Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Review: Lost Girl – Season 2 / Cert: 15 / Director: Various / Screenplay: Various / Starring: Anna Silk, Kris Holden-Reid, Ksenia Solo, Richard Howland, Zoie Palmer, Lina Roessler / Release Date: September 9th

Lost Girl established itself in its first season as a go-to show for fans of paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Its heroine, Bo (Silk), is a succubus with a heart of gold caught between the forces of the Light and Dark Fae but unwilling to commit to either. This position has its perils, but it enables her to go to places other Fae can’t, and so she does, with the assistance of a small but hardy band of friends and helpers.

The second season pretty much picks up where the first one left off. In her day job as a private eye, Bo investigates another slew of supernatural cases: cracking down on the trade in Mongolian death worms, locating a gun-wielding street artist, tracking down a villain who’s been busted out of jail by a bunch of Fae exotic dancers and taking on an ancient Egyptian resurrectionist with a fondness for ballet. Meanwhile, there are romantic entanglements aplenty. Bo’s on-off boyfriend, Dyson (Holden-Reid), has had his ability to love Bo magically sucked from his body, but there’s a welcome distraction for him in the form of old flame Ciara (Roessler). In turn, the bi-curious Bo tries cuddling up to cute Doctor Lauren (Palmer) for comfort, but she has baggage of her own, and besides, Bo’s bestie Kenzi (Solo) gets jealous when Lauren hogs all of Bo’s attention.

Its unusually unjudgemental and grown-up attitude towards sexuality is Lost Girl‘s key strength, the thing that makes it stand out from the pack. Throw in sharp, catty scripts from a largely female writers’ room and good performances from an unconventional cast (neither Silk nor Palmer are what you would call TV pretty, but there’s a crackling on-screen chemistry between them), and it’s easy to see why the show has its devoted fans.

Where Season 2 disappoints, though, is in the area of spectacle. Lost Girl was never an expensive-looking series, but this time round signs of a rapidly dwindling budget are all over the place. At one point, Bo’s pals hide in terror from a cohort of goons who have come to slay them, but we have to take their presence for granted as there is no cut-away shot to show us what they look like. The season finale is particularly underwhelming: it promises a reckoning with an all-powerful demonic creature, mightier than the Fae, but this turns out to be some greaseball in a cheap suit waving a naff CGI flaming sword. Even the Dal Riata, the pub where everyone who’s anyone in Lost Girl hangs out for a pint, isn’t immune from the cost-cutting: it grows emptier and emptier as the budget for extras seems to have been slashed. A shame… but we’ll still be coming back for Seasons 3 and 4.

Extras: None

Review: The Seasoning House / Cert: 18 / Director: Paul Hyett / Screenplay: Paul Hyett, Conal Palmer, Adrian Rigelsford / Starring: Rosie Day, Kevin Howarth, Sean Pertwee, Dominique Provost-Chalkley, Anna Walton / Release Date: August 12th

Former FX make-up designer Paul Hyett’s debut feature film is a brutal, pitiless thriller set in a filthy, claustrophobic environment, shot through with stark casual violence and a sense of abject hopelessness which is guaranteed to shake your faith in human nature. You’re also likely to come away impressed by Hyett’s deft direction and the taut performances in a harrowing and often disturbing film which only loses its way in its last act as it abandons its stifling set-up and drifts perilously close to becoming just another revenge runaround.

We’re in the middle of the Balkan conflict and young girls are savagely orphaned and dragged to a ramshackle, isolated house, drugged up the eyeballs and ‘seasoned’ for the pleasure of visiting thugs and soldiers. Angel (Day) is a deaf mute girl protected from direct abuse by the house’s sleazy owner Viktor (Howarth) but still forced to cook, clean and keep the girls sedated. Angel inures herself to the horror of her situation and befriends Alexa (Provost-Chalkley), but her inability to help her friend gives Angel the strength to turn the tables, especially when the ruthless Goran (Pertwee), who brought her to the house in the first place, turns up for some R&R with his gang of thugs.

The Seasoning House is gripping stuff and its violence is unflinching and uncompromising. Hyett brilliantly exploits the story’s enclosed environment, particularly in sequences where Angel squeezes through ventilation shafts and hides in crawlspaces as Goran and his henchmen start to tear the house apart. But at virtually the last moment, as if he’s exhausted the dramatic potential of the house itself, Hyett (who co-wrote the screenplay) changes tack and turns the movie into a potentially more generic chase film as Angel has to confront her remaining enemies in a much less interesting setting. The film’s sense of original vision is lost at a stroke and, whilst Goran’s fate will unnerve some, it’s a frustratingly loose end and the ambiguous conclusion is signposted a mile off. But The Seasoning House is generally a smart and accomplished film, absolutely off-limits to the faint-hearted, and Rosie Day is a real find and one to watch out for. Even Sean Pertwee, whose career has largely been a waste of a distinguished family name, ups his game here and delivers one of his better performances. It’s just a shame the movie finally lacks the courage of its convictions and throws away the USP of its title.

Extras: Commentary / Trailer / Making of feature

Review: Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Time Capsule / Cert: PG / Director: Douglas Camfield / Screenplay: Robert Banks Stewart / Starring: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter, Nicholas Courtney, John Woodnutt, John Levene / Release Date: July 29th

This surprise Doctor Who box set – fans only became aware of its existence following the appearance of an online teaser trailer a few weeks prior to its release date – is rather more than just another Doctor Who DVD release. If any incarnation of TV’s top Time Lord deserves his own moment in the spotlight in this fiftieth anniversary year then it must be Tom Baker, whose teeth-and-curls (and scarf) interpretation of the Doctor is still used as a sort of lazy shorthand for journalists and associated media folk in a hurry to evoke the essence of Doctor Who without bothering themselves with all the other arcane lore and iconography of the series. And who can blame them? Baker arrived in the series at the tail end of 1974 and immediately took the show to new heights of popularity with his combination of alien aloofness, offbeat humour and shambolic Bohemianism. The Doctor was suddenly cool and Doctor Who was seriously trendy, perhaps for the first time ever.

The Fourth Doctor Time Capsule commemorates the huge popularity of the fourth Doctor in a lavish package which includes a no-frills DVD of Terror of the Zygons, the first serial from Baker’s second season (but in production terms a holdover from the previous recording block), a Baker-narrated CD recording of the soundtrack to the 1975 serial Genesis of the Daleks, a twenty-six minute DVD interview, an exclusive action figure depicting Baker in his predecessor’s frills and velvets, a 1970s-style sonic screwdriver, art cards of all the fourth Doctor’s companions, a glossy print of the fourth Doctor, an introductory letter from the indefatigable Baker himself and a fourth Doctor novel written during the ‘dark years’ when Doctor Who wasn’t the cornerstone on the BBC schedule it’s become since the 2005 resurrection.

The tempter here, as with June’s Regenerations box set, will be the early availability on DVD of a previously unreleased serial and Terror of the Zygons is featured here without any of the special features due when the episodes are released separately later this year (and certainly without the reinstated ‘missing’ footage from the first episode). Starburst will be looking at the serial in greater detail when it’s released in September but it’s an odd and uncharacteristic fourth Doctor story, very much a throwback to the Pertwee era with its UNIT soldiers and bright orange rubber monsters. The Zygons remain a masterpiece of design (and are making their long overdue return in the upcoming anniversary special) but as characters they’re nothing special, cast very much in the ‘die, Doctor, die’ mould of many of the latex and fibreglass baddies who came before them. Baker, yet to sink his comedy chops into the role, remains a joy, a distant and diffident alien who can barely bother himself with the concerns of humans whilst still possessing a twinkling charm and bags of boundless energy. The Baker interview disc is frustratingly brief – who couldn’t listen to Tom Baker talk for hours on end? – but he covers his landmark seven-year run with typical honesty and laconic enthusiasm. He remembers his many companions, especially Elisabeth Sladen, with huge affection and former short-lived wife Lalla Ward is honoured with a casual, “I married one of them”.

The Fourth Doctor Time Capsule is a generous, impressive collection immaculately presented in faux Gallifreyan artefact packaging, and with a limited run of just 5,000 units (and a price tag of around fifty quid) it’s clearly aimed at the high end Doctor Who collector’s market. Cynics might view it as an expensive rip-off designed to extend the life of the winding-down DVD range but we’d like to believe that the reality is that it’s an affectionate and timely tribute to a much-loved incarnation of a character who’s now a bona fide television legend celebrating a very special birthday.

Extras: See above

Review: Enter the Dragon – 40th Anniversary Edition / Cert: 18 / Director: Robert Clouse / Screenplay: Michael Allin / Starring: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly / Release Date: Out now

Bruce Lee was perhaps the most charismatic martial arts movie star who ever lived and his loss is still felt 40 years later. Enter the Dragon would have been his big breakthrough into Hollywood and would have brought him to a larger audience had he not died before its release.

This chopsocky classic finds three characters including Roper (Saxon), Williams (Kelly) and Lee (Lee) heading to an island off Hong Kong to take part in a martial arts tournament held by the reclusive and dangerous Han (Shih Kien). Lee has been sent in to spy and gather information and also has a mission of vengeance as Han killed his sister. The other two are there for fortune and glory but find themselves thrown together in a bid to survive.

The problem with martial arts action cinema is that it dates rather quickly. Every five years or so something comes along that blows all previous efforts out of the water with its extreme stunts and choreography. Enter the Dragon has not aged well; Bruce Lee is still incredibly charismatic and agile but the fights consist of mainly punches and kicks and it seems rather quaint in these days of films like The Raid which really push the boundaries of stunt and fight choreography. The movie also takes forever to get going. Rather than concentrating on Lee like it should, we get John Saxon’s uninteresting character and Jim Kelly’s rather wooden outlaw – both there, you feel, to pad out the running time. Having said that, the final 30 minutes is impressive stuff and fairly inventive for the time it was made. The hi-def restoration is impressive and the film has a wonderful retro score by Lalo Schifrin which still stands up. The film is worth seeing purely for the presence of Bruce Lee who is frankly amazing even in scenes where he just gives a lackey an evil look for chiding him about not wearing a uniform.

The Blu-ray has really been put together nicely, with an exhaustive package to mark the 40th anniversary of the film. Kudos to Warner Bros for taking the time and care with what is sure to be a bundle that fans will love. It’s just a shame that the film no longer really stands up in modern times.

Extras: No Way as Way / The Return to Hans Island / Wing Chun: The Art that introduced Kung Fu to Bruce Lee / Commentaries / Blood and Steel – The Making of Enter the Dragon / Bruce Lee in his own words / Linda Lee Caldwell interviews / Location – Hong Kong with Enter the Dragon / Backyard Workout with Bruce Lee / The Curse of the Dragon

Review: Skull World / Cert: 15 / Director: Justin McConnell / Screenplay: Justin McConnell / Starring: Greg Sommer, Jason Pluscec, Shane Patterson / Release Date: Out Now

This witty, fast-paced documentary tells the story of Skull Man, aka Greg Sommer. Sommer and his alter ego take part in box wars. These consist of adults dressed up in cardboard boxes hitting each other with even more cardboard, the aim being to knock off the opponent’s armour. Box Wars is a unique event, full of incredible and innovative cardboard costumes. This documentary provides an insight into the life of Skull Man and his attempt to bring this bizarre contest to television. Does it sound crazy? A little. Is it fascinating? Definitely.

This edgy and cool story is told charismatically by director Justin McConnell, who follows Sommer as he interacts with fans and friends with similar interests. Sommer and his crew attend expo events and greet fans and members of the public. Sommer, who works in a cemetery, loves rock music, and is influenced by horror, brings his huge personality onto a small screen but it works incredibly well and Sommer proves to be very likeable and funny.

SKULL WORLD features home videos as well as family interviews which give the viewers of this DVD a pure and well-rounded look into Greg’s more-than-quirky personality. One of the only problems with the documentary is that, at several points, the film fails to flow as McConnell follows Sommer around. Despite this, whenever McConnell returns to the Box Wars, attention is immediately regained.

This is an interesting story excellently told by McConnell, vaguely reminiscent of the style of JACKASS. It’s new, engaging and cool. A tarot card reader who appears in the film describes Sommer as an ‘offside thinker’ and this is what makes him, and the film, so individual.

Extras: Commentaries / Deleted Scenes / Extended Segments / Trailers

Review: Red Dawn / Cert: 12 / Director: Dan Bradley / Screenplay: Carl Ellsworth, Jeremy Passmore / Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Jeffrey Dean Morgan / Release Date: Out Now

In this remake of the 1984 film of the same name starring Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey, first-time director Dan Bradley brings things up to date with an up and coming cast and explosive effects.

RED DAWN is filled with stars known within the sci-fi, horror and fantasy genres, including Chris Hemsworth (THOR, CABIN IN THE WOODS), Brett Cullen (LOST), Josh Hutcherson (THE HUNGER GAMES), Isabel Lucas (TRANSFORMERS), Adrianne Palicki (SUPERNATURAL, LEGION) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (SUPERNATURAL). Director Dan Bradley also has several links with the genres, having served as stunt co-ordinator and second unit film director in films such as the SPIDER-MAN franchise, INDEPENDENCE DAY, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, and SUPERMAN RETURNS.

When US marine Jed (Hemsworth) returns home on a leave of absence, he reunites with his father and younger brother. Suddenly, the town is invaded by North Korean paratroopers, with bombs and helicopters shooting at the townspeople. When the family are nearly killed during the invasion, their father (Cullen) orders them away to a cabin in the woods for safety. Along with a few others (including Josh Hutcherson), they try to wait it out. When their hiding place is discovered, they must go on the run and prepare for war against the cruel and relentless Captain Cho and his men.

Filled with impressive special effects, this film will be a treat for action fans as the survivors fight to their deaths, but may seem somewhat lacking in individuality for everyone else. However, the cast are strong, especially Hemsworth, who proves time and time again that he is one of the rufty-tuftiest leading men to emerge from Hollywood for a while; his strained relationship with his brother provides a constant source of intriguing tension. The film is enjoyable, fast paced and full of action. Bradley’s years of experience working within the action genre has proved useful as he achieves an exciting directorial debut.

Extras: 5 Featurettes / Soundbites / Trailers

Review: Infection Z / Cert: 18 / Director: Glenn Ciano / Screenplay: Glenn Ciano / Starring: Michael Masden, William Forsythe, Christy Romano / Release Date: Out Now

With the release of World War Z, it seemed inevitable a low budget film of similar name and themes would surface. This inevitability comes in the form of Infection Z, a back-to-basics, CGI-less zombie fest. Some things need to stay dead, stay in their grave, or any other death related pun meaning a thing shouldn’t be done.

The only positive to this film is Michael Madsen, leader of the pack, barking orders at the gang of survivors. These survivors are the most mismatched group of people ever left to survive the onslaught of zombies. Zombies which instil very little fear and more “oh look at that unexpected occurrence….more tea?”, if one was watching from the sidelines. The story, if it can be called that, is merely a patchwork of events sewn together in hopes of appearing coherent. The actors act with as much as sincerity as they can with what they have, which is a long episode of a bad TV show.

It’s also shot quite interestingly, in the manner a comic book or graphic novel. This works in its favour for a time but interest soon withers away. Do yourself a favour and avoid this film as though it were a rabid pack of zombies. Blood definitely may not flow, but it poses a definite danger to the brain cells.

Extras: None

Review: Sharknado / Cert: 12A / Director: Anthony C. Ferrante / Screenplay: Thunder Levin / Starring: Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Cassie Scerbo, David Bittick, John Heard / Release Date: October 7th

Wow! Where to begin? In case you’ve missed the hype – officially 5,000 Twitter mentions per minute at one point – Sharknado brings together two monstrous, life-threatening forces: sharks and tornadoes. Ever wondered what would happen if sharks were sucked up into a tornado and left to devastate Los Angeles? No, us neither, but at least now we’ve found out.

Enter our hero, the puntastically-named Fin (Ziering), a bar-owner who loves the surf. Joining him in the battle against this ‘weather-with-bite’ we have his best friend Nada (Bittick), his goo-goo-eyes-making bartender Nova (Scerbo), resident drunk George (Heard), ex-wife April (Reid), and various other throwaway characters.

Firstly, be prepared to throw logic out of the window. Just off the top of our heads, we’ve got a shark being taken out early on with a bar stool, we’ve got the type of special effects that make an early ’00s Dreamcast game look impressive, we’ve got sharks that growl (seemingly a given in shark films these days), we’ve got sharks that can hold onto things despite only having flippy, floppy fins, we’ve got sharks coming out of manhole covers and drainage pipes, we’ve got sharks hanging on to ropes by their teeth, and we’ve got sharks that somehow do not need any water to survive. Then there’s also the small fact that characters seem to suffer random haircuts throughout the movie, and you have someone simply giving a big “Ow!” when being ripped apart by one of the planet’s apex killing machines.

So, yeah, logic is most definitely not needed for this film. In fact, any logic that you have will only serve to hinder you in any enjoyment you’re looking to take from Sharknado. Oh, and there’s even the horrendous line of “We’re gonna need a bigger chopper.” Roy Scheider would be turning in his grave. Then there’s the ending – one of the most irrational, illogical and stupid endings you will ever see. We’re talking Planet of the Apes remake bad.

Sharknado’s performances range from the okay to the usual B-movie crap that you’ve come to expect from such films. Ziering is the best of the bunch, seemingly being one of the few actors that seemed arsed to turn up and put in a solid portrayal. The rest of the characters just have nothing to them… and then there’s Tara Reid. Her character is just a total bitch from her first appearance to her last, yet there’s no reason for it. It’s as if she’s woken up to find somebody defecating in her corn flakes, then that’s set the tone for her day. Or maybe she’s just seen Sharknado.

Extras: None

Review: Blancanieves / Cert: 12 / Director: Pablo Berger / Screenplay: Pablo Berger / Starring: Maribel Verdu, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Macarena Garcia / Release Date: August 5th

There’s a lot to said for silent films. Seductive cinematography. Iconic stars. Tales of behind-the-scenes excess and debauchery. And, best of all, they stopped making them over 80 years ago, so they’re easy to avoid if they’re not your cup of tea. Except that’s no longer true, it seems. Because after the surprise critical and commercial success of Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist, we now have Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves. Somewhere a Media Studies lecturer is no doubt already busily preparing a module on the Early 21st Century Silent Film Revival.

Blancanieves also slots into the recent “twisted fairy tale” craze, in that it’s a version of Snow White, one that transposes the story to the world of Spanish bullfighting in the 1920s. We begin with famous bullfighter Antonio and his pregnant wife Carmen. When he gets mauled in the ring, the shock sends her into labour and she dies giving birth to a little girl, also called Carmen. Initially young Carmen is brought up by her grandmother, but when she drops dead of a heart attack after a particularly vigorous bout of flamenco dancing (a warning to us all, that), there’s nowhere for the girl to go but to the country estate ruled over by her new evil stepmother, Encarna. This wicked lady knocks off Antonio and tries to kill Carmen too, but she escapes and, in a state of amnesia, takes refuge with some dwarves who work as a novelty bullfighting act. She has a go at joining in and, being her father’s daughter, turns out to be an instant hit.

It’s apparent from every frame that this film was a labour of love for all concerned. It boasts exquisite production design which makes use of a dark Spanish Gothic look mixed with splashes of Art Deco, the orchestral score is witty and bubbly, the black-and-white visuals have a fashion plate gloss, and all of the performances are excellent, particularly that of Maribel Verdu, who has a whale of a time strutting about in feathers, jewels and flapper dresses in the role of the sadistic stepmum (and keep your eyes peeled for a scene-stealing comedy rooster who deserves an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actor Who Can Also Be Served For Sunday Lunch). The dwarves, too, are nicely done, taking their cue as they do from the Disney version – there’s a grumpy one, a dopey one and a tranny one (wait… what?). Unfortunately, where the silent film gimmick made sense in The Artist (a silent film about a star of silent films), here it feels affected, especially when combined with an annoying pillar boxed 4:3 aspect ratio. As a result, for all it’s skill, this a movie that’s never truly involving. It gets an olé for effort and daring, though.

Extras: Making of Blancanieves / Trailer