|
Posted on
07.03.08 by ScottC @ 12:01 am
Basket Case 3. Duane and Belial Bradley have had their problems with Belial being a monstrous freak and Duane not being the sharpest knife in the drawer. Things are looking up with Belial about to be a father and the family staying with Granny Ruth and her home for 'unique individuals. Unfortunately, the cops stumble upon with this unusual group and... let's just say it won't be pretty. The last of the Basket Case trilogy has plenty of tongue in cheek humor, impressive amounts of gore, and more latex than a fetish party. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
Posted on
07.01.08 by Widge @ 11:59 pm An ongoing attempt to make sense of the onslaught of new swag that people want you to buy. Should you? I'll try and help.
So, lots of Rambo to talk about. First, the Complete Collector's Set in its collectible tin that's got a bigass knife on it and thus Siege keeps being distracted by it. When you open the tin, you've got a normal boxed set fold-out thing inside with all the discs--all six of them. It's a bit odd that the fold-out thing is a bit shorter than the tin, so I wouldn't, you know, shake it back and forth...but why would you do that unless you were writing a headsup about it? Anyway, the first three films come in their Ultimate Edition incarnations, so there's nothing new there. What is new is the second half of the set: the fourth film, the fourth film's second disc (which amounts to a digital copy), and the sixth disc which is, from what I can see, the bits from the Special Editions of the first trilogy (that HTQ4 reviewed for us here). The fourth film's bonus bits are a commentary with Stallone, deleted scenes, and scads of featurettes. It's not a bad haul, actually. In fact, this boxed set is pretty complete. If you did not buy the previous Special Edition boxed set, then you're fine getting just the fourth film if you want a complete array of stuff. However, if you don't have the series and want it, this is not a bad way to snag it all. As I write this, it's $37 on Amazon, which is about $7 a disc (not counting the digital copy). (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) Next up, the Blu-Ray flavored original trilogy. Whereas you can buy the whole shebang in one fell swoop above, the fourth film is available on Blu-Ray separately. Not sure why this is, they didn't exactly ping me for my opinion when they planned all this. Regardless, this appears to be the previous three films just reswizzled on Blu-Ray. It's not a bad deal if you're looking to swap out your regular DVD set for this one--the first film comes with two commentaries, one with Stallone, and the second and third films each have a director's commentary on them. Each film also comes with a featurette or documentary. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
Posted on
06.30.08 by Widge @ 11:56 pm An ongoing attempt to make sense of the onslaught of new swag that people want you to buy. Should you? I'll try and help.
Drillbit Taylor didn't exactly...um...damn, you know I should really make a note here to come up with a clever drill-related pun and insert it later. Yeah, good call. Anyway, it didn't *insert pun here* the box office. But that's to be expected. It's got that shelf-life rental business written all over it. First of all, it's about geeks trying to get by. And if there's anything we can relate to, it's that. And those sort of films linger and are eventually watched by everyone. And second, it's got Owen Wilson, who you cannot, by law, dislike. No, honestly. Even in the worst of movies, you can't not like Owen Wilson. For example, if Owen Wilson had been in Ghostbusters 2, the movie would still have been shit and made you cry yourself to sleep, but you would have liked Owen Wilson. Admit it. Anyway, the movie is nowhere near as traumatic as GB2, so take heart. It's available in DVD and Blu-Ray editions. They both come with the same array of bonus bits--commentary by director, co-producer and the three teens; a chat with the writers; deleted and extended scenes; gag reel; and an extended version of the film. Everything on the Blu-Ray disc, like I said, is the same, but in HD. Worth a rental, especially since we're all obligated to like Owen. It must be in the DNA somewhere. I dunno. (Click here to buy the regular flavor or here to buy the Blu-Ray flavor.) Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
Posted on
06.29.08 by Widge @ 11:55 pm An ongoing attempt to make sense of the onslaught of new swag that people want you to buy. Should you? I'll try and help.
Daphne is the story of Daphne du Maurier and her secret love life. Now, this automatically sounds like a voyeuristic job that should immediately be handed over to Scott, but not so fast. It's a biopic hailing from the BBC and it looks at how her desire for first Ellen Doubleday (yes, the name from the publishing house) and then Gertrude Lawrence went on to form the basis for her writing. Geraldine Somerville, best known to most audiences at least for her role of Lily Potter in the Harry Potter films and for those that were able to stay awake, she was also in the legions of Gosford Park. Elizabeth McGovern is in the role of Ellen and Janet McTeer in the role of Gertrude. It's well acted, as you might expect from this trio of leads, and is a no-brainer at-least-rental for any fan of the author. One bonus feature is Daphne Du Maurier's Vanishing Cornwall, a special about her favorite part of England that was produced by her son. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) I'm no big fan of Jackass. I do enough stupid shit in my day to day life without seeing some people do even more ridiculous shit and be paid well for it. That being said, I at least have figured out why Mat Hoffman's Tribute to Evel Knievel sits so well with me. Jackass is just stunts like Knievel, except with less training and probably less forethought. So pairing the two actually works for me. Go figure. But here it's real non-Jackassers trying for real stunts with real prep. And I have a decent amount of respect for people who are absolutely mental. I think the main problem here is that the full running time is less than fifty minutes, and then there's another hour of extra bits. And even at $14, it seems like a bit steep. Might be worth a rental to watch with some fellow extreme sports or Jackass enthusiasts, but beyond that, only worth owning for the hardcore. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
Posted on
06.28.08 by Widge @ 11:57 pm An ongoing attempt to make sense of the onslaught of new swag that people want you to buy. Should you? I'll try and help.
The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch is the tale of an underground circus, and some friends who, with Miss Finch in tow, attend. And what happens next, which you can guess has something to do with the title and leaving. There's something to be said for Gaiman's story, which as the book explains hasn't exactly been made widely available on this side of the pond (and has shades of Gaiman's work on Alice Cooper's Last Temptation--no surprise, as Zulli provided art for that as well). Any Gaiman is better than a lot of other fiction writers working today. There's something to be said for Todd Klein adapting the thing for this Dark Horse edition (and I've seen a lot of people attributing the whole thing to Michael Zulli, so...). But the thing that I was most looking forward to was seeing the aforementioned Mr. Zulli do smilodons. I'm not giving anything away--there's one on the cover. An excellent addition to anyone's Gaiman shelf, unless like me, yours is spilling onto a second shelf. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) It's not secret we're big proponents of Pixar around here. Even now that they've merged with Disney into a Skynet-like animation deity called Dixar. But if you want to pull back the curtain to see the little man behind it (or in this case, the cadre of animators), then The Pixar Touch from Knopf by David A. Price is the ticket. Seriously though, what do we, the pop culture nerds, know about Pixar beyond the fact that we want to work there and that John Lasseter has been accepted by many of us as their lord and personal savior? Price lets us know how a company went from zero to being the leading animation house of our time in a relatively short amount of time. And it's not like it's a wart-free story--it's fairly treated. For Pixar fans, you're going to want to check this out. Recommended. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.) Categorized as: Headsup
|
|
|
