Archive for the ‘DVD & Blu-Ray’ Category
Posted by Jesse in Arts, Books, DVD & Blu-Ray, Events, Latest News, Movies, Television & Web Series, Toys & Collectibles on March 16th, 2010
We here at Famous Monsters love the Rondos, and who wouldn’t?
Begun in 2002 by David Colton and Kerry Gammill over at the scare-tastic Classic Horror Film Board, the Rondo Awards are dedicated to honoring achievements in classic horror, recognizing everything from “Best Movie,” to ”Best DVD Commentary” to “Best Horror Host.” Lucky winners receive a beautifully sculpted bust in the likeness of famed horror star Rando Hatton (The Pearl of Death, House of Horrors), for whom the award is named. And now, every year, the cool ghouls of the internet come together to celebrate the best and brightest in the world of classic horror, science fiction and cult films.
The best part is that anyone can vote. Your voice matters! As a fan of all that is classic horror (and surely that is you, fair reader, for who else would frequent the abode of the Ackermonster?), it is your sacred franchise to cast your ballot in favor of your favorite fiends.
Hit up the Rondo Awards’ official site when it is Kong-venient, and cast your vote!
While every category should be of great interst to FM readers, we wanted to single out a few awards and nominees that have particularly wowed us this year.
A bounty of excellent films from 2009 is present In the Best Movie category. Last year was a particularly rich one for genre fans, and pictures like Henry Selick’s beautiful Coraline, Neill Blompkamp’s astounding and provoking District 9, Sam Raimi’s delerious Drag Me To Hell and Duncan Jones’ mind-bending Moon represented the best of what genre cinema can be.
Fan favorites from the TV category include the final season of SyFy’s milestone Battlestar Galactica, Fox’s brilliant head-scratcher Fringe, as well as perennials Lost and HBO’s vampire drama True Blood.
This writer needs to single out the extremely overdue release of Night of the Creeps in a wonderful collector’s edition, for the Best Classic DVD category, as well as the Beware the Moon documentary from last fall’s excellent An American Werewolf in London special edition. When it comes to Best Commentaries, we were blessed with an embarrassment of riches last year, with Fred Dekker offering insights into the aforementioned Night of the Creeps, ace film historians Greg Mank and Tom Weaver (with guests Bob Burns and Charlotte Austin) lending great depth and context to classic Karloff creepers The Walking Dead and Frankenstein 1970, respectively, as well as another great duo of commentaries from Japanese film experts Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski for the Toho Science Fiction Collection.
If you head over the Rondo site, you’ll be greeted by the incredible nominees for Best Magazine Cover, including a Plague of the Zombies/The Reptile tribute, in the form of a startling contribution to Little Shoppe of Horrors by Bruce Timm.
Best Website has a daunting number of nominees (including yours truly, a-thank you), and surely one of the coolest of the bunch has to be director Joe Dante’s amazing Trailers From Hell, where Joe invites several celebrity buddies in to provide commentary for some of the greatest genre trailers. Everything from Attack of the 50ft. Woman, to Stanely Kubrick’s classic crime caper The Killing is up for your amusement, with commentators like Larry Cohen, John Landis, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, and Roger Corman himself!
Nominated for Best Article is Steve Vertlieb’s excellent “The Most Famous Monster of Them All: A Personal Remembrance of Forrest J. Ackerman,” a feature FM is proud to have re-presented on our site. Also relating to Forry, Joe Moe’s wonderful tribute to the Ackermonster at the Egyptian Theatre is nominated for Best Fan Event.
The Best Toy, Model or Collectible category has too many goodies to name, but who wouldn’t want that Dracula ornament for the tree? Or to have Boris Karloff (with three changeable heads!) glaring down at you from the top of your desk?
And we would be remiss if we didn’t remind readers that we’re all partial to Eric Powell’s fantastic The Goon and Mike Mignola’s always brilliant Hellboy, which are both nominated for Best Horror Comic.
Count Alucard’s Controversy of the Year has some gems, including fans’ debate over whether or not a snippet of Bela Lugosi’s original Monster dialogue can be heard in a scene from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, as well as the growing trend of big studios pressing specialty DVD’s by order, as opposed to standard releases.
There’s so many more categories and so much more to choose from, so head on over the Rondo Awards site for a full list of nominees and be sure to cast your vote! The polls are open until midnight, April 3rd.
Posted by Bryan in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News on February 18th, 2010
Criterion has announced that it will release Fritz Lang’s classic 1931 thriller, M, on Blu-ray disc May 11th. The German-language film chronicles the exploits of a sinister child murderer run amok on the streets of Berlin, unforgettably played by Peter Lorre. Although the film is nearing its 80th anniversary, to this day it embodies, as Criterion puts it, “the blueprint for the psychological thriller.”
The film is the latest in the Criterion catalogue to be upgraded to Blu-ray, and if their past work is any indication, purchasers should be pleased with the restored high-definition digital transfer, with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. As an added incentive for collectors, the new edition will include an exclusive “long-lost English-language version of M.”
M is currently ranked at #57 on the IMDb “Top 250″ and is widely cited as one of the most chilling films ever released — praised in particular for its unique fusion between the expressionism of Lang’s native Germany, and the popular film noir plotting made popular in America.
The remainder of the extensive extras may sound familiar to owners of the standard-definition version, and are as follows:
- Audio commentary by German film scholars Anton Kaes, author of the BFI Film Classics volume on M, and Eric Rentschler, author of The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife
- Documentary on the physical history of M, from production to distribution to digital restoration
- Conversation with Fritz Lang, a 50-minute film by William Friedkin
- Claude Chabrol’s M le Maudit, a short film inspired by M, plus an interview with Chabrol by Pierre-Henri Gibert about Lang’s filmmaking techniques
- Classroom audiotapes of editor Paul Falkenberg discussing M and its history, set to clips from the film
- Video interview with Harold Nebenzal, the son of M producer Seymour Nebenzal
- Stills gallery, with behind-the-scenes photos, and production sketches by art director Emil Hasler
- Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Stanley Kauffmann, a 1963 interview with Lang, the script for a missing scene, and contemporaneous newspaper articles
The two-disc set is listed with a SRP of $39.99. All details can be found on the Criterion home page.
Posted by Movies Unlimited in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News, Movies Unlimited on February 1st, 2010
By Fred Burdsall
What makes you a fan?
Whatever your interests, there’s always something specific that gets your attention and won’t let go.
For me, it was movies—horror movies—and the scarier the better. I liked that nervous feeling we all get when something makes us uncomfortable. I liked sitting there and wondering if this is the one that finally makes me turn my head away. To me, it’s the greatest feeling in the world and I owe it all to four specific films.
My mother loves watching horror movies, so it was early on in life I got introduced to Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, the Wolf Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Soon after I discovered the joys of Corman, Price and Poe, but in the midst of all that there were two that grabbed me like no other.
Tarantula had its spider and Them gave us ants, but my bug of choice was a praying mantis…a Deadly Mantis. With a screenplay by Martin Berkeley from a William Alland story, The Deadly Mantis (1957) dealt with a praying mantis frozen in the Arctic ice in a state of suspended animation until the iceberg it was trapped in breaks apart due to a geologic shift. Once free it attacks and destroys a transport plane leaving a claw fragment behind, which is discovered and sent to Washington for identification. This leads to Dr. Ned Jackson (William Hopper) being sent off with photographer Marge Blaine (Alix Talton) to help the military outpost nearest the plane, headed by Col. Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens).
Continuing on its journey inevitably leads it to the outpost where, attracted by the lights, it touches down. The scene of Marge going about her business while the Mantis looks in the window is one of my favorites. Once she begins screaming he brings the house down…almost literally. His next stop is our nation’s capital, where he lands on the Washington Monument and battles it out with jet fighters before taking off again for New York City, where the wounded mantis makes its way into the Holland Tunnel, where it is gassed to death. Hearing it wailing in pain as it died is something I could never get out of my head, and it’s the main reason this movie stuck with me throughout my life. The movie features some excellent special effects for a movie released in 1957 and fine direction by Nathan Juran.
Next was a Mexican horror film called The Brainiac (1962) directed by Chano Urueta and starring Abel Salazar. It concerns Baron Vitelius on trial by the Inquisition for heresy, witchcraft, necromancy, fortune telling, seducing married women and keeping the Cubs out of the World Series. (OK, the last part I made up, but someone has to be held accountable.) Laughing as they torture him, they eventually burn him at the stake. Before he dies, he spots a passing comet and vows to return with the comet’s next passing.
Forward 300 years and the Baron, true to his word, returns and in no time has sucked the brain out of two hapless victims with a forked tongue, met and befriended Vicki and Ronnie and even managed to rob a bank. While the search continues for the comet, the Baron throws a party to celebrate the purchase of his new home, inviting all the Inquisitors descendants including….Ronnie and Vicki. Memorable here is how he walks over to an urn, in full view of the party guests, and takes a spoonful or two of brains after carefully making sure the entire room wasn’t looking at that particular moment. By the time the party is over the Baron has been cordially invited to visit them all at their homes.
First, he visits Professor Pantoja and his daughter and, after murdering them, sets fire to the house. Next, he visits industrialist Luis Meneses and his wife, murdering her and using his hypnotic power to have Luis hop into the furnace. After a visit from the bumbling police duo, mainly in the film for laughs, he visits the newlyweds and disposes of them, as well. Somehow, the chief finally puts it all together and realizes Ronnie and Vicki are next.
As luck would have it, they are at the Baron’s, where he wishes to give Vicki a gift to celebrate her upcoming wedding. They leave the room and a suspicious Ronnie begins poking around. The Baron confesses his love for Vicki, but tells her as the last descendant she must die. Ronnie finds the jar of brains as Vicki rushes in with the Brainiac in pursuit. Since Ronnie’s ancestor defended the Baron he has no wish to harm him and merely passes through him to where Vicki is now cornered by his butler. This is where the bumbling police show up with…….FLAMETHROWERS?!! The day is saved.
Where to begin? Paper mache meteors, sets that move, hilariously bad dialogue and shamefully bad acting. Put it all together and you get an unforgettable movie that is so bad, it’s good. Most memorable of all is the hairy faced Brainiac with his forked tongue that always seemed to bend away from the person he was trying to kill.
These were the two films from childhood that would have me up at all hours of the morning. (MANY is the time my dad would come home from work at three in the morning and find me sitting in front of the TV watching one or the other) I always knew when they were on. I’ve never forgotten them and I always enjoy revisiting them from time to time. Now, it’s your turn.
Next time we meet I’ll tell you about the two films of my teenage years that cemented my love of horror. Here are hints: “In space, no one can hear you scream” and “the only thing more terrifying than the last 10 minutes of this film are the first 90.”
Watch and enjoy!
Fred Burdsall is an amusement park junkie living with his better half, Allison, and their four cats. You can find him in the Center City, Philadelphia, Borders looking for Doctor Who and zombie books.
Posted by Barrett in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News on December 1st, 2009
Leading this week’s charge of DVD and Blu-ray releases are Terminator: Salvation and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Both movies hit theatres Memorial Day Weekend so it is fitting that they should hit the DVD shelves at the same time.
Terminator: Salvation, the fourth installment of the legendary Terminator franchise, picked up where the disappointing Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines left off: machines eradicating the remaining humans, John Connor leading the resistance and searching for Kyle Reese (the man who will be his father…gotta love time travel!), and the unexpected appearance of Marcus Wright, whose allegiance is in question. While it wasn’t a bomb, it was bashed by the critics and performed worse than the others in the franchise, but now we’ll see how it does in DVD sales.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is basically the same story in a new place. Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) must travel to the Smithsonian to save his pals (the exhibits from the American Museum of Natural History), and even the entire world, from the evil Pharaoh Kahmunrah, who plans to steal the Tablet of Ahkmenrah to raise an army to conquer the world! Larry and his son Nick team up with General George Armstrong Custer (Bill Hader) and Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) to defeat this evil and save the day.
In the Television world, Better Off Ted hits the shelves this week. A delightful comedy starring , Better Off Ted follows the day to day workings at Veridian Dynamic, a huge corporation that utilizes the most “brilliant” scientists and state of the art technology to push into the impossible. Whether it be creating a plate that can cook your food, growing meat in a lab, or cryogenically freezing a co-worker, Veridian Dynamic is up for the task!
And finally, in the Blu-ray column we have Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Gremlins, The Mask of Zorro and The Green Mile.
Posted by Barrett in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News, Reviews on December 1st, 2009
Restored Serials’ Super Restoration Series (Yeah, that’s an awkward mouthful to say) brings us a beautifully restored DVD of Houdini’s The Man From Beyond Restored!
While not necessarily the best movie around, props have to be given to Restored Serials for their great restoration job. With a team going through the movie frame by frame, they have removed almost all of the dirt and imperfections. The video quality is far clearer and detailed than previous versions and each scene, including the bonus features, have been stabilized so no more shaky images!
Anywho, what is this movie and why is the great Houdini in it? Well… as you all know, Houdini was a great magician and escape artist, but it turns out he was even better at self-promotion and public relations. As films were starting to prove themselves as cash cows, Houdini recognized them as a way to not only make money, but to get the attention of the public and attract them to his stage acts as well.
After a few forays into the film industry, Houdini formed his own independent company and produced The Man From Beyond in 1922. The film follows a scientific expedition to the Arctic as they find a man frozen solid in a block of ice. When he is thawed, the man (Houdini) introduces himself as Howard Hillary and reveals that he has been frozen in the ice for 100 years! Back in civilization Howard meets Felice (Jane Connelly), who is identical to the woman Howard loved before he was frozen. Under the impression that Felice is the reincarnation of his love, Howard has to do everything in his power to convince Felice of who she really is.
While it isn’t a particularly interesting plot and there isn’t much action or escape acts, it is an interesting piece of history and this is definitely the nicest copy you will find. Actually, it is worth looking into solely for the bonus features. Restored Series has included several interesting extras including a 20 page promotional booklet for the film, 289 pages of scripts from Houdini’s 1919 serial The Master of Mystery, and some rare newsreel footage of Houdini’s famous straight jacket escape act performed in front of a large crowd in Dayton, Ohio! All very interesting stuff that is worth watching.
Posted by Barrett in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News, Reviews on December 1st, 2009
Restored Serials’ Super Restoration Series brings you the Columbia Pictures’ 1940 serial The Green Archer, based on Edgar Wallace’s 1923 novel, fully restored on DVD!
The loose adaptation of the Edgar Wallace story starts out with Michael Bellamy (Kenne Duncan) inheriting Garr Castle only to be falsely accused and imprisoned by his brother, Abel Bellamy (James Craven), who wants Garr Castle for his own in order to run an jewel thieving operation. After a few suspicious events, like when Michael’s wife Elaine (Dorothy Fay) doesn’t return from a trip to the Castle, private detective Spike Holland (Victor Jory) moves into the neighborhood, determined to crack the case. Abel desperately tries to remove the threat of the troublesome detective, only to be thwarted by mysterious appearances of the legendary Green Archer. The forces of good and evil struggle against each other in battles of wits and brawn and the serial’s 15 chapters all lead up to a “breath-taking” climax. Was Michael innocent? Will Spike discover Abel’s secrets? Who is the mysterious Green Archer?
Their team has gone through the film frame by frame to create, despite the few minor flaws, one of the highest quality restorations available. The framing is a little off due to a mistake couple of print generations ago, but other than that everything is suburb. The black levels are very nice, the contrast is good, and all of the dirt and hairs have been removed, leaving you with a clean, digital copy of a great, if not silly and campy, black and white serial.
The DVD is also loaded with an assortment of bonus features for your viewing pleasure. You can see the original theatrical trailer, watch an extremely rare interview with Victor Jory himself, and it even comes with a PDF copy of the script for the “lost” serial “Terrible People!” which is 384 pages long!
Posted by Barrett in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News on November 20th, 2009
We’re back with another tribute to the 1950s from the filmmaker who brought you The Monster of Phantom Lake, It Came From Another World! And Cave Women on Mars… Christopher R. Mihm!
This time around Mihm dives into the darkest nether regions of the earth where a horrifying shock sensation awaits that will bring you thrills, chills and suspense like nothing before! That’s right folks, another mutant creature that is hell-bent on destroying the human race… and this one will eat you alive!
Years of underground atomic testing are never a good idea, especially in the Wisawa caves. Deep down in one of the cave systems caverns, a creature of the night has undergone a terrifying transformation and now it has a taste for flesh… human flesh!
Two small children enter the ominous caves only to be snatched away by a hairy clawed hand. Later that day, while preparing to head out on another spelunking expedition, Dr. Vincent Edwards and his colleague Rosemary Bennet happen across the children’s discarded schoolbooks and rush to the Sheriff to report the lost children.
They arrive at the police station only to find small-town farmer Stan Johnson already there, freaking out about losing his kids. Putting two and two together, the good doctor teams up with the Sheriff and Mr. Johnson and they all head into the Wisawa caves to find the children. At first they fear the kids will get lost and die of starvation, but as they probe deeper into the caves they realize that a blood-thirsty bat-beast may gobble them up first! Will the team of under-prepared adults defeat the monster!? Watch to find out…
As with all of Mihm’s movies, this one holds true to the time period and provides yet another campy, blast from the past horror/sci fi movie. From its very first memorable quote (“Yes I have returned old friend, I return to once again probe your deepest recesses and learn the lessons only you can teach.”) to its last, Terror From Beneath the Earth delivers the stilted, not-so-witty banter that every 1950s movie boasts.
One thing that I personally like about this movie (I haven’t been as blown away since It Came From Another World!) is when they mention that the Wisawa caves stretch all the way from Phantom Lake to the Deadlands. Add in the cameos of Professor Jackson in Cave Women on Mars and this implies that all of these stories take place in the same world and that Mihm is creating his own little movie universe, something that I enjoy and admire.
Winning the Best Science Fiction Feature Award at the 2009 ShockerFest International Film Festival, Terror From Beneath The Earth was written, directed and edited by Christopher R. Mihm with costumes designed by Carol Eade, Stephanie Mihm and Shannon McDonough. Starring in the film was Justen Overlander as Sheriff George Elliot, Mike Cook as Dr. Vincent Edwards, Daniel R. Sjerven as Stan Johnson and Stephanie Mihm as Rosemary Bennet. Other cast members include Elizabeth Kaiser, Elliott Mihm, Michael Kaiser, Shannon McDonough, and Christopher R. Mihm himself as the Radio Announcer.
So unless you live under a rock (or in the Wisawa caves!) you should hop on over to the movie’s website for more information or to buy your own copy of Terror From Beneath The Earth.
Posted by Barrett in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News, Reviews on November 17th, 2009
It is the future: 1987
Hot dog everybody! We’ve got another Christopher R. Mihm movie!
Out of all Mihm’s movies, I must say that this one felt the most like a tribute and the least like a parody, which is not a bad thing. The film holds true to many of the 1950s space exploration movies and the production style and musical score do a wonderful job of re-creating the absurd atmosphere those movies held.
We follow the two-man crew of the MARS-1 spaceship, Captain Jackson and Lieutenant Elliott, as they land on the red planet and see what no man has seen before! Finding the surface of the planet oddly Earth-like, the duo discovers that the air has no hazardous or infectious agents so they don’t even need their space helmets. Of course!
After making the incredibly intelligent decision to split up, Lieutenant Elliot wanders into a Martian forest and is captured by a primitive race of warrior women (who conveniently share the same language as us). These cave women of Mars are split into two factions, the Zil and the Liak, and while both are matriarchal cultures where women dominate over their male counterparts, the Liak at least believe that males deserve respect despite being the inferior gender.
Elliot luckily finds himself captured by Eina and Orla, Liak cave women, who decide to take him to the Oracle rather than kill him. Unfortunately Hagra and Gorga, fearsome warriors of the Zil tribe, are hot on their trail and will stop at nothing to claim the “strange magic” that Elliot wields (they are convinced he is a sorcerer and his technology is black magic). Can Captain Jackson find his lost Lieutenant before the Zil catch up with him? Will they ever get off this planet? Or is it their Destiny to stay forever? You’ll have to watch to find out!!
Josh Craig stars as both Captain Jackson & Director Jackson (Director Jackson may very well be the now aged Professor Jackson from The Monster of Phantom Lake and It Came From Another World!) while Dan Sjerven stars as Lieutenant Elliot. Brooke Lemke, Alana Bloom, Rachel Grubb, Emily Fradenburgh and Stephanie Mihm also star.
The film won the Cinematic Excellence Award from Rogue Cinema and an Honorable Mention for Best Science Fiction Feature at the 2008 ShockerFest International Film Festival.
So hop on your “Com-puter” and head on over to the movie’s website for more information or to buy your own copy of Cave Women on Mars!
Posted by Jesse in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News, Television & Web Series on November 13th, 2009
Woohoo! About time, eh?
This set is sure to satisfy fans and, hopefully, birth a bunch of new ones. This show was a groundbreaking, head-spinning forray into intergalactic war, alternate realities, and puppets. Awesome puppets.
Rarely given its due by the network that spawned it, this is the perfect chance to revisit or discover the rag-tag, misfit crew aboard Moya.
The full press release as follows:
NEW YORK, NY – When a freak accident during an experimental space mission catapulted Astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) across a thousand galaxies to an alien battlefield, a groundbreaking cult classic was born with the epic, adventure-filled TV series “Farscape”.
On November 17, the award-winning fan favorite show, which ran from 1999-2003 on Sci Fi and was named by TV Guide as one of television’s best cult shows ever, will commemorate its 10th Anniversary with the very first complete packaging of the series. Featuring all 88 episodes on 25 discs, with original aspect ratios (4×3 for Seasons 1-3, anamorphic 16×9 widescreen for Season 4) and 5.1 surround sound, FARSCAPE: THE COMPLETE SERIES MEGASET™ delivers the venerated program to its legions of loyal fans and a new generation for the collectible price of $149.95srp.
An imaginative fusion of live action, state-of-the-art puppetry, prosthetics and CGI, “Farscape,” produced by The Jim Henson Company in association with RHI Entertainment, featured mind-boggling alien life forms, dazzling special effects, edge-of-your-seat thrills, irreverent humor and unforgettable characters — all brought to rich life by the creative minds at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™.
Strap in and hold on tight for the extraordinary adventures of John Crichton, as he finds himself surrounded by hostile aliens and soaring through the cosmos aboard Moya, a glorious living space ship. Hunted by the relentless Peacekeepers, he allies himself with Moya’s crew — Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black), Luxan warrior Ka D’Argo (Anthony Simcoe), azure priestess Zhaan (Virginia Hey), spritely Nebari thief Chiana (Gigi Edgley), Dominar Rygel, the deposed royal ruler of the Hynerian Empire and Pilot – to search for a way out of this inconceivably alien world and return home.
FARSCAPE: THE COMPLETE SERIES MEGASET™ contains amazing surprises, including over 15 hours of bonus programming:
29 Episode Commentaries, including “Premiere” with Rockne S. O’Bannon, Brian Henson and Ben Browder; “Jeremiah Crichton” with Claudia Black, Producer/Writer David Kemper,
Browder and O’Bannon; “Bone to Be Wild” with Anthony Simcoe; “Relativity” with Lani Tupu (Crais/Voice of Pilot) and Director Peter Andrikidis; and, “Bad Timing” which features Browder, Black and Kemper discussing the series’ final episode.
Multiple featurettes and documentaries including “In the Beginning: A Look Back with Brian Henson”; “Making of a Space Opera” and “Inside Farscape: Save Farscape,” on which fans, cast and crew discuss the fate of their beloved series.
Multiple video profiles featuring archival clips and cast/crew discussing their characters and roles on Farscape.
Over 90 minutes of deleted scenes.
Slideshows and archival photo galleries, including character concepts and promo photos.
Production design galleries featuring screenshots, rough drafts and concept slide shows.
Behind-the-Scenes interviews with Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Virginia Hey, Gigi Edgley, Paul Goddard (Stark), Wayne Pygram (Scorpius) and more.
Original TV promos and trailers
In addition to the complete MEGASET™, on November 17, FARSCAPE will also be available in single season sets. Each re-packaged DVD release in FARSCAPE: THE COMPLETE SEASONS 1-4 will feature over 18 hours of interstellar entertainment — 22 episodes on six jam-packed discs filled with hours of revealing bonus materials –for $44.95 srp.
Prepare for Starburst!
A&E Home Entertainment, part of the Consumer Products Division of A&E Television Networks (AETN) is a video distributor of non-theatrical programming , featuring collectible DVD editions of the high quality programming from A&E Network and HISTORY™, as well as acquired classic programming. A&E Home Entertainment brings the best of critically acclaimed entertainment presented in award-winning packaging to the special interest category. For more information about ordering these and other titles from the A&E Home Video Collection, call (212) 206-8600 (TRADE ONLY). Consumers please call 1-800-933-6249 (A&E). In addition to placing orders by phone, A&E Home Video products may be purchased over the World Wide Web at ShopAETV.com.
Posted by Barrett in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News, Reviews on November 10th, 2009
Hold onto your seats folks, we’re back with another Christopher R. Mihm film, and this time he isn’t holding anything back.
Back with his signature 1950s style of movie-making, Mihm turns to the skies in the feature film, It Came From Another World! A second installment to his campy sci-fi tribute movies, we are promised “Excitement! Suspense! and Canoes!” as we are reintroduced to everyone’s favorite ‘A-Rockin’ scientist, Professor Jackson, from 2006’s The Monster of Phantom Lake.
Utilizing the same delightful humor as Phantom Lake, It Came From Another World! clocks in at 93 minutes long and let me tell you, this time around the actors have really hit their stride.
As the movie begins we find ourselves out in the woods with a Dr. Frasier, who is making observations out in the forest, as a mysterious rock from outer space crashes to Earth from the heavens above. Eager to investigate, Dr. Frasier touches the mysterious meteorite and is engulfed in a terrifying flash of white light.
Back at the University, Professor Jackson answers his phone only to hear of two disturbing crises. Firstly, some suspicious seismic activity had occurred out in the woods. Secondly, Jackson’s friend Dr. Frasier had gone missing days ago in those same woods. Determined to get to the bottom of both mysteries, Professor Jackson says goodbye to his girlfriend, Miss Julie Ann Saint Marie, teams up with Sven and Gustav, the hilarious Canoe Cops, and heads off into the wilderness.
They stumble upon the meteor, sitting in its oddly small crater, as well as Dr. Frasier, who is incredibly dehydrated and suspiciously out of it in general. Professor Jackson uses his equipment to study the unearthly rock and hypothesizes that it was the cause of the mysterious seismic activity that had occurred in the area.
Choosing to camp for the night before heading back, the group decide to sing to pass the time and launch into a hilarious rendition of “Paddlin’ Along.” For those of you who have seen The Monster of Phantom Lake think “A-Rockin, A-Rollin, All the Way A-Ramblin’” times a hundred.
Returning home, Dr. Frasier visits Professor Jackson and Miss Saint Marie for a delicious dinner. Dr. Frasier is very impressed with Jackson’s girl choice and Jackson is pleased to hear it considering he has plans to propose to the girl. The dinner goes well and Frasier leaves, falling into a restless sleep full of horrifying dreams that don’t make any sense. And then, when he wakes up, he finds himself in the bed of a young University girl with no memory of how he got there or what he had done!! He runs to Professor Jackson’s house and knocks frantically on the door. It is only six in the morning but Jackson already has his trusty pipe held firmly in his mouth (haha!). They perform some highly scientific tests on the worried Dr. Frasier and what they discover is truly horrifying!
To avoid ruining the ending I won’t say any more, instead I will quote the back cover for the DVD. “Can our intrepid heroes unlock the secrets of the mysterious “rock from outer space” before its otherworldly power threatens not only the fate of the entire universe, but Professor Jackson’s wedding plans?”
Josh Craig returns as Professor Jackson, Mike Cook and M. Scott Taulman return as the delightful Canoe Cops, Mike Mason stars as Dr. Frasier, and Shannon McDonough plays the wonderful Julie Ann Saint Marie. Deanne McDonald enjoys an amusing cameo appearance as Elizabeth (we saw her in The Monster of Phantom Lake).
Full of homemade machines with blinking lights, bad jokes followed by lengthy laughing bouts (Example: “You only live once.” “Or so they say…” “Hahahahaha.”), and stilted Shatner-esque speaking, It Came From Another World! certainly delivers a wonderful tribute to 1950s science fiction movies. The soundtrack, featuring “Paddlin’ Along” by EchoDriver, is incredibly true to the times, and provides the perfect atmosphere for the silly recreations of horrors that we used to find terrifying.
If you enjoy a good parody I guarantee you will enjoy Christopher R. Mihm’s movies. Just remember that it is in the style of the 1950s. You can’t go in expecting fast paced action and high budget special effects, instead you can expect humor and thrills based soley on the actor’s skills in portraying the odd acting methods of the era.
It Came From Another World! won the coveted Best Science Fiction Feature Award at the 2007 Shockerfest International Filom Festival as well as the Best of Fest Award and the Audience Choice Award at the Big Damn Film Festival. So don’t forget to head over to the website to get more information or buy your very own copy!
Posted by Barrett in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News on November 10th, 2009
Up, the Pixar animated feature that made audiences laugh and cry at the same time, is one step closer to your home DVD collection as it hits the store shelves today.
Heading to the legendary Paradise Falls to pay homage to his deceased beloved, Carl Fredericksen (Edward Asner) and Russell (Jordan Nagai), a young Wilderness Explorer find themselves on the adventure of a lifetime. Joined by Dug the talking dog (Bob Peterson) and Kevin a rare species of bird, they battle against Charles Muntz, Carl’s one time idol, to save a world that others could only dream of.
If you haven’t seen the animated adventure of the year, or if you saw it and enjoyed it, head over to the movie’s website for more information or go out and pick up a copy of the DVD or Blu Ray!
The Ugly Truth, the Gerard Butler/Katherine Heigl R-rated romantic comedy, is also ready to come home with you today. The film was rather successful in the box office, despite the fact that it follows the generic romantic comedy plotlines. Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler’s characters will have their differences, but in the end will ultimately wind up together. But hey, there aren’t that many movies nowadays that we have all seen before and know how they will end, so if you want to get that warm, fuzzy, romantic feeling inside then you should grab the DVD.
Another new release is that of Spread, starring Ashton Kutche with a new haircut and a deeper voice, and don’t forget that next week the “Star Trek” reboot hits DVD and Blu-ray after its great success at the box office!
Posted by Barrett in DVD & Blu-Ray, Latest News on November 9th, 2009
In today’s world, it is all to common for Hollywood to take an outdated movie and make a modern day remake, but few dare to come up with something new and put it into an outdated movie!
Don’t quite follow me? That’s understandable. I’m talking about writer/director Christopher R. Mihm and his great films, produced in the last few years, which are shot as a monochromatic tribute to the B-grade, drive-in movies of the 1950s. Mihm has come out with a movie a year starting almost four years ago with The Monster of Phantom Lake.
The Monster of Phantom Lake, Mihm’s first film, was released in March of 2006 to make its mark on the world. Black and white and clocking in at 97 minutes long, the film is a true homage film, immersing the viewer into the blaring din of clichés as rubber monster suits and terrified teenagers run across the screen.
The film follows Professor Jackson, a proud and cocky scientist who is “rather fond of the rock and roll,” and his graduate student Stephanie, as they spend a weekend camping by Phantom lake. Unfortunately some disgruntled workers empty several barrels of “Atomic Waste” into the lake and accidentally turn a homeless World War II veteran into a horrifying half-algae, half-human monster!
Five ‘swell’ teenagers are also out in the woods that night, rebelling against the world and dancing to the rock and roll. Out for a hike, they stumble upon a horrifying, oozing claw print on a tree (it is here that we start to get excited about seeing a wonderful 50s monster costume). When they tell their story to the prolific Professor Jackson, who has just spent the day observing mutated frogs (clearly constructed by gluing mismatched legs to the side of a plastic frog), he dismisses them at first, asking the kids if they had been eating some of the local mushrooms.
Unfortunately the kids are not tripping, there is a horrible monster on the loose! It takes out the disgruntled workers and two quirky Canoe Cops, and then turns on the teenagers and Professor Jackson himself!
Professor Jackson must use his phenomenal grasp of the scientific method and his high-tech equipment, like the Evolutiscopic Spectronilizer and the Hydrosysmometer, to find the creature’s weakness before it makes its way to the sleepy town of Mukwonago, Wisconsin.
Through a series of overly dramatic shots, ridiculous background music, 1950s sexist dialogue (“Three women and none of you made the men breakfast?” “Don’t worry I didn’t hear anything. Besides, I don’t have much interest in what women talk about”) the movie documents the battle against the incredibly slow, yet unstoppably persistent Monster of Phantom Lake. I won’t tell you how but eventually the plot brings us to the point where Professor Jackson proclaims “The human race is safe!” But is it really??
The DVD cover urges you to watch the film by claiming it contains “Unbridled Terror” “Unquenced Romance” “Unbelievable Science” and “The Unstoppable Power of the Rock and Roll!” and boy does it.
The Monster of Phantom Lake is a faithful tribute to the Col War-era, B-movies of the 1950s which Duane L. Martin from Rogue Cinema raves is “…one of the best homage films ever created.”
The film features music by EchoDriver and stars Josh Craig as the prolific Professor Jackson, Leigha Horton as Miss Stephanie Yates, Deanne McDonald as Elizabeth and Mike Cook and M. Scott Taulman as the delightful Canoe Cops, Gustav and Sven. Other actors include Brad Tracy, Lindsey Holmes, Justen Overlander, Rachel Grubb, Dustin Booth, Michael Kaiser and Mike Mason.
The Monster of Phantom Lake has won the Director’s Choice Award at the 2006 ShockerFest International Film Festival., Cinematic Excellence Award from Rogue Cinema, and the Best of Fest Award at the Big Damn Film Festival, proving its masterful portrayal of those good ol’ cheesy 50s flicks.
For more information, or to buy merchandise and download the great song A-Rockin’, A-Rollin’, All The Way A-Ramblin’ head over to the Monster of Phantom Lake Website.
