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John Allman

If you’ve ever wandered the aisles at the video store or surfed the DVR pay-per-view options and seen a bunch of movies that you’ve never heard of, chances are John has watched them. Why? He loves movies. All kinds of movies. Good, bad, so-bad-they’re good, even the truly unwatchable ones. He mostly loves horror and science-fiction and drive-in exploitation movies that most upstanding model citizens wouldn’t dare watch. Then he writes up his thoughts so you can decide - watch, don’t watch or avoid at all costs. Sometimes he even gets to talk to the cool folks who make some of your favorite films.

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2009 Blu-Ray and DVD Year-End Wrap-Up

Posted Dec 31, 2009 by John Allman

Updated Jan 4, 2010 at 07:57 AM

The Mel Brooks Collection
Genre: Comedy/Gift Set
Directed by: Mel Brooks
Run time: 969 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: This awesome nine-disc retrospective includes many of Brooks’ best movies, including “Young Frankenstein,” “Blazing Saddles,” “History of the World Part I” and “Spaceballs.” The films look great in high definition, and for the uninitiated, this would make the perfect gift to dive into one of Hollywood’s funniest satirists. The deluxe box set comes with a 120-page hardcover book that touches on Brooks’ personal and professional lives.

The Hangover
Genre: Comedy
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Run time: 108 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: The box-office smash “The Hangover” arrives on Blu-Ray with eight additional minutes in unrated form, and they are just as funny as the original 100 minutes were in the theater. This madcap romp through Sin City is fresh, inventive and hysterical as three friends lose their best friend, and groom-to-be, on a wild bachelor party night to remember. The humor is both low-brow and expertly nuanced. The laughs are frequent and ferocious. And the hat trick is the mystery that is perfectly sustained about what actually happened the night in question. The answer is finally revealed over the closing credits in a series of amazing snapshots taken by the friends as they make the rounds from bars to strip clubs to Mike Tyson’s personal zoo. This is a must-own for your collection, guaranteed to get multiple viewings.

District 9
Genre: Sci-Fi
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Run time: 112 minutes
Rating: R
Format: DVD

The Lowdown: A surprise hit from summer 2009, “District 9” is strikingly original, expertly constructed and full of genuine heart. This tale of an alien race sequestered to an internment camp outside Johannesburg, South Africa is rich in spot-on political commentary, but it never fails to wow with magnificent special effects and a truly revelatory turn by newcomer Sharlto Copley as the government drone turned hero who is infected with alien DNA and must choose whether or not to rebel against his own race in order to save another. This is a must-buy title.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Genre: Fantasy/Sequel
Directed by: David Yates
Run time: 153 minutes
Rating: PG
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: The march from Hogwarts to the final showdown with big, bad V continues in this, “The Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth film in the series chronicling the maturation of young boy wizard, Harry Potter. For longtime fans, these films are virtually bulletproof. For newcomers, it’s a little late to get invested. The three leads have practically grown up on camera, and each successive film seems miraculously capable of holding the same awe and wonder, despite changing directors multiple times.

Silent Night, Deadly Night Box Set
Genre: Horror/Sequel
Directed by: Monte Hellman, Brian Yuzna, Martin Kitrosser
Run time: 270 minutes
Rating: R
Format: DVD

The Lowdown: Ah, the holidays. Yuletide wishes and bloody death. The final three films in the “Silent Night, Deadly Night” franchise – Better Watch Out!, Initiation and The Toy Maker – prove that most direct-to-DVD (or VHS, as the case may be) sequels add up to a sack full of coal. Released from 1989 to 1991, only one of the sequels, “Better Watch Out!” is actually tied to the original film’s Killer Santa premise. “Initiation” is this series’ “Halloween III,” as it has nothing to do with the original mythology, and instead introduces a cult that worships the Egyptian Goddess Isis. And “The Toymaker” takes the series into the dreaded “Puppet Master” territory with its tale of a homicidal toymaker whose creations kill when opened.

Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side
Genre: TV on DVD/Comedy/Sci-Fi
Created by: Seth MacFarlane
Run time: 54 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: This sequel, of sorts, to Family Guy’s “Blue Harvest” spoof on “Star Wars” finds show creator Seth MacFarlane mining the original trilogy’s finest hour, “The Empire Strikes Back” for a more-miss-than-hit send-up. I’ve never really watched much of the Sunday night Fox TV hit show “Family Guy,” and “Something, Something…” proves why. MacFarlane has a cadence that my generation wouldn’t readily appreciate, even though ironically I’m only a couple of years older than TV’s moneyman. He is too quick to drop a homophobic gag for the easy laugh, his humor is borderline misogynistic and there are odd pauses that must be for longtime fans only to appreciate. Still, he does a good job hitting the high points of “Empire,” and there a few legitimate laughs to be found.

All About Steve
Genre: Comedy
Directed by: Phil Traill
Run time: 99 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: You can’t win them all, even if you’re Sandra Bullock. The two-time 2009 box-office queen, hot off the winners “The Proposal” and “The Blind Side,” goes for the raunchy, jocular laughs as a female klutz in search of love, even if she’s a borderline stalker. “All About Steve” is a mess that even Bradley Cooper and the normally hysterical Ken Jeong can’t save. It’s crass, over-the-top and not very funny.

Public Enemies
Genre: Drama/Action
Directed by: Michael Mann
Run time: 140 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: Less thrilling than “Heat,” and considerably less meaty than “Collateral,” director Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” is a gorgeous package with no great gift inside. Johnny Depp is all charm as John Dillinger, and Christian Bale brings the necessary gravitas to his role as Melvin Purvis, but the film fails to generate any urgency. This is a rental at best.

Star Trek – The Original Series Season 3
Genre: TV on DVD/Sci-Fi
Created by: Gene Roddenberry
Run time: 22 hours, 30 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: The last season of the Starship Enterprise’s maiden television voyage offers yet another wonderful high-definition transfer for long-time Trekkie fans. This final collection of the original series is a must-have because of “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the original, unaired pilot that presented a different approach to one of science-fiction’s most beloved franchises.

Better Off Ted – The Complete First Season
Genre: TV on DVD/Comedy/Science-Fiction
Created by: Victor Fresco
Run time: 299 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: DVD

The Lowdown: Catch up on this surprisingly funny, subversive look behind the curtain at a fictional corporation that never fails to ask the question, “What if”? This two-disc, 13-episode first season is chock full of twisted subplots such as cryogenically frozen co-workers and turning pumpkins into weapons. Jay Harrington and Portia de Rossi share a noticeable chemistry and the snappy dialogue is consistently clever.

The Objective
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Daniel Myrick
Run time: 90 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: DVD

The Lowdown: The second supernatural thriller set in Afghanistan (you might remember “Red Sands” from earlier this year) sets an elite faction of soldiers in search of a tribal warlord. Their real objective, however, is a possibly-alien, possibly-mystic ball of light that has the ability to resurrect the dead and swallow anyone who dares threaten it with violence. Myrick is still trying to step out from the Blair Witch shadow, but this plodding exercise in military mumbo-jumbo won’t kickstart his once-promising career.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Genre: Fantasy/Comedy/Sequel
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Run time: 105 minutes
Rating: PG
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: The second helping of rambunctious museum exhibits come to life once again stars Ben Stiller as Larry Daley, the once-hapless security guard who now serves as overseer for a host of CGI-enthused creatures and celebrity cameo actors. It’s not nearly as entertaining as the original, likely because the surprise has worn off, and even moving the action from New York to Washington does little to rekindle the magic. New exhibits springing to life does not equal entertainment. A better plot might have.

Angels & Demons
Genre: Drama/Adventure/Sequel
Directed by: Ron Howard
Run time: 138 minutes
Rating: PG
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: Poor Robert Langdon, the symbologist adventurer making his second big-screen appearance, and pity Tom Hanks for having to put up with lazy dialogue such as the police officer who actually says, “Great, the symbologist is here.” Ron Howard’s wildly successful follow-up to “The DaVinci Code” tries mightily to sustain interest and not put people to sleep like the first film. It fails. I dozed intermittingly throughout, waking up occasionally to watch Hanks struggle to break free from an oxygen-deprived chamber, stop a mini black hole of antimatter from destroying Rome and watching Ewan McGregor both survive a ridiculous freefall from a helicopter and set himself on fire to preserve the secrets of the Illuminati. Why this series is so popular, I have no idea.