It's big, it's loud and now the bonafide monster film of the year is rolling out on store shelves. Michael Bay's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" made gobs of money at the box office and now it almost singled-handedly owns the release calendar this week. But a few other titles do manage to break through the shape-shifting pack, and we'll cover them all in this DVD Report for Tuesday, October 20, 2009.
There's not much purpose in rehashing the plot to "Revenge of the Fallen," the follow-up to the bombastic intergalactic war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Anyone interested in the DVD and Blu-ray has already seen the film, so the only thing really worth discussing are whether the presentation and special features make it a must-own. Well, if you count yourself a fan of the robot-friendly franchise, then it's a definite yes. Like the first film's home video release, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is one of the best looking and best sounding discs around, especially on Blu-ray. Bay's films have frequently been reference-quality material for home theater systems and this one is no different. Action pops off the screen in amazing clarity and the 5.1 DTD-HD audio track could probably knock halls in your walls. Read more...
FROM MTV.COM: "Blood: The Last Vampire" is a Hong Kong-style action movie of the leap-kicking, sky-sailing, blood-spurting variety. It was made in English by a French TV-commercials director, with Korean, American and Irish stars, and lots and lots of demons of a rubberish sort that recall the Toho monster movies of 50 years ago. It's a picture with the unbridled high spirits of its low intentions, and it's a reasonable amount of fun.
This "Blood" is a live-action remake of the well-regarded 2000 Japanese anime film of the same title, with much new backstory shoveled in to clarify the sparse plot of the original (which was distinguished chiefly by its innovative digital environments). Once again we meet 16-year-old demon hunter Saya (Gianna Jun) on the Tokyo subway. Black-clad and broody, she's stalking a nervous commuter whom she suspects of being a lizardy, red-eyed, flesh-rending demon in human form.
Continue reading 'Blood: The Last Vampire': Monster Mash, By Kurt Loder
I have to say, I am very surprised by this week's Box Office Poll numbers. I'm tabulating the results a bit earlier than usual, so there's still a few hours for things to turn around before the poll closes of course. As things stand right now however, the weekend indie offering of "Humpday," "Blood: The Last Vampire" and "Soul Power" is leading the crowd with 33% of your votes. I wonder how many of those votes also went towards Duncan Jones' excellent sci-fi flick "Moon," which opens wide today.
Sacha Baron Cohen's "Brüno" isn't trailing too far behind, nor is the Paul Rust/Hayden Panettiere-led rom-com "I Love You, Beth Cooper," which earned 30% and 29% of your votes, respectively. Only a small percentage of you are opting to stay in (4%), and even fewer (3%) are trekking out to theaters for an earlier release. Read more...
Happy post-Independence Day Monday! I hope you all had a restful long weekend. I wasn't around on Thursday to wrap up last week's poll, so let's take a quick look at those numbers now.
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" edged out "Public Enemies" by a fairly hefty margin, with the 3-D animated family comedy taking 61% of your votes to the period gangster flick's 37%. "Transformers" and its preceding summer pals have seemingly been kicked to the curb, as only 1% of you ventured forth to check out older releases. The limited release world was similarly uninspiring, also earning 1% of your love. At least you're getting out of the house though! There weren't even enough votes to earn "staying home and watching TV" a measly percentage point.
Now, let's take a look at what this week has in store... Read more...
