Studio: 20th Century Fox

Theatrical Release: December 12th, 1964

DVD Release: March 1st, 2013

Rating: UnRated!

Directed by Maury Dexter

Review by Craig Sorensen

This has got to be one of the stupidest plots to a crime caper film ever committed.  The script is silly, the acting over the top, the soundtrack mind numbingly repetitive and the direction workman-like at best.  So everything I could ever want from a B-picture I guess.

Rough approximation of the film zoomed in to 16×9.

Bill Harper (Ken Scott of Psych-Out) is a bored, henpecked husband stuck working as the manager of the apartment building owned by his wife.  Bill is a former scuba diver and salvager who has had to give up his exciting life due to some legal trouble and prison time.  He also lives with his beer swilling, sex maniac brother Buddy (Garth Benton of 13 Frightened Girls!).  So things aren’t going great for Bill.  But he’s got a plan to change his fortunes.  It just so happens that his plan involves robbing a bank with his scuba diving expertise.  To do this Bill will need partners so he calls in his old (and I do mean old) friend Tucker (Russ Bender from The Amazing Colossal Man).  Tucker’s got problems with both booze and a bad ticker so he’s an obvious choice.  Bring in the untrustworthy ex-con Purdy (Booth Colman of World Without End) and Bill’s pervert brother (who would just as soon see his brother dead so he can take his wife) and you’ve got the makings of a great team.  What could possibly go wrong?

Raiders from Beneath the Sea is kind of my idea of a perfect late-night movie.  A lot of the actors are familiar faces if you grew up on UHF reruns.  This cast is a who’s who of TV character actors from the ‘60s through the early ‘80s.  They aren’t exactly giving the most subtle and nuanced performances but they are certainly entertaining.  The plot here is really one of the stupidest bank heist plots ever.  Any crime that involves people walking down a crowded street in full scuba gear into a bank probably needs to be rethought.  It’s an unintentionally funny moment that made me like the movie even more.  And the end!  Holy shit is the end hilarious.

So 20th Century Fox is the latest studio to jump on the Burn-On-Demand band wagon.  I guess I don’t really have a problem with the idea in theory.  I think that Warner Brothers and MGM both did a pretty good job with the idea (most of the time anyway).  Fox on the other hand has taken the lazy route.  My biggest problem with the Burn-On-Demand model is the pricing.  20 bucks for a DVD-R with no special features is a bit steep.  So I’m not buying anything unless there’s a sale (Warner Brothers has them often).  Fox is following suit here with the pricing.  I could probably deal with that if not for the fact that no effort whatsoever has been put into these discs.  They’re just taking whatever old video transfer they have on hand and dumping it onto a disc.  At least Warner Brothers tries to get the film out in it’s original aspect ratio.  Raiders From Beneath The Sea fares better than other films in this series in that it was shot full frame and then masked theatrically.  So you can actually get pretty close to it’s original aspect ratio by zooming in on your television.  It does amplify other problems with the transfer but doesn’t look too bad considering.  I guess we should be happy that a film like this gets released at all.

[Rating: 3]

Studio: Mondo Macabro

Theatrical Release: August 1979

DVD Release: March 29, 2005

Director: Robert S. Fiveson

R

Review by James Klein

Parts: The Clonus Horror, or as I remember the film simply as Clonus when shown on television, has been a bit popular in recent years. This is the film where its director, Robert S. Fiveson, went national about how Michael Bay and company stole the idea of Clonus for his film The Island. Also, Clonus had been used as an episode on MSTK where it was mocked and ridiculed. Poor Clonus. It’s a shame too since Clonus is a pretty decent sci-fi thriller that I always found enjoyable and unfortunately forgotten.

Set in the near future, Clonus is about a government run project called “Clonus” where scientists have developed a way to clone human beings. A presidential candidate (Peter Graves) is trying to keep Clonus a secret as he and other politicians are using the project to clone themselves. The center that keeps the clones inline do treat the clones kindly while making them train their physical and mental abilities to the extreme. When a clone is ready, he is taken to “America” where it is frozen and stored away for later use, unbeknownst to the clones. The clones believe they go off to another world, almost like a heaven to live happily ever after.

Richard, one of the more advanced clones, is starting to ask questions and is getting the idea that something is being kept from them. He meets clone Lena (Paulette Breen) who he falls in love with much to the dismay of the scientists, headed by Dr. Jameson (Dick Sargent). The two try and figure out a way to escape the center with their goal to get to America on their own.

While the film is fairly low budgeted, this conspiracy thriller with a science fiction twist is fun and does have some tense moments. When the film starts to get bogged down by Richard and Lena’s love interest, the film quickly changes pace and follows the scientists or the politicians. While it is never really action packed, the pace moves along fairly well. Some of the acting may seem stiff at times but given that the cast is suppose to be clones, it is forgivable.

The DVD by Mondo Macabro looks fairly well although it does look a bit murky at times. The daylight sequences look best, while the evening or darker sequences could use some brightening up. The special features do seem a bit lacking with only an audio commentary and interview with director Fiveson, however his informative and enthusiastic memories on the making of the film do provide many interesting stories. There is also a trailer which I believe is for VHS and not an actual theatrical trailer. Either way, it’s nice to have it included.

I have not seen Michael Bay’s The Island to compare it to Clonus but given Bay’s track record (Pearl Harbor, Transformers 1-3) I would say Clonus beats The Island hands down. Either way, this is a fun little film worth checking out on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

[Rating: 3]

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Theatrical Release: May 20, 1938

DVD Release: April 15, 2013

Director: H. Bruce Humberstone

Not Rated

Review by Richard Rey

Little Miss Mischief (Jane Withers) is up to her shin-kicking antics once again, this time as Gypsy in the Depression era comedy Rascals. While the movie’s goofball slapstick gags are entertaining enough, it fails in its cupid love story plot.

Gypsy life is a merry one: pick-pocketing, knife-throwing, palm-reading and song-singing. It’s also terribly unpopular within the structure of society as the film opens on shots of the caravan in an excitably violent food fight against the locals. Along for the ride is Tony (Robert Wilcox), a disenchanted average Joe that joined the boisterous band after the love of his life “made a fool out of him.”  When a beautiful brunette suddenly faints just outside of camp, the mischievous child ringleader, Gypsy, is more than happy to adopt her as one of her own, affectionately calling the amnesia-stricken stranger Ronnie (Rochelle Hudson) –gypsy for lady. The genial girl has high hopes as she plays cupid to the two grown-ups with adult problems. Unfortunately, love isn’t in the air for Tony who sees right through the strangers alleged illness. In fact, love isn’t in the air at all in this romantic comedy whose plot quickly folds in on itself like bent tarot cards.

The relationship arc of the pair is so incredibly short-lived that it’s something only a child could conceive (all the more suitable since the narrative plays out from Gypsy’s perspective). Still, for adults, this sprouting relationship hasn’t the screen time to ripen and blossom into something flowery and organic. Instead, we are left with classically glamorous Hollywood smooch scenes typical of that period in cinema history.

The gypsy band is the gem of the film, particularly the music that may have been a better fit on Broadway. All of the theft is done for a worthy cause, be it to survive starvation or to raise funds for an operation to cure the lead love interest’s memory loss. The clowning includes hilarious shenanigans from a midget and the constantly comedic liberator of Gypsy, Gino (Borrah Minevitch). As a whole, it all seems to be a happy-go-lucky time around the campfire where love’s flames are quickly extinguished.

For Withers fans, another strong turn from the legendary child-actress as the convincingly innocent troublemaker who dances, sings, and plays instruments will make the movie worth a watch; however, the occasional stereotyping of African-Americans and the mentally-ill may turn some viewers off.

In the end, the fortuneteller rose-tinted glasses will have you cheering for this quirky band of jovial jokesters, but rest assured that after the crystal-ball hokum comes the unpleasant surprise: a stolen-watch and wallet; and that, my friends, is un-fortune-ate.

The 20^th Century Fox DVD release contains a one-option menu that only allows you to play the film. While there are no chapters per se, the movie has been cut up into 10 minute increments in case you do want to skip. The picture quality is satisfactory, though it does contain some occasional spots. Grainy images and sound pops during the opening credits show the difficulty had in the restoration process.

[Rating: 2.5]

Studio: Echo Bridge Entertainment

Theatrical Release: 1996, 1999, and 2001

DVD Release: June 28, 2011

Director(s): Wes Craven, Lasse Hallstrom, Jerry Zaks

PG / PG-13 / R

Review by Richard Rey

Marvin’s Room

Few movies leave a lasting impression on me, but this film easily makes the list. I was raised by my grandparents during the most critical periods of my life – as an infant and a teenager. While I don’t remember much about my diaper years, what I have been left with are very fond memories of my adolescence, the senior couple teaching me and loving me in an attempt to get my life back on track. That said, it comes as little surprise that this well-acted dysfunctional family drama, Marvin’s Room, packs such a personal emotional wallop for me as an adult, even if it does occasionally slip into Hallmark channel melodrama a time or two.

Bessie (Diane Keaton) and her sister Lee (Meryl Streep) had a falling out two decades ago when their father Marvin (Hume Cronyn) had a stroke and was permanently bedridden. The conservatively square-toed Bessie chose to stay by her father’s side while the granular Lee had her own problems to tend to. Since then, neither has spoken to each other, but that’s all about to change when Bessie is diagnosed with cancer and calls upon her estranged sister to be tested for a bone-marrow transplant that could potentially save her life. With Lee’s outlandishly rebellious seventeen-year-old son Hank (Leonardo DiCaprio), who has recently set their house ablaze, and her introverted ten-year-old boy Charlie, she sets out to Florida to face what she’s been trying to avoid for the past twenty years of her life – family.

Director Jerry Zaks hits the jackpot in his screen adaptation of playwright Scott McPherson’s Marvin’s Room in two respects: top-tier actors and a well-crafted script brimming with opportunities. Truly, the movie is an actor’s paradise, drawing Oscar-worthy turns from Streep, Keaton, and young DiCaprio. A scene where Hank takes a potato chip from a bowl on Bessie’s coffee table without permission is particularly true-to-life. But, as in all films, there is an enemy on the loose, this time rearing its ugly head in the form of sappy music. If the nuanced performances give life to the film, then the melodramatic soundtrack of Rachel Portman is the Grim Reaper, sucking the well of palpable emotion dry in Hoover-like fashion.

Even if the movie does have the trademark of a heartstring-tug flick, the camerawork and performances are strong enough that we don’t care about the target audience. The central message of Marvin’s Room applies to parties of every clime: selfishness breaks while selflessness binds.  Nearly every character in the film is emotionally broken; Hank rebels and lies to avoid the reality that his father is gone, Bessie is unwilling to budge from the routine monotony of her life, Lee fails to acknowledge her failures as a mother whose world is ever spinning out of control, and Marvin is almost completely out of touch with reality due to illness. No one seems to see things the way they truly are. But, given the right light and a little courage, life proffers them a second chance at change for the better.

My grandmother was to me what Bessie was to Hank, an iron-willed woman that went to great lengths to save the life of a lost young boy who, like most teenagers, thought he knew something of adults and life when, in retrospect, he knew nothing at all.

[Rating: 4]

Music of the Heart

Within the first ten seconds of the film, director Wes Craven manages to spell out in spectacularly melodramatic fashion the exact type of picture that’s in store, and for most of us, it’s one we’ve seen before: white female teacher goes to inner-city school to help kids and great change is wrought in both parties involved. The movie’s saving grace from its cliché, based-on-a-true-story source material? The marvelously unique acting choices from Meryl Streep as Roberta Guaspari that garnered her yet another Oscar-nomination. Equally as praiseworthy is screenwriter Pamela Gray’s first-rate dialogue for Roberta which successfully brings the severity of her true character to the classroom; she is at once the strict disciplinarian you loved to hate most in school,  and likely the one that had the most profound impact on you.

When Navy wife Roberta Guaspari’s (Streep) philandering husband abandons her and their two boys for her best friend, she’s left to tread the weighty turf of a broken single-mother. With the acting chops of a screen gargantuan, Streep plays the victim lucidly, fully committing to the repercussions of the crisis that has just hit home. At the request of her mother, Assunta (Cloris Leachman), she successfully seeks out a job at a local retail store, but soon finds herself in East Harlem at an alternative public school, interviewing for a position as a violin teacher. The school’s hard-nose principal (Angela Bassett) turns her down due to lack of experience and certification, but is soon won over through a showcasing of her talent as a musician-instructor. Over the course of ten years, the violin program thrives behind Roberta’s blunt no pain, no gain classroom dictatorship eventually spreading to three inner-city schools. Not surprisingly, school district budgets are cut and the arts are the first to go – beginning with the violin program that’s touched the lives of more than one thousand students since its inception. But the district picked a fight with the schoolyard’s strongest chin – a fiercely passionate teacher willing to go toe to toe to save the program and her students’ bright future in the form of a fundraising concert at Carnegie Hall.

Admittedly, Music of the Heart begs its audience to open their hearts to its Lifetime Movie Network mood – it is Sister Act where the vocally gifted ghetto grade-schoolers are violently shushed and have violins shoved in their hands. As a whole, it will likely only penetrate the hearts of teachers and forgiving audience members willing to overlook, or bear with, its heavy-handed, desperate entreaties. If not for an electric performance from Streep, this would’ve been nothing more than the same old underdog story; and while the venerable actress does great work, no amount of thespianism can save this sensationalized film from its own predictable self.

The Echo Bridge Entertainment/Miramax Triple Feature DVD of Music of the Heart has a surprisingly clean look with its 1.85:1 aspect ratio and its Dolby Digital sound, formatted with a crisp and vibrant blend of SDDS/DTS. The quality of sound is especially penetrating during the concert finale set in Carnegie Hall. The DVD features no bonus material and offers little more than a chapter selection on the menu.

[Rating: 2.5]

The Shipping News

Kevin Spacey’s introvert-recluse Quoyle in The Shipping News is precisely what his father cursed him to be: a failure. We painfully trudge alongside Spacey’s quirky well-to-do protagonist who is ever-followed by a hovering black cloud. Whether it was Spacey’s cold acting choices or Robert Nelson Jacobs’ icy screenwriting that’s to blame for the film’s nearly frozen pacing, the result is the same: a cinematic blizzard of bland. After all, boring is as boring does.

Quoyle is a drab ink setter in New York whose invisible existence is unacknowledged by the world around him. When he meets the wildly slutty Petal (Cate Blanchett), he feels alive for the first time, looking at the overly made up tramp and sincerely confessing, ‘I love you.’ Petal’s fast-paced escapades never skip a beat, even after she gives birth to their daughter Bunny. Tragedy strikes when Quoyle’s love-at-first-sight nosedives in a car off a bridge into a river below, killing her on impact.

It is here the movie is supposed to pick up – but, alas, it doesn’t. Instead Quoyle’s unquenchable sense of melancholy grows into the worst type of self-deprecation – one without any humor. This sense of cumbersome sadness is effectively carried by the steady cinematic hand of director Lasse Hallstrom.

When Quoyle’s Aunt Agnis (Judi Dench) appears out of the New York smog, she suggests the three of them head back to their ancestral home in Newfoundland, asking, ‘What place on earth can be better than the place your people came from?’

There is no resistance from Quoyle, though a running theme in the film is his hydrophobia  which began as a child when his dad kicked him into a river to learn to swim. Quoyle’s journey is depicted time and again by this image of drowning – and, regrettably, we are there to witness the scene struggle that ensues.

Quoyle takes a liking to his disturbed daughter’s daycare provider in Julianne Moore (as Wavey), though the chemistry is lacking. And with a protagonist whose most exciting feat is publishing an article that contradicts the wishes of his arrogant editor, this movie makes for one sluggish journey to a man’s great awakening that, ‘If the legends are real, a broken man can heal.’

Hallstrom’s attempts to bring a mystical Brigadoon to the screen through the Newfoundies of the Northern Sea seems half-committed and too obvious, relying on voiceovers and speechifying exposition from various characters of the small fishing village in which Quoyle and family now reside. Sure, the aerial shots of the snow-covered landscape and the rickety ancestral home evoke some sense of romanticism, but, in general, Hallstrom’s insistence of Northern magic escapes the lens.

Echo Bridge Entertainment’s DVD Triple Pack Feature offers a nice clear picture (especially in capturing the mystic landscapes surrounding Newfoundland), accentuated by a delightful Northern soundtrack .

[Rating: 1.5]

Studio: Vinegar Syndrome

Theatrical Release: 1977

DVD Release: March 12th, 2013

Rating: UnRated!

Directed by Anthony Spinelli

Review by Craig Sorensen

OK, so I’ve a confession to make.  Sex films don’t really do that much for me.  I mean, I enjoy a naked lady but watching people have sex just isn’t that interesting to me.  I usually just get bored.  It’s up to the plot of the film to keep me interested.  So I don’t usually delve into the genre.  I’m not particularly well versed in the conventions.  And it doesn’t bother me.  It’s something that I can live without.  Now, there were talented people who worked in hardcore films and there are a few films that I like (Naked Came The Stranger comes to mind – no pun intended) so I’m not trying to disparage the whole genre, it’s just on a whole I get bored easily.  So, I like a plot with a sense of humor and ridiculous dialog.  I get one film that kind of fits the bill here with Vinegar Syndrome’s new vintage fuck-film double feature.

The first film in our double bill is Expectations.  Our main character Margo (Delania Raffino) is bored with her life (and bores me with her constant narration).  So she answers a personal ad from the local paper and ends up swapping lives with another woman with a bad boob job named Montana (Chris Cassidy).  So obviously Montana is a kinky kind of girl and Margo ends up sleeping around quite a bit.  There’s sex with a guy who has the prerequisite ‘70s mustache (Joey Silvera) and another woman.  Montana, meanwhile, gets it on with Margo’s eyepatch wearing brother (who’s patch switches sides a few times-my favorite part of the film).  And that’s about it.

Our second feature presentation is Confessions.  This one’s also about a bored housewife (Kristine Heller) who isn’t getting enough sex.  So she sleeps around.  She sleeps with her husband’s boss, some guy on a motorcycle (she doesn’t fuck him on the cycle), a submissive guy and his wife.  And that’s about it for the plot of that one.

Expectations is pretty dour stuff.  Really, I just found the film way too serious.  Confessions is much lighter and I was able to have more fun with it.  Both films though seemed to drag on.  I actually ended up fast forwarding through the sex scenes to get to the plot.  The sex is a lot more entertaining in fast motion but I’m pretty sure that’s not how the director wanted his films seen.  I don’t think that the films were particularly bad or anything (I’m sure they met all the expectations that they set out to), it’s just, again, sex-films don’t do anything for me.  Still, if you’re into this sort of thing then you’ll probably have a good time.  The films are incredibly ‘70s (‘70s bush, Mr. Klein).  The sets, costumes and music couldn’t be anymore ‘70s.

Both films look pretty good on DVD, for what they are.  The prints used aren’t in perfect shape, there are plenty of scratches and the soundtracks can get a little crackly and hissy.  Detail can be a little soft in some scenes as well.  These problems don’t really distract from the presentation though.  If anything, they sort of add to the sleazy atmosphere.  Colors on both film are pretty good looking though.  Expectations looks a little on the pink side but only very very slightly.  Out of the two films, I’d say Confessions looks the best.  Colors look more natural and the print seems to be in better shape.  There doesn’t seem to be any extra features to speak of.  You do get two features though so what more do you want?

[Rating: 2]

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Theatrical Release: June 5, 1936

DVD release: April 15, 2013

Director: John G. Blystone

Not Rated

Review by Richard Rey

Jane Withers stars as Judy Devlin, a mischievous orphan with a big heart, in Little Miss Nobody. Setting traps for deserved bullies, hosing down snobby kids, and stealing turkey on Thanksgiving day for her fellow foundlings are just a few of the pranks that ensue in this classic 1936 film from Laurel and Hardy director John G. Blystone. Having directed 108 titles, most of them shorts, between 1915 and 1938, Little Miss Nobody is a peculiar blend of Our Gang humor with a dash of Cagney-gangster to boot.

Judy is admired and idolized at the Sunshine Home by the other orphans – being held in particularly high regard by her best friend Mary Dorsey (Betty Jean Hainey). Judy is the embodiment of child-like love and loyalty towards her band of abandoned grade-schoolers, and she’ll go to great lengths to protect each and every one of them, even if that means getting a demerit or two along the way. Her ‘usual penance’ is served out in a detention room where she writes apologies for her poor behavior on a chalkboard.

When the district attorney of Springfield, New York, Mr. Gerald Dexter (Ralph Morgan) pays the Sunshine Home a visit to find his long lost daughter, Judy realizes that the rich lawyer is none other than her very own father. Having made a pact with her best friend Mary that she wouldn’t leave the orphanage unless the family would adopt them both, Judy quickly switches the belongings in her arrival box with the contents of Mary’s. Taking Mary for his own daughter Mr. Dexter informs Mary that Judy can’t come home with them. It is at that point that Judy realizes the opportunity this could afford the sweet girl she’s come to know so well, and so she throws a fit and yells at her to she’ll leave the home.

After the pig-tailed well-to-do Judy is charged with incorrigibility by the orphanage’s director, Martha Bradley (Jane Darwell), for her disobedience, she is sent off to reform school where the looming threat of towering walls, schoolgirl uniforms and strict codes await her. She manages to slip away en route, running tirelessly to a local pet store owned by Mr. Russell (Harry Carey), a kind man caught in a pickle with the mafia.

It is almost unnatural the way the tone shifts between the lighthearted children’s humor and the somewhat violent nature of the mafia boss out to get Russell, affectionately called Uncle John by the naïve Judy. The more the mafia is involved, the less watchable the film becomes. It’s a unique choice by director Blystone to even attempt something like this (especially when everything prior to this has been so incredibly squeaky clean), and in that regard I applaud his high risk-taking. On the other hand, I would’ve been much more satisfied with the nice helping of shenanigans provided by the orphans.

As light as a feather, the comedy proceeding from a world run by orphans is one I only wish I could’ve taken part in. From the dancing and singing to the kindhearted instructors, this Leave It To Beaver portrayal of orphanage life is one where greedy men like Mr. Slade (Clarence Wilson) always get what’s coming – even when they’re right. No, you won’t find much accuracy in this corny family flick, but you will find heart and irresistible charm. Full of classic gags including an infectious scene featuring a goofy dog-trainer and his defiantly clever pups, this 20^th Century Fox Cinema Archive release is endearingly entertaining. Expect laughs, adventure and an edgy, happy ending in this film that provided plenty of wishful thinking for its Great Depression audience.

Twentieth Century Fox’s DVD version of this black and white classic includes no special features but the fact that this 77-year-old film is kept intact lends to its cinematic value.

[Rating: 4]

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Theatrical Release: October 13, 2006

Blu Ray Release: March 5, 2013

Director: Michael O. Sajbel

PG

Review by James Klein

Been staring at the computer for about five minutes, trying to think of what to say. Screw it, I’m gonna be blunt. One Night With the King is terrible. I can’t come up with anything witty or clever to say so I’ll get right down to it. One Night With the King is a real chore to get through, especially when clocking in at 123 minutes. Try staying awake during this one. It makes Lincoln look like The Expendables.

This “epic” (tedious is a better word) is about the life of Hadassah (Tiffany Dupont), a Jewish orphan whose family was slaughtered and left for dead to someday grow up to be Esther, Queen of Persia. The film jumps focus constantly from Hadassah to King Xerxes (Luke Goss) who has his Queen banished from his kingdom because she doesn’t agree with him politically (?). It was very unclear as to why he banished her other than his nobles mocking him at a dinner feast. So Xerxes and his eunuch Hegai (Tommy “Tiny” Lister) seek out various young women to be his Queen. Guess who gets picked? But when the state has decried that all Jews  are to be put to death, Hadassah’s hidden secret is in jeopardy as well as her life.

Most of the actors are horribly miscast for this historical film. Many of them look like they walked out of GQ magazine, some with very little acting ability. Dupont, while beautiful, is just awful. Granted, her Shakesperian-like dialog is groan inducing and at times laughable, but she can’t even try to make these shitty lines work. Goss also tries too hard to look “cool” and is just as bad. And what the hell is Tommy “Tiny” Lister doing in this? Watching him tear up while Hadassah reads a story is enough to make you wanna laugh or shut the film off right away. And don’t let the blu ray cover fool you, Peter O’Toole is barely in this film and has two or three lines. He doesn’t share the screen with his old co-star Omar Sharif from Lawrence of Arabia either much to my disappointment.

But don’t let the acting ruin the entire film. Throw in some awful editing and camera tricks with over use of slow motion (fuck you 300) and some really bad green screen and CGI. How about some cliché chanting music too, like in Gladiator? Then there is the script…oh wow. Yeah its a mess. The dialog is bad, its boring, it doesn’t make any sense because it jumps around so much…ugh.

What can I say that’s nice? The costumes look lovely and the location and scenery are pretty. The blu ray by 20th Century Fox is very nice to look at as the picture and sound are top notch and very appeasing to the viewer. The blu ray even comes with an audio commentary by the screen writer and producers. No, they don’t apologize for One Night With the King.

[Rating: 1.5]

Studio: Phase 4 Films

Theatrical Release: May 3, 2013 (limited)

Director: Adam Christian Clark

Not Rated

Review by Richard Rey

Caroline’s (Marguerite Moreau) obsession with her sister Jackie (Bitsie Tulloch) is more than just a little off. Adulation this excessive and this twisted merits incarceration in the loony bin or, at the very least, a big fat restraining order.

This visit to her younger sister’s home has Caroline especially tickled since she has plans to throw a surprise party at a local restaurant where Jackie’s closest friends, James (Jason Gray-Stanford) Michelle (Valerie Azlynn) and her most recent flavor of the week, Charlie (David Fruit), and Jackie’s attractive boyfriend, Ryan (David Giuntoli), are all in on the birthday bash.

Even more startling than the dinner is Caroline’s incessant resolve that everyone return to the house to gather rather than finish the hot plates of food they’ve just been served. Awkwardly aggressive in her mannerisms, Marguerite Moreau plays Caroline with the quiet, sincere, overprotective attitude these type of people really have; that’s what makes her so damned scary and unpredictable. She goes to the extent of pulling out a “family photo” of the best time the close-knit sisters had together – a picture of Jackie’s broken arm (shown off camera, thank god) that acts as some sort of sick perverted memento of Caroline’s caring nature.

When Caroline and company get home, they confess the real reason for the gathering: Jackie’s addictive behavior and anorexia. From then on things take a hard left turn for the worst, skidding out of control through the dark pathological defects that might just crash us right into the neighboring Virginia Woolf’s front yard.

Unfortunately, this lengthy intervention scene becomes so incredibly wacky and off-putting, you’ll want to either laugh or crawl out of the theater to avoid the painful discomfort and terrible dialogue. The film’s initial success at getting us to ask what is really going on quickly turns into the mother/girlfriend nagging you narrowly escaped on the way to the movie theater.

First time feature film maker and writer-director Adam Christian Clark, a USC film school grad, makes sure to tack on just enough visual appeal to trick audience members into staying in their seats to watch the 85 grueling minutes of bickering between two basket case sisters and their nonstop shenanigans.  In essence, two emotionally unstable ladies have just arrived from Psychotown with claws out, teeth-bearing, and knives in hand and they’ve managed to trap their pals from Dunceville in the living room to watch them go at it.  No person in their right mind would stick it out for an emotionally draining exhibition like this. Then again we’re not talking about intelligent, stable people now are we? (That’s the point of the movie, after all, isn’t it?) Instead we are left to deal with underwritten supporting characters that frankly resemble the idiotic teens of slasher movies; the problem is, Leatherface didn’t get an invite.

While its start is satisfyingly uncomfortable, its end is the pinnacle of mental exhaustion; a whiny annoying onslaught between the two nutty brunettes. Something must be said of their powerful turns which were somehow drawn out of this lethal material. What masquerades as a story of profound sisterly love is really the following message: support, protect, defend and completely enable loved ones even when they’re terribly wrong and undoubtedly in need of psychological help.

[Rating: 1.5]

Studio: Anchor Bay Films

Blu Ray Release: April 23, 2013

Director: David A. Armstrong

R

Review by James Klein

Pawn is one of those movies you used to see at the video store where the cover lists a bunch of well known actors, making you wonder why the movie never went to theaters or why you haven’t heard about it before. When you do finally watch the movie, the actors you were anticipating in seeing are barely in the film, collecting a quick paycheck. On top of that, the rest of the cast is so awful and dragged down by a horrible screenplay that it all becomes clear why this wasn’t at your local multiplex.

Michael Chiklis (who also produced) stars as an English bank robber who, with the aid of two other men, decide to rob a diner which may be run by a Mafioso who turns into one of the hostages. While the robbery is taking place, they are interrupted by a police officer (Whitaker) who may or may not be on the take and has something to do with all of this going on. But are the robbers alone? Or do they have some outside help by the people who hired them? Is it really money they are after? While questions are being asked with barely an explanation, the audience is succumbed to constant flashbacks in the story on what happened prior to the robbery as well as a flash forward of a detective (Ray Liotta who seems to be sleep walking through this film) interrogating someone at a hospital who was in the diner during the robbery. At times I had no idea what the hell was going on and I think Pawn wants you to be confused to make you think what an intelligent screenplay it is. By moving the film along with some action and screaming, the movie does go by fast and at times is entertaining. But is this a con since the screenplay is an absolute mess?

Pawn tries too hard to be like The Usual Suspects, even borderline ripping off the hospital scene. Pawn tries to keep the viewer guessing as whose part of what or who is double crossing who. If one really thinks about it, the movie is just ridiculous. This convoluted story is a joke and completely unbelievable. It doesn’t help that the acting is all over the map from decent, (Stephen Lang and Whitaker) to over the top / unintentionally hilarious, (Chiklis and Sean Faris) to down right atrocious (Common).

Even though Pawn is a mess of a film, it does move along fairly quickly thanks to some spontaneous kills as well as first time director Armstrong’s knack for moving the camera around in such tight quarters. I love over the top bad guys and Chiklis was a joy to watch, screaming and swearing throughout with his bad British accent. Chiklis is a great actor and The Shield is still one of my all-time favorite TV shows but he is horribly miscast in this film.

The blu ray by AnchorBay looks great and the 5.1 surround worked very well on my speakers with sirens and gun shots coming from all over. There is a short behind the scenes featurette on the making of the film with just the actors talking about why or how they signed on to make this film. I would have loved a Chiklis commentary but unfortunately there is none.

I need to go to a used DVD/CD store and “pawn” off Pawn.

[Rating: 2]

Studio: Focus World / Tribeca Film

Theatrical Release: May 3, 2013

Director: Daniel Algrant

Not Rated

Review by Richard Rey

This mostly melancholic drama based on the life of folk singer Tim Buckley and his son Jeff Buckley is slow as molasses, but just as sweet. Full of romantic indie bits that draw sincere turns from its lead actors, Greetings from Tim Buckley is a stirring father-son drama that errs in its attempt to use music and fortune cookie wisdom to resolve one of life’s most trying problems.

Completely abandoned by his father Tim (Ben Rosenfield) at birth, Jeff Buckley (Penn Badgley), an undiscovered singer-songwriter, has a deep seeded envy and hatred toward the estranged folk legend that died of a drug overdose at 28.

Invited to perform at a tribute concert dedicated to his father’s illustrious career, Jeff has to confront the man’s looming shadow onstage in the form of past industry colleagues, fans, friends, and music. Shot in a parallel fashion, the film wisely elects to portray moments in the lives of these two young men living in different decades (Tim in 1966 and Jeff in 1991), offering us the harmonies and discords between the two strangers.

Its hauntingly deft mood is balanced by a well-scripted love twine involving Jeff and a backstage technician named Allie (Imogen Poots). The chemistry between the two is beautifully captured by director Daniel Algrant and sparks some much needed laughs.

Greetings from Tim Buckley is more haunting than it is depressing, and more musical than it is miserable; still, this painfully gnawing tale of a troubled young man’s journey to know his lost father is mostly black. While Algrant captures the essence of what it is to be young, carefully shifting between the two timelines without causing much distraction, there is something very cockeyed in the representation of Tim Buckley: he is forever treated as the haunting ghost of fatherly past, but never as the deadbeat dad that he actually is.

Problems surface in the plot as well in the form of music: if the undeniably catchy tunes elevate the movie’s strong beginning, then they also cause it to fall that much further in its second and third acts. The problem and answer to nearly everything seems to be music. At one point Jeff sinks into an even deeper, more outward state of despair in the presence of his affectionate love interest who begins to sing to him a cappella (presumably to cheer him up), resolving the issue and dismissing the conflict at once.

As the movie slugs its way along, it becomes increasingly evident that the melody of this drama will require a very patient, sappy moviegoer. And one who doesn’t mind the music superseding the cinema. A possible solution to the struggle brewing deep beneath the surface is awkwardly touched on in a Chinese fortune cookie, “Everything in life is everywhere else – and you get there in a car.” Ambiguity is both unsettling and unconvincing in a movie whose plot requires that its protagonist know how he feels and why he’s gone to a tribute concert for a man he hardly knew and so deeply disdained. While Badgley’s performance is outstanding – there’s an especially magical improvised scene in a record store where Badgley’s serenades Allie -  he sometimes comes across as a bratty wannabe, jealous of his father’s success and wanting nothing more than to be as far away from the concert as possible. Question is, why does he stay?

By the end, we’ve pretty much figured out the filmmakers intentions versus what’s on screen – one is much more convoluted than the other. We evince less of a concrete change in this confused, passionate young man’s relationship with his father and more of one whose musicality will lead him to further venues (something we picked up on roughly fifteen minutes in). It’s not that music can’t change him it’s just that in this film, on the screen, heart in hand, for Jeff it didn’t. And that’s a climax we won’t soon forget.

The emotion and meaning are tangible in this overlong heartfelt drama – trouble is that fortune cookie ambiguity is no real answer to life’s most painful events. So go see it, just be sure to enjoy the cookie and throw the fortune to the wind.

[Rating: 3]