Some weeks the new DVD releases are kind’a patethetic. This week they’re actually pretty interesting – which is good, considering there is absolutely friggin NOTHIN’ on TV. So here:
The Hits:
Flatliners. Why has it taken so long for this horror classic to become available? Kiefer Sutherland! Julia Roberts! Kevin Bacon! Life and Death and Life After Death! We give in: we’re locking the door and re-watching this over the weekend. Look at the hair on these guys! Jeez!
All Cheerleaders Die. We’ve talked about it before, and we will again: our greatest guilty pleasure of the summer is Caitlin Stasey and her buddies in a zombie/revenge/high school/kick-ass head-spinner that is perfectly set up for a sequel. Watch it. Live it. Be it!
Ginger Snaps: Collector’s Edition. This contemporary werewolf actioner was great when it first came out in 2000 (seriously? 2000? But Katherine Isabelle hasn’t aged a day. Hey…wait a minute…), and it’s no surprise that one of its stars has moved straight into cult status (see American Mary, Hannibal, etc.) and the co-writer and director John Fawcett went on to create a little somethin’ we call Orphan Black. So a Collector’s Edition with commentaries, featurettes, interviews, deleted scenes, etc.etc., is not only well-deserved, it’s overdu.
Appleseed: Alpha. Based on the comic book by the creator of Ghost in the Shell, a young female soldier and her cyborg partner survive in post-World-War-III apocalyptic New York, in search of human’s future hope: the legendary city of Olympus. Gotta love this stuff!
The Misses:
Blood Lake: Even Shannen Doherty looks sorry she made this cheapjack “lamprey in a lake” monster movie for SyFy (or somebody, who knows). The kind of thing you might play in the background while you’re catching up on your vacuuming.
Blue Ruin is supposed to be one of the classy, thoughtful, independent-movie-like revenge films, about a homeless guy who finally returns to his home town to avenge the death of his parents. No big surprise that it ends badly, but boy, does it take a long, leisurely, mumble-mouthed time getting there. Not really worth it for the fan of either horror or indie films. Sorry.
…and then there’s Transcendence. How could it have gone so poorly, died so quickly? Perhaps Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said it best: “Remember when paycheck-hungry actors were accused of phoning in a performance? Johnny Depp spins that for millennials in Transcendence by Skyping in his performance.” But it’s already out there in the ether.
