Another week with plenty of good stuff including a few Oscar winners from a few weeks back. Plus plenty of cult, horror, television and indie films to keep you busy for a few days.
Fire up that queue and prep that shopping cart. It’s that time of the week.
Frozen
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| Walt Disney Home Video / Released 3/18/14 |
Walt Disney Animation Studios presents a chilly twist on one of the most humorous and heartwarming stories ever told. Fearless optimist Anna sets off on an epic journey — teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff and his loyal reindeer Sven — to find her sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter. Encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman named Olaf, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom. Extras include making of, featurettes, deleted scenes, music video and new Mickey Mouse short, Get a Horse!
Last Word: The latest addition to the Disney Vault is a satisfying, albeit, formulaic exercise that is memorable enough to enjoy but forgettable enough to remember why you liked it. Treading familiar ground, Frozen has serviceable songs and sequences, but never fully engages. The voice cast, which includes Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Alan Tudyk, Maurice LaMarche and Edie McClurg, all deliver and the appealing character design replicates the Disney style in CGI (similar in design to the far better film, Tangled). Frozen is certainly an entertaining film and well worth your time (and more so if there are children), but suffers a bit from the calculated emotional beats usually found in a Pixar movie. Nevertheless, the animation is stunning, and the characters are charming enough to warm even the most Frozen, cynical viewer. The Mickey Mouse short, is phenomenal as well, and worth the price of a rental for those several minutes alone. Recommended.
American Hustle
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| Sony / Released 3/18/14 |
A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that’s as dangerous as it is enchanting. Jeremy Renner is Carmine Polito, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down. Extras include making of and deleted/extended scenes.
Last Word: A really good film with several really great performances, American Hustle often feels like a “best of” for director David O. Russell who blends in cast members from his previous films, The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook into one of the best ensembles in recent memory. Capitalizing on the concept of the American Dream; success and being whoever or whatever you want to be, no one in the film is what they present themselves to be, resulting in a fun, electric, pure cinematic experience that is far better than the bad fashion and comb-overs depicted within. Recommended.
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| Walt Disney Home Video / Released 3/18/14 |
Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson bring to life the untold true story about the origins of one of the most treasured Disney classics of all time. John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) directs this acclaimed film, which reveals the surprising backstory behind the making of Mary Poppins. Determined to fulfill a promise to his daughters, Walt Disney (Hanks) tries for twenty years to obtain the rights to author P.L. Travers’ (Thompson) beloved book. Armed with his iconic creative vision, Walt pulls out all the stops, but the uncompromising Travers won’t budge. Only when he reaches into his own complicated childhood does Walt discover the truth about the ghosts that haunt Travers, and together, they set Mary Poppins free! Extras include featurettes, deleted scenes and trailers.
Last Word: An underwhelming look at the behind the scenes machinations of the making of Mary Poppins, Saving Mr. Banks is wrought with a series of contradictions. First, it’s a story about Walt Disney produced and distributed by the Disney Studios. Second, it covers both the struggle of Disney attempting to adapt P.L. Traver’s book and also her back story, which reveals much of her reluctance. The problem is, first, we’re getting a corporate point of view of Walt, overseen by the company who’s best interest is to portray him as the greatest guy on Earth and second, the history of Travers is far less captivating than the making of the film. As noted before, there are also a number of details that the film simply got wrong. On the plus side, Saving Mr. Banks boasts a phenomenal cast including Thompson, Hanks, Colin Farrell, Bradley Whitford, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Ruth Wilson, B.J. Novak, Kathy Baker and Rachel Griffiths. Saving Mr. Banks is entertaining, and well worth your time; just be prepared to accept the fact that the truth presented is delivered with a spoonful of sugar.
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom
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| Anchor Bay / Released 3/18/14 |
Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary journey to becoming one of history’s most iconic figures is brought to life in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom. Idris Elba portrays the political leader and human rights advocate in the film based on the South African President’s autobiography of the same name. The film chronicles his early life, education, marriage to Winnie Mandela (Naomie Harris) and 27 year prison sentence before becoming South Africa’s first democratically elected president and working to rebuild the country’s once segregated society. Extras include featuretttes, commentary, video gallery and documentary.
Last Word: A good picture about a great man, Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom inevitably feels like a series of vignettes rather than the epic that it should be. Idris Elba, one of my favorite actors, isn’t given much to work with in the underwritten role. It’s overwhelmingly superficial and as a result, it’s hard not to want more from the film on both a story and emotional level. And yet, the film’s extended running time doesn’t even begin to capture the greatness of it’s subject. Mildly recommended.
Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales
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| Image Entertainment / Released 3/18/14 |
Horror legend Tom Holland (Child’s Play, Fright Night) dares you to join him for nine nerve-shredding, totally Twisted Tales. Serving up a mind-bending assortment of the macabre, it’s an anthology fine-tuned to keep you on the edge of your seat. A new drug offers users a glimpse of the future… with beastly consequences. A murderous husband is stalked by his own cell phone. A jilted lover wreaks satanic vengeance. The nightmarish action then leads to worlds haunted by dark magic, demonic possession, vampires, witches and more in this seriously freaky festival of fear. Features favorite genre stars including Danielle Harris), William Forsythe, Ray Wise, Sarah Butler, A.J. Bowen, Bonnie Piesse and Noah Hathaway.
Mysterious Skin (Director’s Special Blu-Ray Edition)
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| Strand Releasing / Released 3/18/14 |
Bold, brilliant and infused with breathtaking honesty, director Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin packs a powerful punch in its tale of childhood innocence lost, based on the acclaimed novel by Scott Heim. At age eight, Neil McCormick and Brian Lackey both played on the same youth baseball team in their small Kansas hometown. Now, ten years later, the two eighteen-year-old boys could not be any more different. Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a cold but charismatic teenage hustler, while Brian (Brady Corbet) is a nervous introvert obsessed with the idea that he has been abducted by a UFO. As these two parallel lives inevitably intersect, both boys being to discover a shared past shrouded in mystery. Featuring star-making performances by Gordon-Levitt and Corbet, alongside Academy-Award nominee Elisabeth Shue’s moving portrayal of Neil’s free-spirited mother, Mysterious Skin takes the viewer on an illuminating, deeply affecting journey into the delicate reaches of self discovery. Extras include commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, audition footage, gallery and trailer.
Return To Nuke ‘Em High: Volume One
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| Anchor Bay / Released 3/18/14 |
Welcome back to Tromaville, New Jersey where the nuclear power plant has now been bulldozed to make way for an organic foods company. But when the company’s contaminated product is sold to the nearby high school lunch program, will the biggest nerds in the student body be transformed into goo-spewing punk mutants? Prepare yourself for this hilarious/horrific assault of fat guys, new girls, toxic tacos, teen lesbians, school shootings, rogue bloggers, marauding cretins, gratuitous nudity, duck dancing and so much more in the all-new Tromasterpiece! Extras include commentaries, featurettes, music video and trailer.
Reasonable Doubt
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| Lionsgate / Released 3/18/14 |
Hotshot district attorney Mitch Brockden (Dominic Cooper) is involved in a fatal hit-and-run, but Clinton Davis (Samuel L. Jackson) is found with the body and charged with murder. Believing that Davis is innocent, Brockden is compelled to throw the trial. Soon after, Brockden’s perfect life begins to unravel as he realizes that the man he set free is hiding a secret that will destroy him. Extras include behind the scenes, deleted scenes, extended interviews, trailers.
Sparks
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| Image Entertainment / Released 3/18/14 |
After a radioactive meteor strikes Earth, a genetically altered group, known as The Rochester 13, gain astonishing, superhuman powers. Ian Sparks (Chase Williamson) doesn’t feel remotely super… but after his parents’ death, he throws himself into battle against the criminals plaguing the mean streets of New York. Teaming up with, and falling hard for, the beautiful Lady Heavenly (Ashley Bell), the unstoppable duo quickly decimates the city’s army of thugs. But when they tangle with the nation’s most twisted arch-villain, they end up losing everything — including each other. Sparks’ rage-fueled quest for vengeance ignites a battle that will change the world and alter his destiny, forever. The film also stars Clancy Brown, Clint Howard, Jake Busey, and William Katt.
Contracted
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| MPI Home Video / Released 3/18/14 |
After a break in her relationship with her lover (Katie Stegeman), twentysomething party girl Samantha (Najarra Townsend) has to move back in with her overbearing mother (Caroline Williams). Things seem to be at an all-time low until Samantha soon finds escape in a one-night stand with a mysterious man (Simon Barrett), but their encounter leaves her hung-over, guilt-ridden – and infected. Uncertain of the ailment she’s caught an knowing little about the man who gave it to her, Samantha attempts to hide her deteriorating condition from her loved ones. But she soon realizes that she is not just the victim of an STD, but the host of something much more catastrophic, and that she and those around her are in mortal danger. Part zombie film and part body-horror shocker, Contracted, from writer-director Eric England (Madison County), is a skin-crawling experience.
Last Word: An art film approach to contagious bio-hazards, Contracted is a nice looking, derivative and unfortunately uninspired film. Utilizing familiar tropes (and a commentary on women’s sexuality and zombie infestation borrowed from Walter Greatshell’s far better novel Xombies), Contracted is splatter fan’s dream, but for any discriminating film viewer, it just isn’t particularly engaging.
Flu
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| CJ Entertainment / Released 3/18/14 |
From writer/director Kim Sung-soo and starring Jang Hyuk, Su Ae, Yoo Hae-jin and newcomer Park Min-ha, Flu centers on a human trafficker is infected with an unknown virus and dies in a Bundang hospital, covered in red rashes and coughing up blood. Less than 24 hours after the death of the first patient, similar cases are reported all over Bundang. The medics despair over the super virus that has no known cure, but they soon find hope when they hear of a sole survivor who may have developed antibodies against this ruthless viral mutation. As medical professionals rush to find the sole individual with the potential key for a cure, fatalities rise and soon the government has no choice but to quarantine the city. Amidst the ensuing panic, wild desperation and violence, the struggle for life between the infected and non-infected begins to spiral out of control. Extras include making of, deleted scenes, and concept art.
Atlantis
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| BBC Home Video / Released 3/18/14 |
Atlantis is an original and epic drama based around the stories of Greek mythology and the lost city of Atlantis. Jason (Jack Donnelly), who is in his early 20s, is our entry into this world; when we first meet him he is living in contemporary Britain but in the first episode he is sucked into a vortex and transported back to the city of Atlantis. Jason is thrust into a time and place he thought only existed in stories, but he soon finds himself becoming firm friends with the legendary Pythagoras (Robert Emms) and Hercules (Mark Addy). Alongside his new found friends Jason sets out on a series of adventures to understand more about his mysterious past and to discover his true destiny. Along the way he meets, befriends and fights all the famous figures from Greek mythology; in one episode he kills the fearsome Minotaur, in another we find out how Medusa was created. This is a series that combines action and humor, romance and mythology, spectacle and surprise. Extras include behind the scenes featurette. Recommended.
Cybergeddon
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| ARC Entertainment / Released 3/18/14 |
In a world where everyone is connected…Everyone is at risk.
“Cyberattacks and cybercrime are the tools our enemies are turning to in order to attack the “mind” and “wallet” of the United States.” Of the 317,000,000 people in America, two-thirds of the population owns an electronic device. The DOD is attacked nearly 80,000 times a day, more than $600 million are lost every year due to cyber-crime; we, the people of the United States, are vulnerable. And we face threats from every direction, whether it’s a kid on a laptop in his parent’s basement or a foreign nation with unlimited resources
Framed for a cyber-crime she didn’t commit, FBI Special Agent Chloe Jocelyn (Missy Peregrym) is forced to go on the run in order to prove her innocence. With the world on her tail, Chloe discovers that Gustov Dobreff (Olivier Martinez), a ruthless cybercriminal may be behind it all. Chloe seeks the help of Chase ‘Rabbit’ Rosen (Kick Gurry), a former black hat hacker, currently doing time in a federal penitentiary. While chasing down one of Gustov’s hackers the duo is confronted by Frank Parker (Manny Montana), Chloe’s ex-boyfriend and a member of FBI cyber-crime unit. Faced with the evidence of Gustov’s involvement, Frank quickly realizes that Chloe’s innocence and joins them. With the world distracted by “weapons of mass disruption” it’s up to our heroes to track down Gustov and stop cybergeddon before the world, as we know it, comes to an end.
Here Comes the Devil.
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| Magnolia / Released 3/18/14 |
A couple’s son and daughter inexplicably reappear after being lost overnight on a desolate, cave-riddled mountainside. Becoming withdrawn and beginning to exhibit strange behavior, their parents quickly assume something sinister happened to them while missing. But after hearing an ominous local legend, the concerned mother and father begin to realize that their children may have fallen prey to something inhuman – and that this dark, unstoppable evil has now returned home with them. Extras include extended scene, rehearsals, photo gallery, behind the scenes comparisons, featurettes and commentary.
Swerve
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| Cohen Media Group / Released 3/18/14 |
While driving cross-country to a job interview, Colin (David Lyons) witnesses a two-car crash that leaves one driver decapitated. The good-hearted Colin pulls a beautiful and mysterious young woman, Jina (Emma Booth), from the wreckage, along with a suitcase full of money. But soon, he becomes entangled with a crooked local cop (Jason Clarke) – who happens to be the very jealous husband of Jina – as well a murderous thug (Travis McMahon) who is after the cash. The suspense and action build in this gripping thriller set in the breathtaking but unforgiving Australian outback. Extras include interviews.
Last Word: Launching with a bravura opening sequence that the rest of the film doesn’t quite measure up to, Swerve is nevertheless, a satisfyingly entertaining film that interjects a bit of humor into the noir. A solid genre effort, Swerve utilizes many traditional pulp tropes and delivers a wholly enjoyable fresh take on a familiar genre. Recommended.
Buck Wild
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| Millennium / Released 3/18/14 |
Buck Wild is a tongue-in-cheek adventure that turns the buddy comedy upside down while tearing zombies inside out! Craig Thompson’s idyllic hunting trip with his two buddies and unstable cousin is wrecked after hearing that his fiancée and best man-to-be have been cavorting behind his back. To make matters worse, Craig’s cousin appears to be on the verge of a murderous rampage, while a rapidly spreading Chupacabra virus is transforming locals into the undead. After taking drastic measures to protect themselves, the boys must put aside their differences to survive an insidious hillbilly gang and impending zombie melee. Things are about to get Buck Wild!
Almost Sharkproof
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| Tricoast Film / Released 3/18/14 |
Vince (Cameron Van Hoy) and Freddy (Michael Drayer) are two broke buddies down on their luck with a big idea: wetsuits that can save surfers from shark bites. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, they seek the help of a shady loan shark and nightclub owner Max (Jon Lovitz), to help finance their big idea. In the process, they meet Isabella (Kinga Kierzek), sensual and beautiful Isabella is the receiving half of a knife throwing act at Max’s club. Borat’s Ken Davitian is the knife wielding other half of the act. Vince and Freddy both instantly fall in love with Isabella and enrage Max by running off with her. Soon, with an angry gangster and his team of goons after them, they find they will need protection from more than just sharks.
Starsky and Hutch
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| Mill Creek Entertainment / Released 3/4/14 |
Produced by Aaron Spelling, Starsky & Hutch roared onto small screens in 1975 to become one of the most popular, iconic series of the decade. This was TV’s coolest buddy cop show, fueled by full-throttle car chases, offbeat humor, colorful characters and a hip vibe. The hit series (1975-1979) followed streetwise undercover detectives Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson (David Soul) as they cruised around town in Starsky’s red and white striped Gran Torino, battling thugs and hoodlums with the help of their gruff boss, Captain Harold Dobey (Bernie Hamilton) and jive-talking informant Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas). Guest stars include Suzanne Somers, Richard Lynch, Michael Conrad, Gordon Jump, Charles Napier, Robert Loggia, Norman Fell, John Ritter, Kristy McNichol, Barbara Babcock, Richard Kiel, Larry Manetti, Michael Lerner, George Dzundza, Geoffrey Lewis, Quinn K. Redeker, and Chuck McCann.
Teen Titans Go: Mission to Misbehave Season 1 Pt 1
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| Warner Home Video / Released 3/4/14 |
Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy are making their triumphant return with brand-new comedic and heroic adventures, and this time they’re giving viewers a look at what life is really like as a teen super hero…once the cape comes off. Inspired by the original Teen Titans series from Warner Bros. Animation that ran for five seasons, the character-driven comedy focuses on the funny that happens in between saving the world and living together as teenagers without adult supervision. The comedic mayhem of the animated series is punctuated by pranks and the occasional need to fight crime, but it will also deal with the everyday issues of adolescence. With epic staring contests to decide who does the laundry, a series of quests and battles to construct the perfect sandwich or fighting crime in Jump City, one thing is for sure: These Titans will always be ready for an adventure – inside the house and out.
Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz
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| XLrator Media / Released 3/18/14 |
In the third installment of the hit Nazi Zombie action-horror franchise, Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz, we discover the horrifying origins of these supernatural soldiers as they battle the most ruthless and notorious of all military special forces: the Russian Spetsnaz.
