New Releases for Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Posted Mar 12, 2012 by John Allman

Updated Mar 12, 2012 at 01:08 PM

What’s new in stores and on video shelves this week:

Immortals
Genre: Fantasy/Sword and Sandals
Directed by: Tarsem Singh
Run time: 110 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: There’s a lot that director Tarsem Singh gets right in “Immortals,” which is basically “Clash of the 300 Titans” minus the crazy mythological creatures.

But the film still fails to tap into that fevered fanboy vein that both “300” and the original “Clash of the Titans” mined with much more satisfying results.

Part of the problem is that no matter the obstacle thrown in Theseus’s path, you just don’t really care whether he lives or dies or gets the girl or avenges his mother’s death.

“300” was masterful in that regard. You truly became invested in the plight of the three-score-fold Spartan soldiers, even if the only distinguishable feature was their rippling 12-pack abs.

Everything that felt fresh in “300” feels dated in “Immortals,” and that includes the dream-like imagery, which is the biggest selling point for the film.

Tarsem reminds you early on why “The Cell” is one of the greatest cult classic horror films of the past 20 years – not for its story, which kind of wandered and stalled at points, but because the visuals were so damn cool.

Tarsem’s signature style, a mix of swirling, often slow-motion action, combined with brilliant set design, is visionary. He just can’t find the appropriate vehicle to truly show it off. “The Fall” was a fantastic fable with long, draggy exposition. The upcoming “Mirror Mirror” looks like a misguided, and not funny, take on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” complete with animated stars spinning around a character’s head to signify he’s punch-drunk in love.

“Immortals” suffers by comparison to other, epic sword and sandal features. As Theseus, Henry Cavill, the upcoming Clark Kent/Superman actor, has the square jaw and rippling muscles to sell the part, but he lacks any fire when he speaks. Even his climatic speech fails to muster anything more than a “Meh.”

Mickey Rourke is menacing as Hyperion, but Rourke doesn’t look like he’s having any fun. He glowers and snorts, and distractedly chews on fruit, which seems like an improvisation that someone thought might be an interesting quirk, but he doesn’t create a memorable villain.

And poor Freida Pinto needs to fire her agent. Coming off an amazing performance in “Slumdog Millionaire,” Pinto has been stuck with three characters that gave her nothing of note to do, other than look pretty. She played a young would-be suicide bomber in “Miral,” a veterinarian with absolutely nothing to do in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and, in “Immortals,” her most memorable scene involves her stripping down to give herself to Theseus.

That moment in the film should have been incendiary. Pinto’s oracle Phaedra is a virgin, and as long as she maintains her purity, she will be blessed with visions of the future. By giving herself over to Theseus, she is basically saying the future is forever going to be unknown, and unwritten, at least in her eyes. That’s powerful stuff.

All I remember about the scene is that I’m pretty sure Pinto didn’t use a butt double. That looked to really be her baring all. That’s probably not the lasting impact the filmmakers were hoping to generate.

“Immortals” is far better than the misguided “Clash of the Titans” remake from a few years back. It has amazing set design, and a nice, fluid integration of live-action and CGI-spectacle.

It’s worth watching, on a slow Sunday afternoon, but it won’t win a spot in your favorite movies list, and likely wouldn’t ever merit a second viewing, except once it arrives on cable and you happen to leave HBO playing while you try to fall asleep.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes.
Nudity – Yes.
Gore – Considerable.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – King Hyperion and his legions.
Buy/Rent – Rent it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Deleted scenes, Behind the Scenes featurettes, one Alternate Opening, two Alternate Endings and a digitized graphic novel.
On the Web – www.immortalsmovie.com/splash/

Wound (Vicious Circle/Breaking Glass, 76 minutes, Unrated, DVD): “Wound” is a bizarre little movie, for sure. It has some fascinating elements at play, including a darkly erotic sadomasochistic undercurrent featuring fetish masks and D/s bondage. It spotlights an uncompromisingly graphic amputation of male genitalia in its first 20 minutes. But, in all, it just fails to deliver a cohesive narrative that draws you in. It’s best viewed as background playing on the TV for those few moments you happen to look up and see something unexpected or enticing before returning to the conversation at hand.

Also Available:

The Skin I Live In – I’m not sure if all films by Pedro Almodóvar are this twisted, but based on this absorbing, highly sexualized take on Frakenstein’s monster, I’m gonna go check out the rest of his catalog, pronto!

The Town Ultimate Collector’s Edition – I love, love, love Ben Affleck’s “The Town.” I thought it was better than “The Departed.” It’s one of those films you can watch multiple times and still find something to appreciate. Now comes the deluxe Ultimate Collector’s Edition, which features a gorgeous commemorative book, mug shot cards and other collectibles and an extended cut never before seen featuring a new 20-minute ending.

Footloose – For every generation, there is a time to dance. And, for this generation, a new Ren MacCormack.

Jack and Jill – This has to represent some Faustian debt that Adam Sandler is being forced to repay in return for selling his soul to achieve international popularity. Unless the joke is on us and we are the ones being forced to watch it to atone for our own sins.

Mercenaries – Billy Zane! ‘Nuff said.

Monty Python and The Holy Grail – If you don’t already know it by heart and love it like oxygen, then you aren’t worthy of watching it in high definition.

Transformers Prime: Season One Limited Edition – The first-ever Transformers animated series to be offered in high definition includes a prequel graphic novel from IDW Publishing.

54 – It’s like Woodstock for the free-loving, coke-snorting partygoers of the late 70s, early 80s – a nightclub where fantasies came true.

Tooth Fairy 2 – Larry the Cable Guy assumes the wings in this direct-to-DVD sequel of the Dwayne Johnson/Disney theatrical hit.

Ocean Giants – BBC Earth documentary about dolphins and whales. Fascinating stuff.

MI-5: Volume 10 – BBC series compiles all six episodes from the long-running spy drama’s tenth season.

Blade of Kings – More historical kung-fu greatness featuring Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen and more. 

High Road – Wholly improvised stoner comedy from one of the founders of Upright Citizens Brigade, featuring Ed Helms, Rob Riggle and more funny people.

Columbus Circle – Psychological thriller with an impressive cast, including Jason Lee and Selma Blair.

The Lion King 1.5 and The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride – Disney milks the money machine with two direct-to-DVD sequels off a beloved, iconic film.

Fan Favorites: The Best of MacGyver, Cheers, The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Fraiser,  The Honeymooners, Hogan’s Heroes – Compilation sets featuring fan favorite episodes from beloved TV series.

Wyatt Earp’s Revenge – Val Kilmer, who played Doc Holliday in a popular feature film, now plays Wyatt Earp in a direct-to-DVD western co-starring Trace Adkins. Regardless of what you think of Nicholas Cage, he’s yet to sink to Kilmer’s depths.

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A Conversation With: Trish Stratus

Posted Mar 10, 2012 by John Allman

Updated Mar 10, 2012 at 06:42 PM

For anyone who watched World Wrestling Entertainment in the late 1990s, early 2000s there were always a handful of personalities that shined brightest.

There were the epic storylines – Triple H stealing Stephanie McMahon from Test; The Undertaker coming back from the grave to face his brother, whom he disfigured; and the rise, fall and rise of D-generation X.

And there were the ladies – the female wrestlers who eventually became known as the WWE Divas.

One of the most popular, if not most popular, Diva was Trish Stratus, a stunning blonde fitness model who came to embody everything that was fun, and entertaining, about professional wrestling.

Stratus won over fans with a mix of girl next door and sultry femme fatale. She wowed with a wardrobe that was incredibly sexy, but not scandalous. She held her own as much on the microphone as in the ring, and Stratus’ fight skills often outshined any of the female athletes she faced. Most telling, however, was how her popularity survived and prospered even against the most ridiculous or degrading of storylines.

Stratus retired from wrestling in 2006, after winning a record seventh women’s championship belt.

Unlike her contemporaries, Steve “Stone Cold” Austin and Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, she didn’t try to capitalize on her appeal immediately by leaping into feature films. She returned home to Canada, returned to yoga, a practice that had helped her recuperate from a serious injury, and opened Stratusphere Yoga outside Toronto.

Now, less than five years later, she has her own line of yoga equipment, she’s launched a successful exercise DVD and she is appearing in her first movie, “Bounty Hunters,” playing a character that is quintessential “Trish Stratus,” a no-nonsense, sexy babe who kicks butt and can hold her own against any man.

The film, a low-budget action-comedy, by director Patrick McBrearty and writer Reese Eveneshen doesn’t try to do anything outside its comfort zone. The pace is fast, the fight scenes are shot well and feature truly rough, hand-to-hand combat that exceeds even the most hardcore MMA releases of late, and it’s funny.

Stratus took time to speak to BVB: Blood, Violence and Babes from Canada, chatting about her return to physical combat, her hands-on role in making a debut film that would please action fans and her love of yoga.

BVB: I really enjoyed “Bounty Hunters.” It was kind of a return to old-school, action comedies that you used to see in the 1980s and early 1990s, and I thought you did great. You have a definite screen presence, and you actually came off like a seasoned veteran even though this is your first lead role.

TS: I loved doing it. I definitely was the newbie on board. I guess I was doing a role that wasn’t exactly a stretch.

I read the script (and) truly, Trish Stratus jumped off the page to me. The director wrote the script with me in mind. He was from Toronto. He knew of me, my wrestling career. Like I say, it wasn’t a huge stretch for me. I was pretty much playing Trish.

Stratus said she did all of her own stunts, which was an important component for her.

TS: I wouldn’t have them any other way. I would be embarrassed to say I didn’t do (them). That was one of the other selling points. He told me the role was written with me in mind. He was really passionate about the fight scenes. I learned a new fighting style for the role – Krav Maga. It’s an Israeli special ops fighting, lots of hand to hand combat. I ended up being one of the producers on the film. I wanted to maintain the integrity of the fight scenes, and being one of the producers gave me the opportunity.

The fight scenes in “Bounty Hunters” are unique and different from most Hollywood action films. For one, they feature an up close intensity that Stratus says came from lots of training and working together with her co-stars.

TS: I wanted to meet with Andrea (Andrea James Lui). She plays my nemesis in the film. I know how important it is from my wrestling days to have that trust, that relationship. When you kick someone’s butt, you really bond. We trained together, had a chance to get through the same bumps and bruises.

TS: We decided we were going to kind of, no boundaries. She is a martial artist and also a stunt person. We tried to craft scenes – Patrick was really cool, going ‘Do what you’re comfortable doing.’ Instead of approaching it like stunt people, we approached it as fighters. I think that’s why the fight scenes are different. I’m really proud of the scenes.

One particular extended sequence features Stratus’ character Jules battling Lui’s Ruby in the back of a moving ambulance. The fight is brutal, with very little room for error given the confined quarters of the set.

TS: That scene – that was one of the first scenes we filmed. We were at the dojo where we trained. We made this rectangle out of masking tape, this is the area we would fight in the back of an ambulance. Then we get there and it’s like, wait, it’s a real ambulance. We didn’t account for that. I went back to my wrestling roots. Let’s go into the environment, let’s see what we have to work with. We can use this. We made this organic fight scene right on the spot.

TS: Everyone talks about the realism to my fight scenes. I know it’s because we approached these scenes as fighters. We know what it’s like to take a punch to the head, to get kicked in the head.

One impressive aspect of the fights in “Bounty Hunters” is that Stratus and her team is they aren;t your typical over-dominating, undefeatable heroes. They all get the snot beat out of them at one point or another before finally rallying for the win.

TS: It’s classic Wrestling 101 storytelling. In order to have any sympathy, you have to get your ##### kicked first. It was a great opportunity. Thankfully I had the chance with Patrick to have that creative freedom.

Stratus said she isn’t actively pursuing a follow-up feature. If something interesting comes along, she would be eager to take on another acting challenge. But, for now, she’s content to continue building her brand, Stratusphere, and sharing her love of yoga with as many people as possible.

Stratus discovered yoga after suffering a herniated disc during her wrestling career. The practice helped her to rehabilitate her back, and she continued to perfect her yoga during her final years in the ring.

TS: The yoga helped me approach what I was doing a little differently. It made me a better performer, mentally and physically.

Stratus got certified in Ashtanga yoga, a style whose practitioners include Madonna, and in 2007, she opened her first yoga studio north of Toronto. The facility’s website, http://stratusphereyoga.com/, is impressive and offers a look at the magnificent facility and its amenities.

She recently released her first DVD, Stratusphere Yoga, which fans can buy an autographed copy of on her website, along with their own copy of “Bounty Hunters.” She has her own line of workout gear, Stratusphere Living, which includes one-pound, weighted workout gloves, that is available in retail stores across Canada.

Fans might miss Trish Stratus from her wrestling days, but Stratus said many of her followers have kept up with her latest forays. They follow her on Twitter, often sharing their own personal stories.

TS: I’ve seen my wrestling following go from ‘You should kick her butt!’ Now they’re going, ‘Trish, you would be proud. I accomplished Stratusphere Yoga.’

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New Releases for Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012

Posted Mar 10, 2012 by John Allman

Updated Mar 10, 2012 at 06:37 PM

What’s new in stores and on video shelves this week:

Rabies
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado
Run time: 93 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: DVD

The Lowdown: The first two months of 2012 have been an unexpected treasure trove of awesome horror releases.

Original ideas, creative execution, above-average acting, gory special effects.

What more could a fan ask for?

How about two fantastically original films that play against type, buck conventional plotting and let their indie freak flags fly high and proud.

First up is “Rabies,” a wickedly sly, surprisingly vicious “kids in the woods” feature, which was originally released in 2010 as “Kalevet,” and is being billed as Israel’s first horror film.

Truth be told, you would never, ever know it’s the first time for the writing/directing/editing duo, Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado.

They do so many things right, and throw so many surprises at the viewer, that you feel as if you’re in the grips of two master storytellers who have been building to this moment for many years.

“Rabies” is many things, and none of them easily explained. It has elements of a slasher in the woods flick, except for the fact that everyone who steps foot in the woods seems to go a little psychotic. It teases itself to be a family survival thriller, with a brother desperately trying to save his baby sister, only their relationship borders, oddly, on a combination of repressed desire and animosity, so much so that it’s a little unsettling. And it’s a dumb kids running around the woods, being chased by an unseen nemesis flick, only the unseen nemesis is never named or explained, and none of the kids are really dumb. They’re actually pretty clever, and you begin to root for particular people, especially once the lineup of who’s being hunted and who’s doing the hunting suddenly changes.

“Rabies” is an unexpected delight in every sense, the kind of little-known or completely off-the-radar discovery that a true horror fan loves, and craves.

The kills are inventive and interesting, not to mention gross as can be, at times. The actors give really solid performances. And the filmmakers make the most of their outdoor locales, utilizing the forest in a way that few directors have since Sam Raimi and Co. took us all on a hellish roadtrip to a cabin in the woods in Tennessee.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes.
Nudity – No.
Gore – Considerable.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.
Buy/Rent – Buy it!

El Monstro del Mar!
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Stuart Simpson
Run time: 75 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: DVD

The Lowdown: Speaking of “The Evil Dead,” I’m about to make a proclamation that may draw a mix of skeptical looks and menacing gazes.

“El Monstro del Mar!” the second feature by Australian writer/director Stuart Simpson, reminded me very much of “Evil Dead” – specifically the DIY-aesthetic that Raimi, Campbell and the guys embraced back in 1981, the go-at-their-own, suddenly go-for-broke pacing that defined the film and a reliance on practical (mostly) special effects that really distinguished the look of the film.

“El Monstro” also happens to be one of the sexiest independent, low-budget efforts to come along in quite awhile, with a trio of actresses who basically walked “Weird Science” style out of a rockabilly gearhead’s nocturnal emission and straight onto the set, already tattooed up and decked out in skin-tight black Capri pants, stiletto heels and a plunging halter top.

There’s Beretta (Nelli Scarlet), the Amazonian-sized ringleader. Her sometimes lover, Snowball (Kate Watts), a raven-haired vixen. And Blondie (Karli Madden), the hard-hitting, hard-drinking, outspoken lone blonde.

Simpson gives us snippets of a backstory, enough to know that Beretta, Snowball and Blondie have killer skills to match their killer looks, and they aren’t afraid of instigating a bloodbath. We’re never sure if they are bandits, hired guns or just wicked evil bitches who get off on killing for fun.

Simpson employs a hazy, hallucinogenic effect during the flashbacks, creating an erotic undercurrent to accompany the violence and blood, before blending them together to form a horrifically hot fantasy world where busty, pin-up babes shoot, stab and strangle anyone who gets in their way.

By the time the trio reaches a tiny Australian coastal fishing community to lay low and party for a few days, Simpson has effectively kept his audience off-balance enough to not know what’s coming next. The girls encounter an old man and his daughter who live in the apartment next door. The old man repeatedly warns them not to go swimming off the rocky, jagged coast. The girls refuse to listen. They take in his daughter, and try to corrupt her during a wild night of drink, drugs and heavy petting.

Simpson hints at something evil, something “monstrous” lurking out beneath the waves, and it finally attacks, killing a host of fishermen and leaving a bloody chum line along the beach of body parts.

Essentially, the town has been held prisoner for decades by a terrible sea creature of impossible size and strength, and the only way to keep the monster at bay was to keep out of the water except by boat. Now that the bad girls have broken the seal, all bets are off and the creature is coming for blood to devour the entire community.

It’s hard not to go into detail about the film’s final act, an insanely inventive 20-plus-minutes filled with some of the most impressive practical effects you’ve seen in a low-budget feature in years. Simpson and Co. do a wonderful job with very little, making you believe that a giant sea monster is right outside, trying to swallow the fishing shack whole.

It’s hokey and funny at times, but not cheesy or dumb. It truly reminded me of the final battle in the cabin between Ash and the demonic forces of the Necronomicon where Ash got the bejeebus beaten out of him but somehow survived.

“El Monstro del Mar!” is a great early feature from a director who should keep on getting better with each new film. It’s a fun flick with so many bright spots that the few shortcomings don’t disrupt or diminish your ability to lose yourself in this fantastic world.

I implore you to seek it out!

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Oh, hell yes – possibly the hottest trio of leading ladies in many a year.
Nudity – Brief.
Gore – Considerable, and effective.
Drug use – Yes.
Bad Guys/Killers – The Kraken. Yes, I said The Kraken. Less “Clash of the Titans,” more “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”
Buy/Rent – Buy it.

Bounty Hunters (Entertainment One, 80 minutes, R, DVD): “Bounty Hunters” is an old-school action flick, the kind that used to be so prolific in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Like the best, and worst, of those films, the sum of its parts isn’t as good as the bright spots that populate it. But “Bounty Hunters” has enough bright spots to come highly recommended for fans of Cynthia Rothrock or Thomas Ian Griffith.

The biggest selling point is the debut of Trish Stratus, the former WWE 7-time Women’s Champion. Stratus was the best of the WWE’s stable of female athletes and performers during the 1990s. She was the bubbly, buxom blonde girl next door who could instantly transform into a beautiful, butt-kicking femme fatale.

The most surprising thing about “Bounty Hunters” is that it took Stratus six years to accept a leading role. She retired from professional wrestling in 2006, but unlike Stone Cold Steve Austin or David Bautista or even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, she didn’t transition immediately to making movies. She focused on a different passion, yoga, and opened a studio outside Vancouver along with creating an entire line of professional workout products.

But now that Stratus has made a feature film, it’s clear she belongs in front of the camera. She has an easy, believable delivery with dialogue, and she kicks major butt during the handful of well-executed, very believable, very rough fight scenes.

If “Bounty Hunters” does one thing consistently right, it delivers as far as the sheer intensity of the fight choreography. Stratus knows how to handle herself in close-quarters combat, and her wrestling background shines through whenever she is asked to square off with one of the main villains.

Here’s the thing – I’ve seen probably every movie by Austin, Johnson, Bautista and other former professional wrestlers. Some of them are just plain awful. Some of them are surprisingly good.

“Bounty Hunters” has its issues – the script is uneven at points, the acting veers too close to camp at times – but overall, it’s a good, solid action movie for people who enjoy fight movies. It’s way better than 99 percent of the “Action Unleashed” MMA duds that flood direct-to-DVD every month.

You should definitely check it out. 

Hugo (Paramount, 126 minutes, PG, Blu-Ray): “Hugo” is a love letter not only to the joy of movies, but to the craft of making films. It’s an unexpected delight filled with whimsy and imagination and genuine heart from a director best known for cracking heads and writing dialogue so blue if you bleeped it out there would be few words left.

“Hugo” might not seem like a Martin Scorsese movie, but it feels like a Scorsese film. The attention to detail, the top-rate performances, especially from his younger cast, and the amazing cinematography – the cinematography alone rightfully deserved the Oscar that Robert Richardson won.

There are these amazing tracking shots that go on for what feels like an eternity, but in the most delirious, oh-my-gosh this is incredible filmmaking way, through the central train station in Paris, whooshing across the tracks, dipping through the legs of passengers embarking on or arriving from a trip, whisking through the central promenade of the station, stopping to cleverly introduce main characters and supporting cast, and then snaking into the bowels of the station, where a young boy named Hugo lives with his broken automatron and a journal his father treasured.

It’s exhilarating to watch “Hugo,” to take in its spare dialogue, its breathless, jubilant embrace of cinema’s early age, its celebration of the ingenuity and resolve that creative minds had to inhabit to even make movies back then.

Don’t miss this one.

I Melt with You (Magnolia/Magnet, 116 minutes, R, Blu-Ray): I have been a big, big fan of director Mark Pellington since his music video days, but I became a diehard fan with the one-two punch release of “Arlington Road” in 1999 and “The Mothman Prophecies” in 2002.

“Mothman” remains one of the few movies that I cannot watch alone, or in the dark. It creeps me the hell out. And “Arlington Road” is a perfect thriller, expertly paced with a fabulous cast and a hell of an intense story. Pellington isn’t afraid to go dark at the conclusion of his films, and it makes such a difference.

But he hasn’t done many feature films since then, focusing more on the small screen and his music roots by collaborating with U2 and others. That’s why “I Melt With You” is such an unexpected surprise.

When I first became aware of “Melt,” I heard rumblings that it mined a similar vein as “Very Bad Things,” the woefully misguided 1998 Christian Slater vehicle about men behaving very, very poorly in Las Vegas.

Thank God, those early reviews were wrong.

“I Melt With You” has a lot more on its mind. It’s an examination of men not just hitting middle-age, but running full-on, smack-dab into the wall of disappointment and doubt and regret.

It tells the story of four college friends who reunite every year to celebrate one of their birthdays, and relive the glory days with a booze-and-drug-fueled binge. Two of the men have kids now, but neither is a great parent. One is gay and mourning the loss of his partner. And the last is a free spirit who never realized his true potential as a writer and has settled for life as a high school English teacher.

The friends are played by Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, Christian McKay and Thomas Jane, and each actor truly brings a passion to their performance that’s been lacking in other, recent efforts. They each approach their roles with a fearless abandon, fully inhabiting the characters and finding the subtle nuances that keep them from spilling into caricature or from becoming wholly unlikable.

Make no mistake, these men are flawed, but they aren’t defined by their flaws, at least not at first.

The plot is built around an oath that the four pledged while in college, and it’s both an unexpected and surprisingly complex conceit. I can’t say more about it because I don’t want to take away the chance for other viewers to slowly come to the realization themselves.

Pellington’s film is propelled along by a wonderful soundtrack that spans decades from each man’s life, and the songs help strike the right notes of fond nostalgia and melancholy. This movie was made, I believe, to help exorcise some demons that some men, me included, begin to feel after crossing the 40 threshold.

You realize you maybe haven’t made quite the mark you hoped, you haven’t lived the life you expected, loved the way you hoped you would or lived up to the ideals you once believed.

It’s a tough realization to face. “I Melt With You” shows a decidedly dark take on what that moment is like for this particular group of friends, and it’s a haunting, harrowing ride worth taking.

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil: The Complete First Season (Entertainment One, 289 minutes, Unrated, DVD):  I wish I could report that “Todd and the Book of Pure Evil” is an uproariously funny horror-comedy hybrid. It isn’t. For every stoner/metal head joke, scatological sight gag and homoerotic subplot that nails its intended bullseye, there are several that fall flat or don’t go far enough over the edge to truly be memorable. But Todd’s heart is in the right place, and it’s hard to truly fault a television show that pushes this many boundaries – and combines so many unique aspects of horror and the coming of age/high school angst genres. This one ought to be in your collection because I have a feeling that the second season may really take off, and you’re going to want to revisit these early episodes to see how far it’s grown in terms of gore and subversive humor.

Also Available:

Mandrill – This action/spy hybrid from Chile wants desperately to be James Bond, and while some of the fight sequences are impressive for their hand-to-hand brutality, the main actor, Marko Zaror, makes Antonio Sabato Jr. look like Sir Laurence Olivier.

Beneath the Darkness – Dennis Quaid, man, what happened to you? Further diminishing his once A-list credibility, Quaid plays a crazy mortician terrorizing a bunch of teenagers.

Mission: Impossible – The ’89 Season – Ghost Protocol, this ain’t. But it does feature Peter Graves. Sadly, he doesn’t ask anyone if they’ve ever seen a grown man naked.

Johnny English Reborn – I don’t get Rowan Atkinson, and I love British humor.

The Myth of the American Sleepover – Indie coming of age tale set on the last night of freedom before the new school year starts.

The Catechism Cataclysm – David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, yo!) produced this irreverent religious roadtrip flick, which hopefully means he really hasn’t lost his mojo despite helming “Your Highness” and “The Sitter.”

King of Triads – Brutal Hong Kong actioner about gang members seeking revenge.

Here Comes the Brides: Season Two – Classic TV for the PMRC crowd.

Top Gear 17: The Complete Season 17 – Still doing for 17 seasons what the American version screwed up in just one – making cars interesting, and fun, with comedic comradery and witty banter.

The Angry Beavers: Season 3, Part 1 – No, this is not a XXX-parody. It’s a cartoon. Get your mind out of the gutter!

Not to Be Overlooked:

Puss in Boots (Paramount, 90 minutes, PG, Blu-Ray): “Puss in Boots,” the first spin-off from “Shrek,” was wildly successful, nominated for Best Animated Film at the Oscars and reunited Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek for the first time since “Desperado.” What’s not to love?

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New Releases for Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012

Posted Feb 25, 2012 by John Allman

Updated Mar 1, 2012 at 12:38 AM

What’s new in stores and on video shelves this week:

Martha Marcy May Marlene
Genre: Thriller
Directed by: Sean Durkin
Run time: 102 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: The best directors always make a great first impression, even if their first film isn’t a huge, commercial hit.

Spielberg did “Dual” before “Jaws,” and showed us that impeccable sense of story and structure. Fincher took the “Alien” franchise to its darkest point, turning sci-fi horror into an unsettling morality tale, and eschewing the big-budget bombast of James Cameron’s earlier epic.

And Sean Durkin made “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” one of the most subtle, ingenious films you’re likely ever to see about the impact and ramifications of being swallowed up by a cult.

Now none of the films I mentioned would have been as impressive if not for spot-on casting. “Dual” becomes just a made-for-TV movie without Dennis Weaver’s pitch-perfect performance as a businessman driven to extremes he didn’t believe possible. “Alien 3” falls apart without Sigourney Weaver’s brave leap of faith, and shaved head, deconstructing her iconic and beloved character, Ripley.

And “Martha Marcy May Marlene” doesn’t even register on our collective radar without the incomparable John Hawkes, a character actor without peer, and the unbelievably talented Elizabeth Olsen, showing a range and a discipline for her craft that many actresses twice her age and experience could not pull off.

Seriously, if Michael Shannon was robbed in being denied a Best Actor nod in this year’s Oscar race, then Olsen was mugged as well. She is revelatory in this film. It’s one of the best performances, male or female, in all of 2011. She not only deserved a nomination, she deserved to be thick in the hunt to actually win.

Olsen, the younger sister of Ashley and Mary-Kate, is the one with the talent. Make no mistake. This girl is going to be talked about for years.

The control she exhibits, maintaining a tightrope balance between scarred victim and naïve, willing participant, is mesmerizing. Her speech, her body language, her eyes, barely registering direct contact, belong to an actor with years of experience under her belt.

Durkin’s film deftly moves along two tracks, showing us Martha’s escape from an upper-New York State commune, led by the seductively smooth Hawkes, and her struggle assimilating back into normal society at her older sister’s husband’s lake house.

Durkin and cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes use a number of subtle, but highly impressive, tricks to slide between the two tracks. Some scenes start in one timeline and suddenly, unexpectedly continue in the other. A swimming scene, for example, might shift the narrative at the moment a body breaks the surface. The switches, for the most part, are seamless.

Durkin also favors long tracking shots, using a dolley to slowly pull back or hone in on a particular moment. This creates a dreamlike atmosphere, a feeling of omniscience, that is both exhilarating and disconcerting. Such moments sneak up on you with their simplicity, and make you work to try to understand the significance of each shot.

Durkin reveals very little about how the cult came to be, or even what its particular ideology is founded upon.

Hawkes’ Patrick is building a “family” of young men, using a gaggle of subservient sister wives to procreate, while lording over a caste syociety where the men eat first, have sex with who they want and enjoy the spoils.

Patrick’s gift is his ability to pick up on each woman’s insecurities in order to convince them that they desire to be the vessel for his spawn, even as he feels the need to drug and rape them.

What Durkin does show of the cult’s practices comes in snippets, a series of increasingly unsettling sequences – Martha, who is renamed Marcy May by Patrick, being drugged and raped, and then convinced she just had the most special night of her life. Then, later, Marcy May guiding another new female member through the same process, preparing the syringe to drug the girl, and quietly instructing her to just lie there and enjoy the gift she is about to receive.

Back in real time, Martha struggles to slip the communal ways she has lived under for two years. She does all the housework like a slave. She tries to find comfort sneaking into her sister’s bed while her sister is having sex, just to lay there, close to body heat, in order to sleep. She picks apart the wealthy, affluent lifestyle that her sister enjoys, surrounded by unnecessary belongings.

Martha refuses to divulge where she has been, or what she has experienced. Her sister and brother-in-law grow increasingly agitated. And Martha’s grip – on knowing the difference between a memory of her past life and the reality of her current surroundings – blurs to the point that she believes the cult, and Patrick, have tracked her more than three hours away at her sister’s home.

Durkin allows the anxiety to grow organically. Martha has a series of outbursts, each one escalating further. She finally tries to explain to her sister the danger, but is it too late?

“Martha Marcy May Marlene,” the Marlene is a reference to the name that all of Patrick’s women use when they answer the lone phone at the commune, is one of those films that ends suddenly, unexpectedly, right at a moment where most mainstream thrillers would just be taking off.

Durkin refuses to provide answers. He purposely keeps certain images blurry and out of focus, demanding that the audience do some work and continue the story in their own heads, taking it in whatever direction they choose to imagine.

It’s a bold choice, but not a cop-out. The ending works, in my opinion, because of that unknown aspect. I know how I think the story ends. I suspect you will too.

It’s not about how it ends, though. The really scary part comes with realizing much of what you’ve seen is likely real, and exists, and is happening right now, possibly closer to where you live than you care to know.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes.
Nudity – Yes, surprisingly abundant.
Gore – No.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – A mysterious cult that ensnares young women and convinces them they have a role to play in a totalitarian commune.
Buy/Rent – Buy it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Sean Durkin’s short film, “Mary Last Scene,” which serves as a kind of prequel; five featurettes, including a short making-of documentary, an interview with Elizabeth Olsen, an interview with Durkin and the film’s producers and a discussion about real cults and how they operate; John Hawkes’ music video; trailers.
On the Web – http://www.foxsearchlight.com/marthamarcymaymarlene/

London Boulevard (Sony, 103 minutes, R, Blu-Ray): The directorial debut of writer William Monahan, the guy who wrote “The Departed,” doesn’t stray too far from what worked for him in the past.

Colin Farrell, still riding a tsunami-like career resurgence, plays a hard-boiled petty criminal who is as comfortable beating someone down as putting on a Savile Row suit. Ray Winstone is the mob boss who wants Farrell to come work for him, at any cost. And Keira Knightley plays an English actress best known for prestige roles in award-winning films where she gets sexually assaulted.

Monahan has fun with some of the more irreverent plot points, such as Knightley’s choice of roles, and the relentless nature of overseas paparazzi, and everyone delivers with top-shelf, A-grade performances, particularly Farrell and David Thewlis.

The problem is that “London Boulevard” doesn’t feel quite as fresh as its snazzy editing, retro soundtrack and stylized violence would suggest.

And the ending is straight out of “Layer Cake,” “Outrage: Way of the Yakuza” and so many other tough-guy flicks of late.

We get it – even good people who get involved with bad people aren’t always safe from reprisal. There are consequences for us all. Yeah, yeah, OK.

Color me disappointed.

Retreat (Sony, 90 minutes, R, DVD): Sometimes, you see a trailer for a movie and you think, Damn, they just showed the whole movie. Why do I want to watch that now?

But then you keep reading a lot of great buzz for the film, and you see websites bloggers, who are generally vicious and would give their own mothers a middling grade just for one continuity error, raving about the film, and you think, OK, I’ll give it a try.

And every so often, but not nearly often enough, that film just hits you between the eyes and slams a Size 10 boot in your butt, and you know you were wrong to have assumed the trailer gave everything away.

Carl Tibbetts’ debut, “Retreat,” is that kind of movie.

Essentially, a three-actor show, set on an isolated island with a lone cottage, “Retreat” is that rare, special film that slowly, slowly, slowly builds and builds and builds until it moves several chess pieces in succession that you were completely unprepared for, and you can’t do anything but sit there, smiling, nodding, knowing you’ve just been taken for a ride that you did not expect.

“Retreat” is also a film that’s next to impossible to review without spoiling those genuine surprises, so I won’t even try. Suffice to say, the three leads – Jaime Bell, Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton – are all on their game, especially Bell, who just gets better and better with each new project he takes on.

Tibbetts, who co-wrote the script, should immediately launch up your always evolving list of writer/directors to watch.

And “Retreat,” for fans of intelligent, truly surprising thrillers, should rocket up into the Top 5 on your Netflix queue. Go add it. Go on, I’ll wait.

The Fades: Season One (BBC, 338 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray): It must be next to impossible to launch a new show these days.

With the Internet, and leaks and spoilers, and the massive tsunami of public opinion that can be shaped and molded against a show even before it premieres, it’s a wonder that we allow any new genre efforts to catch on and succeed.

Part of the problem, at least for American audiences, is that we like everything easily identifiable. We like our hero’s to wear white, our villains to wear black, and our plots to be linear and fairly easy to follow.

The beauty of British television, which is increasingly mixing into our pop culture arena, and slowly, but noticeably, influencing our own television programming, is that it doesn’t play by the same rules.

Some BBC shows move too fast, leaping from a quick introduction right into the heart of a dense mythology, in a way that’s next to impossible to follow, or appreciate. For me, an example of this would be “Primeval,” the British precursor to “Terra Nova,” which brought dinosaurs and wormholes into modern-day society about three seasons sooner.

I loved the concept, but the pilot was so fast-moving, so uneven and setting up so many subplots in such quick order that I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath, much less keep up.

“Torchwood” is an example of a show that took its time to slowly roll out its massive universe, focusing on character development early, which made a ton of difference.

“The Fades” is the best British genre show to come along since “Torchwood.” It deftly combines coming-of-age and supernatural elements while hinting at something deeper, and darker – an ominous apocalyptic cloud of doom hanging in the not-so-distant future.

The pilot episode hooks you with a sharp script, some truly creepy sequences and an incredibly likable cast. Iain De Caestecker plays Paul, a high-school student with issues you don’t often see on TV – he’s living with his mom and sister (the hysterical Lily Loveless, with an accent and comic delivery to rival Adele), he frequently wets his bed and he’s plagued by nightmarish dreams of a world covered in ash. Paul’s best friend Mac (Daniel Kaluuya, nailing the sidekick) is an aspiring horror filmmaker who uses nothing but film analogies to deal with everyday life.

One night, Paul and Mac sneak into an abandoned mall to look for props for Mac’s movie, and Paul witnesses an attack by a creature. The creature is a Fade, a spirit that has died but not passed on, and it is angry for being trapped in our world. This particular Fade has figured out how to actually touch the living, and he’s hellbent on opening a rift between the land of the living and the grey world of the Fades to let more angry dead souls cross over.

Paul may be society’s last and best hope for keeping the Fades contained. But he’s also awkward and stilted, unable to talk to girls and unclear about why he feels so screwed up. It’s a nice wrinkle on a familiar genre device to have the hero struggling just to be a normal teenager in addition to realizing he holds a larger purpose.

This is one show you should set your DVR to record, as it has already moved into a second season overseas. And you need to go out and get this two-disc set so you can get caught up.

“The Fades” is more than good TV. It’s Must-See TV.

Also Available:

Borgia: Faith and Fear Season One – Remember that Showtime series that followed “The Tudors,” and starred Jeremy Irons as a ruthless religious leader in Italy back in the late 14th century? It was called “The Borgias.” Well, forget that. Tom Fontana, the twisted soul who made male prison rape must-see TV on “Oz,” and gave you “St. Elsewhere” and “Homicide: Life on the Street,” has created a new show that’s very similar, right down to its title, “Borgia: Faith and Fear.” And if you’re going to watch one show about a twisted pope acting like Don Corleone, this is the one.

Tower Heist – Eddie Murphy tries to rediscover his funny, Ben Stiller stars in a rare near-misstep, and Bret Ratner directs a so-so action-comedy that is more timely than it is good.

J. Edgar – Clint Eastwood takes on Hoover. Does J. Edgar feel lucky? I don’t think so.

Honey 2 – Yes, Virginia, someone really made a sequel to that Jessica Alba B-girl dance flick. Only this time, it stars Katerina Graham from “The Vampire Diaries.”

Last Fast Ride: The Life, Love and Death of a Punk Goddess – Indie documentary about Marian Anderson, punk musician, fetish model and lifestyle dominatrix who blazed a controversial path in the 1990s before her untimely death. Narrated by Henry Rollins.

Underdog: The Complete Collector’s Edition – Look, up in the sky! The classic cartoon from the 1960s gets the royal treatment with a nine-disc retrospective compiling all the adventures of Shoeshine Boy, aka Underdog, the dastardly Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff and the lovely Sweet Polly Purebred.

I Ain’t Scared of You: A Tribute to Bernie Mac – Career retrospective for the late comedian, featuring insight from many familiar, famous faces.

The Mighty Macs – It’s like “The Mighty Ducks,” but without hockey. And with Carla Gugino, one of the hottest women on the planet.

War of the Arrows – Historical Korean kung fu epic set in 1636.

Track 29 – Creepy, early Gary Oldman film from 1988 co-starring the sultry Theresa Russell and Christopher Lloyd.

Hazel: The Complete Second Season – More madcap domestic comedy with Shirley Booth.

Matlock: The Seventh Season – More courtroom drama with Andy Griffith.

The Son of No One – Al Pacino, slumming. Channing Tatum, doing his best wooden thing.

Weeds: Season Seven – The season where the action moves to New York.

Nurse Jackie: Season Three – The season where the nurse struggles with addiction. Wait, isn’t that every season?

Not to Be Overlooked:

Luther and Luther 2 – Excellent BBC procedural with darker storylines than you are used to and an incredible, award-winning turn by Idris Elba in the title role. Get both seasons, now out on DVD, to see what you’ve been missing.

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New Releases for Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012

Posted Feb 25, 2012 by John Allman

Updated Feb 25, 2012 at 01:14 PM

What’s new in stores and on video shelves this week:

Take Shelter
Genre: Thriller
Directed by: Jeff Nichols
Run time: 121 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: When you watch the 2012 Academy Awards at the end of the month, just know this – one actor totally deserving of not only being nominated, but being a front runner to win, was completely robbed.

And that guy is Michael Shannon.

Shannon owns – and I mean OWNS – the screen from the first frame to the last second of Jeff Nichols’ absolutely astounding, completely unnerving thriller, “Take Shelter.”

Not since Billy Bob Thornton commanded the screen in “Sling Blade” has an actor so thoroughly dominated a film while saying less than 100 words, at best, for the better part of the first 60 to 70 minutes.

Shannon’s impact is rooted as much, if not more, in the way he clenches his jaw, averts his gaze and makes you feel the tight-lipped, no nonsense Midwestern influence that has molded his character, Curtis LaForche.

There are moments when you feel as if his entire face might crack open from the restraint he exerts to not show any emotion. In LaForche’s world, men don’t show much emotion. They get up, they work, they provide. He’s as salt of the Earth as a man can be.

But one day that quiet demeanor is rocked by an apocalyptic vision. And then, the dreams begin. Nightmarish, vivid dreams that linger long after he wakes with a frantic fright, his face sopping with sweat. He sees a storm coming, a storm that might literally wipe mankind off the planet. And he sees people driven mad by the storm, attacking him and his family.

The dreams intensify to the point that LaForche seeks medical help, then therapy. His family has a history of mental illness, his mother long locked away in a “home.”

After initially hiding the dreams and the treatment from his wife, the wonderful Jessica Chastain, completely an amazing acting feat having starred in four remarkable films in one year (including The Help, The Debt and The Tree of Life), he finally breaks down and shares the trouble he feels is coming.

To her credit, she doesn’t leave him. She supports him, but she demands that he show her some mutual respect and still try to assimilate in “normal” activities.

It’s at that exact moment, the most normal of community events, a pot luck supper where families sit side by side and break bread, that LaForche is literally pummeled into a corner and explodes with righteous anger.

Not since Samuel L. Jackson recited scripture in “Pulp Fiction” has a single soliloquy brought viewers to the edge of their couch, rapt with attention, unable to tear away from the power in Shannon’s voice and face.

It’s mesmerizing. Undeniably intense. And a moment of acting excellence unlike any you will see this year, or any other.

Nichols’ film might not have garnered the respect it deserved because it isn’t interested in delivering a big Hollywood explanation. The ending is terrifying in its simplicity, and confounding in its ambiguity.

But it delivers. Boy howdy, does it deliver. I sat speechless throughout the credits, listening to the ominous roll of thunder that punctuates the black screen.

Make no mistake – “Take Shelter” is one of the best films of 2011.

But it’s Michael Shannon’s movie.

And for his peers not to recognize this singular achievement is simply a crime.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes, but it’s not about that.
Nudity – No.
Gore – No.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – None.
Buy/Rent – Buy it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Commentary with director Nichols and star Shannon, Behind the Scenes featurette, Q&A with Shannon and co-star Shea Whigham, deleted scenes.
On the Web – http://www.facebook.com/takeshelter

The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence (IFC, 91 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray): It’s like writer/director Tom Six set out to make the ultimate edition of Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Worse…and he completely, thoroughly succeeded.

That “The Human Centipede 2” succeeds as a solid B-grade horror spectacle is a testament to two factors, and neither of them has anything to do with the overflowing buckets of gore, dry-heave inducing shots of victims wallowing in human waste and sickening images of unspeakable human degradation at its most vile.

Six’s follow-up is a deconstruction of obsessive fandom, first and foremost.

Unlike the first film, which was in itself almost a parody, albeit a dirty, gory, fun parody, of a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein trying to create a twisted new life form, “Full Sequence” is shot entirely in black and white. The lack of color, or any warmth, consumes “Full Sequence,” rendering it cold and clinical, a case study in madness.

Six creates a completely Meta world where his main character, the despicable man-child Martin, watches “The Human Centipede: First Sequence” every day on his laptop computer while at work, longingly sketching in a book about the most minute details of Six’s fictional surgical nightmare. Martin even goes so far as to contact the star of Six’s first film, Ashlynn Yennie, and fools her publicist into booking Yennie for a fake audition for a Quentin Tarantino movie shooting in London.

Martin keeps a pet centipede in the squalid flat he shares with his mother, who blames Martin for reporting his father for sexually abusing him as a child. His mother speaks openly about wishing they both were dead, and even tries to kill her son one night. She forces her son to see a therapist who himself is a pederast, and instead of trying to help Martin, he keeps making unwanted, traumatizing advances. And she tries to provoke a skinhead neighbor into killing her son, constantly banging on the neighbor’s wall and blaming her son.

Such scenes typically would prompt some measure of sympathy. Not this time.

Martin responds to all these conflicting, overwhelming stimuli in a way that would send the PMRC marching down the street shouting “We told you so!” He goes on a vicious, brutal spree of attacking and kidnapping some victims and savagely executing others, like his mother. The ones he spares include Yennie, who spends a brief, unknowingly ironic sequence describing her fascination and disgust at having “played” a character kidnapped by a madman and surgically experimented on because she is a germaphobe.

Yennie and the others are taken to a warehouse where Martin, devoid of medical training, attempts to replicate the atrocities he has watched countless times in the movie “The Human Centipede.”

And that’s where Six really sticks it to the outspoken proponents and opponents of his first film, gleefully showing all the horrors he simply described the first time around. Those who complained he showed too much, really get more than they wanted. And those who complained he didn’t show enough, well, let’s say they get what they deserve too. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of poop flowing, and this time the camera does not turn away.

It’s pretty wretched and vile, and unlike even the most cringe-inducing torture porn, “Full Sequence” will truly test your ability to continue watching such evil acts unfold.

The second reason Six’s film works is the actor who plays Martin, Laurence R. Harvey, in his first and only screen role. Harvey never speaks throughout the entire film, other than a few unsettling giggles and a handful of frustrated or angry No No No’s uttered when a victim dies from his surgical efforts.

Harvey is like Peter Lorre and Rodney Dangerfield mashed together and shrunk down to a grossly obese five foot package of little more than bulging belly and bulging bug eyes and raspy asthmatic cough and greasy wisps of hair.

Harvey goes all in for his director, Six. He bares his body with zero shame, even going full frontal in two sequences that viewers will be unable to scrub from their memory banks.

It’s a fantastic performance, a creation of pure evil unlike any screen villain in recent memory. Martin is terrifying because there likely are real people like him in the real world, abused and stunted boys who grow up to be hen-pecked, shallow men susceptible to violent fantasies inspired by a campy horror film that was never meant to be taken seriously.

The Devil’s Rock (IFC, 86 minutes, Unrated, DVD): Paul Campion’s Nazi paranormal thriller “The Devil’s Rock” owes as much to “Hellboy” as “Judgment at Nuremberg.” It’s heavy on exposition, rife with grisly imagery and prone to long stretches of back and forth dialogue more fitting a somber examination of the Fuhrer’s very real fascination with the occult than a B movie about conjuring a succubi from Hell. Yet, it works.  The effects by Weta Workshop are top notch. The detail given to the various body parts that litter an isolated German stronghold on the eve of D-Day is meticulous. And the demon, when she fully manifests, is as alluring as she is evil. This one should rocket up your must-see list. It’s really good.

Paranormal Activity 3: Unrated Director’s Cut (Paramount, 94 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray): The third found footage installment of the new Halloween franchise should not be nearly as good as it is, but somehow Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the writing/directing duo who made “Catfish,” create a terrifyingly claustrophobic world where any turn of the camera could reveal something that makes you leap out of your seat. Joost and Schulman utilize some of the most simple setups – a crawlspace alcove door, an oscillating fan, a Teddy Ruxpin doll, a bed sheet – to achieve maximum scares. The first “Paranormal Activity” was wildly successful but minimally scary. Most of the wow moments came at the end. The same was true for “Paranormal Activity 2,” which shifted the focus from Katie to her sister Kristi. The third installment, which is a prequel, and creates its own mythology through a box of old VHS cassette tapes, recorded when the sisters were very young, stretches the limits of believability by asking fans to accept that both girls would forget a harrowing, horrifying experience with a full-body poltergeist. But it also manages to be the creepiest film yet in the franchise – so creepy that I could hardly stand to watch the unrated Blu-Ray with added footage alone, and in the dark, because I wasn’t sure what more had been added that I had yet to see. Even the Blu-Ray extras, which include a series of home movies called Scare Montage, where one character tries to find clever ways to scare the other, was unsettling.  This one is a definite rental for occasional fans, and a must-buy for serious fans.

The Dead (Anchor Bay, 105 minutes, R, Blu-Ray): Hailed as one of the best zombie films to be released recently, and the first to be shot entirely in Africa, the advance buzz for “The Dead,” the debut horror film by the Ford Brothers (Howard and Jonathan), was pretty exciting.  Unfortunately, the finished film relies too heavily on atmosphere and forgets to pour on the scares. It’s an OK zombie film, admirable for sticking to the blueprint established in the early works of George Romero – slow-shuffling flesh suits who overwhelm the surviving humans simply through sheer numbers – but it fails to generate much anxiety or unease. Part of the problem is the main characters’ reactions to the zombies, which range from indifference to annoyance. And part of the problem is that the Ford brothers don’t come up with anything too original to add to the genre. “The Dead” does a lot on a very small budget, and the added bonus of filming in such a foreign locale, one filled with its own inherent dangers, some more terrifying than zombies, at least to the filmmakers, adds artistic heft to the movie. Zombie fans will definitely want to check it out, just don’t expect to be blown away with action or innovation.

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (New Video, 116 minutes, R, DVD): The sequel to the wildly successful South American action film, “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within” reunites many of the same performers for a second helping, this time telling tale ripe with corruption and behind the scenes intrigue. Director José Padilha is an expert at capturing close quarters combat, and he ratchets up the claustrophobia once his squad begins systematically eliminating the gangs that rule the slums. The team discovers that the most vicious criminals aren’t the ones running the streets, they’re the ones sitting in comfortable offices, either elected by popular vote or appointed through back-room deals.

Nude Nuns with Big Guns (Anchor Bay, 92 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray): With a title like “Nude Nuns with Big Guns,” you either deliver on the promise with a literal representation, or you throw the audience such an unexpected curve ball that they totally forget they were expecting to see naked women shooting stuff.

“Nude Nuns” doesn’t have any curve balls up its sleeve, and while it has some nudity and does show some nuns running around shooting people, it’s a fairly flat attempt at making a vintage drive-in classic.

The biggest problem is the filmmaker’s decision to keep using certain film techniques, quick color dissolves with bold lettering to announce specific characters. It becomes distracting, and annoying.

There might have been an awesome B-movie to be made here. “Nude Nuns” is more oddity, than awesome. It’s perfectly enjoyable, it’s just not what you would expect to see given its title.

The Rum Diary (Sony, 120 minutes, R, Blu-Ray): Confession time, I love Hunter S. Thompson. The man was fearless and reckless and unenviable for all his faults but still a bold, brazen original voice unlike any other in the past 50 years of slowly shrinking journalistic voices. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” remains one of my top-two favorite books of all time, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with “The Stand.” So, naturally, I love Johnny Depp playing Thompson, especially in the wonderful screwball acid trip of am adaptation directed by Terry Gilliam (sadly, his last good movie – Gilliam, not Depp).

It stands to reason that I would love Depp playing a character based on Thompson in “The Rum Diary,” which was Hunter’s first attempt at fiction, or complete fiction, albeit based on his very real true-life experience as a fledgling reporter in Puerto Rico.

And I did, mostly. “The Rum Diary” has moments of “Fear and Loathing” brilliance. Depp seems liberated, freed from the shackles of Captain Jack’s hair extensions and gold teeth, and he flits across the screen with manic energy, his voice affecting his Thompson tone from “Fear and Loathing,” but somehow not quite there, as if his vocal chords were babes yet to be drenched in booze and ravaged by smoke and ether and LSD.

The only quibble is that “The Rum Diary” feels like a series of moments looking for a better narrative thread to tie it all together. The film trips along on its own, internal groove, and it doesn’t seem terribly concerned if the audience comes along for the ride. That’s not to say that it doesn’t respect its viewers. It’s not some damn the torpedoes abomination like the “Twilight” films that openly mocks its fans by shilling out a crappy product and reveling in the knowledge that butts will be in seats regardless if it’s good or not.

No, “The Rum Diary,” much like its author, the late and great and gonzo one, just is, and in being so, it basically thumbs its nose at modern film conventions and just goes at its own pace. You either like it, or you don’t, which is very fitting for the source material, and the man.

Also Available:

The Debt – The original, 2007 Israeli film about a trio of Mossad agents hunting a German war criminal that inspired last year’s remake with Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington.

Mama, I Want to Sing – The second film, and first in five years, to star pop singer Cierra.

VIPS – The real-life, Brazilian “Catch Me If You Can.”

Jem and the Holograms: Season Two – Fresh off the complete series being released late last year, Shout! Factory is putting nice, deluxe volumes of each individual season.

Storage Wars, Volume 2 – This show is insanely addictive, if only because you want one of the main characters to find something truly startling, like a storage locker with a preserved body or something equally gruesome.

All Things Fall Apart – Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson goes method, mimics Christian Bale in “The Machinist.”

The Mortician – Method Man, of the Wu-Tang Clan, headlines this horror film about a mortician, duh, who suddenly has a corpse come to life.

Dr. Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe – The 2011 BBC Christmas special featuring Doctor Who, which has become a regular tradition since 2005, plays off C. S. Lewis’s classic children’s fantasy, “The Chronicles of Narnia.” It’s not the best Doctor Who Christmas special ever, but it’s very well done.

Dr. Who:  The Sensorites – Very, very early adventure featuring William Hartnell as the very first Doctor.

Dr. Who: The Caves of Androzani – Classic Who featuring Peter Davison as the fifth Doctor.

All Quiet On The Western Front – Winner of two Oscars, and widely considered one of the best movies ever made, especially about war, this 1930 classic gets the deluxe, hardbook-bound treatment by Universal Studios as part of the company’s 100th Anniversary promotion.

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