DVD Pick of the Week - Hot Fuzz

There’s no going back for writer-director Edgar Wright and writer-actor Simon Pegg – they’re on my sugar list now. You know, that elite group of filmmakers – for me: Terry Gilliam, John Carpenter, The Coen Brothers – for whom your love knows bounds and even when their output is sub-par, you can scarcely help but enjoy it anyway. Mind you, I’m merely underlining that they’ll be getting a wider berth than everyone else for the rest of their careers… I’m not saying there’s anything sub-par about Hot Fuzz whatsoever. Not only is it a most worthy follow-up to Pegg and Wright’s 2004 zombie sendup Shaun Of the Dead, but it’s the best film of 2007 so far. And it’s out on DVD this week, you lucky people.
(more…)

The Monster Squad: 20th Anniversary Edition

There are DVD releases that are overdue, those that are criminally overdue, and then there are those that make you giddy as a tree full of monkeys on laughing gas, wishing you could buy copies for all your friends. The Monster Squad falls decidedly into the latter category. Fred Dekker’s excellent 1987 grade-school horror romp is one of those 80’s anomalies – as Real Genius is to teen comedies, or The Hidden is to sci-fi thrillers – that never quite seems to get the pop culture props it deserves, yet is deeply beloved and passionately advocated for by its fans. Some of whom, bless ‘em, work for Lionsgate who have at last hashed out all rights clearances and released a sterling two-disc special edition this week.
(more…)

VOYAGERS!: The Complete Series

I was a huge fan of Voyagers! when I was a kid. No, I mean that… huge. As in, so huge that when I was sick once on a Sunday night I was afraid to run to the toilet to upchuck lest I miss part of the show. (Ah, the pre-VCR age…) And oddly enough, 25 years down the line this adventure series about a time-traveling rogue and a clever little boy elicits the same kind of beloved memories (plus stomach ailments and otherwise) in numerous folks of my generation, though it only aired for one season. One season which is finally out on DVD Tuesday…
(more…)

Frankie and Annette: The Collection

Yes, I know what you’re thinking…. seriously? Just a week after she graces us with a refreshing dose of dour, non-sunshiney, anti-summertime film recommendations, she follows it up by picking probably the perkiest, corniest, reeking-of-hairspray-and-surf-wax summer film canon of all time. Look, I’m not without my guilty pleasures either. If I’m honest, the American Independent beach bunny flicks of the 1960’s that starred shellac-coiffed crooner Frankie Avalon and babeish ex-Mouseketeer Annette Funicello are not without their cornball charms, or historical value.

Now, whether or not you can get through all seven of the films in MGM’s box set out this week depends on your appetite for twee dance numbers and bouncy girls doing the twist. (Well, except for Ski Party, the lone wintry party flick in the bunch). Still, one would be hard pressed to deny the impact that these films had on teen-targeted film demographics for years to come; prior, you had a few teen-oriented dramas like Rebel Without a Cause, some b-movie titles and films shaped around artists such as The Beatles and Elvis, but no one really seemed score big genre hits marketed expressly at the young folks until the surf flicks (Frankie and Annette, but also Gidget, etc.) arrived. How would the teen flicks of the 80’s have developed in a vacuum devoid of Beach Blanket Bingo and Muscle Beach Party? Could all those boobs have been unleashed had we not had all the bikinis first? On a side note, the guest star lineups in some of these films are pretty astounding. (Don Rickles! Dick Dale! Little Stevie Wonder! Buddy Hackett! Paul Lynde! Lynda Evans! BUSTER KEATON!…twice! No horseshit…)

Also recommended this week: Beauty and Beast: Season 2; Bewitched: Season 5; A Bullet For Joey; The Stranger; The Woman In The Window

— Nicole Campos

Dante’s Peak vs. Valcano

We’ve talked about the 90’s before and its need to bring back the disaster movie. That trend didn’t just end with big objects from outer space. We had plenty to worry about that sprang up from below us here on earth.

Volcanoes became hot (pardon the pun) in the year 1997. There hadn’t really been a flick that featured them since…well…I suppose Joe Versus the Volcano? In any event, the lava spewing mountain became a star in two movies that year, and only 3 months apart.

The first to be released was Dante’s Peak, or if you prefer James Bond Versus the Volcano. Directed by the man who gave us not only the epic Species, Roger Donaldson also directed The Bounty which starred Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson. He’s also responsible for Cocktail. Where did you go wrong Roger?
(more…)

The Fly

DVD Special: Top 5 Completely Inappropriate Summer Movies

It happens, sometimes – in spite of the many DVDs typically released each week, every so often there comes a week where you just can’t find a single one to recommend. Good on the pocket book, but bad on DVD columns like mine. So instead of a pick this holiday week, in the style of John Cusack in High Fidelilty, I give you five recommendations on films which are practically designed to shun the good cheer of summertime:

The Ice Storm – Okay, the title makes it seem obvious. However the icy weather conditions in Ang Lee’s bitter family melodrama are the top of the iceburg – frigid upper-middle class marriages, painfully awkward adolescent couplings… and a heartbreaking fatal accident! The joy never ends. Some, it should be noted, might also find some of the 70’s décor pretty depressing. (Me, I kind of like that schlock…)
(more…)