kinji Fukasaku – all household names for those in the know. But does Swords Of Vengeance (better known as The Fall Of Ako Castle and recently released on the grey market under that very same title) live up to its potential? Well… yes and no.

One of numerous big screen adaptations of a Japanese folk story known as The Forty Seven Ronins, the film begins the night before the fifth Shogun, Tsuna Yoshi, is to take power. A nobleman named Lord Kira gets into an argument with another nobleman named Lord Anaso and when Asano is insulted, attacks Kira cutting his chest and face but not ...Read the entire review

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Sleepless Town DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16584 Wed, 29 Jun 2005 01:06:32 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

Takashi Kaneshiro (House Of Flying Daggers) plays Kenichi Ryu, a Yakuza of mixed blood – his mother was Chinese and his father was Japanese. He lives in Taiwan and he used to work with a local gang, making his living by helping them peddle their 'hot' wares on the streets for cash. When he was told that because he was of mixed descent he wouldn't be able to move up the ladder and get himself a higher position within the mob, he decided to quite and do his own thing.

Soon though, Kenichi gets a blast from his past when word gets out that his former friend and criminal cohort, Fu-Chun, has been making waves again and is heading back into town. The reason he fled in the first place was because he made an attempt on the life of a prominent crime boss in the area, and those guys haven't forgotten him – in fact, they know that they can use Kenichi to get even with Fu-C...Read the entire review

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Shogun's Shadow DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16537 Mon, 27 Jun 2005 01:45:54 UTC Recommended

Sonny Chiba formed the Japan Action Club as a go-to stunt resource for the Japanese film industry. It proved lucrative enough that you could pretty much say there were several films built around the Chiba-man and his organization. Films like Ninja Wars, GI Samurai, and Legend of the Eight Samurai might as well be Japan Action Club co-productions. Such is also the case with 1989's Shogun's Shadow.

Ken Ogata (Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters) stars as Igo Gyobu, former clan bigwig who is now the leader of a crack team of ragtag gonin. Their current assignment is to protect the young shogunate heir, Takechiyo. The ailing shogun doesn't like his firstborn and, on the sly, puts the hit on Takechiyo. He plans to have the boy ambushed while Takechiyo is on his way to a ceremony in Edo. The only thing that stands between the boys execution is Gyobu and his men. The group must c...Read the entire review

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Mpd Psycho DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16509 Sun, 26 Jun 2005 06:43:09 UTC Recommended

The Movie
The greatest strength of Japanese cult auteur Takashi Miike is his seemingly endless ability to transcend genre, to overcome his budgetary and physical limitations, and to produce films that are endlessly surprising. Just when you think you've got a handle on the man he comes up with something just a little bit different. His films are all instantly identifiable as Takashi Miike films but he is constantly pushing the envelope of just what a 'Miike film' actually is.

Such is the case with MPD Psycho, a six part miniseries Miike shot for Japanese television which is now being released on DVD in three volumes by Adness. Miike's tale of a detective suffering from split personality disorder in pursuit of a bizarre serial killer who cuts the top off his female victims' skulls and plants flowers in their brains works on at least three distinct levels.

On the surface is the...Read the entire review

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1 Ichi DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16388 Sat, 18 Jun 2005 06:15:27 UTC Recommended

1 Ichi (2003) serves up another cinematic adaptation of the sicko source manga and can be seen as a prequel to Takashi Miike's Ichi The Killer, one of the more notorious gems in his list of cult hits. Appropriately serving as 1 Ichi's director was Miike's frequent assistant director, Masato Tanno. In addition to Ichi The Killer, Tanno worked on other Miike films like Gozu, City of Lost Souls and Sabu.

Dai (Teah- City of Lost Souls) is the top fighter at Chu-oh High school. He walks with the swagger of someone who knows he is on top but is still always seeking out that one person who may best him. He's also got an stalker in Shiroichi/Ichi (Nao Omori, reprising the role he played in Ichi The Killer). Dai misinterprets the introverted losers smile as mocking instead of admiration. But, Ichi doesn't appear to be a threat to anyone; the kid is so tr...Read the entire review

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Girl From Rio DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16375 Fri, 17 Jun 2005 03:34:32 UTC Rent It

Just for the record: I try to give every new film a fighting chance...I really do. I wasn't all to excited to check out Christopher Monger's Girl From Rio (2001), if only for the cover blurb: "When in doubt...Samba!" Films that center around dancing really aren't my thing---but, to be honest, Girl From Rio was quite good in many respects. As a romantic comedy/drama, it doesn't break much new ground (sorry, guys), but the film's strengths---including a serviceable pair of leading performances, an offbeat premise, and great cinematography---help to balance out its weaknesses. Well, for the most part, at least.

Here's a brief overview: Raymond (Hugh Laurie) just found out that his wife was having an affair, so what does he do? Why, rob a bank and hop the next to Rio de Jan...Read the entire review

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Shadow of the Wraith DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16127 Thu, 02 Jun 2005 06:33:18 UTC Skip It

The Movie

Since I certainly wouldn't be likely to swallow an American horror movie that's basically a glossy vehicle for a pair of pop-singer siblings -- odds are that I'll have even less patience for one from another country. I mean ... if, during their New Kids on the Block heyday, Donnie and Mark Wahlberg popped up in a tedious little fright flick, I'd probably spend 90 minutes yawning and laughing before the movie got remanded to the part of my brain that still remembers Glitter, Hard to Hold, and Cool as Ice.

Koji & Yuichi Matsuo are a pair of pop-singer brothers who go by the name of "Doggy Bag," which at least explains how two such uninteresting actors got to star in their own movie. Needless to say, the brothers do get a few opportunities during Shadow of the Wraith (a.k.a. Ikisudama) in which to play their singularly uninspiring music .....Read the entire review

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Torrente 2: Mission in Marbella DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15966 Mon, 23 May 2005 21:01:03 UTC Highly Recommended

Remember back in the 70's and 80's when movies were still made for adults? Seriously, back then there were movies for adults and then there were movies for families. The family fare was usually smart, or at least entertaining, enough to appeal to everyone from Mom and Dad to Junior, little sister and the baby, while there was a whole other world of films for Mom and Dad to enjoy when the babysitter was over. Now I don't mean anything of the blue variety, instead I'm talking about the R-Rated comedies, dramas, horrors and action pictures of a lost age. All these statistics show that R-Rated movies don't make as much money as PG-13 films, and they're probably right, but that was never the point. It was always about providing the alternative. No parent I know wants to spend the week with the kids doing family things and then when they have some time to themselves watch the la...Read the entire review

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World's Greatest Stand-Up Comedy Collection DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15962 Mon, 23 May 2005 16:43:38 UTC Rent It

In 10 Words or Less
Norm Crosby's complete series featuring rare footage of famous comics

The Show
What's in a name? Just about everything, when you consider the title of this DVD set. "The World's Greatest Stand-Up Comedy Collection" sounds (and the box looks) like a bargain-basement collection of public-domain footage. But in reality, this set collects the complete run of "Norm Crosby's The Comedy Shop," a syndicated stand-up showcase that ran in the late 1970s. While the words "The World's Greatest" mean more to most people than "Norm Crosby," finding out that this was a complete series impressed me more than when I thought it was a cheap clip-fest.

A half-hour show, the series packed in as many guests as po...Read the entire review

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Rock & Rule: Collector's Edition DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15879 Wed, 18 May 2005 20:15:04 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

Background: The year was 1983, perhaps best known by movie buffs for releases like Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Risky Business or Flashdance. I was attending college in the Boston area and a lot of buzz was being generated by the alternative radio stations and press about a new movie set to premiere locally, Rock & Rule. The street credibility of the movie's soundtrack was impressive in that it had original songs by Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Cheap Trick, Blondie, and others but the movie was also being billed as "what Heavy Metal could've been" by more than one source. Rock & Rule was an adult oriented animated feature, not like the sexually perverse Fritz the Cat or the conceptually nebulous Yellow Submarine, but more like a fun version of American Pop or a more focused Heavy Metal. Like most of those around me, I was def...Read the entire review

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Shanghai Spell DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15778 Tue, 10 May 2005 22:43:39 UTC Rent It

The Movie:

Fernando Trueba is a Spanish director most noted for his 1992 AcademyAward winning film Belle Epoch.  In his 2002 drama ShanghaiSpell, he attempts to weave fantasy and reality together to form aunique tapestry.  Unfortunately he fails and ends up with a long andmeandering film that ultimately doesn't go anywhere.

This movie is told through the eyes of Dani (Fernando Tielve) a fourteenyear old boy with a talent for art living in Barcelona after WWII. His father never returned from the war, and he doesn't know if he's stillalive or not, though deep down he knows he'll never see him again. As a favor to a neighbor, Dani starts watching an old man, Captain Bley(Fernando Fernán Gómez), who's son was killed in the fightingand that fact has taken a toll on his mind.

While strolling through the town one day, Bley convince...Read the entire review

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Tough to Kill DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15702 Sat, 07 May 2005 00:26:16 UTC Skip It

The Movie:

Late, great Italian filmmaker Joe D'Amato (a.k.a. Aristide Massaccesi) is best known to North American audiences and in fact cult movie fans around the world for his sleazy sex and gore epics like Emanuelle In America, Anthropophagous (better known as The Grim Reaper) and Beyond The Darkness but there was nary a sub-genre or cash in craze that old Joe didn't touch and one of those crazes was the jungle adventure film popular in the late seventies and the early eighties. His signature entry in that arena? That'd have to be Tough To Kill.

The premise for this one isn't going to convince anyone that D'Amato and co-writer Sergio Donati (who pitched in on Sergio Leone's Duck, You Sucker!) were the most original of script writers as the movie borrows from a few other films (including one of Sam Peckinpah's later films) but it works as a ...Read the entire review

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Steve-O: Gross Misconduct DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15643 Wed, 04 May 2005 05:36:24 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

What I like about former Jackass alumni Steve-O isn't the fact that he's willing to slice up his tongue with a razor blade or the fact that he has no problem picking up elephant doodie and flinging it at people. I don't really admire him for jumping off of tall buildings or lighting his head on fire. In fact, I think most of what he does is really quite stupid. What I like about Steve-O is his honesty and total and complete lack of pretentiousness. He knows, as I know, that what he does for a living is really, really dumb. Steve-O doesn't pretend otherwise and that makes him a more interesting stunt man or performance artist because of it. This down to earth attitude makes him a lot more likeable than he otherwise would be, despite the fact that at times he's a pretty disgusting guy.

This collection of three half hour Gross Misconduct segments is a solid comp...Read the entire review

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Paloma de papel (Paper Dove) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15427 Thu, 21 Apr 2005 18:14:47 UTC Rent It

The Movie

By turns harrowing and poignant, writer/director Fabrizio Aguilar's coming-of-age tale Paloma de papel (aka Paper Dove) takes viewers inside the rough, rural life of a village set deep in the Peruvian Andes in the Eighties as 11-year-old Juan (Antonio Callirgos) wrestles with poverty and violence. After Juan's best friend's father (who also happens to be the town's mayor) is murdering by guerrilla soldiers aligned with the revolutionary group Shining Path, Juan discovers his stepfather, Fermin (Aristoteles Picho) is involved - as well as having had a hand in Juan's father's death some years earlier.

After Fermin inducts Juan into the world of the Shining Path soldiers, his life takes a radical turn from that of a carefree youth as he suddenly finds himself learning the art of dirty bombs and firing rifles. Carmen (Tatiana Astengo) and Wilmer (Sergio Galliani) sheph...Read the entire review

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Caballos salvajes (Wild Horses) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15394 Tue, 19 Apr 2005 01:25:01 UTC Rent It

The Movie

Caballos salvajes (aka Wild Horses) is a warm-hearted, Tarantino-flavored pastiche via Argentina. Directed by Marcelo Pineyro, this erstwhile buddy flick/road movie follows Jose (Hector Alterio) and Pedro (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a pair of fugitives who escape Buenos Aires with $500,000, becoming unintentional heroes and a media spectacle along the way. After garnering the nickname "The Untameables," the pair responds by recording their adventures and sending them off to be splashed across the country by an ever more willing media.

As their fame escalates and they become something akin to renegade rock stars, Jose and Pedro cross paths with Ana (Cecelia Dopazo), an alienated punk who develops the hots for Pedro - all this while dodging some truly unsavory types after their heisted loot. At 122 minutes, Caballos salvajes could've easily been a bloated, by-the-n...Read the entire review

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Asesino en serio (Serious Killer) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15393 Tue, 19 Apr 2005 01:25:01 UTC Rent It

The Movie

Aesesino en serio (aka Serious Killer) is built upon a pretty goofy premise that would be more at home on late night Cinemax than in a feature film. A grizzled veteran cop, Comandante Martinez (Jesus Ochoa) is tracking a priest, Padre Gorkisolo (Santiago Segura), who kills women with orgasms. Yup, you read that right - this black farce that waffles between taking itself seriously and winking at the audience unspools in the grand tradition of the dark European sex comedy perfected by the likes of Bunuel and Almodovar.

Humorously billed on the packaging as "a sexy comedy set amidst smiling women" (I can almost picture Stewie of "Family Guy" reading that tag line), Aesesino en serio follows Martinez as he struggles to learn the ancient secrets of pleasure so as to hunt down the mysterious killer and end his reign of orgasmic terror. It's pitched with a straigh...Read the entire review

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