Highly Recommended "From the heart comes a warning filled with bloody good cheer, remember what happened as the 14th draws near..."The MovieIs it possible that after nearly three decades, the "missing" footage from 1981's My Bloody Valentine has finally been inserted back into the film? Has this classic from Slasherdom's Golden Era finally been restored to its original form, stitched back together after being hacked to pieces by the MPAA machete? Yes, fellow fanatics, it is true, and I'm in horror heaven! Please don't wake me from this bloody wet dream come true...My Bloody Valentine arrived at the height of the American slasher craze. After Black Christmas, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (both in 1974) and Halloween ('78) laid the groundwork--and set a...Read the entire review

Highly Recommended TheSeries: When Geneon announced that they were stopping their NorthAmerican operations that one title that was really gnashing my teethovermissing was When They Cry.  This seriesis truly unusual and unique with an unusual set of characters and anovel wayof telling a story.  Happily FUNimationstepped up to the plate and released the rest of the series.  Woo-hoo! Volume four continues to dish out the chills and contains one ofthemost horrific episodes to date.  Youwon't want to miss it. Series background: Keiichi ...Read the entire review

Rent It Assuming most anyone clicking on this has some knowledge of mixed martial arts, lets get right to it shall we? Las Vegas, NV. July 5th, 2008. A bunch of men fought on pay per view.First of all, in the opening prelims, we see in the background evidence of the jaded Vegas audience. Fight fans inexplicably pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in tickets but don't show up for the early fights leaving the bleachers sparsely occupied. This is also true of boxing and for the life of me I'll never understand it. To me its like buying a movie ticket and walking into the theater an hour late.Corey Hill Vs. Justin Buchholz- Corey Hill is 6'4 and fights as a lightweight. His arms and legs appear to be about the same circumference as a Ultra Fine Point Sharpie and his ribs and spine are so defined under his skin, one imagines he could get Sally Struthers to be one of his fight sponsors. For the m...Read the entire review

Recommended The Movie:Directed by Anthony Leondis (the same man who brought us Lilo & Stitch 2!) 2008's Igor is the story of the titular hunchback (voiced by John Cusack) who toils day in, day out as a laboratory assistant for a mad scientist whose base of operations happens to be in the dismal, dreary and dark land of Malaria. Igor, however, is not all that happy in his role as a laboratory assistant and he hopes to blow the mad scientific community's mind one day with his own developments in the wide world of creature creation.Igor toils away on his own project and eventually decides he's ready to unveil his creation - a female monster named Eva (Molly Shannon) - but she turns out to be far, far to kind and caring and Igor is left wondering what to do about his creation and about his own ambition, not only in terms of where he wants his life to go but in terms of how he'...Read the entire review

Rent It The Show:The romance comedy genre sure is a popular one when it comes to anime, but Suzuka feels different somehow. Originally released in 2005, this 26 episode anime features a heavy amount of play with humor, love, and sports all playing equal roles. The show has become a staple for FUNimation and has garnered its own audience, but in case you missed it the first time around Suzuka has just been repackaged for a thinpak boxed set. The series follows the exploits of Yamato Akitsuki, who is your average high school kid with an interest in girls, but not much knowledge regarding the ways of love. Feeling the need for change, Yamato up and moved to the city to live with his aunt at her bathhouse dormitory. While touring his new school he sees a beautiful girl training for track and field and performing the high jump. He is immediately smitten with this cutie an...Read the entire review

Highly Recommended TheSeries: When Geneon announced that they were stopping their NorthAmerican operations that one title that was really gnashing my teethovermissing was When They Cry. This seriesis truly unusual and unique with an unusual set of characters and anovel wayof telling a story. Happily FUNimationstepped up to the plate and released the rest of the series. Woo-hoo! Though it's been a while since I screened the previous disc,volume 3quickly reminded me why I enjoyed this grim and scary show. Series background: Keiichi Maebara is a teenager who has just moved to thesmall rural village of Hinamizawa, and is hav...Read the entire review

Highly Recommended Filmmaker Margaret Brown (Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt) claims that she didn't set out to make a film about race, or at least not mainly about race, but rather that the story emerged in the editing. That may well be true, but The Order of Myths is the most poignant documentary I've seen about race relations in America in a long time. The native of Mobile, Alabama set out to objectively document the pageantry of her hometown's Mardi Gras. Mobile's Mardi Gras dates back to 1703, making it the oldest in the United States, so naturally its citizenry is proud of its carnival, but there's also a sense of defensiveness about it. You see, long after most of America gave up on "separate but equal" as public policy, Mobile still maintains a racially-segregated Mardi Gras. Though the product of a liberal arts education at Brown University and NYU, Filmmaker Margaret Br...Read the entire review

Rent It Acorn Media has released the 2007 BBC Four adaptation of Fanny Hill, the 18th century John Cleland pseudo-memoir that is generally regarded as the first erotic novel of Western literature. Adapted by the "inventive" Andrew Davies (Brideshead Revisited) and directed by James Hawes (who helmed the excellent The Chatterley Affair, which I reviewed here), Fanny Hill ultimately comes off as a charmless, cold thing, hampered by an utterly confused approach to its diffused themes (is there morality in purely sexual pleasure? Do we accommodate our morality based on our circumstances?), as well as by its surprisingly muffed approached to its eroticism....Read the entire review

Recommended The Movie:He'll take you to the brink of reality On October 28, 2008, Synapse Films released several cult titles on DVD that had been previously made available by Elite Entertainment. One such title was Thirst, an unusual pseudo-vampire flick made in Australia back in 1978. If you haven't caught this movie before, and you're a horror and / or vampire fan, then Thirst is definitely a title you'll want to check out. You can read my review of it here.Another Australian curiosity concurrently released on that date by Synapse was Dark Forces, a 1980 production that feels more than a bit like a mishmash of The Omen and Rasputin. I was completely unaware of this movie before receiving it to review, but I was pleasantly surprised with the intelligence of the script and the performances of the le...Read the entire review

Recommended The Movie:By kindergarten, every child learns that water is the source of life. But as long as we aren't stranded in the desert or staring down an albatross in the middle of a salty ocean, we tend to take it for granted. Irena Salina's documentary Flow makes the convincing case that the safety, cleanliness and availability of water is at risk of vanishing in a cloud of corporate profits.The film contains a remarkable body of information and interviews on a myriad of diverging topics, ranging from volatile chemicals in some US supplies to corporate control of third-world water. While the expansive subject matter requires some jumping around, Flow paces each segment very well. In just 84 minutes, Salina provides a crash course on the problems and their potential solutions.The most compelling segments depict the privatization of water in developing societies that haven't...Read the entire review

Rent It Released to DVD exactly one day prior to its broadcast debut on PBS, Make 'Em Laugh - The Funny Business of America (2009) features hours of hilarious clips - from classic sitcoms, revered two-reel comedies, rare footage capturing great stand-up acts - while its interview subjects, a Who's Who of Comedy, from Sid Caesar and Mort Sahl to Chris Rock and Bill Maher - some 90 comedians (and cultural historians) in all - have endlessly fascinating things to say about their craft, especially about those who shaped their own careers. And yet Make 'Em Laugh is an unmitigated disaster of a documentary. The six-part series squanders a mountain of incredible raw material in myriad ways, though chiefly by trying to cover too much ground in too little time, and because of some incredibly bad decision-making about how to organize everything. It's almost heartbreaking to watch: we may never see so ma...Read the entire review

Skip It "If all the gay people are going to hell, where else would I want to go?What am I going to do...go to heaven with all the straight people wearing white after Labor Day?" - Jason StuartThe MovieLast month at the D.C. Improv, I saw a show with three comedians--and each had a section devoted to gay-themed jokes. All were harmless, but not all were funny. A month earlier when I saw my boyfriend (who doesn't know it yet) Joel McHale at the Warner Theatre, his opening act also used some homo quips, although the tone made much of the audience slightly uncomfortable (he was fine with gays, just not the flag-waving, flamboyant, parade float ones!). It's good that gays have become a goldmine for comedians, and a sign of progress--people on both sides of the stage are more...Read the entire review

Recommended The Movie:Remember the last time we went through The End of the World ? That was back in the primitive year of 1999, with the clocks angling uncontrollably toward 2000, when, of course, all hell was going to break loose. Ooops. Well, then for certain it was going to be 2001. Oooops. Fear not (actually, more appropriately, fear on), for the next End of the World is a mere four years away, on December 21, 2012, when according to Mayan prophecy all hell is going to break loose. Or maybe not. It all depends on what happens then.That, in a nutshell, is the gist of 2012: Science or Superstition, an actually pretty nifty little documentary that covers not only the Mayan calendrical system, which ominously ends on that date, but also various other ancient traditions, all of which some of the "experts" (all of whom seem to have written books, which are prominently featured i...Read the entire review

Rent It Mr. Mike's Mondo Video:Michael O'Donoghue was one of the original instigators and writers of Saturday Night Live. Considered a comic genius, terrible migraine headaches lead to his tragic early death in 1994 from a brain aneurysm. Among his many writing credits, one lone directing credit glows weirdly, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video from 1979. What was originally intended to be a pinch-hit replacement for SNL (which was originally slated to air three weeks a month, with Mr. Mike taking the fourth Saturday) proved too damn bizarre - too dangerous - for TV. Somehow the thing managed to procure first-run status in theaters, where it proved too damn bizarre - too dangerous - for audiences. (One report had angry theatergoers pulling a Baltimore ticket seller out of his booth, beating him in an effort to obtain refunds.) Mr. Mike's Mondo Video claws out a place in my Top 100 (50? 10?) of cult movies - at...Read the entire review

Skip It THE FILMA pox, a pox I say, on the house of the individual who first told Rainn Wilson he was a funny man. For the inconsiderate moose that decided to open their trap and inspire this actor, I wish them the same discomfort I suffered while enduring Wilson's first starring effort, "The Rocker." Enjoying the rising success of his '80's metal band Vesuvius, drummer Robert "Fish" Fishman (Rainn Wilson) is floored when his band mates (including Fred Armisen, Bradley Cooper, and Will Arnett) fire him. Now 20 years later, Fish is stuck in a series of soul-sucking jobs, living in his sister's attic. When nephew Matt (Jack Black photocopy Josh Cad, "21") asks Fish to join his band A.D.D. (including Teddy Geiger and the gifted Emma Stone) for a few gigs, the lon...Read the entire review

Recommended The First SeasonCrime 360 is a television documentary series from A&E Television Network. It is a crime documentary about police investigations and has a unique prospective using computer generated imagery (CGI) to rebuild the crime scene. Using the CGI crime scenes, the detectives are able to combine good old fashion investigative techniques and forensic data to piece together what really happened. As for the quality of the series, Crime 360 proves to be an entertaining experience for those who enjoy the genre.The show's first season has eleven episodes, which follow various police detectives as they respond to the call and work through solving the case. The show highlights case work from two different major cities, Richmond, VA, and Cleveland, OH. As previously mentioned, the rebuilding of crime scenes using CGI gives the show its unique edge. The case detectives ...Read the entire review

Recommended YA Entertainment, the major publisher of Korean dramas onDVD here in the US,has recently released the second half of I Really, Really Like You, acharmingand enjoyable show that's a lot of fun to watch.  Ireviewed the first season earlier (read thereview here)and have been looking forward to the conclusion.  I'mhappy to report that the second half iseven more engaging than the first and, like the earlier half, containsseveraltwists and surprises for poor Bong-soon. Series background:&n...Read the entire review

Rent It After the UFC found success on Spike TV with The Ultimate Fighter (or just TUF) reality show and its live fight finale in 2005, they quickly capitalized by starting a series of live fight cards on the channel and gave mixed martial arts fans their first chance to see UFC events outside of home video and pay per view. Ultimate Fight Nights now, more or less, air every couple of months. At the time of this DVD release (Sept. '08), there had been a total of 15 Ultimate Fight Nights.The one caveat to this great deal of free fight cards on basic cable is that unlike the usual UFC ppv's, one assumes (I dug around for answers and couldn't find anything concrete) the co-production deal with Spike must make for some kind of sticky rights issue, so the UFN series has remained unreleased on DVD. So far, after nearly three years and dozens of cards, all we have are these planned "Best Of" releases. This ...Read the entire review

Rent It A series clearly in artistic decline. Warner Bros. has released The Waltons - The Complete Eighth Season, which includes all 24 one-hour episodes of the 1979-1980 season, on three flipper discs. With World War II in full swing, the Walton family rallies to the patriotic call of supporting their country, fracturing the close-knit mountain family beyond recognition. While this season admirably addresses mature, life-affirming themes and storylines that no one was interested in in 1979's bubble gum-obsessed American pop culture TV, key cast losses (and some unconvincing scrambling by the series' writers to explain them away) seriously impacted the effectiveness of the season's overall aesthetic. The single best TV drama of the 1970s, was stumbling to an end.Read the entire review

Rent It "Be honest, even if it hurts." - JasonThe MovieIf The Big Chill ditched the dead body and made all its characters queer, it would look something like 3-Day Weekend--a film where four gay friends take a weekend trip to a cabin nestled in the beautiful outdoors. Hoping to shake up their routine, the gang decides that each of them must invite a single guest to "spice" things up. And by "spice", I mean "sex".Middle-aged couple Jason (Douglas Myers) and Simon (Derek Meeker) are the hosts, joined by generation-gap couple Cooper, 48 (Derek Long) and Ace, 25 (Stephen Twardokus). The party crashers are Mac (Chris Carlisle), Jason's young, shy co-worker; Andre (Daniel Rhyder), an escort that Simon frequently hires yet still keeps secret from open-relationship ...Read the entire review

Highly Recommended After slogging through a batch of deadly dull Inspector Alleyn Mysteries back in 2005, I was more than a little wary of other low-key, understated British mysteries shows. But I had always enjoyed the work of Peter Davison, the star of The Last Detective (2003-2007); American viewers may remember him as Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small, or as Campion. He had a strong following as the Fifth Doctor on Doctor Who, though in recent years he seems to have slipped in the rankings among that show's fan base. (I thought he was fine, but the show was going downhill at that point.) Davison creates another memorable characterization as The Last Detective, but it's the show itself that's the real surprise. Yes it's low-key and eccentric, and while some of the eccentri...Read the entire review

Highly Recommended The Show:Welcome to the N.H.K. is yet another one of those series that was once in ADV's hands, but now finds a welcome home in FUNimation's catalogue of titles. The recent shift has made America's largest anime publisher even stronger and with a more robust selection there's even more reason for otaku to fawn over them. In the case of N.H.K. FUNimation finds themselves with a unique show on their hands. N.H.K. got its start back in 2002 with a novel by Tatsuhiko Takimoto which was later turned into a manga in 2004 and then an anime in 2006. As far as the anime is concerned it's worth mentioning that the series was produced by Gonzo, and if you're familiar with any of their works you probably already know that the series looks good. The animation house has a knack for quality and considering N.H.K.'s interesting pedigree, there's plenty of mater...Read the entire review

Rent It The host of this compilation is Anonymous Voice Over Guy. In the past UFC has gone with windbag commentator Mike Goldberg, or fighters like Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin, but in recent years they have increasingly been taking their cues from NFL Films and HBO 24/7 boxing series by going with Anonymous Voice Over Guy and I think it is an excellent choice. It is that basic combo of a good montage and godlike narration that really imparts an air of seriousness.The compilation includes the following eleven bouts: Pete Sell Vs. Scott Smith (The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale)- An excellent way to begin because this fight has gone down in history for its dramatic conclusion. The first round is fairly uneventful with both men cheerily high fiving each other and smiling between bouts of bad kickboxing and squared up slugging. Then, in round two, Sell lands a perfect left hook to the body which wilts Smi...Read the entire review

Recommended The Seventh SeasonJAG: Judge Advocate General is about the judicial body of the United States Navy, Judge Advocate General's corps (JAG). The individuals who serve in JAG are military officers with specializations in legal matters; they are military lawyers. JAG officers investigate, prosecute, and defend crimes involving persons and property connected to the Navy and Marine Corps. Their investigations take them all over the world, wherever U.S. military presence may be. The crimes include homicide, treason, espionage, terrorism, conspiracies, hostage situations, and other criminal acts. For more details about this series, refer to DVD Talk's reviews of season one,season two, season three, Read the entire review

Rent It THE FILMOne of the first sounds introduced in the comedy "Surfer, Dude" is a bongo. I couldn't dream of a more ideal way to start off a Matthew McConaughey vanity film than with a light bongo beat, guaranteeing the picture holds 100% McConaugheyness and that, at some point, the actor was nude during the scoring session. I only wish the finished product was as amusing as the behind-the-scenes pot-fueled merriment I imagine took place during production. A top surfer, Steve Addington (Matthew McConaughey) lives by his own whims, surviving on a steady stream of marijuana, endorsement checks, and perfect Malibu waves. When a ruthless surf mogul (Jeffrey Nordling) purchases Steve's contract, he demands the laid back surf star to join a reality show and sign away his likeness and surfboard moves for a virtual reality video game. Steve, not used to being bullied, declines, retreating to...Read the entire review

Rent It "Kids have stupid dreams...have fun, make the most of it, indulge.That's what life's all about." -MarkThe MovieThe tagline to this Canadian indie proclaims that two halves don't always make a whole. For once there's truth in advertising: Despite some intriguing characters and solid performances, this 64-minute flick--too long to be a short, too short to be a feature--is only half a movie.It's a shame, because first-time writer/director Adam Santangelo reeled me into this world of two best friends--but fell short of closing the deal. With about 25 more minutes, the film could have explored some plotlines only hinted at and developed its two protagonists a little more. As it stands, Half a Person is a respectable slice-of-life story about an odd couple of s...Read the entire review

Rent It "I lose track of time. Does that happen to you? I can't remember if something happened four minutes ago or four years from now." - AndyThe MovieThere's a 99 percent chance that a low-budget indie film targeted toward gay men will have some skin on its DVD box cover. And while I frequently decry the practice as an unfortunate marketing ploy that cheapens the film and the audience's intelligence, I'd be lying if I said it never works. And with the handsome face and toned pecs of Paul Preiss staring at me, it explains why--when I had a stack of films to watch--I started with Dog Tags (shameful, I know, but I'm only human). And you can't judge a movie by its DVD cover, right?Preiss plays Nate, a former mechanic and community college dropout who lives in his ...Read the entire review

Recommended The Product:Though critics like to complain about it, there's a reason that Pixar is the gold standard of CG animation - and it's readily available for viewing at your local video store in the "Family Film" section. Looking over the crap they call 3D cartooning - Fly Me to the Moon, Space Chimps, Delgo - it's not hard to see why the minds behind Wall-E, The Incredibles, and Finding Nemo are considered consistent gods. That doesn't mean there aren't worthwhile computer-based efforts out there - partner Disney has Bolt, and for those who prefer their humor on the hackneyed side, there's always the (im)potent Ice Age/Shrek combo. Perhaps the lack of legitimate contenders to the virtual pen and ink throne is why it's so hard to make a dent in the House of Mouse/Toy Story behemoth. For every effort like Ratatouille, ther...Read the entire review

Rent It The Product: Videogame enthusiasts should sue. Hollywood clearly thinks they're idiots. How else could you explain the rampant subpar treatment many of their favorite franchises receive at the hands of tepid Tinsel Town talent? For every Silent Hill (an arguably superior take of the material), there's a bevy of Resident Evil rubbish. At least comic book movies get the benefit of a theatrical doubt. The minute a bumbling VG violation occurs, the coffers close up and tickets sales just tank. So clearly, Playstatio-nation will support something of quality and respect. Guess that leaves Max Payne out of the mix. This fairly innocuous offering, tempered by the weirdest last act visual shift since movies went Technicolor, will probably please the novice. But purists may balk at the liberties taken, and the unusual dip into derivative detective noir territory.The Plot: Read the entire review

Rent It The Product: It remains one of 2008's most intriguing cinematic stories. Just before its August release, French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz, famous for his breakout drama La Haine, was speaking out to the media about the treatment of his latest film. And he was livid, nay PISSED, at what was happening. After five long years of planning and praying, after months of harsh production elements and massive studio interference, his dream project, Babylon A.D. was about to be unleashed in a version he was not happy with. Apparently, Fox was so despondent over the final cut, they decimated his sci-fi allegory, undermining it with pointless action and sloppy editorial decisions. For a long time Film Geek Nation wondered if we'd ever see the original cut of the film, complete with a different ending and a far darker tone. Well, the DVD release of the title does indeed contain some...Read the entire review

Highly Recommended The Show:Welcome to the N.H.K. is yet another one of those series that was once in ADV's hands, but now finds a welcome home in FUNimation's catalogue of titles. The recent shift has made America's largest anime publisher even stronger and with a more robust selection there's even more reason for otaku to fawn over them. In the case of N.H.K. FUNimation finds themselves with a unique show on their hands. N.H.K. got its start back in 2002 with a novel by Tatsuhiko Takimoto which was later turned into a manga in 2004 and then an anime in 2006. As far as the anime is concerned it's worth mentioning that the series was produced by Gonzo, and if you're familiar with any of their works you probably already know that the series looks good. The animation house has a knack for quality and considering N.H.K.'s interesting pedigree, there's plenty of mater...Read the entire review

Highly Recommended THE MOVIE:Note: Though the main body of this review was written for the Funny Face - 50th Anniversary Edition DVD released in October 2007, the technical details all pertain to the new 2009 Centennial Collection version. Of the two musicals Audrey Hepburn made, it seems that My Fair Lady gets the most attention, but I personally prefer the far more carefree Funny Face to that stodgy old ball of corn. Though both are ostensibly the same kind of Cinderella story that Ms. Hepburn's fame and reputation are built on, she was better suited to the light-hearted nature of this 1957 vehicle. Her character is more quirky than pitiable, and Paris fits her b...Read the entire review

Recommended The Movie:As I write this review, My Bloody Valentine 3D is scheduled for a theatrical release in just a couple weeks. The remake has had an interesting promotional campaign, with a well-designed poster highlighting the miner killer's pickaxe, and the commercial trailer promising 1950s-style 3D thrills. As is often the case with big budget movies with antecedents, there's a home video component to this promotion. Lo and behold, Paramount teams up with Lionsgate to finally release what slasher film fans have been clamoring for, a special edition of the 1981 original that includes an extended version with all the scenes censored out of its theatrical cut. And big surprise, there are extras on the disc meant to whet the appetites of those looking forward to the imminent remake (more on this later on in the review). In 2002, Paramount released a bare bones DVD of My Blood...Read the entire review

Recommended Don't go expecting a concert doc or comprehensive biopic from Patti Smith: Dream of Life. This isn't that. There are a few bits and pieces that fall into those categories here, but not enough of either to satisfy if that's what you've looking for. Eleven years in the making, this is the debut film from fashion photographer Steven Sebring. Smith and Sebring met when she sought him out to photograph her for a spread in Spin Magazine in 1995. He came to her home in Detroit that fall for the shoot. They fell in together easily. She invited him to a New York gig a couple weeks later. He then accompanied her off and on thereafter shooting whatever struck his fancy for a project then undetermined which has, these many years later, culminated in a documentary, Read the entire review

Recommended In 10 Words or LessAn hour of regular-guy complaints and odd observationsReviewer's Bias*Loves: Louis C.K.'s comedy, stand-upLikes: Louis C.K.'s movies and TV showsDislikes: Stand-up DVDs lacking in extrasHates: The ShowLouis C.K is easily one of my favorite active stand-up comics, joining Eddie Izzard, Brian Regan, Patton Oswalt, Zach Galafianakis and Mike Birbiglia in that exclusive pantheon, which pretty cleanly illustrates my taste in stand-up. I like storytellers more than riffers, almost preferring monologuists over comics. Louis C.K. doesn't get into long rambling tales like Izzard or odd stories of personal humiliation like Birbiglia, instead sticking to shorter segments of familial headaches...Read the entire review