Straight to DVD – Diamonds in the Rough, Part Two.

Its been a long time since I have written anything on this blog. If you follow it with any kind of regularity I apologize for not doing a monthly round up since January. The fact is I have just been so busy with some script polishing as well as the fact that everyone I know decided to get married in the same year that is just hasn't been possible. I'll sit in front of a the PC with the intention to write and then the phone will ring or I'll get an email and I'm off out again. At some point I'm sure I'll return to the regular blog posts but for now it seems like it may not be possible until everyone is happily married or I sell a script!

I have been watching films with perhaps not as great a frequency but at least two or three a week. In case you are wondering the best films I have seen in February, March and April are as follows.

1. Watchmen – What a perfect adaptation this was, seriously blew me away in a way that few films have. Zack Snyder made all the right choices here (yes, even the ending). I cannot wait for the directors cut blu-ray. The summer blockbusters have a lot to live up to this year. Over time may become one of my favorite films of all time.

2. Knowing – Have you seen this? why not? oh the two star reviews, right. Seriously folks this is one that only a few mainstream critics have gotten right. Knowing is scary as hell and presents a stylish, believable vision of the end of the world that will keep you up at night. On top of that its the first film in the Nicolas Cage comeback campaign which will continue later this year with Kick-Ass.

3. Gran Torino – I'm going to echo what everyone else has said about this film and just say that if this is Clint's last movie then its a hell of a fitting send off. The plot could have been your usual cliche filled nonsense but in Eastwood's hands in gets turned into something very special. A very moving film from a man at the top of his game.

4. Let the Right One In – This one has received one hell of a lot of hype. I went expecting to be disappointed and was actually surprised that it turned out to be not what I thought it would be. The Swedish vampire film is mostly a love story and it captures the confusion that goes with your first love perfectly. There are some brilliantly suspenseful moments of traditional horror too which focus less on the gore and more on the suspense. No CGI or flash, just beautifully filmed and acted and an original fresh take on the vampire myth, Brilliant.

5. The Escapist – This excellent British movie was released last year and nobody realized. Now its on DVD everyone needs to seek it out. When was the last prison movie made in the UK, Porridge? Now we have another and its gritty, brutal and riveting. Brian Cox gives the performance of his career. Seek it out.

So there you go. Back in October 2007 I wrote a blog all about straight to DVD and VHS films and their history as well as two superior films from the time that went straight to DVD. Those were Behind the Mask; The Rise of Leslie Vernon and Flight of the Living Dead. If you saw them then good on you, if not then go rent them now. I feel compelled to write about this subject again as it seems that more and more often studios are dumping their product to DVD. It seems that with certain movies the studios just have no idea how to market them. Perhaps the budgets won't allow for a snazzy trailer as is probably the case for one of the titles below. Perhaps the films are just too clever for their own good, also see below. Or maybe the whole concept is just so bizarre that it seems it doesn't stand a chance of making a dollar with the mainstream crowd.

Recently the below films for one reason or another appeared on the shelves of your local blockbuster or at HMV for 9.99. I've checked them out for you and am here to tell you what's good and what's bad about them. You may have also have heard of a film called Mutant Chronicles which went direct to DVD recently. you may be tempted to rent it as it has Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman and John Malkovich in it. Do not be tempted dear reader as its shit.

                                       JCVD

Jean Claude Van Damme is one of the old school tough nuts from the glory years of the late eighties and early nineties. He was probably the best looking bloke of the lot but never quite reached the heights that Stallone, Schwarzenegger or Willis got to. The problem was most of his films were not good or in most cases awful. The best thing he ever did was team up with John Woo for the awesome Hard Target. In Hard Target his thick accent worked for him and he had a brilliant screen presence that was not shown in bad work by sub par directors on other movies. Even Timecop which was a pretty big hit in 1994 was not very good despite a decent premise and to this day it amazes me that the 1994 Street Fighter movie ever got released its so bad. So here we are in 2009 and Van Damme has pretty much become a straight to video superstar again, back from where he came in the days of Bloodsport and Kickboxer and where the careers of Steven Seagal and Wesley Snipes now also reside. In JCVD as you probably know Van Damme plays himself and speaks mostly in his native tongue. The plot follows JCVD as he tries to desperately transfer some funds at a post office in Belgium as he is broke. He is going through a bitter custody battle and has just lost a major role to Steven Seagal as he cut off his ponytail. In short he is a man on the edge of a major breakdown. Van Damme ends up in a post office that is in the midst of being robbed, due to unforeseen events it appears to the outside world that Jean Claude is in fact robbing the place and a huge media circus begins to build outside. The first thing that strikes you about JCVD is that its quite arty. Its shot with a brilliantly realistic tone. Van Damme looks old now (he is nearly 50) and they don't film him in flattering slo-mo or doing the splits with his bum out and it gives the movie a weight that is missing in his other films. The second thing is the structure of the movie. Once he is in the post office we then flashback to the circumstances that lead to him being there and this all leads to an on camera confessional which is (no joke) one of the most touching actorly moments of the year. Yes the third thing that is great about this movie is that (shock, horror) Jean Claude Van Damme when speaking in his native tongue is a bloody good actor. I'm as surprised as you by that statement but free from having to mangle the English language Van Damme really sells it and you see him in a whole new light. Just imagine now  how his career would have gone if all his early movies had been shot in his own language. He could have been like Jean Reno or Chow Yun-Fat.  This is a seriously great film that has gone straight to DVD (kind of ironic considering that its a major comeback from the star) and you would do well to seek it out. Who knows it may even make you want to rent the last ten years worth of direct to DVD output to see if you missed anything good.  ****

                                                       WAR INC.

I don't know if I can describe War Inc as a good movie but its a movie with ideas and that is something to be applauded. The films it reminds me of most are Terry Gilliam's Brazil and Richard Kelly's Southland Tales. Whilst one of them is a masterpiece the other is a deeply flawed film with some moments of greatness and that pretty much sums up War Inc. The great John Cusack plays Brand Hauser a corporate sponsored hitman who is sent to fictional war torn Turaqistan to assassinate a middle eastern oil minister who is interfering with the USA's corporate sponsored rebuilding and spreading of democracy. Hauser poses as an agent of the Tamerlane corporation and must manage a trade fair and precide over the celebrity wedding of Turaqistan's answer to Britney Spears, Yonica Babyeah played by Hilary Duff. Over the course of the film and with the help of a reporter who hasn't sold her soul played by Marisa Tomei, Hauser comes to realize that what is going on is very wrong and sets out to do something about it by preventing the marriage of the exploited Yonica. Oh and Ben Kingsley turns up in another bizarre turn as Hauser's former CIA colleague who has now gone rogue. It sounds clever and for some of the film it is. The ideas that work the best are the whole Yonica subplot. You can actually believe that this orphan from a terrible war would be found and pushed on the public by an American Idol type show and eventually exploited through a big wedding and the inevitable sex tape because that just seems to be the course for our young pop stars these days. When the reveal comes of who Yonica is actually related to it just seems a little contrived and obvious but works for the general madness of the film. Another good stab at America is in the scenes where Hauser must go below a KFC like fast food chain to a command center to speak to the president and the moment where Hauser's dry cleaning is delivered in a tank by a bunch of soldiers killing random civilians. Sadly a couple of good on paper ideas fall flat. The gag where the media are shown what the US military wants them to see through a 3D cinema presentation does not work and neither does the eventual sojourn out into the devastated land outside the city. The performances here are mostly solid, Cusack is his usual charming, haunted self who is clearly disturbed by what's happening with Yonica and some of his reactions to her are priceless. Hilary Duff as Yonica is the revelation here, her accent is spot on and she exposes a sexy/disturbing side to her that you wouldn't have thought possible from Hanna Montana. I'm sure that somewhere down the line someone will make a genuine masterpiece based on the early 21st Century and the Bush administration's foreign policy. War inc is not that film but I find it hard to criticize something that tries to be different as despite sometimes not working its something that needs to be encouraged more often so in that respect I would urge you to go watch this movie. You may not like all of it but you may find yourself wanting to watch it again. ***

                                                        SPLINTER

If you Google 'Splinter' most likely you'll get hundreds of pictures of a rat in kung fu garb. This could all change over the next couple of months as the reputation of James Watkins low budget shocker grows and grows. Its already been championed by most of the Internet as well as the Fangoria crowd. I'm here to tell you that what sets Splinter apart from the rest in the straight to DVD horror field is its aware of its limited budget and makes the most of it through intelligence and a keen eye on suspense. Seth and Polly are a young couple out camping in the wilderness celebrating their one year anniversary. They run into Dennis and Lacey two young white trash lovers on the run and are taken hostage. On the road their tyre is burst by what looks like road kill, the stop to investigate and Lacey is pierced with a spike from the not quite dead creature. Back on the road they stop at a deserted gas station and are attacked by a walking corpse which moves strangely. Lacey is killed and they have to lock themselves into the gas station and keep the terror outside. The film this is most reminiscent of is The Thing as well as having a lot in common with The Ruins as well as The Mist. The creature is something we haven't seen before basically a fungus that infects through splinters and then grows throughout your body and bonds with other peoples body parts also infected with the fungus. You never really see the creature fully just a mess of body parts flopping around outside the gas station trying to get in. It works surprisingly well, clearly the creature is a low budget make up job so Watkins chooses to show it only with shaky cam or in short sharp close ups. The film doesn't hold back on the gore though. A moment of amputation is just as wince inducing as that scene in The Ruins. The thing that Splinter does best though is keep you on the edge of your seat for its 82 minute running time. If you like horror, proper horror then check it out. James Watkins next film is a straight to DVD third part of the Grudge series, based on this it may be worth a rent. ****