THIS MONTH'S SPECIAL EDITION DVD 26/3/07

This month's Special Edition DVD is the Deluxe Collector's Edition 2-Disc Region 1(USA) of "The Boondock Saints" and there are a number of versions of this film available. This version was released in 2006 and I have only just managed to get hold of a copy and sit back and watch it. Coming in a metal case (as above) with an outer slip giving the films details we get this audacious vigilante tale of two brothers (Sean Patrick Flanery & Norman Reedus) taking the fight to the bad guys in Boston. Having successfully hit several top mobsters they end up with another hitman on their tail in the form of Billy Connolly closely followed by an eccentric FBI Agent played by Willem Dafoe. A strange amalgam of violence and drama with a hefty dose of comedy; not only sets you thinking but revels in it's strange storytelling as it jumps back and forth and explanations are given. A mate of mine Spud had put me onto this film a few years back and lent it to me on video - Glad now to have the uncut version on DVD.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Disc One - Two Audio Commentaries and as a flipper disc you can either watch the movie in Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 or Modified Full Screen 1.33:1. Disc 2 - Deleted/Extended Scenes plus Outtakes. Theatrical Trailer with Cast/Crew Filmographies. DVD-ROM Feature with Printable Script.

Feature Runtime: 108 Mins. Rating: 18A Canada. Region 1 NTSC Colour. Sound: 5.1. Dolby EX Surround. Special Features Not Rated. MAPLE 2006. ISBN # 057373171950.

FLUSHED AWAY (DVD Review) - 25/3/07

I'm very happy to have this on DVD at last! I'm sure there will be another release further on down the line but I'm happy just having the film to watch. This film was the straw that broke the camel's back and led to the disintegration of the partnership between Dreamworks and Aardman after the film lost money and supposedly flopped. I say HOORAY for Aardman and carry on making quality animation if it comes out as inventive and good-humoured as this! The thumping ace soundtrack carry's a whole boatload of fun down the sewers of this story from one dazzling scene to the next. Suffice to say upper-class rat Roddy ends up in the sewers below London and needs to get back home and enlists the help of a rat called Rita and fighting off the schemes of various nefarious villains they pluckily save the day.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Filmmaker Commentary, extra Slug Songs - "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" and "Pump It" with Featurettes "The Music Of Flushed Away" and "Meet The Cast". Trailer for "Wallace & Gromit Curse Of The Were-Rabbit" and Dreamworks Animation Jukebox. Dreamworks Kids: Flushed Away Tunes with the Flushed Away Jukebox, Build A Slug, How To Draw Roddy, A Maze Of Pipes Game and further activities on the DVD-ROM feature. With further Trailers for the new Shrek - "Shrek The Third" and new film "Bee Movie".

Languages: English & French 5.1. Dolby plus English & Spanish 2.0 Dolby. Captions: English. CC. Subtitles: English, French & Spanish. Region 1 (USA) NTSC Colour. Widescreen. Runtime: 1 Hr. 24 Mins. Rating: PG. Special Features Not Rated. Aardman/Dreamworks 2006. ISBN # 097361176826.

Me - I love slugs - I do!

ACCEPTED (DVD Rental Review) - 20/3/07

Surprisingly a good natured and warm-hearted "teen" comedy that was so over the top you couldn't not really help liking it! With a fairly high modicum of laughs and all the usual stereotypes in place this tale of a slacker (Played by the very likable Justin Long) is your typical comedy of errors. Totally failing to get into any college that he has applied for he decides to set up his own and turns a local Psychiatric Hospital into the South Harmon Institute of Technology or S.H.I.T. as it's acronym with a group of his fellow slackers. Unbelievable in every shape and form it's entertainment value clearly shines through from the unlikely subject matter. Certainly worth a rent for a laugh!

LIES & ALIBIS (DVD Review) - 18/3/07

Known as "Lie & Alibis" in the US (The Region 1 DVD USA cover is pictured above) but elsewhere as "The Alibi" this has a huge well-known cast but little is known about the film and advertising for it has been non-existent. I only found out about it myself when I saw a trailer for it on another DVD I had purchased and really liked the look of it. Somewhere between a dry comedy drama with violence attached - This got an R rating in the US and one can presume that was for the strong language involved. The disc is total vanilla both on Region 1 & 2 so again presumably shoved out for a quick buck and then to be forgotten about.

With a cast led by Steve Coogan (As a supposed retired conman) and Rebecca Romijn (As his new firms recruit) we get the likes of Debi Mazar, Deborah Kara Unger, Henry Rollins (Yes - that Henry Rollins!) with Selma Blair ("Hellboy") and ace character roles from Sam Elliot and James Brolin amongst John Leguizamo & James Marsden pulling together a character driven plot. Running his firm Ray Elliot (Coogan) supplies cheating husbands & wives alibis to keep everyone's lives running smoothly - Unfortunately a series of events falls into place that needs to be sorted out with unforeseen results for all parties concerned.

GENE RODDENBERRY: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL (DVD Review) - 13/3/07

I purchase Star Trek Magazine every couple of months just for this purpose when it informs me about new stuff available on DVD to buy. The March/April 2007 (Issue # 131) of Star Trek Magazine from Titan Magazines had a great spread on this DVD "Gene Roddenberry: Up Close And Personal" and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy. Going to www.roddenberryinterview.com I immediately purchased a copy and eagerly awaited it's arrival from the USA and slammed it straight into the DVD player as soon as it came through the post. What a gem has been released on DVD here - We get a snapshot in time as Ellen & Gene Adelstein interview Gene Roddenberry in his Beverly Hills home on June 16th 1981 covering a wide variety of topics that have rarely been touched on before. In the very raw and natural footage we get some candid talk from the great man himself freely discussing some fairly momentous points in the history of Star Trek and his visions for humanity. Some points of note really fleshed out articles I had heard about; such as his novel about Kennedy's Assassination which had also come from other sources and his view that if humans could impress themselves memory-wise into computers space could be explored infinitely, which strangely enough also feature (But not surprisingly) in later Star Trek episodes. Originally aired in Tucson, Arizona, this interview had not been seen by the public since that time and as a Collector's Edition 40th. Anniversary it will sit nicely on my DVD shelf with my other Star Trek DVDs. A rare and truly fascinating interview that should inspire Trekkers and others about hopes for a brighter future for humanity as it's message shines through and holds as good today as it did then. SPECIAL FEATURES: We get a nice Introduction to the DVD from Gene's son Rod Roddenberry followed by the Original Interview Of Gene Roddenberry 1981. We then get Ellen Adelstein's Interview with Rod Roddenberry and we then get Outtakes from the Original 1981 Interview - These are quite insightful as they show Gene totally relaxed and just chatting over everyday things. Region 1 (USA) DVD - Exempt from Rating. Running Time: 1 Hr. 22 Mins. Copyright 1981/2006 Ellen Adelstein-Beshert Productions USA. Ellen can be contacted at: RODDENBERRYDVD@aol.com Beshert Productions, 520 881-7417, 2411 E. Waverly, Tucson, AZ 85719 US

MIMIC TRILOGY (DVD Review) - 13/3/07

Having recently re-watched Guillermo Del Toro's "The Devil's Backbone" and "Hellboy" the Director's Cut; I decided to go back and watch another of his early films, in the form of "Mimic". As usual his sterling work really stands out and shines like a diamond in this turd of a 3-Disc Boxset....with constant grumblings being heard about it having been messed about with by the studio with cuts and re-shoots..... so a Special Edition can't be far off?

MIMIC: The original and best with a great cameo from F. Murray Abraham and leads Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam ably backing each other up as a plague threatens New York and they develop a cure that gets out of hand in more ways than one. A combination of suspense and horror with the Bug factor attached - Has you on the edge of your seat until the end. SPECIAL FEATURES: A great big fat nothing! Total bare-bones Vanilla disc waiting for it's turn in the Special Edition 2-Disc format spotlight and sooner rather than later thank-you very much!

MIMIC 2 - HARDSHELL: Aah - The law of diminishing returns sets the rot in early in this franchise attempt as the Producers wearyingly try to drag it out for another circuit run by getting back a minor character from the first film ("Remy" Alix Koromzay - in the lead this time round) using stock-photo footage and even a couple of scenes from the first film as the budget spirals down the pan with the script, FX and everything else in tow. By the time things get slowly to the boil and the excitement starts the film finishes. Even the DVD Cover is a rip-off of the original. Plot involves Bugs coming back again (What a surprise?) and mutating (Yawn). SPECIAL FEATURES: A quick 5-day runaround Behind-The-Scenes on various days across the film-shoot. A Behind The Sound featurette and some Deleted Scenes.

MIMIC 3 - SENTINEL: Relocates to filming in Romania for even less of a budget with consummate (But slumming) actors Lance Henriksen & Amanda Plummer attempting to pep up the proceedings in this dire re-tread of Hitchcock's "Rear Window" but now with Bugs? The first half of the film is talk-talk-talk and no action, meaningless babble, people with issues and general boredom - Before the last 15 minutes when they blow the entire Special Effects budget in a vain attempt to prop the film up before it also gets up and leaves. Plot consists of Bugs coming back again and being silly. SPECIAL FEATURES: A dull Behind-The-Scenes featurette with a Feature Commentary from the Director and some Cast Auditions.

THE BLACK DAHLIA (DVD Rental Review) -11/3/07

Really this should of been Directed by Alfred Hitchcock who would definitely have made a better job of it than wannabe Hitchcock fan Brian De Palma - Not to say that he hasn't directed some excellent work - "Dressed To Kill" & "Blow Out" spring to mind immediately - It's just that this work isn't it! It is evocative of the period and the set-dressing must have cost a fortune to furnish but for a better detective story of the forties Director Curtis Hanson's "L.A. Confidential" is a better bet and also another adaption of a James Ellroy novel. "The Black Dahlia" a fictionalized version of both James Ellroy's book and the real-life horrific murder of Elizabeth Short (On a par with a Jack The Ripper type slaying) in 1947 stunned the community of that time and has never been solved. Unfortunately the film has so many layers and follows different threads all over the place with no meaning and really suffers for it in it's 2-hour runtime. A tighter script parred down to about an hour and a half would have got the relevant details across succinctly enough.

A host of quality actors share the stage in this film with a virtually unrecognisable Hilary Swank and Fiona Shaw with Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart setting the scene with a brutal boxing match at the start of the film and further support from Scarlett Johansson, Mia Kershner and Mike Starr. A couple of very nasty and bloody sequences grace the film so be warned. It is an entertaining romp through the period setting but takes far too long to get to the grist of the matter until suddenly it's The End amongst all the neo-fumbling Hitchcock homages. Dreary Sunday afternoon rainy day watching only...

HANNIBAL RISING Film Review - 10/3/07

Bit of a strange fish this one! As a prequel to the other films this was always going to be a difficult film to make - But you know what desperate Film Producers are like; wanting to scrape the barrel and glean every penny from the well-trod groove they think people will make, trailing to the Cinema for another Lecter outing. Unfortunately it really is a different movie to what people will expect from "Silence Of The Lambs" and the others - So different in fact that it is a hard comparison? We get the odd flashes that are reminiscent of the life of Hannibal Lecter as documented but we also get to see the why? Lecter's sister Mischa falling afoul of Nazi looters during the closing days of the Second World War set's up his horrific fall from grace (But the sympathy is all with him) as he take his retribution and goes off kilter. The young Hannibal Lecter (Played by Gaspard Ulliel from "Brotherhood Of The Wolf") fends off the machinations of lead headcase Rhys Ifans and also Stephen Walters (Currently serving as "Mad Twatter" in Channel 4's "Skins") as he is helped in his quest for justice by Lady Murasaki (Li Gong). A capable film in it's own right but over-shadowed by it's previous pictures in the series.

SMOKIN' ACES Film Review - 5/3/07

This one gets out of hand from the get-go as the word is put out to various hit-men from the lowest of the low and to the professionals that a $1,000,000 bounty from the mob is payable to the one who silence's a troublesome grass about to spill details that the head guy doesn't want known. The impressive cast comes out all guns blazing (Literally in the case of the woman with a massive rifle that blows away cops across from another hotel and sends them reeling 20 foot down corridors and through furniture!) They all try to stake their claim to the prize as the Federal Agents and Police attempt to hold them all at bay. Quite strikingly inventive; things reach a heated fever pitch and stuff gets turned on it's head, as a revelation from the past causes everything to change tack. In the end it all comes down to making choices and if they are the right ones?

EPIC MOVIE Film Review - 5/3/07

Watching this film was like having a hole drilled into your head and a hose attached which then had effluent from the local sewage farm pumped through it. The only redeeming feature: Crispin Glover taking off Johnny Depp's performance from Willy Wonka in this supposed parody and actually coming over better and very sinister.

GHOST RIDER Film Review - 4/3/07

Like digging in some Western valley sometimes you hit that rich silver seam and the sky's the limit - Othertimes it's like the Painting By Numbers Set you have chucked in the garage covered in dust. In this case "Ghost Rider" is the latter from the current trend of comic-book characters fleshed out for the big screen and suffers all of it's excesses. Dreadful CGI that really is crap, dull and trite dialogue and Nicolas Cage I could swear was asleep when he made this as he just sleepwalks through the whole process. The director of this had directed "Daredevil" and I had hoped for something similar unfortunately it was nowhere near as good and just really struck me as dull. The cliches may as well have been dripping off of the bad guy's tongue there were so many and it really was formula dross - Absolutely dire. Peter Fonda did put a good performance in though as the devil - But it can't really be regarded as a recommendation.

HOT FUZZ Film Review - 4/3/07

Having thoroughly enjoyed Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's previous work I expected to be onto a winner with their latest effort "Hot Fuzz" but like the proverbial bag of liquorice all-sorts that wasn't to be the case as the last one in the bag is usually the small blue one covered in sprinkles that you don't like. Purported to be a comedy this comes over more as a drama with some dry sarcasm and falls from one category to another without quite deciding what it wants to be. Added to that the frenetic jump-start cutting flashing past with headache inducing monotony over and over AND over again and it really starts to get thin in places. With the odd chuckle I felt this really missed the mark but you can't keep striking gold every time but with such an ace cast you would think it would shine with the calibre of Jim Broadbent and Timothy Dalton and a scattering of cameos from Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and so on. Quite a disappointment after seeing preview material from over a year ago and looking forward to it for so long - Never mind.

Hot on the beat cop Nick Angel (Simon Pegg) shows up the rest of his force in the big city so gets transferred to sleepy nowheresville out in the sticks. But all isn't as quiet as it seems in the sleepy village hamlet that he is posted to and eventually a blood-fest ensues in the local Somerfield supermarket amongst other goings on....

24 {5th.Season} (DVD Review) - 4/3/07

Diving headfirst into the next season of "24" at a point where it's implausibility really starts to show and gets a little frayed around the edges; and feeling more like a high octane soap than ever, this lurches from one ludicrous plothole to another as the story (as well as it's characters) falls aside and seems to get forgotten. Still it has enough entertainment value to keep you watching wondering what will they think up next? Ending on a cliffhanger (Yawn?) and leaving loads of storylines not resolved this charges full pelt into Season 6 with enough adrenalin to want you needing more - I just hope the bumps in the plot are sorted out? (Mysterious shadowy Cabal anyone?)

The back of these boxsets seem to stir up a sense of interest and foreboding and when you actually watch what was described can leave you feeling a little cheated from the blurbs. But carrying on from previous releases we get another 7-Disc Boxset with the ever present seventh disc given over to SPECIAL FEATURES: We get 20 Deleted/Extended Scenes that this time you can watch separately or play within the episode they are from, various selected episodes with Commentary and a Making Of that covers the first 100 Episodes of 24. Add to that four Featurettes covering stuff as diverse as the Music and Set Design/Build, with a Cast Member's Inside Look and also the Camera Department. Certainly enough from this set that now it has me itching to watch Season 6 and it will be month's before it's on the horizon - Boo!