Straight to DVD Round Up

The movie world is in a strange transition period at the moment.

The DVD market seems to be on hold during the recession and people are turning up to the cinema less and less. There are now more ways to get your film fix at home with companies like Lovefilm, Netflix and in the US video on demand which are allowing people to watch their films at home streamed through the web.

In recent months a hotly tipped horror film called House of The Devil and Steven Soderbergh's latest have gone directly to video on demand and skipped theatres all together. Lars Von Trier's controversial Antichrist will debut on US cable before its even had a UK release date. So what does this mean?

Well for one thing it means a lot more titles will be going straight to Blockbuster or sell through DVD in the UK. So my intention is to let you know about the very best and worst of these titles so that you can be informed and not let them pass you by.

S.Darko

[ReviewAZON asin="B001RP975Q" display="inlinepost"]The idea of a straight to DVD sequel to cult classic Donnie Darko without the involvement of Richard Kelly originally made me seeth with hatred, how dare they?

The first movie is one of my favourite films ever and how in gods name do you follow it up? Well the answer is finally here in this effort from director Chris Fisher and writer Nathan Atkins. Surprisingly although this film is fairly uninspired I found it pretty hard to hate.

S.Darko picks up in 1995 with Samantha, Donnie's younger pony obsessed sister on a road trip to Los Angeles with her slutty friend Corey. They are going to pursue a dancing career instead of following most 18 year olds into college and wouldn't you know it they break down in Cenejo Springs, a dusty small town in the desert. Corey meets local rebel Randy Holt and when they are forced to spend the night Samantha starts to get in a huff about the whole thing.

They do what most teenagers without reasonable boundaries do and go to a party full of strange horny boys. On this night weird stuff begins to happen. Local nutjob 'Iraq Jack' sits atop a windmill when a ghost of the seemingly dead Samantha appears to him and tells him to get out of there and a meteor suddenly destroys the windmill leaving a crater in its wake. To be honest this is a fairly strong start which hooked me in but then it all goes south fairly quickly. It seems that the writer wanted to pay homage to the first one but at the same time have his sequel be its own thing.

From here the film begins to get confused as Samantha gets hit by a car, Iraq Jack is visited by the ghost again that tells him to construct a bunny outfit as worn by Frank in the first movie, Corey travels back in time and saves Samantha's life, a local nerd who takes a liking to Samantha starts to change from the radiation from the meteor fragment he carries around. Oh yeah and there is a creepy priest and a missing boy. All of these ideas and plot threads are chucked at the wall and none of them stick. As a result we get a mish mash of underdeveloped plot threads that go nowhere which is largely unsatisfying.

So why do I not hate it? Because I can see the ambition through the mess of a screenplay. Its clear that Fisher and Atkins were huge fans of the first movie and were probably 18 year old emo kids when it first came out and blew their mind. Honestly if someone asked me to write another Evil Dead movie I would probably be the same way. The film tries to imitate the look of the first movie with its cinematography. It also has a great soundtrack which actually made me seek out some songs just like the first movie. I also quite like the idea of the bunny outfit being almost like an avatar of time being out of whack which will re-occur as more of a warning than a fashion choice.

There are some good performances here by people who you will recognize from other things. John Hawkes plays a local motel owner, Matthew Davis who was once tipped to be a huge star plays the creepy local priest and Elizabeth Berkley his devout girlfriend. Original Samantha, Daveigh Chase is also solid in the main role. The finale of this movie is also pretty good with an impressive meteor storm and kind of moving ending montage choreographed to a Cocteau Twins song. So overall this movie gets a pass from me for ambition rather than the final result. **

Passengers

[ReviewAZON asin="B001P3SA9E" display="inlinepost"]Passengers was due to be a major cinema release in the UK at the end of 2008 but after bombing at the US box office it now appears straight to DVD in the UK.

The film starts with a horrifying plane crash that's quite effective but not a patch on the first Final Destination. Then we see the survivors wandering round in a daze on the beach whilst the plane wreckage burns around them. Cut to psychotherapist Claire Summers played by the luminous Anne Hathaway. Summers is called in to help the survivors which includes Eric Clark played by Patrick Wilson. Clark seems to have a new outlook on life and starts to really live like never before. Summers is naturally drawn to this man who flirts with her constantly as he sees he has nothing to lose anymore.

Meanwhile at the group therapy sessions that occur for the other survivors, people start to disappear and mysterious men in suits are hanging around staring at them. Anyone who has read that plot description probably knows where this ends, I'm not going to spoil it for you but you are probably right.

It's sad that any kind of supernatural or weird movie needs to have a twist these days as a lot of Passengers is quite solid and it didn't necessarily have to follow in the footsteps of other similar movies. As a result a lot of the tension is evaporated waiting for the predictable ending.

The romance between Patrick Wilson and Anne Hathaway actually works really well as the two of them have good chemistry and as a result the ending feels like it let them down for the good work they put into this. Also the film looks astounding as shot by Igor Jadue Lillo with a really warm feel in some scenes and very cold during others. So I cannot really recommend this but for a similar more satisfying experience then check out The Nines or Final Destination. *

Dead Snow

[ReviewAZON asin="B002PTTL22" display="inlinepost"]First we had a Swedish vampire movie, now we have a Norwegian zombie movie and with undead Nazi's at that. Have you played Call of Duty- World at War? Addicted to the unlockable Nazi Zombies game? Then you are going to love this.

Dead Snow starts like any other movie where horrific things are found in the wilderness, a bunch of young people (3 guys, 3 girls) are on their way to a cabin in the mountains. They are made up of the usual archetypes, the film nerd, the extreme sports enthusiast, the slut and the guy who is squeamish but will no doubt have something horrific happen to him.

So off they are in the snow, drinking and flirting and along comes a stranger who tells them that a platoon of Nazi's were chased into the mountains by the locals and slaughtered during world war 2. The stranger finishes his coffee, apologizes for ruining their evening and goes outside to get killed in his tent. Its not long before the slutty girl is pulled down into the outhouse basin and eaten by an undead goose-stepper. The cabin is then besieged by the undead hordes of Nazi's and the blood begins to flow, splatter and pour over the white snow.

I really enjoyed this film, its got a low budget for sure but makes the most of it. We don't just get one or two zombies attacking at intervals either, by the end we have armies of them running across the snow towards the beleaguered survivors. Dead Snow would have been the type of movie Peter Jackson would have made had he been Norwegian and it has some great macabre gags the likes of which Jackson used to put in his early splatter movies.

The standout being a scene where a man hangs off a cliff by a zombies intestines. The film really does not hold back on the gore, gallons of blood are spilled on the ice and there is truly nothing more satisfying than a chainsaw hacking through the undead. Dead Snow rocks quite frankly and it would be pretty hard to remake due to where its set which can only be a good thing. ****

Big Man Japan

[ReviewAZON asin="B0023BZ65S" display="inlinepost"]I bought this outright on a whim without knowing anything except the basic premise. I mean a reality documentary with cameramen following a man who just so happens to be Japan's last giant defender against giant monsters, got to be watched right?

The film starts off well, it follows around scruffy looking Daisato as he goes about his daily routine, buying noodles, shopping for umbrellas, talking about his estranged wife and kids and having bricks hurled through his window. The camerawork is static and boring, its like anything you could see on BBC 2 or 4. Then suddenly he gets a telephone call and must go to the local power plant, here by electrocuting himself he grows into a stick wielding giant several stories high and goes off to fight the first in an ever increasingly ludicrous looking amount of monsters.

It's a great premise and its pretty funny as well if as a kid you remember the first time power rangers came on TV as the monsters look ridiculous. One of the monsters is a giant head with a leg that launches itself around and another is a giant baby that just cries. In a very funny scene the giant baby monster is dropped by Big Man Japan and killed which incurs the wrath of the public and further bricks through Daisato's window.

I think the problem is with Big Man Japan is that its not as good as it could have been. The fact that the public hate this man for the destruction he causes whilst saving them isn't mined for as much comedy as it could have been. Maybe something was lost in translation here but for such a great premise with a rich history of giant monster features to look to for inspiration it feels like it should have had more laughs.

Also the reality documentary sections tend to drag a little so its a relief when a giant penis looking monster shows up. On the plus side for something that was probably low budget the effects work is really good and the CGI or motion capture techniques they used are light years ahead of the most recent Godzilla movies. In the hands of someone like Stephen Chow this kind of thing would no doubt be golden, but as it is its an A for effort and C for attainment.

On this evidence though director Hitosi Matumoto could well make something great next time out and is definitely one to watch. Also If you can work out the ending of this movie then please comment below. ***

P.S Please remember to go out and buy/rent/steal yourself a copy of the awesome Trick R Treat this Halloween. It really is the best movie to come out on DVD in months and it needs to get a big audience so we get a follow up of some sorts. Who knows it could be the beginning of a great straight to DVD franchise much like er Wishmaster. The film is out to purchase on 26th October.[ReviewAZON asin="B002LMSWN2" display="inlinepost"]

By Chris Holt