Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Given a superficial glance this Swedish ten-part drama is little more than another slick crime thriller from the recent stable of gritty ‘nordic-noir’ that has brought us the likes of Borgen and The Killing; and so it was billed in TV listings when it premièred in the UK on ITV Encore a couple of months ago, giving little away as to the true nature of this unique and compelling genre mash-up.

The opening scenes introduce our main protagonist Eva Thörnblad, a police detective tormented by the disappearance, presumed drowning, of her daughter seven years ago – played hauntingly by Mao Gammel whose performance, like the rest of the cast, has a sincerity and gravitas in keeping with the programme’s solemn themes and gives the whole thing a naturalistic feel that makes the later twists and developments all the more surprising. Early on in the story, Eva has cause to return to her childhood home to deal with the estate of her recently deceased father from whom she became estranged after her tragic loss and it is here, in the town of Silverhöjd and its mysterious surrounding forests that the rest of the drama plays out and where things get very interesting.

By the end of the first episode it becomes clear that this is a singularly remarkable debut from creator Henrik Björn who has taken the conventional bleak crime drama format that the Scandinavians do so well and infused it with magic and mystery drawing on a wealth of Norse mythology and folklore while at the same time managing to keep it engaging and plausible. We have corrupt businesses plotting grand conspiracies here and a cat and mouse chase with a sinister killer there – ancient secrets and mysterious characters abound with echoes of David Lynch and the whole thing is very reminiscent of The X-Files at its dark, brooding best.

One of the most endearing things about Jordskott is how all the revelations and surprises are directed with an underplayed subtlety so that the story never descends into ridiculous fantasy while at the same time offering enough to elevate it above other, more conventional, shows. The editing is, at times, a bit too snappy – jumping from one scene to another like an impatient child but at least Björn could never be accused of resorting to the kind of clumsy plot explanation devices so often employed in, for example, American dramas so that the viewer is compelled to keep their eyes on the screen and their brains in gear. 

All told, from its beautifully rendered opening titles to the satisfying conclusion, Jordskott is ten hours of fantastic drama that you won’t want to miss.

JORDSKOTT / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: HENRIK BJÖRN, ANDERS ENGSTRÖM / SCREENPLAY: DENNIS MAGNUSSON, FREDRIK T. OLSSON, ALEXANDER KANTSJÖ / STARRING: MOA GAMMEL, GÖRAN RAGNERSTAM, RICHARD FORSGREN / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 17TH

 

Riki-Oh, what a time we live in. In an age where every old cult genre movie is getting a special edition Blu-ray re-release with all of the trimmings, The Most Insane Prison Movie Ever Made finally gets its shiny upgrade.

Dropped in a prison full of sadistic governors, wardens and inmates, buff superman Riki (Fan) is systematically tortured and abused by a series of ever-worsening antagonists. Thankfully, Riki himself is no defenceless Tobias Beecher – indeed, to paraphrase Watchmen’s Rorschach, one quickly begins to get the sense that he’s not locked in there with them, but rather… well, you get the idea. Given the amount of walls Riki punches his opponents through and things (mostly bodies, admittedly) he tears apart with his bare hands, it’s evident from the off that Riki could probably just punch his way out of prison was he so inclined.

Thankfully for us, the oiled muscleman seems content to wait and react, the prison giving him no shortage of things to punch off or through in defence of either himself or others. The film’s reputation is true; packing an incredible level of gore and violence (think the likes of Braindead and Evil Dead 2) it’s at once exhilarating and repulsive, the prison movie The Human Centipede 3 wishes it was. If Riki is an underwritten blank slate of a hero, its villains are a wonderful set of malevolent monsters, ranging from bulky henchmen to gruesome gluttons and… well, whatever the governor is! Bill Boss, eat your heart out.

There have been DVD releases before, but the film has never been as clear as in Mediumrare’s Blu-ray (and standard definition DVD) restoration. The blood and gore pops from the screen just like the eyeballs and body parts. An interview, commentary and a featurette aside, it’s a little paltry when it comes to special features though, making it a less comprehensive release than it could have been.

Apart from those small niggles, (and bearing in mind that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea) The Story of Ricky is a fantastic re-emergence of one of cult cinema’s most exciting flavours. Riki-Oh, you’re so fine.

RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY (1991) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: NGAI CHOI LAM (SIMON NAM) / STARRING: SIU-WONG FAN, MEI SHENG FAN, KA-KUI HO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

It’s been 65 years since small town Texarkana was terrorized by a masked serial killer. These attacks were known as The Moonlight Murders, carried out by the Phantom Killer and never solved, leading to the small town being surrounding in infamy. Present-day Texarkana embraces their terrible history on Halloween by showing a film based on the murders at a local drive-in. On the very same night, history begins to repeat itself and the Moonlight killer is back.

High schooler Jami (Addison Timlin) has her own dark past and soon becomes the next victim, though she isn’t killed by the masked murderer but she is certainly terrorized by this vengeful slasher after a very close encounter. Stalked and threatened, Jami is desperate to end the killing sprees and her own torment. In doing so she uncovers some town secrets that have a deep connection to the murderer. From there on, things start to get very dangerous as she gets close to uncovering the mystery behind the murders.

This remake of a classic slasher/horror isn’t afraid to acknowledge its original predecessor as it plays out as more of a sequel, and the decision to show footage from the original 1976 film to mark the town’s history was a very smart idea. The original film is also based loosely on a true story, which gives the film layers of history and fear. It’s a meta film that director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has really been able to sink his teeth into, showing his love for the genre and the filmmaking process with a beautiful style and look. Having directed TV shows from Glee to American Horror Story, Alfonso has definitely had experience in building up lots of tension with added drama. The Town That Dreaded Sundown is his first feature film and it is not a shy away from his previous work, and Alfonso has definitely got his own style of directing; he has given a lot of depth to the characters and has a knack for pulling off dark humour and lightening the tone of a very sombre subject. Despite having a lot of connection to the original film, it is in fact very different in tone, which is a light cocktail of terrifying horror and awkward humour.

Although set in the present day, there is a classic ‘70s-style reminiscent of a lot of slasher horrors from that particular decade. John Carpenter’s Halloween certainly comes to mind, but also revenge horrors such as I Spit on Your Grave. There’s some great tension-building with classic gory murder scenes without showing too much, keeping the imagination running. Due to a recent mass revival of this era of slasher films, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is no fresh take on the genre as it plays by the rules and tropes of our favourite slasher films, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. It’s a very intense creep show that’s worth a watch by anyone who is a fan of the genre.

Special Features: Interviews with cast and crew

THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (2015) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: ALFONSO GOMEZ-REJON / SCREENPLAY: ROBERTO AGUIRRE-SACASA / STARRING: ADDISON TIMLIN, TRAVIS TOPE, VERONICA CARTWRIGHT, ANTHONY ANDERSON, GARY COLE, EDWARD HERMANN / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 17TH

 

For anyone outside of the anime loop and looking in, giant fighting robots are what it’s all about. There is some truth to that, with the mech subgenre effectively serving as the backbone, and every new season usually packs one mech effort. Captain Earth is a tepid entry, with enough interesting ideas to keep it ticking over.

Second year lickspittle Manatsu Daichi is questioning his place in the world and his lot in life, staring down the inevitability of adulthood. His dad died in mysterious circumstances, and the only comfort is the knowledge that it was an act of heroism.

When a strange circular rainbow appears over the island Tanegashima, speculation and rumour grip the country. But for Daichi, it brings him back to childhood where he first crossed paths with Teppei Arashi, an odd boy from the other side of a security fence. Recognising the rainbow as the same singularity that Teppei himself produced, Daichi makes his way back to the military island complex. After an alarm sounds the impending arrival of invading aliens Kill-T-Gang, he chances his way to Captain status and seems to have a fundamental understanding control of the mech, Earth Engine Impactor.

Globe, the enigmatic defence organisation, teams Daichi with likeminded and similarly willed individuals to form the Midsummer Knights to combat the aliens. Teppei, Daichi discovers, is a former Kill-T-Gang member whose memories were wiped and whose consciousness was stowed away in the body of a teenage boy. The daughter of the base commander, Akari Yomatsuri is a quirky hacker and self-proclaimed ‘Magic Girl’. Peculiar Hana Mutou and her side kick critter Pitz, is inexplicably connected to the ship Blume.

Writer Yōji Enokido doesn’t plumb the same depth as the scripts he penned for Neon Genesis Evangelion, and that’s symptomatic of the entire series. The animation is good but not great, the characters are fun but unmemorable. There’s some cunning ideas, but it hasn’t got anything on the intelligence of Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. The brash mech combat isn’t as good as Knights of Sidonia, and not nearly as much fun as Full Metal Panic. There’s plenty of brazen sequences, especially the elaborate transformations where the central part of the mech flies through space gates and combines with its limbs. The end result looks like it just zipped out of any of the myriad Gundam series.

Episode 5 makes a change of pace and setting with some slow burn espionage aboard Globe’s space station Tenkaido. It’s an all too brief detour from the bulk of the series, but a reminder of its potential. Part 1 might not inspire you to fork out for the next instalment, but there’s enough here to enjoy.

Special Features: Clean opening and closing / Trailers

CAPTAIN EARTH PART 1 / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: TAKUYA IGARASHI / SCREENPLAY: YOJI ENOKIDO / STARRING: MIYU IRINO, HIROSHI KAMIYA, AI KAYANO, KOTORI KOIWAI, RINA HIDAKA / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 10TH

 

There’s nothing you won’t have seen before in this Irish entry into the found footage canon. The usual tropes are all in place; five teenagers fetch up in an apparently abandoned island hotel just off the country’s west coast, much drinking and pot-smoking ensues, until one of them suggests they create an ad hoc Ouija board and we discover that the island is supposedly haunted. A slide has already revealed that the friends disappeared without trace, and all that’s left to tell is in what order they meet their ends and how.

That’s not quite the whole story, as there are a couple of things going on here which set this film apart from some others of its ilk. Firstly, the entire cast are going by their given names, helping to blur the line between reality and fiction. Then there is the camerawork, which often in this kind of film will be a touch too “professional” to convince of its amateur nature. The pictures here are blurry and juddery, the cameras shaking all over the place; initially this is distracting, but ultimately it’s what gives the film its verisimilitude. Finally there’s the cast; there are in fact only two established actors among the five, and it’s impossible to tell from the universally convincing performances which those might be.

And that’s Invoked’s biggest asset and concomitantly its biggest flaw; the performances are all so natural and credible that the first half feels like an extended home movie – surely the point, but unfortunately in this instance there isn’t enough that is “cinematic” (in either the writing or production) to prevent the experience from feeling like being stuck in a tedious neighbour’s front room as they force you through all the dullest bits of their holiday films. Once the story really kicks in, your involvement in the picture is likely already to be lost.

There’s a heavy Ringu influence, too over-familiar in the seventeen years since the Japanese horror first appeared, to the visuals, which is probably enough to take anyone who knows their onions right out of the film. But for anyone who is still engaged enough to care, there are certain moments during the last half-hour which are genuinely unnerving. The last ten minutes in particular will have your hairs standing on end.

Brazilian director Humberto Rosa has an interesting background in shorts (two of which are included in the package), but it’s a shame he’s chosen the found footage genre for his first full feature in the English language. There might have been an interesting way to tell this story, with a little extra background detail, but sadly there’s very much a sense instead of having seen it all before.

Special Features: Two short films / Trailer

INVOKED / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: HUMBERTO ROSA / SCREENPLAY: AARON GIBSON, HUMBERTO ROSA / STARRING: PATRICK MURPHY, CIARA ROSE BURKE, LYNN LARKIN, CRAIG GRAINGER, AARON GIBSON / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 17TH

Originally known as Red Machine before changing the name to Endangered and Grizzly, this film finally settled on a title that doesn’t sell its premise that well, and that’s just for starters.

Rowan (James Marsden) returns to his home town at the request of the partner of a tracker who has gone missing in the woods. His brother, Beckett (Thomas Jane), is now a cop and is wary of his jailbird brethren turning up out of the blue. Beckett’s partner, Michelle (Piper Perabo), is a conservationist who is photographing wildlife in the woods. Add to this heady mix a rogue grizzly bear that is not one that is being tracked with a GPS collar and is killing both humans and other wildlife, and you’ve got a recipe for a Jaws sequel… sorry, disaster.

There is also a hunter, Douglas (Billy Bob Thornton), and the local Sherriff (Scott Glenn) who is receiving backhanders for allowing hunters to illegally hunt the bears, and Michelle is also deaf, by the way.

The main problem with the film is that even with a damn fine cast and a plotline stolen pretty much straight from 1975, it’s a bit of a jumbled mess.

Backstories are either rushed or just forgotten; characters are given little to do except argue and run except Perabo, who can just run or sign excitedly. There doesn’t seem to be any real purpose for her character to be deaf. Douglas is clearly supposed to be a Quint-like character, but he rings his performance in, and Glenn seems to be rehashing his moments onscreen from Backdraft.

The CGI near the end is deplorable and makes the final battle laughable. If there was an extra ten minutes or so added on to the running time to fill out a few unresolved issues, including the hunters that are with the tracker Johnny Cadillac at the beginning, then we’d have a halfway decent movie.

As it is, it feels rushed. Normally if the action kicks straight in, as a viewer you’re happy, but there is no set up here, no real juxtaposition. Even the opening scene with Rowan and Beckett as children feels unrelated when it should leave you feeling empathy for their characters and maybe able to understand why they grew apart into very different lives.

Hackl has one other major title in his directing belt – Saw 5 – need we say more?

A real missed opportunity here. Not so much hair-raising as hairball.

INTO THE GRIZZLY MAZE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: DAVID HACKL / SCREENPLAY: GUY MOSHE, J.R. REHER / STARRING: JAMES MARSDEN, THOMAS JANE, PIPER PERABO, BILLY BOB THORNTON, SCOTT GLENN / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 17TH

 

If reality is indeed less than television, then David Cronenberg’s undulating opus exists in the netherworld between dreamscape and rationality. For Channel 83 CEO Max Renn (James Woods), his first encounter with the Videodrome signal ushers in a hallucinogenic journey into the cognitive heart of darkness, programmed by cancer and corporate greed like a venereal riff on The Manchurian Candidate. Since its release, Cronenberg’s television musings have snowballed to encompass all mass media, for a decidedly more political and prophetic story some thirty years later. But perhaps mass media is politics, and politics less than mass media.

Channel 83’s CIVIC-TV showcases softcore pornos and violent movies to win over viewers hungry for something fleshy and red, rather than outwardly competing with the larger networks. Renn, a television libertarian, believes it’s a cathartic and healthy outlet for our violent and sexual fantasies that might otherwise manifest in reality. His sleazy network is providing a public service, and he believes this public to be after something altogether more visceral. Having a pirate on your payroll is advantageous, especially as Harlan (Peter Dvorsky) is able to access all kinds of provocative broadcasts. When he first introduces Max to a new recording, 50 seconds of plotless torture, Max realises that Videodrome is just what his punters are after.

Despite the irony of watching Videodrome on Blu-ray, Arrow’s release has scrubbed up tremendously, with the restored high-definition digital transfer allowing the viewer to pick out individual fibres of Woods’ jacket and appreciate the bright picture quality over various gloomy DVD iterations. The attention to restoration, however, has led to the work of Rick Baker and his EFX team put under the most unflattering of circumstances. The moment Woods’ pistol biomechanically morphs with his hand, an effect which the team were never satisfied with, looks particularly dated with the cold digital gaze glaring at it. The scene in which corporate despot Barry Convex (Leslie Carlson) is devoured in a mass of tumours, on the other hand, is still eye-wincingly effective.

Woods’ Canadian lilt and heavy hooded eyes add to the character’s ambivalence and the wonky moral line he walks. Co-star Debbie Harry is terrific in her first feature film role after striking out on her own from Blondie. The supporting cast especially, many of whom are first introduced on television screens, really help to sell the strangeness of the movie. Julie Khaner’s affectionate assistant Bridey is a ray of sunshine in the otherwise violent cathode ray nightmare, with Peter Dvorsky providing some light relief with great timing and sharp delivery. While Sonja Smits is charismatic and commanding as the daughter of Videodrome architect Brian O’Blivian (Jack Creley).

Visual metaphors and motifs echo throughout the films surreal turns, blending sex and violence with what begins as a smudge of sauce on a photograph and culminating in the bloody effects. It leads, in no small part, to the innumerable ways to read the film’s events, with the ending taking on different meanings depending on your own interpretation. Author and critic Tim Lucas argues that the film is circular, with the suicide pre-empting the beginning, and the beginning forever doomed to repeat the suicide.

The glut of special features illuminate the production and durability of the film, with the 1997 BBC documentary Cinema of the Extreme and the roundtable discussion with Johns Carpenter and Landis are particular highlights. The deleted scenes, taken from the dreadful TV cut, offer a more tangible sense of Videodrome and its origin. And then there’s the inclusion of Cronenberg’s early works, which anticipated the wonderful weirdness to come.

Special Features: Audio commentary / Cinema of the Extreme documentary / Forging the New Flesh documentary / Fear on Film roundtable discussion / Brand new interviews / Four of Cronenberg’s early works / Camera short film / Four featurettes / Deleted scenes / Trailer / 100-page hardback book

VIDEODROME / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCRENPLAY: DAVID CRONENBERG / STARRING: JAMES WOODS, DEBORAH HARRY, PETER DVORSKY, LESLIE CARLSON, SONJA SMITS / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 17TH

Originally intended as the third Conan film, and primarily based upon Robert E. Howard’s novel The Hour of the Dragon, Kull the Conqueror was eventually reworked for another of Howard’s characters after Arnold Schwarzenegger decided his swords and sorcery days were behind him, and replacement star Kevin Sorbo expressed his reluctance to reprise someone else’s role. Eighteen years later, the de Laurentiis production is finally taking its UK DVD bow, having missed out initially by appearing just before the new format was launched. With sand and sandalry undergoing something of a renaissance, the timing couldn’t be better.

This is the genre at its unreconstructed best. Unencumbered by the portentous heaviness of touch that plagued John Milius’ original Conan the Barbarian, Kull the Conqueror whips along at a great pace, rarely more than a couple of minutes passing by without weapons being drawn. Made heir to the throne of Valusia by a spiteful departing king, Kull must contend not only with the aspirations of a pair of cousins who consider the realm rightfully theirs, but also with revived sorceress Akivasha, who plans to restore the ancient evil kingdom of Acheron, upon the ruins of which Valusia was originally built. After being seduced into marriage by the reincarnated demon queen (who stops shy of killing him after realising what a great lover he is), Kull must travel north in an attempt to acquire the breath of the god Volka, the only thing which can counteract her witchcraft.

Sorbo makes a far more charismatic screen presence than his predecessor Schwarzenegger (best line: “She told me she was nineteen!”), playing Kull with a twinkle and a grin, while of his two brides Tia Carrere is an effectively venomous resurrected sorceress and Karina Lombard striking but glacial as the soothsaying Zareta. The rest of the cast are by turns stern and theatrical, but always enjoyable, while the plot is as absurd and as exaggerated as could be desired. Something of a failure on release, having arrived after the genre had long gone out of fashion and action movies had adopted a more affected attitude, this release arrives just as Kull the Conqueror is ripe for reappraisal. And in spite of some occasionally iffy effects, and the sword fighting perhaps feeling a little pedestrian to modern eyes – especially after The Matrix changed the rules for cinematic action – this is actually terrific if undemanding entertainment.

There’s no swearing and no nudity, just an old-fashioned game of throne-swapping with plenty of corny dialogue and arch characterisation, and more packed into its 95 minutes than many modern films will manage in nearly twice as long. If competing mullets and moderately convincing monsters are your bag, this is tremendous fun.

Special Features: Photo gallery

KULL THE CONQUEROR / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: JOHN NICOLELLA / SCREENPLAY: CHARLES EDWARD POGUE / STARRING: KEVIN SORBO, TIA CARRERE, THOMAS IAN GRIFFITH, GARY “LITEFOOT” DAVIS, KARINA LOMBARD, EDWARD TUDOR-POLE, DOUGLAS HENSHALL / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 10TH

As The Munsters came to the end of their TV run in 1966, just before the sets were demolished and the cast went their separate ways, the decision was taken to produce a film for theatrical release, and it’s finally available on DVD!

Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne) inherits the title of Lord Munster along with Munster Hall, a stately home in England. So it’s off to Britain they go, leaving Spot (the unseen pet dragon) to guard 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

Of course, there are some typical Munster sight gags, puns and misunderstandings on board the steamer across the Atlantic, but the real fun starts when they arrive at their ancestral inheritance and meet the British side of the Munster clan.

The UK Munsters are a family of homicidal psychopaths, jealous of their American cousins and determined to frighten them back to the colonies. And if that doesn’t work, there’s the mysterious Gryphon who runs a counterfeiting ring who’ll make sure that Freddie Munster (Terry-Thomas playing a cad, bounder and through and through rotter as usual) gets his inheritance by any foul means necessary in a cross-country car race.

The script is very much an elongated episode of the TV series, only in full colour – with some subtle changes to the make-up, particularly Grandpa Munster (Al Lewis), to accommodate the bigger screen. Though it’s a novelty to see the family in colour for the first time, we can’t help wondering if the original monochrome serves the characters better as a reminder of the old black and white films that inspired them.

The regular cast are all back in their familiar roles, with the exception of a mysteriously recast Marilyn Munster with Debbie Watson replacing series regular Pat Priest. The double act of Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis is a comedic delight. Joining Terry-Thomas as the matriarch of the English Munsters is Hermione Gingold as lady Effigie Munster, with John Carradine as Cruikshank the butler.

Fans of the series will love this opportunity to see this on DVD for the first time.

MUNSTER, GO HOME / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: EARL BELLAMY / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: FRED GWYNNE, YVONNE DE CARLO, AL LEWIS, BUTCH PATRICK, DEBBIE WATSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Robot Overlords is a movie aimed at children about the extinction of all mankind, involving metal aliens who land on Earth and demand that we all stay in our homes until they’ve finished with the planet. Anyone who disobeys gets shot by a huge robot wielding a gigantic gun. That is until a teenage boy finds a clever trick that could save us all. 

There is something terribly British about the plot of Robot Overlords. The idea that giant alien machines can invade our planet it nothing new, but the notion that they then expect mankind to form an orderly queue and wait for extinction seems peculiarly British. As is the way that heroes of the movie rebel against their oppressors; through cunning, luck, and pluck.

Jon Wright’s direction is tight and clever here. He’s found the sweet spot between ‘gritty dystopia’ and ‘kids adventure’ that gives the movie a strong feel; this works well as a kids’ film, but it’s just as interesting to adults. It is helped immeasurably by Ben Kingsley’s performance as the villain. Unlike his performances in other kids’ movies, he isn’t chewing the scenery here; instead, he’s playing a bad person trying to make the best of bad situation. He’s a believable baddy and Kingsley is appropriately chilling as the man who collaborates with the robots in order to get some power over his own kind.

The cast is rather fabulous throughout. Gillian Anderson is as magnificent as she’s always been and she also is a very convincing hero and mother. The kids, however, steal the show. The four of them are a believable unit of friends and family, each with their own hopes and fears. We buy into their courage and stupidity readily, and strap into this deliciously dark rollercoaster of a movie. Yes, the plot is a little simple in places, as yes, it’s filled with sci-fi tropes and action movie clichés, but it really doesn’t matter. Robot Overlords is pure fun; more of this please, and soon.

DVD REVIEW: ROBOT OVERLORDS / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: JON WRIGHT / SCREENPLAY: JON WRIGHT, MARK STAY / STARRING: GILLIAN ANDERSON, BEN KINGSLEY, CALLAN MCAULIFFE, ELLA HUNT, MILO PARKER / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 10TH