DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Time Lapse (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/69024 Tue, 30 Jun 2015 13:46:51 UTC Rent It

Time Lapse is a movie with a pretty great hook. Finn (Matt O'Leary), his girlfriend Callie (Danielle Panabaker), and their friend Jasper (George Finn) share an apartment in a complex that Finn does the maintenance for. When Finn's boss calls and asks them to check on a tenant, Mr. Bezzerides, who's late with the rent, they discover something wild: a wall of Polaroid photos of their front room, taken through the large windows facing each other from across the way. The camera is a behemoth, bolted to the floor, and Bezzerides has stacks and stacks of film with which to refill the machine. There is a photo in the machine, of a coat rack knocked onto the couch. It seems strange but not extraordinary until later that evening, their coat rack gets knocked over and the result looks exactly like the photo. Before long, the three have deduced the camera's supernatural ability: it's taking pictures of e...Read the entire review

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Jimi: All is by My Side (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/66569 Sat, 10 Jan 2015 07:16:45 UTC Skip It

The Movie:

I don't think it would be a significantly controversial opinion if I said that Jimi Hendrix is the greatest guitar player, as well as one of the greatest rock musicians, of all time. His fascinating life full of many ups and downs, as well as his mellow laissez-faire attitude towards life is ripe for an interesting and exciting biopic, if handled correctly. The possibility of recreating the raw intensity of his orgasmic music in film alone is a very attractive proposition.

As far as Hendrix on film is concerned, there are many concert films (Jimi Plays Monterey and Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock are the two essentials), as well as an excellent 1973 documentary on the man himself, simply titled Jimi Hendrix. As far as fictionalized depictions of Hendrix go, there was a made for TV biopic cal...Read the entire review

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Housebound Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/66284 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 15:24:53 UTC Recommended



When it comes to the horror comedy mixture, foreign releases seem to be delivering the goods. This has been the case for quite a few years, as films such as Shaun of the Dead have impressed moviegoers around the world. Many American filmmakers simply don't seem to understand how to achieve an appropriate balance between the two genres without one completely overpowering the other. Often times, the horror is predictable, the comedy is painfully unfunny, or both. However, writer/director Gerard Johnstone is now taking a stab at this monster of a hybrid. Is it ultimately a successful venture worth all of the festival hype?

After once again showing up to court for a crime committed, Kylie Bucknell (Morgana O'Reilly) is forced to return to the house that she grew up i...Read the entire review

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CBGB (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/62245 Sat, 21 Dec 2013 19:33:26 UTC Rent It

The Movie:

I wasn't there. I won't pretend. Well, technically I was there once, I had a beer and I saw the bathroom, the bar was open. But there weren't any bands on, it was sometime in the early 2000s and it was rad to see and all but the point is, I didn't witness the birth of American punk. Odds are pretty good you didn't either. It was a small scene that exploded and changed the world, it was and still is a very important part of pop culture history, the impact of which is still very relevant. Telling the story of CBGB and its importance in what it spawned was probably inevitable, it had to happen sooner or later. Now, thanks to director/co-writer Randall Miller and co-writer Jody Savin, for better or worse, it has, and it feels very fake, forced and commercialized.

The main part of the story follows Hilly Kristal (Alan Rickman), a down on his luck club owner with a rebellious st...Read the entire review

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Under the Bed DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61804 Fri, 11 Oct 2013 13:23:47 UTC Rent It

THE MOVIE:

It's no secret that tone and treatment can provide radically different takes on a genre. It is somewhat surprising to see that happen in the span of a single movie though. Director Steven C. Miller's Under the Bed is a creature feature all the way through. Due to a sudden shift fairly late in the game, it just ends up feeling like two different creature features. The first 70 minutes are relatively tame with strained familial relationships taking prominence over the slowly building feelings of menace and disquiet. Then, without warning the final 15 minutes explode with gore, tension and fantasy. It's an odd mix that requires patience on the part of horror fans.

The film starts with an awkward conversation between Neal (Jonny Weston) and his dad (Peter Holden). Neal's returning home after an extended stay at his aunt's place which was prompted by his part ...Read the entire review

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Storm Surfers 3D (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61445 Wed, 14 Aug 2013 02:15:37 UTC Recommended

Although I have never been surfing myself and know very little about it, I still enjoyed Storm Surfers, a powerful 3D surfing documentary (2012 winner of Best 3D Documentary from the International 3D Society). It focuses on long-time Australian surfing buddies Tom Carroll and Ross Clarke-Jones as they seek out and surf the most intense waves they can find over the course of a few months- June through August to be exact, when it's summer in most of the world but winter in Australia. Yes, they surf during the winter, meaning that it's very cold and they must wear a lot of warm clothing- first time I'd heard of this. Aiding Tom and Ross is "Surf Forecaster" Ben Matson who uses computer and satellite technology to track where these waves are and when they'll hit.

Narrated by Toni Collette who explains some of the weather phenomena and gives us a bit of background on Carroll and Clarke-Jones...Read the entire review

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American Mary DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61226 Fri, 21 Jun 2013 18:02:53 UTC Skip It

Note: 99% of the time, I try and write reviews that I consider to be spoiler-free, but in the case of American Mary, I do have to cover one major part of the plot. It is an inciting incident, occurring early in the movie, and many people would include it in a plot synopsis. However, if you wish to remain completely spoiler-free, skip to the technical sections or click away.


Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle) is a med school student studying to be a surgeon. She's dedicated, spending Thanksgiving sewing up her turkey as practice rather than roasting it, but like most students, she's struggling to make ends meet. To prevent her phone bill from getting shut off, she decides to respond to a Craigslist ad looking for exotic dancers. In the middle of her interview with the club's owner, Billy Barker (Antonio Cupo), one of the patron...Read the entire review

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Dead Mine DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61178 Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:57:03 UTC Rent It

Deep in the Indonesian jungle, eight people are getting ready for a mysterious mission. The benefactor, Warren Price (Les Loveday), and his girlfriend Su-Ling (Carmen Soo) are keeping mum about their plans, but he's hired a crack team of well-trained soldiers to go with him. When they're ambushed by local thugs and trapped inside a cave by an explosion, Warren finally fesses up: he and his historical expert Rie (Miki Mizuno) have discovered documents suggesting that Yamashita's gold is buried in the same underground tunnels they're now trapped in. While the soldiers concern themselves with finding a way out, Warren tries to lead them toward what he believes might be the largest buried treasure in history. Unfortunately for all of them, they are not alone in the mine, and their company is unlike anything they could have anticipated.

Dead Mine is an action / horror hybrid that accomplishes a f...Read the entire review

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American Mary Theatrical https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61146 Mon, 27 May 2013 17:40:07 UTC Highly Recommended

Twin sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska make quite an impression with their sophomore outing as writers and directors, with the visceral and affecting body modification film American Mary. It's quite a change in mood from their first feature film, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, which sounds quite brutal but has something of a sentimental heart. With American Mary, they've moved past any sense of sentimentality, with a subtle but unabashed look into the darker areas of human nature.

Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle) is a struggling med student, passionate about her dreams of being a surgeon, but chronically short of cash. Desperate for money, she answers an ad for fetish models, "no sex required", at the Bourbon A Go Go club, where she meets sketchy club manager Billy (Antonio Cupo), whose audition requirements include neck rubs. Mary is able to make a quick five grand when a club employee is v...Read the entire review

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Thale DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/61119 Tue, 14 May 2013 23:51:08 UTC Highly Recommended

THE MOVIE:

Fantasy edges its way into the modern world with director Aleksander Nordaas' Thale. He builds his film around a bit of Norwegian folklore and makes it stick by allowing the tale's gentle pacing to slowly lay out its mystery in a manner that completely takes a hold of one's imagination. That he does so with a tiny cast and limited resources makes it even more impressive.

When we first meet our protagonists Leo (Jon Sigve Skard) and Elvis (Erlend Nervold), they are knee-deep in quite the mess. I mean that quite literally since they are crime scene cleaners (No Shit Cleaning Service is as great a business name as I've ever heard) who are currently taking care of a little old lady's mostly liquefied remains. Well, Leo is taking care of her remains while Elvis pukes his guts out in a corner. It's a grisly application of less-is-more (who needs to see the remain...Read the entire review

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Allegiance (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/58611 Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:45:43 UTC Rent It

THE FILM:

The core conflict in Allegiance involves a member of the Army National Guard going AWOL on the eve of his unit's deployment to Iraq. Another lieutenant, recently transferred to a non-deploying unit thanks to his daddy's connections, weighs helping his friend or upholding his duty to the guard. Allegiance has an uphill climb with its unlikeable characters and dishonorable behavior, but makes efforts to portray the raw emotions surrounding a military deployment. Things are a little too black and white during much of the film, and guard leaders are painted as unthinking military drones instead of real people. The core conflict also rides on shaky ground, but Allegiance is convincing enough in the trenches to warrant a renta...Read the entire review

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The Thompsons (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/59124 Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:04:05 UTC Rent It

The blurb on the cover art screams "Twilight meets Tarantino!", and...yeah, that's pretty much on the money. I mean, you're lookin' at a starcrossed romance between a brooding, day-walking bloodsucker and the gorgeous brunette he just fell for. On the Tarantinoier side of things, The Thompsons is hyperviolent, has a cacklingly dark sense of humor, nicks Pulp Fiction's fiercely non-linear Read the entire review

]]> Outpost: Black Sun (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/58748 Sat, 10 Nov 2012 21:01:11 UTC Recommended

Far more than fascist fantasy, The Thousand-Year Reich becomes a nightmarish reality when a legion of zombified Nazis are unleashed upon the world. Devoid of conscience, free will, or mercy, this army of the undead

[click on the thumbnail to enlarge]
i...Read the entire review

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