The Movie:
Remmer may sound like the name of a gay porn about a particular oral activity (at least, that's what first came to my mind), but it's actually supposed to be the title of a horror movie about narcoleptics.

The Story:
Addie is on a camping trip with her boyfriend Sonny, and begs him for a ghost story in exchange for sex. He begins to recount a frightening true story of his time in a sleep clinic nearby—about a patient who was deprived of sleep and eventually went after everyone with an axe. Next thing Addie knows, Sonny has passed out, and two male staff members from the clinic are dragging he and she to the clinic, where experiments are being done to rid humans of the trouble of ever having to sleep again. Three interns from a college, a male and two females, come to help out (and to add to the body count). In this take on the slasher genre, the slasher is a bl...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Corndog Man is a look at a bigoted boat salesman in South Carolina who is driven to near insanity by a mysterious caller. Why? The clear aim of this movie is show us why.

The Story:
The troubles of racist Ace Barker (Noble Willingham) begin when he receives a phone call from a man claiming he wants to come down to the shop to buy a boat. He doesn't show up the first day and calls back—and before long, he makes it obvious that he doesn't plan to come down at all. Instead, he remarks on things he has noticed Ace doing—from what he eats for breakfast to the clothes he wears. At first, Ace considers the caller an annoyance, but soon, he tries to get the police in on stopping the stalker. When that doesn't work, he continues to just answer the phone—at work, on his houseboat, at pay phones. Sometimes, the mysterious voice is nice to him, sometimes cruel. The mys...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Canadian director Grant Harvey is probably best known for his work on the three Ginger Snaps films, which follow the exploits of a pair of sisters who have lycanthropic tendencies. The first of the series, on which Harvey served as an assistant director, is considered one of the best werewolf films of the last decade and the two sequels (Harvey produced them both and directed Ginger Snaps Back are fun in their own right. One thing anyone who has seen either of the three films will note is that underneath the horror and the monsters and the teen angst there is a really strong humorous streak running throughout the movies. With that in mind, it makes sense that Harvey's directorial debut would be a comedy.

American Beer is a simple road movie that follows four young men on a trip across the land to the United States where the hope to spend some time in t...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Don't mistake this release of King Of The Ants with Stuart Gordon's film of the same name! Gordon's movie is a tense, disturbing and oft times frightening crime movie. Michael Arabian and Tedd Taskey's King Of The Ants is a romantic drama about a college football player. They have nothing in common and probably couldn't be more different if they tried.

With that out of the way…

Michael (played by co-director Tedd Taskey of Alien Fury – Countdown To Invasion!) is a young man trying to find himself while going through all the growing pains one normally associates with the college years. Ever since he was a young boy he's wanted to be a football player. He watched every game he could, whether it was on television or down at the local school. He'd even go down to watch the local college team go through their training and practice sessions. It's ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
How to describe Backgammon? Well, not the way it is described on the back of the DVD box, that's for sure. The description basically calls it a clever black comedy set in a futuristic world, and focusing on a group of misfits trying to deal with the daily 9 to 5 grind. That's one way to look at it, but it's actually more of a long, flashy MTV video meant to appeal to the ADHD set, and focuses on the near end of the world as people all over will beg, steal, borrow, or kill for the scarce necessity we call food.

The Story:
The main focus of this film, I would say, is on Maia (Wendy Braun) and her relationships with her sister, her geeky conservative boyfriend, and her freaky friends as the world quickly comes to an end. It's the future (don't know when, but why is it that in the future, everyone always seems to look like some spike-haired punk from the 80s?) and we...Read the entire review

Movie: Small, independent movies about small town life are common enough to shake a stick at. One of the major axioms of moviemaking is to make a movie about something you know. For many aspiring directors, that means something involving their hometown. Such was the case with a little flick by director Bryan Goldsworthy and writer/lead performer, Wendy English, known as Searching For Wooden Watermelons.

The movie is a slice of life flick that centered on a twenty-five year old gal Jude Farnie, a gal that has become a professional student at the local college in order to keep her options open and avoid having to choose a path to take in life. The movie took place in the real life hometown of Ms. English, Beaumont, Texas, an admittedly small town that is located near Houston, a world mecca by comparison. She has kept her boyfriend on the hook for years and while he wants to settle down,...Read the entire review

Movie: Black comedies are sometimes difficult to gauge in terms of how good they are because as often as not, you need to be in the right mood to enjoy them or they seem lame. Thankfully, I found one that appealed to me more than once, a little independent film released by Vanguard, Post Concussion.

The movie centered on a young business consultant, Matthew Kang (Daniel Yoon) who would go into a company with a team and essentially gut the place in order to save the company money. Such consultants are common these days, generally referred to as sharks or enablers of greedy corporate boards that live by their quarterly earnings rather than their long-term viability. As Daniel lives his fast paced life, he is hit by a car and suffers from a concussion that leaves him unable to work. He's fired by his employer, dumped by his material-girl girlfriend, and life seems to be going down the tu...Read the entire review

Movie: Thrillers are one of the most common genres of movies to be made all over the world these days. It doesn't matter what country you visit, there will always be a thriller on the marquee of the local theatre. There are probably a hundred reasons for this phenomenon, likely because audiences love a good scare but like to keep it at least plausible (unlike the latest supernatural horror flick). The latest release from the folks at Vanguard Cinema is a foreign movie by the name of Alias.

Shot for a budget approaching that of a mid-level American television sitcom (one without any superstars at that), the movie details a couple of professional gals that go on vacation in Belgium. While enjoying the sights, they stumble across what appears to be a suicide by a young, very attractive woman who thankfully had no clothes on when she fell. The leads of the movie, Eva and Patti (their real...Read the entire review

Movie: Movies about psychopaths and the end of the world have been around since the dawn of film. In recent years, movies such as 12 Monkeys, The Cell, and a host of others have entered the stream of consciousness of popular culture, and thereby became the target of the low budget independents who don't exactly copy the mainstream hits so much as borrow liberally from them in their quest to tell a story (or, in the worst case scenario, make a quick buck). One such movie is a recent release from the folks at Vanguard, Mad Dogs.

The movie centered on a man who has been visiting a psychiatrist for years. He heard voices in his head that had nothing to do with a set of headphones and after all the treatment he has received, he's told that the pills were placebos and the voices were, in a sense, all in his head. After his doctor goes on vacatio...Read the entire review

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

This is going to be a very brief review. The film in question doesn't merit too much attention.

Tarea, or Homework was a cheeky exercise in one-camera, no-cuts voyeurism that tried to use the spirit of Sex, Lies and Videotape to come up with a commercial soft-core hit.

This semi-sequel repeats that formula but adds a depressingly lame twist. The original showed a female setting up a hidden video camera before greeting a male friend at her door. What followed was a mostly unbroken verité account of her seducing him, shown in only a few takes. The big "surprise" at the end was that the supposedly unknowing victim of the peeping prank wasn't so unknowing after all.

Forbidden Homework is a glossier retread. Instead of the interior of one cluttered apartment, ...Read the entire review

Movie: Most people have seen a movie about the making of a movie at some point in their lives. One of the reasons is simple, screenwriters are told to write what they know about when attending school and many such projects are labors of love for these people from before they got their big break. Off the top of my head, I remember reviewing Burning Down The House, a movie where a producer literally plans arson to finance his newest movie; the far better, and more dramatic Everything For Sale, a movie where the focus is on how changes are made to accommodate outside influences; and Killer Flick, where the premise is for a gang of lunatics to film as they go on a criminal spree across the country. Each of these films looks a...Read the entire review

Why aren't short films more celebrated? It would seem that in our ADD-oriented, ultra-hurried popular culture, the small cinematic snippet would be a much more favored form of entertainment. With critics and crowds complaining about runaway film lengths, the mini-movie should be all the rage. Yet look at the recent box office champions: Titanic, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Heck, DVD fanatics line up to buy multi-disc extended cuts of films that are already three plus hours in theater time. But then these same aficionados turn their noses up at the slightest suggestion of a short film. Used to be a time when a short subject gave you your full nickel's worth at the local Bijou. Now, crass commercials pushing everything from soft drinks to automobiles have taken the place of the small-portioned preview attraction. Indeed, the short film has retreated to the college campus, the festival an...Read the entire review

Movie: Independent movies have the ability to address a topic with a freedom that mainstream, big-budget releases simply aren't allowed. They are usually made by a small group of people, if not a single driving force (typically the director/writer) instead of by committee so they tend to remain true to the original vision rather than a Frankenstein's Monster of monetary compromises. That by no means suggests that all independent films are great and visionary while all mainstream movies are trash that play to the lowest common denominator but, in the aggregate at least, it sometimes seems that way. A recently released indie movie, Easy Listening, is an example of one woman's vision about a place and time that existed before she was born.

The time was 1967 in an urban area in the northeast part of the USA. The lead character is Burt Frances (David Ian), a fat, middle-aged white man wh...Read the entire review

Short films have played an important role in cinema.  More thanjust padding out the bill, they are a good place for creators to hone theirskills without spending the enormous amounts of money that a feature filmcosts.  Traditionally a short would play before the main movie atthe theater, but this convention has sadly died out.  Though distributionhas been a major problem in the last several decades, thankfully filmmakershave not abandoned the art.  Many short subject films are still shownat film festivals around the world.  Vanguard Films and Hypnotic Shortspresent a selection of some of the best short films from the Sundance FilmFestival on their DVD Official Selections.

The movies on this disc are:

Bit Players:  Two little people,Verne Troyer (Austin Powers' Mini-Me) and Phil ...Read the entire review

When most people think of Mexican cinema, if they consider it at all,they think of Y Tu Mama Tambien and Amores Perros. Though those fine movies have gotten a lot of attention recently, theyare not representative of the Mexican movie industry as a whole. Mexican film makers have been cranking out product since before WWII inmany different genres: romance, dramas, horror and science fiction filmshave all been made in abundance south of the border.  Long beforeHollywood's current fascination with the genre, Mexican cinema was makingmany films about superheroes.  (Most of these were masked wrestlingstars, a genre that seems to be unique to Latin and South America.) In 1972 one of Mexico's more popular comic heroes was brought to the silverscreen in Kaliman, the Incredible Man.  Two years later a sequelwas made, Read the entire review

Butterfly Man (2002) tells the tale of Adam (Stuart Liang) a British twenty-something who has traveled to Thailand with his girlfriend. By the time they settle into their hotel room the two have already broken up and parted ways with Adam venturing off to find the "real Thailand." Apparently his idea of the "real Thailand" is strip clubs and techno bars. Adam meets Em (Napakpapha Nakprasitte), a beautiful masseuse, and falls for her. But, the cultural differences, namely that Em won't make out with him, leads Adam to jeopardize their relationship after he spends the night with a prostitute. Even after he has lost all of his money, Adam tries to win Em back and remains in Thialand. He is forced into some shady business that leads him to believe human traffickers have arranged to export Em to Europe and a life of slavery.

The term "butterfly man"refers to foreigners who come to Thailand and t...Read the entire review

Movie: Every once in a while I'll come across some dark comedy from an independent filmmaker that makes me sit up and wonder what I just saw. I'm quite capable of differentiating between a movie that relies too much on gimmicks and one that uses its quirks in a meaningful way but I'm totally on the fence when it comes to the last release by director Paul Duran, The Dogwalker.

The movie follows a man, Jerry (Will Stewart), who seems to be a magnet for bad luck. Anything he touches turns to dust until one day he runs into an old woman, Alma (Carol Gustafson), and her dog one day while trying to sort out his tragic life. He's dirt poor, his girlfriend has left him, and his prospects for the future are nil. Through a series of coincidences, Alma is hurt and he attempts to get her help, even though he'd really like to just walk away from her, and he ends up in her good graces. He becomes he...Read the entire review

Movie: Movies made by adults rarely get true teenage angst right, in my opinion, because said adults are so far removed from their youth that any message they might've had in their minds were long glossed over with the ravages of time. It doesn't matter how many minor aspects of youth they seemingly get right (often enough only by relying on stereotypes that are so generic as to be firmly implanted as collective "truths" that really aren't), the overall message is usually formed by committee so as to address only the lowest common denominator audience in a quest for profit. On the other hand, you'll get independent filmmakers that address such a narrow audience that they become very obscure and difficult to appreciate. Such was my opinion of a little "slice of life" film by director/writer Dani Minnick, Falling Like This.

The movie centered on a couple of teenagers, Boyd (Brian Vaughan...Read the entire review

Movie: Lately, I've noticed that Vanguard Cinema has released an awful lot of great films from Poland. For all the stereotypes about the Poles, they have a small but thriving film industry that has make some exceptionally intelligent movies on a regular basis. While some of their movies fall into the trap of making films for the lowest common denominator (which I refer to as the Hollywood syndrome), they also provide a source of great enjoyment to those of us willing to engage our brain when watching a movie. Most of the releases I've seen in recent months were older movies by Andrzej Wadja and I'll be the first to admit that each time I watch one of his movies, I like it more. I've also seen a host of films from lesser known talents and today's review concerns one by writer/director Marek Koterski called Day Of The Wacko (Dzien Swira).

The movie was about a neurotic elementary school...Read the entire review

Movie: Movies about criminals are quite commonplace these days. Ever since the dawn of the "anti-hero" movies, people seem drawn less to seeing the good guy prevail as much as seeing a bad guy survive. I came across a movie that was a bit different, yet followed familiar ground, that some of you might like. The name of the film is Flick and it was directed/written by novice Fintan Connolly. The movie looks at a small time drug dealer, Jack "Flick" Flinter (David Murray), who gets in over his head when a friend involves him in a deal to score more money.

The movie is set in Dublin, Ireland with the disco club scene being the backdrop for the story. Flick makes a living dealing drugs to people and enjoys the perks of his position, casual sex with cute women, living a life independent of the system, and not having to get up early in the morning (it even sounds appealing to me). He gets in...Read the entire review

The Movie:

The front of the DVD keepcase for Philip Brophy's Body Melt proudly touts "from the special effects lab of Dead Alive and Matrix Reloaded" and the easiest comparison to make is probably to Peter "King Of The Hobbits" Jackson's lawnmower/zombie opus, as the two films do share some similar ideas and neither are afraid to go for the gross out.

After a brief clip of an overly toned woman shooting up with some green Re-Animator style fluid, we cut to a malformed man at a convenience store trying to get some detergent. He leaves, Palmolive in hand, and as he's driving away, chugs down the soapy suds as his neck bleeds and his face basically starts to melt. He crashes his car at the end of Pebbles Court, a small street in a subdivision of Melbourne called Homesville.

The cops are called in on the scene and proceed to interview the local yocals to...Read the entire review

Movie: It wasn't long ago that film critics and consumers alike were scoffing at Vanguard Cinema for a lack of quality in terms of content and technical matters. The company took such criticism to heart and worked to improve both aspects at once. Since that time, they gained access to a number of excellent foreign films, most notably the back catalog for Andrzej Wadja, the Polish directing genius, and have planned their release over time. The latest such release is Man Of Marble (Cztowiek Z Marmuru). Here's what the boxcover said:

"Not only is Andrzej Wajda's award winning MAN OF MARBLE one of the most important films in the history of Polish cinema, it is one of the most compelling attacks on government corruption ever made. It is a Citizen Kane - styled story where Wajda introduces us to a young woman in Krakow who is making her thesis film. She is looking behind the scenes at the li...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE

The opening of Video X contains the following disclaimer:

In October 2002, two young lovers left their trailer park in search of themselves.

The tape you are about to see has been slated by the authorities as "Video X."

"Video X" is recovered footage taken from the home video camera of Dwayne Foote and Darla Jean Stanton.

The problem is, this is all a hoax.

And not even a good hoax, such as The Blair Witch Project, where you didn't have any problem suspending disbelief because the acting was so good. No, in Video X it takes all of 10 seconds to realize that the participants are actors. Why? Because not even uneducated hillbillies – which the two leads in this title are attempting to portray – are this bad at acting.

While the story purports to be one of two real teenagers going on a state by state crime...Read the entire review

Movie: Cult movies achieve such status based on a number of factors; be it timing, interesting concepts, or simply striking a chord with enough fanatic people at a given time (these are but a few of the factors). A great many independent movie makers hope to score such status as it can lead to future financial backing, a loyal fan base to exploit, or even the keys to a major Hollywood project (not to mention the initial financial rewards). I saw a movie earlier this week, Narcosys, that may have stumbled upon cult status by virtue of it's obscure nature more than anything else.

The movie is set in 2018. Governments are mostly a thing of the past, with giant corporations filling the void. The largest such corporation, the IT corporation (Itco), pays it's employees with mind altering drugs which has become the default equivalent of cash in this nightmarish future where life has little va...Read the entire review

Movie: Foreign movies are often an acquired taste. Some people watch them in order to see an outsider's perspective of life, myself included, but they can also provide new techniques by which to put on display a variety of similar ideas. One of the best directors Europe has produced in the last 50 or so years, Andrzej Wajda, has recently enjoyed a renaissance due to a deal with Vanguard Cinema that is releasing many of his classic films from the 60's and 70's. One of the best such films is called Promised Land: Director's Cut (Ziemia Obiecana).

The movie was made in 1974 during the height of the cold war in Communist Poland. It details the rise of a trio of men who aspire to own their own factory in the 19th Century. Poland is awash in greedy businessmen who plunder and treat their workers like cattle, if one gets hurt he's fired, people work many hours to scrape by and the only ones w...Read the entire review