ABC Adds Casey Anthony Special Tonight

Posted Jul 6, 2011 by Walt Belcher

Updated Jul 6, 2011 at 09:59 AM

ABC is adding a Casey Anthony special at 10 tonight, replacing a “Primetime Nightline” special on shrines to the Virgin Mary.

“Casey Anthony Not Guilty: Inside the Bombshell Verdict” looks back at the trial and acquittal verdict of first-degree murder for Anthony who was on trial for the death of her daughter, Caylee.

CBS added a primetime special on Tuesday night: “48 Hours Mystery” also went inside one of the most dramatic murder trials in recent memory.

Jeff Ashton, who prosecuted the Casey Anthony case, is a guest on today’s edition of “The View” on ABC.

A “Dateline NBC” special will recap the case and verdict at 10 p.m. Friday with Dennis Murphy reporting. The show also will look at Anthony’s future.

 

 

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At the Drive-In

Posted Jun 25, 2011 by John Allman

Updated Jun 25, 2011 at 02:30 PM

I have a problem.

I love movies. I love to write about movies. I love to talk about movies. I especially love to debate movies with co-workers and friends.

When you watch as many movies as me, about a dozen per week, if I’m lucky and able to stay awake and my wife is gracious enough to let me stay up later than her, you find that sometimes your perspective can get skewed. Maybe that remake of that awful 1970s low-budget horror film about toxic vampire zombies wasn’t as good as it seemed at 1 a.m. Tuesday morning when most normal, sane people are sleeping.

So I decided to introduce a new recurring segment to BVB: Blood, Violence and Babes. It’s called “At the Drive-In,” because, well, “At the Movies” was coined years and years ago by the former Siskel and Ebert, and most of the movies that I watch and enjoy would best be suited for a drive-in theater in the middle of nowhere where you could back up a pick-up truck with a couch and recliner in the extended bed and kick back under the stars to watch some cheesy goodness unfold on the giant screen in the sky.

Here’s how it works. I will occasionally pick an upcoming New Release or Re-Issue that looks promising or seemed to get panned more than it deserved, and I will watch it and I will have a colleague watch it (independent of me) and we will both write down what we think. I suspect that more often than not, our two opinions will be different from one another. Sometimes they may be the same, or we may agree on specific points. But in the end, it should, hopefully, make for an entertaining read.

This week’s feature playing “At the Drive-In” is “Battle: Los Angeles,” the 2011 alien invasion spectacle from director Jonathan Liebesman.

BVB: Blood, Violence and Babes says:

Why? Why do you have to have the clichés?

Why does it have to be the Staff Sergeant’s last day when the alien invasion occurs?

Why does he have to have led an ill-fated mission during his last tour?

Why he get put in charge of the only Marine unit in all of Los Angeles that also happens to include the brother of one of the soldiers who died under the Staff Sergeant’s watch during his ill-fated last tour?

Why does the acting commander have a pregnant wife?

Why does the goofy new recruit have to be a virgin?

Why is there a soldier in the unit who has PTSD issues?

Why, why, why?

If not for the “Whys,” “Battle: Los Angeles” would be an above-average, unexpectedly tense at times, unexpectedly solid alien invasion flick that could have done decent box office but would have surely made a mint on DVD and Blu-Ray.

It’s actually a great mash-up of “War of the Worlds” and “Black Hawk Down,” with just enough of Paul Greengrass’ shaky, handheld in-your-face action camera from the Jason Bourne movies.

And Aaron Eckhart makes for a completely believable, totally serviceable Staff Sergeant leading a bunch of green Marines into combat with an extraterrestrial adversary that is just blowing LA to smithereens.

But too much of “Battle” is spent on a seemingly insignificant mission – to rescue a bunch of civilians from a police precinct. Hello, this is Los Angeles. One of the largest cities in the world. It just doesn’t make sense that an entire military recon unit would be sent to one Podunk precinct when the bejesus is being blown out of the city.

That mission, of course, allows for the inevitable bonding and reconciliation between Eckhart’s leader and his motley band of soldiers who initially distrusted him. And they pick up Michelle Rodriguez along the way, who, conveniently, plays an Air Force tactical expert who just so happened to be the sole survivor of a mission to locate the alien invader’s communications station, which they are using to blow the bejesus out of LA.

Now that’s a recon mission. Why weren’t the Marines put on that assignment instead of trudging through the streets looking for an isolated police precinct?

Rodriguez has made a career out of playing the cool, untouchable, hot with a handgun lone female. It’s basically the only role that she ever gets offered. I’m not complaining. But damn, really, no one can think of a better use for her obvious talent than playing second-fiddle to the boys? Someone needs to build an action franchise around her, a la Jason Statham’s Transporter series.

So, yeah, “Battle: LA” is not a classic sci-fi invasion film. It’s riddled with problems, there are too many clichés and coincidences and just plain throw up your hands in disgust moments where everyone on screen should be dead but they mostly all miraculously survive.

But, it’s still better than 95 percent of the original films being churned out by SyFy and Chiller and FearNet and Lionsgate and Sony direct-to-DVD, so maybe someone somewhere ought to take heed to the fact that well-made, action-packed, adrenaline-charged genre films don’t need all that usual crap that mainstream American audiences seem unable to do without.

Guest critic Jonathan Cohen, local attorney and lover of Criterion Collection-worthy films, says:

The 30+ minutes I watched of this made me very sick. 

The use of “shaky cam” was over the top and resulted in severe nausea for yours truly (and this was just from viewing it via a portable DVD player).  If I had to review it based on what I saw, I would say the cameraman suffered epileptic seizures throughout filming.

The focus in every shot was so tight that it prevents you from having any understanding of where anyone is in a given moment or what is going on around them.  Also, the editing was ADD-inducing and was meant to distract from the fact that absolutely nothing was happening most of the time.

Finally, how many times has the I’m-turning-in-my-badge-but-oh-looky-here-it-seems-I’ve-found-myself-involved-in-the-greatest-mission-of-my-career-just-when-I-was-fixing-to-call-it-a-day plot device been used?

To quote Danny Glover in “Lethal Weapon”: “I’m too old for this…”

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New Releases for Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Posted Jun 24, 2011 by John Allman

Updated Jun 24, 2011 at 08:08 AM

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

The Adjustment Bureau
Genre: Thriller/Sci-Fi/Romance
Directed by: George Nolfi
Run time: 106 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: There have been just a handful of films where I honestly, truly believed in the love affair unfolding on the screen before me. And of those few films, most of them I really, really wanted the two characters to end up together, despite the odds. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t.

In at least one case, “Chasing Amy,” I totally did not want Holden McNeil to end up with Alyssa Jones because he hadn’t earned that right, he hadn’t lived enough to truly love someone with her life experiences.

But more often than not, I wanted the couple to get together and stay together, whether it was Lloyd Dobler and Diane Court or Steve Dunne and Linda Powell or even Mickey and Mallory Knox.

I got that same feeling watching “The Adjustment Bureau,” and I have no idea if it’s just that writer/director George Nolfi did such a masterful job creating such vibrant characters in David Norris and Elise Sellas or that he fleshed out Phillip K. Dick’s short story so well, or that Emily Blunt and Matt Damon just really, really sold me with their performances.

Whatever the reason, I fell in love with their love story, the way that fate kept usurping the Plan, the way Blunt looked at Damon and he at her and how I found myself not caring as much about the science fiction elements of Nolfi’s film. I just wanted them to be together and for Damon not to have his memory washed or for Blunt not to marry another man.

The amazing thing about “The Adjustment Bureau” is that it is that rarest of creatures, a genre film filled with cool sets and fantastic, elaborate gags that actually is about something, the big ticket questions of free will and why we make the choices we do and what consequences those choices might bring, AND it is one of the best love stories that Hollywood has produced in a long, long time.

A lot of people skipped this film because they thought…actually, I have no idea what they thought. Maybe that it was too much like “Inception,” or that the trailers made it look like just another routine sci-fi chase movie with weird guys in hats.

But it deserves to be seen. It deserves to be appreciated. It deserves to be loved.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Emily Blunt, love me. Please.
Nudity – No.
Gore – No.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Are they bad or just misunderstood?
Buy/Rent – Buy it. Now.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – The awesome “Labyrinth of Doors: Interactive Map of New York”; audio commentary; deleted and extended scenes; multiple featurettes; BD-Live and pocketBlu apps.
On the Web – http://www.theadjustmentbureau.com/index.php

Unknown (Warner Bros., 113 minutes, PG-13, Blu-Ray): Don’t look now, but Liam Neeson has “Taken” his own “Bourne Identity” hype a little too far. It’s like he confused A-list with “The A-Team,” again.

But that’s OK, because if you’ve seen one twisty, supposedly mind-bending and edgy espionage thriller, you haven’t seen “Unknown,” right?

Wrong.

Sadly, despite Neeson’s best intentions, the incomparably hot January Jones and Diane Kruger, this one isn’t special enough to warrant remembering for too long.

For one, the tone of “Unknown” is too uneven. It’s clear in the first 15 minutes that something is amiss, but you can’t quite figure it out. There’s too many little one-off’s, those line readings that suggest rather unsubtly “Hey! Pay Attention! This might be important later!”

And, true to form, once the central plot kicks in, and the action laid out for us all too well in the trailer begins to unspool, we’re completely unsurprised to find action-stalwart Neeson in over his head and unsure whom to trust.

From there, though, the film sputters when it shoot take off like a rocket. There’s too many scenes of “That’s my wife!” and “I’m Dr. so-and-so, not him!” Eventually, someone, somewhere, especially in a formerly militaristic country like Germany, would lock Neeson up and throw away the key if he kept running around shouting at police and security and professionals like a crazy man.

Credit to “Unknown” for trying to muddy the water a little with a somewhat surprising late-in-the-game twist that actually piqued my interest, but lazy filmmaking wins in the end and too many international incidents go unpunished and formerly pedestrian professionals like a cab driver and a college professor are able to deftly elude capture and detection.

That’s the worst part of a movie like this, knowing how it’s going to end well before it does.

The Eagle (Universal, 114 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray): First, a disclaimer. I absolutely loathe Channing Tatum. The dude has zero facial expression. It’s like watching a mannequin move through a department store. Oh, hello, I’m in housewares. Oh, now I’m in ladies’ shoes. Oh, there I am in cosmetics. But, to his credit, and when I’m wrong, I will admit it, Tatum actually won me over a little bit with “The Eagle.” Granted, the bigger draw for me was Jamie Bell, the astounding young actor from “Billy Elliott” who keeps picking solid projects and seems poised for a long, illustrious career. But here, in this odd, interesting, ultimately absorbing Roman solider buddy movie (yes, I just created a new sub-genre), Bell and Tatum make for a very likable duo who play off each other’s strengths and make sure not to spotlight Tatum’s weaknesses most of the time. Plus, director Kevin Macdonald, who previously helmed the excellent political thriller “State of Play” and the Oscar-winning “The Last King of Scotland,” shows confidence here, allowing the plot to slowly unfold instead of rushing from one battle to the next with zero context or consideration for what each respective action means to the story.

Cedar Rapids (Fox, 87 minutes, R, DVD): Sweet, human, entirely believable workplace comedy featuring Ed Helms, John C. Reilly and a surprisingly good Anne Heche. Helms is just as good here as he was in “The Hangover,” and there are moments of genuine joy and bittersweet reality in the low-key story that you often don’t find in a broad, bawdy comedy. This one will surprise you.

Also Available:

Squidbillies: Volume 4 – They’re squids that live in the mountains. And they’re a little red behind the ears. Wait, do squids have ears? Being a native of North Carolina, I can totally appreciate a show that knows how best to make fun of the deep South, particularly backwoods views on politics, religion and sex. “Squidbillies” fires in short, contained bursts of hillbilly hilarity. It perfectly skewers its targets, and those targets ain’t what you might expect. This isn’t a Southbash. It’s more of an invitation to kick butt on everyone and everything that drives us to drink, causes us to curse and makes us fear for the future of our great land. Did I mention it features squids that live in the mountains. And they’re a lot red behind the ears. If they have ears.

Medium: The Final Season – I don’t know about anyone else, and I love me some Patricia Arquette, especially circa-“True Romance,” woo boy howdy, but after watching the real Allison Dubois on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” last year, I want to see a show built around her!

Louie: Season One – Louis C.K. finally finds the right show to showcase his subversive style of humor, and it is an absolute riot. Must see comedy.

Mega Python vs Gataroid – Two former teenage fantasy singers, Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. One word, catfight. Yeah boy. My money is on Tiffany.

Rocko’s Modern Life: Season One – Classic cartoon that reformed stoners can now share with their kids.

Playing House – Femme Fatale moves in and goes all Hand That Rocked The Cradle on an unsuspecting couple.

Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, Laughing Man and Individual Eleven – Anime geeks, prepare to geek out.

Happythankyoumoreplease – Hip, edgy comedy. Yes, please, more like this.

The Best of I Love Lucy – You can never get enough Lucy.

Bending All the Rules – She will tell you it’s a comedy. She may not mention that it co-stars Bradley Cooper and his abs of steel.

Ceremony – Uma, where the hell you been, girl? Damn.

Elektra Luxx – I love me some Carla Gugino. That’s all I wanted to say. But, yes, you should watch this movie. Ok, bye.

You Got Served: Beat the World – I’m waiting for “You Got Served While Watching ABDC and Now You Got To Step Up and Step Off to Avoid Paying a Fine.”

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New Releases for Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Posted Jun 24, 2011 by John Allman

Updated Jun 24, 2011 at 07:57 AM

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

Battle: Los Angeles
Genre: Sci-Fi/War/Action
Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman
Run time: 116 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: Why? Why do you have to have the clichés?

Why does it have to be the Staff Sergeant’s last day when the alien invasion occurs?

Why does he have to have led an ill-fated mission during his last tour?

Why he get put in charge of the only Marine unit in all of Los Angeles that also happens to include the brother of one of the soldiers who died under the Staff Sergeant’s watch during his ill-fated last tour?

Why does the acting commander have a pregnant wife?

Why does the goofy new recruit have to be a virgin?

Why is there a soldier in the unit who has PTSD issues?

Why, why, why?

If not for the “Whys,” “Battle: Los Angeles” would be an above-average, unexpectedly tense at times, unexpectedly solid alien invasion flick that could have done decent box office but would have surely made a mint on DVD and Blu-Ray.

It’s actually a great mash-up of “War of the Worlds” and “Black Hawk Down,” with just enough of Paul Greengrass’ shaky, handheld in-your-face action camera from the Jason Bourne movies.

And Aaron Eckhart makes for a completely believable, totally serviceable Staff Sergeant leading a bunch of green Marines into combat with an extraterrestrial adversary that is just blowing LA to smithereens.

But too much of “Battle” is spent on a seemingly insignificant mission – to rescue a bunch of civilians from a police precinct. Hello, this is Los Angeles. One of the largest cities in the world. It just doesn’t make sense that an entire military recon unit would be sent to one Podunk precinct when the bejesus is being blown out of the city.

That mission, of course, allows for the inevitable bonding and reconciliation between Eckhart’s leader and his motley band of soldiers who initially distrusted him. And they pick up Michelle Rodriguez along the way, who, conveniently, plays an Air Force tactical expert who just so happened to be the sole survivor of a mission to locate the alien invader’s communications station, which they are using to blow the bejesus out of LA.

Now that’s a recon mission. Why weren’t the Marines put on that assignment instead of trudging through the streets looking for an isolated police precinct?

Rodriguez has made a career out of playing the cool, untouchable, hot with a handgun lone female. It’s basically the only role that she ever gets offered. I’m not complaining. But damn, really, no one can think of a better use for her obvious talent than playing second-fiddle to the boys? Someone needs to build an action franchise around her, a la Jason Statham’s Transporter series.

So, yeah, “Battle: LA” is not a classic sci-fi invasion film. It’s riddled with problems, there are too many clichés and coincidences and just plain throw up your hands in disgust moments where everyone on screen should be dead but they mostly all miraculously survive.

But, it’s still better than 95 percent of the original films being churned out by SyFy and Chiller and FearNet and Lionsgate and Sony direct-to-DVD, so maybe someone somewhere ought to take heed to the fact that well-made, action-packed, adrenaline-charged genre films don’t need all that usual crap that mainstream American audiences seem unable to do without.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Michelle Rodriguez, still hot, still playing the same character she has played in every movie she’s ever starred in.
Nudity – No.
Gore – Minimal.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – ET’s running wild, soaking up Earth’s water, killing innocent peeps.
Buy/Rent – Rent it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – A whole slew of featurettes accompany this one: “Acting with Aliens,” “Behindthe Battle,” “Building the Aliens,” “Creating L.A. in LA,” “Preparing for Battle,” “Shooting the Aliens,” “Boot Camp,” “Directing the Battle,” “The Freeway Battle,” “Staff Sergeant Nantz,” “Marines Behind the Scenes,” and many more.
On the Web – http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/battlela/

Rubber (Magnet/Magnolia, 85 minutes, R, Blu-Ray): Is it a joke?

Is it a deep, philosophical rumination on perceived Hollywood tropes?

Or is it just a horror movie about a re-animated tire with psychic powers who can make people’s heads explode?

How about “D,” all of the above?

“Rubber” is the brainchild of artist/director Quentin Dupieux, whose filmography reads like a “meta”-workshop on how to peel back the curtain, shatter the fourth wall and pull the viewer inside the real world within a film.

For most of its run time, “Rubber” plays to its strength, which is its absurdity. And when you think about it, how much more absurd is a killer telekinetic tire than any of the impossible to kill boogeymen slashers that have captivated horror fans for years.

I mean, really. Jason Voorhees was a special needs child who drowned, only to be mysteriously resurrected 15 years later. Michael Myers was a kid with pure black evil inside him that somehow made him impervious to bullets, blades and high falls off balconies. And those are two of the more plausible killers introduced over the past 30 years.

So, sure, watching a random tire stand upright, shake off the dust and begin rolling along on its own, following a hot chick and somehow blowing up the brains of anyone who gets in its way isn’t such a terrible time at the movies.

Plus the screenplay, which I’m guessing included a lot of improvisation, consistently points out that you are watching a movie, along with a handful of “audience members” on screen, plus Wings Hauser, the 1980s action icon.

There are a few WTF moments, namely a subplot that seems to suggest some sort of ritual was used to possess the tire into coming to life.  There’s the whole unexplained reason why the “audience members” are all killed after being told to “watch” the movie unfolding in front of them.

And then the thing just kind of rolls on, appearing to end, then not ending, then kind of ending, which becomes a bit of a drag.

“Rubber” is definitely not for everyone. But for fans of obscure, oft-kilter horror, Dupieux’s film is worth checking out. 

Red Riding Hood (Warner Bros., 100 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray): Catherine Hardwicke gets a tough rap. As one of Hollywood’s few breakout female directors, she made a splash early with “Thirteen,” her often harrowing look at female adolescence, followed that with the skateboarding drama “Lords of Dogtown,” and then scored what should have been her ticket to A-list prestige, “Twilight,” the first film in the ubiquitous vampire saga that won’t go away.

“Twilight” was a massive hit, but Hardwicke was dumped by producers after critics savaged the film for its inept dialogue, overly-Abercrombie & Fitch teen angst and lack of any real dramatic tension.

It’s got to be tough to be yanked from one of the most financially successful film franchises of all time.

So Hardwicke has responded by basically making a new “Twilight,” transplanting the angst of young love from the rainy, misty mountains of Northwest Washington to the snowy villages of some far-off fairytale land where grandmothers knit red cloaks for their granddaughters, monsters haunt the shadows and, worse, arranged marriages are still allowed.

“Red Riding Hood” looks incredible, particularly on Blu-Ray. The sweeping crane shots from high overhead the village, flanked by dark, foreboding forests, are lush and inviting. And Hardwicke turns am early village celebration, after the death of a suspected werewolf, into an eerie pagan fetish party with masked revelers and an erotic undercurrent aching to be let loose from its PG-13 constraints.

But then people start talking, and the whole thing just falls apart.

What’s the point, exactly? We all know the story of Red Riding Hood. She goes to her grandmother’s house one day, only to find her Grandmother replaced by the Big, Bad Wolf.

Here, Red, who goes by the name Valerie (um, OK, that doesn’t sound contemporary or anything), is played by Amanda Seyfried with her alien bug eyes and pouty lips, looking much more wanton than should be allowed. And Grandmother is played by film icon Julie Christie, who seems to delight in playing a red herring, dropping loaded comments left and right, making one wonder – is she the wolf?

But everybody seems to be suspected of being the wolf – everyone from Red’s boyfriend Peter to the crazy fanatical Father Solomon (a wild-eyed Gary Oldman, chewing scenery like he had big teeth) to Red’s drunk father (the glum looking Billy Burke, wishing he was still on the set of “Drive Angry” with Nic Cage).

It all adds up to a whole bunch of not much. In fact, I tried three times to watch both the Alternate Cut (promising a shocking new ending) and the Theatrical Cut, and I kept falling asleep well before the big climax. What I saw, once I bit my inner lip and pinched my palm, forcing my eyes to remain open, was neither shocking nor surprising.

Here’s hoping the glut of fairy tale films and TV shows coming up in 2012 – “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters,” “Grimm,” “Once Upon A Time,” two or three different Snow White projects and who knows what else – offer something fresh, or at least entertaining.

Supernatural: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros., 903 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray): Or the season where one of TV’s best horror-centric shows found its footing, began seriously establishing the deep mythology that would propel later seasons and unleashed the gore to new heights (or depths, depending if you’re employed as a network content executive) of previously unseen carnage, at least on regular TV. Eric Kripke’s “Supernatural,” the saga of the Winchester brothers Sam and Dean, is one of the best of its kind ever to be produced. It deftly blends monster of the week storylines with long-running, slow-burn story arcs that culminate in some of the best season finales ever aired.

Hall Pass (Warner Bros., 111 minutes, R. Blu-Ray): Really funny. Surprisingly so. Totally predictable, but “Hall Pass,” at least the Enlarged Edition, is actually the directing brothers Farrelly’s best movie since “There’s Something About Mary.” Yeah, it’s been that long. That’s 13 years for those keeping score at home. Ouch. Long drought. But it’s over. Thankfully. And somehow, someway, both Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis win you over in this raunchy (two of the best gags involve No. 2) yet annoyingly sweet ode to the Get Out of Jail Free card-carrying, but not quite swingers, suburbanite guys who are allowed to fool around at least once with no consequences. I have two major quibbles – one, Wilson’s hair. The guy looks like a complete dweeb. And if he’s only supposed to be 37 or 38 years old, that’s just unacceptable. The second issue is that how many supposed 38-year-olds would be so stupid as to not know where to go to pick up chicks? Applebee’s? Really. Yeah, it’s kind of funny, but once you’ve seen the trailer five times, it’s not that funny anymore. There are four solid Laugh-Out-Loud-Really-Loud moments and an above-average number of chortles to make this comedy worth recommending.

The Image (Synapse Films, 91 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray): This vintage slice of hardcore seduction from director Radley Metzger, based on Catherine Robbe-Grillet’s novel L’Image, has been called one of the best erotic films ever made. That’s mighty strong praise. But “The Image” is a surprisingly randy little gem that could be even more stirring if not for its annoying voiceover that sounds like the monotone play by play of a biology teacher walking his students through a textbook recitation on how to get kinky with chicks.

36th Precinct (Palisades Tartan, 111 minutes, Unrated, DVD): This 2004 French import starring Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu is thrilling, brutal and seriously good. It elevates police procedurals to that rarified air where few adult thrillers reside. I’m talking “The Departed,” “The Town,” “Training Day.” Only there’s really no one spared here, no hero’s reward for the cop who keeps his integrity intact, no happy endings. That’s how it should be. That’s how life is.

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (Well Go USA, 105 minutes, R, Blu-Ray): Donnie Yen stars in this uneven hybrid of historical drama, action-packed martial arts feast and superhero origins story. The fight choreography is outstanding, but everytime the film slows down to let its characters talk, the well-oiled machine lurches to a gear-grinding halt. Not as good as “Ip Man” or “Ip Man 2.”

Elvira’s Movie Macabre: Night of the Living Dead/I Eat Your Skin and The Werewolf of Washington/Satanic Rites of Dracula (E1, 371 minutes, Unrated, DVD): Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the iconic, voluptuous, incredibly endowed with ample talents late-night horror movie host, returns after a too-long hiatus, and the timing couldn’t be better. She resurrects some truly awful and awesome forgotten B-movie gems, like Christopher Lee’s last appearance as Dracula for Hammer Films or Dean Stockwell terrorizing the nation’s capitol as a werewolf, throws in some fresh zingers and, ahem, pads her commentary with enough social and political quips to keep the proceedings contemporary.

Also Available:

Haven: The Complete First Season – It’s on SyFy. It’s based on a Stephen King short story. It’s better than “Golden Years,” but not as good as “Kingdom Hospital.”

Shot in the Dark – “Entourage” star Adrian Grenier examines fatherhood in this revealing debut that chronicles his efforts to reconnect with his own, estranged dad.

Giant Robot Action Pack – Double feature of “Crash and Burn,” directed by the incomparable Charles Band, and “Robot Wars.”;

Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet – Danielle Harris continues her run as the hottest Scream Queen of her generation.

The Boondock Saints: Truth and Justice Edition 10th Anniversary – Sure, it’s a double dip. But this is such a damn good movie.

Action-Packed Double Feature – Two action films, one from the ‘70s, “Gordon’s War,” and a little-seen effort from the ‘80s called “Off Limits” with Willem Dafoe and Gregory Hines.

Kill the Irishman – A period crime drama set in the 1960s and 70s about a seemingly impossible to kill criminal.

Fall Down Dead – A four-year-old horror film gets dusted off the shelf and released. Fans of David Carradine and Udo Kier may want to check this out, but it’s strictly bottom rung.

The Anniversary at Shallow Creek – Survival thriller that promises to be both an homage to classic films and a fresh take on the genre.

Marvel Knights: Spider Woman Agent of S.W.O.R.D. – Jessica Drew, aka Spider Woman, must contend with the Skrull. I’m still digging these darker-toned, albeit not quite animation, motion-comics that Marvel is trying to do for adults. I just wish they used more conventional animation sometimes.

Marvel Knights: Iron Man & Spider Woman – High-definition twofer release of Marvel Knights’ earlier “Iron Man: Extremis” paired with the newest volume, “Spider Woman Agent of S.W.O.R.D.”;

Monogamy – As much a relationship thriller as a postcard to New York City, this one promises a subversive sexual undercurrent to keep things interesting.

A Cold Day in Hell – Michael Madsen goes western outlaw. Did they used to cut ears off for fun back then too?

N-Secure – Urban thriller about a possessive guy, his cheating fiancé and the complications that ensue.

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New Releases for Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Posted Jun 24, 2011 by John Allman

Updated Jun 24, 2011 at 07:37 AM

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

The Wild Hunt, Exorcismus, The Housemaid, In Her Skin
Genre: Thriller/Horror
Directed by: Alexandre Franchi, Manuel Carballo, Im Sang Soo and Simone North

TheLowdown: Typically, this space is reserved for a longer review spotlighting the most interesting release of the week.

But something unusual happened this week – IFC Films went and released four phenomenal films, all in one week. Instead of pick just one, BVB: Blood, Violence and Babes decided to spotlight all four!

So here we go:

The Wild Hunt (86 minutes, Unrated, DVD): A surprising Canadian import that takes an unfamiliar pastime to some, LARPing (Live-Action Role Playing), and concocts a nasty case study showing how fantasy re-enactments can go too far.

In “The Wild Hunt,” brothers Erick (Ricky Mabe) and Bjorn Mangusson (Mark Antony Krupa) grew up enjoying geeky games like “Dungeons and Dragons,” Celtic mythology and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Only brother Bjorn didn’t want to release himself from those fantastic worlds of marauding hillside armies, pigs on spits and buxom serving wenches carrying overflowing goblets of mead. Bjorn has fully immersed himself in the world of live-action game players, grown adults who don kilts, body armor and fur to take to a primitive forest where they’ve built expansive huts, campsites and castles, to battle each other armies for days at a time, never leaving character, never acknowledging the outside world.

Erick’s girlfriend Lyn (Tiio Horn) also plays the game as the beautiful princess Evlynia, the willing prize that different factions of warriors fight for the right to call her their own. But after Lyn breaks up with Erick, he sets off to find her during a weekend LARP event, setting in motion a series of events that truly blurs the line between fantasy and reality when some of the competitors lost sight of the fact that they are playing a game.

Director Alexandre Franchi does a nice job keeping the tone light through the first half, exposing the inherent contradictions of adults who refuse to break character and ignore the basic tenants of humanity that keep people acting as they should, and allowing some deserved humor to slip through.

But Franchi and co-writer Krupa go decidedly dark in the second act, expanding upon the themes of acceptance and invulnerability that the make-believe fantasy world can create. Lyn vacillates between wanting to leave LARPing behind and go home with Erick and wanting to finish the game. Erick becomes increasingly more frustrated with the leader of the rival faction, Shaman Murtagh, who refuses to break character or show any human decency.

And then things get really out of hand. People get hurt. And the line that was blurred gets erased. It’s an intense, bloody, unexpected finale that really satisfies because you feel like it’s the only way the film could end, should end.

“The Wild Hunt” is fresh and original. It’s consistently surprising. This is one to definitely check out.

Exorcismus (101 minutes, Unrated, DVD): Yes, it’s yet another demonic possession tale with a priest battling to save a young girl’s soul and cast out the malignant evil force that is controlling her. But “Exorcismus” has one decidedly original twist that should have elevated its story well above other, by the numbers “Exorcist” wannabes. What if a priest helped a young woman get possessed in order to expose the devil as being real by then performing an exorcism? This unexpected, yet magnificent development, gets mostly squandered, undermined by pacing problems and too many repetitive scenes of demonic manifestations that don’t progress the plot, and once the priest’s selfish act is unveiled, there’s just not dramatic Oomph! to make you care all that much. But it’s still a hell of a good idea (excuse the pun) that should have been used to better impact. And there are just enough tense, what’s going to happen next moments to keep you on the edge throughout to make “Exorcismus” worth watching.

The Housemaid (107 minutes, Unrated, DVD): This unsettling erotic thriller from South Korea does a marvelous job of creeping up slowly, seductively ensnaring the viewer in its sordid web of sexual dalliances and acceptable lies, and then it pulls the chair away, literally, in its final act, exposing the class warfare raging within its caste system and showing how no amount of money can match the depths that a heart broken is willing to plumb for revenge.

In Her Skin (108 minutes, Unrated, DVD): Female serial killer thrillers are rare. Really good female serial killer thrillers are like the elusive unicorn. “In Her Skin,” then, shows serious unicorn leanings as it does a fantastic job of keeping the audience guessing throughout. What does the title mean, and to whom does it refer? This Australian import, featuring a reserved Guy Pearce and an exceptional Sam Neill, hinges on its two female leads, and both young women nail their parts with exceptional skill and raw menace.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes.
Nudity – Yes.
Gore – Yes.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Everything from a scorned nanny to a crazy adolescent to a guy who thinks he’s a Viking to the devil himself.
Buy/Rent – Buy them.

Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1978-2006 (Warner Bros., 906 minutes, PG, Blu-Ray): Son of Jor-El, kneel before Zod! There is no doubt among comic book and superhero film enthusiasts, that three of the best superhero movies ever made are “The Dark Knight,” “Spiderman” and “Superman II.” I would argue that Richard Donner’s incredible 1978 origin film, “Superman,” starring Christopher Reeve should be included right up there as well. To many people, Reeve is, was and will forever be Clark Kent/Superman. His effortless, aw shucks portrayal is as iconic a film performance as any that has ever been released. Warner Brothers wisely has included two versions each of Donner’s magnificent first two Man of Steel movies, which despite their age and lack of computer-generated effects, still stand proudly alongside the best that today’s technology can produce. One reason why is that the best superhero films being made today, here’s looking at you, Chris Nolan, don’t rely as much on CGI to tell their stories as they do good, old-fashioned character development and solid acting. That was what made the first two Superman films so memorable, the acting, the storylines, the sense of wonder and excitement. By the time “Superman III” and the woeful “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” – really, was it that necessary to stunt cast Richard Pryor in a comic book movie? – were released, the franchise looked about as healthy as the Son of Jor-El wearing a kryptonite necktie. In 2006, Bryan Singer tried his best to resuscitate the series with “Superman Returns,” which sadly was just another origins movie that once again featured Lex Luthor as the villain. Granted, Kevi Spacey did a good job playing the big, bald bad, but there are more villains for Supe to battle than just him. This handsome boxed set includes eight discs with seven films plus more than 20 hours of bonus materials, including the complete run of 1940s cartoons by Fleischer/Famous Studios, the 1951 George Reeves-starring “Superman and the Mole-Men” feature, a glut of featurettes, deleted scenes and more. While we wait for Zack Snyder’s “The Man of Steel,” arriving in 2012, this should more than tide true blue fans over.

Sanctum (Universal, 109 minutes, R, Blu-Ray): What if you made a movie filled with the most unlikable characters ever, thrust them into a life or death environment, in this case, a subterranean maze of above-and-below water caves in a remote exotic locale, and then forced them to fight amongst each other for nearly two hours to the point that you didn’t care whether any of them lived or not. Sadly, that’s “Sanctum” in a nutshell. It’s like “The Abyss” met “The Descent” minus the albino, flesh-eating Crawlers or the translucent alien Shifters, you know, the good stuff, and all you were left with was people freaking out that they were going to drown.

Also Available:

American: The Bill Hicks Story – He’s the one comic you’ve never heard of, but you should go find as many of his routines as possible and watch them. Now. The late Bill Hicks was like George Carlin, Lenny Bruce and Lewis Black rolled into one, tightly wound, insanely insightful angry little dude who unfortunately left this rock too soon. Seek this movie out. It will make you smarter. And you’ll laugh like hell.

Who Took the Bomp? – Le Tigre. On tour. Sweet.

Transformers: Beast Wars Season One – The apparently groundbreaking – this animated Transformers cartoon won an Emmy! – first season of…

Transformers: Beast Wars The Complete Series – …the entire three-season run of “Transformers: Beast Wars,” which launched in the mid-1990s in conjunction with a Hasbro toy line.

The Company Men – Corporate down-sizing finally gets Hollywood’s attention.

Nice Guy Johnny – Remember Ed Burns? He’s still making movies. “The Brothers McMullen,” that was a good flick.

Madagascar – BBC Earth travels to the world’s largest island off the African coast to explore the indigenous and extremely rare populations that live there in this fascinating addendum to Planet Earth.

Blue Crush 2 – Nine years later, a direct-to-DVD sequel to the popular chick surfing flick that helped launch Michelle Rodriguez.

Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season – The continued exploits of chemistry teacher turned meth dealer Walter White as he struggles with family turmoil, drug cartel drama and personal strife. “Weeds,” this ain’t.

Burn Notice: The Complete Fourth Season – This is a good show. The fact that Bruce Campbell’s role has continued to expand only makes it better.

The Big C: The Complete First Season – Laura Linney toplines this Showtime series that looks at cancer.

Pros and Ex-Cons – An early Sam Worthington crime drama surfaces. That’s what happens when you star in the biggest movie of all time, suddenly people want to see every thing you’ve ever done.

Rawhide: The Complete Fourth Season – Move ‘em out, head ‘em up, head ‘em up, move ‘ em out. Rawhide!

The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Volume Six – Molly Ringwald, I love you.

Pretty Little Liars: The Complete First Season – Dark, edgy ABC Family show about a group of Heathers with a secret.

White Collar: Season Two – This USA Original returns with its second season of crime capers led by Matt Bomer.

Das Boot – One of the greatest movies of all time gets the high-definition upgrade. Theatrical and director’s cut included. This is the film that defined what it meant to be on the edge of your seat for two hours. Incredible and incredibly tense.

Sharks 3D – Best not to watch this one too soon after “Das Boot.”

Ocean Wonderland 3D – More underwater ooohs and aaahs.

The Glades: The Complete First Season – A&E cop procedural that wants to be quirkier than it is. Matt Passmore still hasn’t grown on me, but he’s trying.

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