! Exclaim.ca Reviews - DVD

ID:A - Directed by Christian E. Christiansen

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:00:56 -0400

In simplified, reductionist terms, ID:A, Christian E. Christiansen's follow-up to the awkwardly executed thriller-cum-gender-play, The Roommate, is essentially a remake of the original Bourne Identity with a female protagonist sans mysterious fighting capabilities standing in for Matt Damon and an American studio budget. The titular Ida (Tuva Novotny) awakens in a riverbed, bloodied and suffering amnesia, and proceeds to put together the pieces of how she woke up there holding onto a bag full of two-million euros. She stumbles into a local French inn where she learns...Read More

8 Movie Pack: Explosive Cinema

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Sun, 19 May 2013 16:59:14 -0400

When evaluating the merits of a package such as this, it's important to note that each of the eight movies included in the 4-disc pack costs roughly two or three dollars, depending on country and territory. As such, it's cheaper than renting a similar quantity of movies and more tangible than having a Netflix afternoon, which is appealing for collectors or anyone keen on adding one or two of the titles to their library. This is why the inclusion of the Dennis Rodman action film Simon Sez and the forgettable, slightly out of place, comedy, Lone Star State of Mind are forgivable...Read More

Safe Haven [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Lasse Hallström

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:39:59 -0400

Love, as defined by Nicholas Sparks, is a force unto itself; it's a fatalistic collision often specifically defined by its lack of reason and inconvenience, creating a union between two overly dramatized victims of circumstance who succumb to, or overcome, an oppressive force, whether internal, external or mortal. And because the distinction between love and hormones is never acknowledged within his lexicon of overly sentimental, contrived tragedies, emotion and motivation are idealized and purified to heighten the catharsis and grandiosity of what is ostensibly a greeting card marketing...Read More

Clandestine Childhood - Directed by Benjamin Ávila

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:38:02 -0400

Prior to the opening credits and title scene — an animated dramatization of politically motivated violence from the perspective of our child artist protagonist — an unrefined bit of title card exposition explains the Argentinean climate and military junta's rise to power following the death of Juan Perón. The history lesson suggests revolutionary didactics and historical repetition as subtext, just as the stylized animation implies art, or dramatization and hyperbole, as a cathartic mode of making externally accessible the internal. But neither of these things really happen....Read More

Bruce Lee Double Feature: The Way of the Dragon/Game of Death - Directed by Bruce Lee & Robert Clouse

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:35:55 -0400

Here we have the awkward coupling of one of Bruce Lee's best films with his worst. Actually, to even call Game of Death a Bruce Lee movie is a bit misleading. Put on hiatus when American money appeared to fund Enter the Dragon, catapulting Lee the rest of the way to international superstardom, the original Game of Death was completed after the charismatic martial arts master's death, whereupon it was warped into a crass, exploitative mess of a kung-fu thriller. Cobbled together using archival footage and extremely inadequate doubles, Robert Clouse (who also directed the hit that...Read More

Jack Reacher [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:54:43 -0400

Jack Reacher is a serious contender for the year's most adequate film. Never bad, but rarely more than totally fine, the first big screen adaptation of Lee Childs's popular series featuring the no-nonsense, roving vigilante investigator is the poster child for serviceability. Diminutive Scientologist Tom Cruise as a hulking badass? He's totally fine. Cruise's eagerness to please and obsessive work ethic translate well into the personality of a highly trained tactician full of steely, unwavering confidence that can mentally and physically dismantle any opponent. As creator Childs mentions in a...Read More

As Luck Would Have It - Directed by Alex de la Iglesia

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:53:47 -0400

Throughout his career, Spain's preeminent craftsman of macabre cinematic fables, Alex de la Iglesia, has displayed a deep interest in the politics of performance and the double-edged fortune of spectacle. In this oddly overlooked, darkly funny drama, the director has ample opportunity to explore both obsessions within the context of a media satire that's far subtler than past works, like the vicious, demented clown love story, The Last Circus. In As Luck Would Have It, Iglesia examines the determination of Roberto (Jose Mota), an unemployed ad man, to shape his fortune by...Read More

Frankie Go Boom [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Jordan Roberts

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:52:43 -0400

A slightly naughty screwball comedy, Frankie Go Boom is built a bit like a less pretentious, more intimate Seven Psychopaths. Frankie (Charlie Hunnam) is a wannabe revenge novelist forced to face his muse when his sleazy, exploitative filmmaker brother, Bruce (Chris O'Dowd), is released from rehab. As children, Bruce honed his craft by filming his brother falling for cruelly staged pranks. As adults, Bruce got his first viral hit as a director by releasing footage of Frankie's disastrous wedding. Their intended reconciliation goes way off course when Bruce stealth films a sequel...Read More

Texas Chainsaw 3D [Blu-Ray] - Directed by John Luessenhop

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:51:24 -0400

Ignoring all of the atrocious sequels (some delightfully so, check out The Next Generation, with a young Renée Zellweger) and remakes of Tobe Hooper's overrated but admittedly unsettling low budget '70s slasher, the most recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre posits itself as a direct sequel to the original. In the opening scene, a policeman responds to the reports of a crazy cannibal family butchering college kids. Before he can get the deranged clan to give up their most disturbed member, a posse of enraged townsfolk shows up and fire bombs the hell out of the Sawyer family home after...Read More

The Details - Directed by Jacob Aaron Estes

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:34:15 -0400

Perhaps knowing that deconstructing the artifice and purported serenity of the middle-class suburban lifestyle—a world of block parties, neighbourhood watches, street hockey games, perpetual gossip and petty one-upmanship—is, at least in this present time, a cinematic moot point, Mean Creek director Jacob Aaron Estes has opted to instead assess morality and karma. His sophomore outing, The Details takes place amidst this deceptively idyllic world, opening with the laying of worm-infested sod in the back yard of Jeff Lang (Tobey Maguire), a young married doctor...Read More

The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Tom Elkins

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:30:39 -0400

Despite being the direct to video sequel to a run of the mill supernatural thriller and having an unnecessarily cumbersome, geographically challenged title, The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia isn't the train wreck it could've been. Sure, it's still barely more cinematic than a made for TV movie and speckled with lazy genre tropes but, overall, this southern spook story is downright serviceable. Having absolutely nothing to do with the state of Connecticut, this Haunting involves a little girl (Emily Alyn Lind) who sees spirits around the home her family moves to in...Read More

A Royal Affair [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Nicolaj Arcel

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:02:54 -0400

In 17th and 18th Century Europe, the Age of Enlightenment challenged superstition and tradition, ushering in scientific thought and reason amidst a political and cultural landscape influenced by orthodox thinking and church control of state. As Kant would say, this value system was the proposed freedom to use one's intelligence. Since, in a modern context, basic discernment is a rarity amidst diametrically opposed urban and rural, parroted belief structures, with reason often being quashed and vilified by idealistic pleas, there is much to learn from the evolution of Europe and its eventual...Read More

Silver Linings Playbook [Blu-Ray] - Directed by David O. Russell

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:01:23 -0400

David O. Russell's second Oscar magnet in a row tackles the marginalizing stigma of personality disorders, in the form of a dramatic family comedy. The once edgy director of Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees is now firmly in the crowd-pleasing phase of his career and, following The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook cements his new status as a reliable purveyor of witty, well-made, well-acted formulaic studio flicks. Based on Matthew Quick's novel of the same name, this mildly quirky ensemble piece follows Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper, eager to prove himself) as he...Read More

Promised Land [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Gus Van Sant

editorial@exclaim.ca (Kevin Scott) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:59:29 -0400

In attempting to balance a smart and serious discussion of the benefits and dangers of hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") for natural gas with an actual human story, Promised Land never quite manages to get out of its own way. The arguments about the nasty business of corporations paying off towns for the use of their land, while impassioned and informed, end up revolving around the same few issues. Furthermore, they're hampered by characters and relationships so hollow that they feel as if they've merely been included to make the movie's real agenda more palatable. Steve (Matt...Read More

Hit & Miss: The Complete First Season

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:58:29 -0400

In the amateurishly shot and conducted interview segments included with the 6-episode DVD set of the Irish television drama, Hit & Miss, series creator Paul Abbott (who also created Shameless and State of Play) describes Mia (Chloë Sevigny), the protagonist, as a "chick with a dick." Completely uninterested in political correctness or even pretending that he has any interest in the disposition of a transgendered individual, he dives into discussing the roles of absent or negligent parents in the lives of their children. Mia, a pre-op female assassin, learns that she's...Read More

Gangster Squad [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Ruben Fleischer

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:58:11 -0400

In a strange attempt to pad the supplemental materials available with the Gangster Squad Blu-Ray, short documentary Rogue's Gallery — Mickey Cohen is included, along with the usual interview snippets and clips edited together under different headings, applying to casting, research, costumes and so forth. And while these publicity clips acknowledge the dissimilarities between the real Mickey Cohen and the one depicted by Sean Penn within the film, it's this documentary that exposes the intense differences and bizarre disconnect between reality and fiction. In real life,...Read More

The Guilt Trip [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Anne Fletcher

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:56:55 -0400

Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen in a mother-son road trip comedy? It's the kind of calculated pitch that sounds like it was spit-balled at a board meeting to fill a very specific niche need on the studio's release calendar. The casting is very much a deliberate cross-marketing experiment, but thanks to the advent of bonus content, it's revealed that writer Dan Fogelman based the script upon an actual road trip he took with his mom. His personal connection to the material doesn't make the movie that middling, rhythmic rom-com director Anne Fletcher (Step Up, The Proposal) made...Read More

Mama [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Andres Muschietti

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:55:25 -0400

Mama almost hits the sweet spot between scares and character that gives the audience the adrenaline surge they seek while still telling a story with emotional resonance. It's creepier than a back rub from a vagrant in a Santa suit — more unsettling than terrifying — but while Andres Muschietti's first feature film doesn't exactly err on the side of character, it's the side of the picture that works most successfully. Trusting Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) to carry a movie is an increasingly safe bet and a strong assist from Nikolaj Coster-Waldau...Read More

Broken City [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Allen Hughes

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:53:54 -0400

On the half-hour "Putting it All Together" supplement included with the Blu-Ray of Broken City, director Allen Hughes describes his cinematic condemnation of the rich white man as a modern film noir. In fact, everyone interviewed uses this term ad nauseum, expanding upon the positioning of antihero Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg), a partially disgraced ex-cop (now P.I.) with dark secrets, against a corrupt man of influence, NYC mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe). Billy, struggling with finances at his new firm — something outlined very briefly and illogically in a phone call...Read More

Bruce Lee Double Feature: The Big Boss/Fist of Fury - Directed by Lo Wei

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:52:13 -0400

With his time as a mainstream action icon tragically cut short, it doesn't take much space to collect the works of Bruce Lee. Most likely due to a lack of materials available, Shout Factory has put together an atypically bare bones package that crams the martial arts legend's first two star vehicles onto one disc, feature-free. Unfortunately, the original audio is still not available, so we're stuck with the horrible English voiceover, which completely alters the tone of the films. The dubbing is so apathetic and translation so spotty that it's impossible to take any of the drama seriously....Read More

Shameless: The Complete Second Season [Blu-Ray]

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:50:27 -0400

Early in the first season of Shameless, the American remake of the pitch-black British comedy of the same name, many sensationalistic tactics were used to attract viewers. Full-frontal male nudity and excessive breast shots drove most of the exaggerated, exceedingly trashy storylines forward, taking the late season Californication approach to attracting an audience. But as the show pressed on and the characters started to emerge with individual traits and motivations, a little heart started to show amongst the Gallagher clan, even in their perpetually drunk, psychotically opportunistic...Read More

Rocko's Modern Life — The Complete Series

editorial@exclaim.ca (Kevin Scott) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:49:31 -0400

An underappreciated show that often gets lost in the shuffle of the '90s animation boom, Rocko's Modern Life achieved the rare feat of seamlessly blending children's sensibilities with a razor-sharp adult edge. This generously allowed the silly antics and broad comic personalities of the characters to mingle inside storylines loaded with potent satire and commentary. Rocko is a mild-mannered Australian wallaby living in O-Town, a rural American community not immune to the indulgences and excesses of the country's culture. His fellow friends and townspeople are mainly anthropomorphic...Read More

Cold Prey II - Directed by Mats Stenberg

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:48:20 -0400

When Cold Prey II opens, Jannicke (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), the sole-survivor of the first film, is wandering down a snow-covered highway with the pickaxe she used to kill the hillbilly psychopath that mutilated her friends. Passing out after nearly being hit by a car, she awakens in a hospital where a small group of employees — Camille, the nurse (Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik); Herman, the doctor (Fridtjov Såheim); and Sverre, the cop (Mats Eldøen), primarily — have speculated about the situation and the many dead bodies discovered. Reiterating genre tropes and taking a cue...Read More

Pawn [Blu-Ray] - Directed by David A. Armstrong

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:47:08 -0400

For a first-time director, David A. Armstrong does an admirable job of clearly and deliberately parsing out the narrative of a crime thriller that plays a fair amount of temporal hopscotch. With a steady hand and careful eye, he guides a cast of reliable veterans, including Michael Chiklis, Stephen Lang, Forest Whitaker and Ray Liotta, and inconsistent younger actors, most notably Nikki Reed, and, for reasons unknown, rap artist Common, through a rapidly twisting plot involving a restaurant robbery gone wrong. The pieces and players of this dangerous human chess game are revealed slowly as a...Read More

Cheech and Chong's Animated Movie [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Branden Chambers & Eric D. Chambers

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:46:08 -0400

Were it not for commentary tracks by Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, as well as Chong and wife Paris, Cheech and Chong's Animated Movie would feel completely pointless. Thanks to these contributions from the elder statesmen of stoner comedy, there's at least a bit of fresh content to appeal to the most faithful of their baked devotees. Even teenagers discovering their droopy-eyed hijinks for the first time and nostalgic burnouts will struggle to find much else to appreciate about this rudimentarily animated rehash of their classic skits. Basically, a couple of super-fans decided that it...Read More

The Vampire Lovers [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Roy Ward Baker

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:44:33 -0400

Yes, this is that "lesbian vampire movie," in HD. Everyone involved in making Hammer's highly sexualized 1970's adaptation of Carmilla, one of the earliest writings on the blood-sucking undead, is keenly aware of the movie's reputation and attack the subject head-on in the special features, both newly shot and repurposed from an earlier DVD release. In the commentary track, director Roy Ward Baker, star Ingrid Pitt and screenwriter Tudor Gates are interviewed about the film, with much of the conversation turning to its heaving sexuality, particularly how much came from emphasising the...Read More

Top Action Stars

editorial@exclaim.ca (Kevin Scott) — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:42:59 -0400

The missing addendum to the title of the eight-disc DVD set Top Action Stars is the crucial phrase: The Later Years. Seemingly sifting through the bottom of those few bargain bins remaining at dying video stores everywhere, what's been assembled here are the theatrical flops, the straight-to-DVD fiascos and the most ill-conceived vanity projects imaginable. This might as well be the Statue of Liberty of action movie collections. This set features entries from the career death rattles of Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Dolph Lundgren, as well as the odd inclusion of a...Read More

Not Fade Away [Blu-Ray] - Directed by David Chase

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:10:51 -0400

Following the first global postwar economic crisis in the late '50s, the U.S. was faced with mass unemployment and excess capacity. In economic terms, this meant that machines and labour laid idle allowing production to increase in proportion to demand. In human terms, this meant that the "dream" wasn't as readily achievable to the masses who were in a position of limited future prospects, which, in the context of David Chase's Not Fade Away was exacerbated by the onslaught of the Vietnam War. While the benefits of a war economy would aid the supply and demand chain—the boom...Read More

To The Arctic [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Greg MacGillivray

editorial@exclaim.ca (Daniel Pratt) — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:06:23 -0400

IMAX documentary films have long since maintained a 40-minute run-time, due in large part to the price tag associated to the format. Unless it's a major theatrical release being backed by a studio—Iron Man 3 recently broke a global record for IMAX ticket sales on its opening weekend—filmmakers that use the incredible technology to shoot their films find it restrictive. Therein lays the primary issue with Greg MacGillivray's enviro-doc To The Arctic: The 40-minute run-time restricts it from getting a chance to spread its wings, leaving it to feel rushed. The film follows...Read More

Naked Lunch [Blu-Ray] - Directed by David Cronenberg

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:15:57 -0400

As noted in Chris Rodley's essay, "So Deep in My Heart that You're Really a Part of Me", included in the front sleeve booklet of Criterion's Naked Lunch Blu-ray package, this film "constitutes not only a cinematic inevitability; it is also the latest stage in a filmic experiment that has spanned some twenty years". Rodley also touches on this notion in the medium-length documentary included with the set, Naked Making Lunch, which details the process of Cronenberg adapting the notorious Burroughs novel, making a hallucinatory, ersatz biographical experiment of a work detailing...Read More

Django Unchained [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Quentin Tarantino

editorial@exclaim.ca (Chris Gramlich) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:06:07 -0400

Say what you will about Quentin Tarantino, but the man knows what he likes, is passionate about what he loves (to an obsessive degree) and believes wholeheartedly that you'll feel the same way. The kicker is: he's usually right. Twenty-plus years into a filmmaking career that has had an indelible impact upon popular culture (try to imagine the last two decades of the film/TV medium without the influence of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs or Kill Bill), the now 50-year-old Tarantino continues his recent trend of period recreations/reinterpretations, as opposed to his earlier...Read More

The Impossible [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:04:53 -0400

One of the most memorable attributes of Juan Antonio Bayona's emotionally wrenching true story about the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 is the early scene of visual chaos when a tidal wave crashes over a peaceful resort, washing everyone and everything away in its wake. His kinetic handling of in-the-moment urgency, spinning the camera around the central family — married Brits Maria (Naomi Watts) and Henry (Ewan McGregor), as well as their three kids — as they're carried away by the water, punctured by branches and battered by debris, is one of the most cinematic and intense...Read More

A Haunted House - Directed by Michael Tiddes

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:03:25 -0400

By no means should this low-brow spoof job be mistaken for a thoughtful comedy, but it must be acknowledged that some thought did go into its making. Routinely dismissed (but still a money maker) for obvious reasons — an extended scene of Marlon Wayans simulating aggressive sex with stuffed animals isn't likely to play too well beyond viewers who just started getting regular erections — this year's substitute for a Wayans-produced Scary Movie at least makes enough effort to be a parody with a point. Written and starring the (arguably) most widely appreciated member of the...Read More

Message From Space - Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:02:10 -0400

Released in 1978, Message From Space was an obvious attempt by Japan's movie industry to cash in on the Star Wars phenomenon with a homegrown space opera. Kinji Fukasaku (the workaholic director who would go on to give us Battle Royale) was hired to make what was, at the time, the most expensive movie in Japanese film history. With just over half the budget of George Lucas's pop culture behemoth, and far less than half of the geek father's technical ingenuity, Fukasaku's finished product is a uniquely Japanese piece of barely competent strangeness that more closely...Read More

Iron Man: Rise of Technovore [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Hiroshi Hamazaki

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:00:44 -0400

Marvel's relationship with anime studio Madhouse continues to produce some odd fruit. The memetic splicing of American pulp science fantasy with the histrionic plotting and compartmentalized emotional exaggeration of Japanese anime makes better soil for grandiose ideas than moralistic introspection. In the spirit of this union of styles, a battle between capitalist pragmatism and youthful idealism is manifested as wild combat between increasingly elaborate forms of man-machine hybrids. Representing the grandest expression of the American Dream, self-made superhero Tony Stark must face the...Read More

Dragon [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Peter Chen

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:59:05 -0400

Putting a classic story to good use, Peter Chen's Dragon (or Wu Axia, as it's more aptly titled in other countries) is a great example of how to effectively repurpose folklore for audiences that like their fantasy cut with a bit of realism. You may recognize the basic story — a highly skilled professional killer tries to start life over under a new identity — from many sources: One-Armed Swordsman, A History of Violence, most Joss Whedon shows and any number of super hero comic book storylines. Antiheroes are easier to relate to than the squeaky clean...Read More

Hong Kong Confidential - Directed by Maris Martinsons

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:57:37 -0400

Latvian director Maris Martinsons has cracked the elusive formula for thoughtful dross. It's not as though Hong Kong Confidential, renamed from its original title of Amaya (because putting "confidential" after a city name is supposed to evoke Curtis Hanson's popular James Ellroy adaptation?), is phoning in any aspects of its production. Martinsons's awkward little romantic dramedy is very deliberately constructed. However, the problem is the writer/director's vision is laughably saccharine and pretentious. Coming across like an uncomfortable mix of harlequin romance, a workplace...Read More

Hitler's Children - Directed by Chanoch Ze'evi

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:20:34 -0400

In concept, Chanoch Ze'evi's taboo, almost sensationalist documentary subject would seem easily exploitable, playing as either heavy-handed or tacky, if left in the wrong hands. He interviews the children of influential Nazi leaders, extracting their thoughts and verbalized experiences in being associated with the most notorious act of genocide of the 20th Century. Niklas Frank (the son of Polish Governor-General Hans Frank) educates German students about the horrors his father perpetrated; Katrin Himmler writes about being the great niece of Hitler's second in command; and Monika Goeth...Read More

Woochi: The Demon Hunter [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Choi Dong-hoon

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:14:41 -0400

Just over three years after Choi Dong-hoon's whimsical fantasy epic became his third commercial smash in a row in South Korea, North American audiences can finally get a taste of the absurdly entertaining Woochi. Loosely based on a Korean folktale concerning the origins of discord between man and beast, this effects-driven romp incorporates the graceful supernatural combat style of Wuxia films with the zany, live-action Looney Tunes slapstick of Kung Fu Hustle and a few dollops of fish-out-of-water comedy doubling as light social commentary. Initially, the story is framed...Read More

Star Trek: Enterprise Season One [Blu-Ray]

editorial@exclaim.ca (Daniel Pratt) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:08:36 -0400

It's been nearly 12 years since Enterprise first debuted on television and the show still manages to evoke polarizing fan criticism. Supporters are unwavering in their defense of the program, while hardcore Trekkies continue to uphold the view that the poor writing led to the eventual demise of Star Trek on television, which is precisely what happened to Enterprise by its fourth season. After each progressive show had moved the story of Star Trek further into the future, co-creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga decided it was time to develop a prequel of sorts,...Read More

Hyde Park on Hudson - Directed by Roger Michell

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 23:42:27 -0400

As is the trend with period pieces of late, Roger Michell's tenuous and sanitized Hyde Park on Hudson focuses on a pivotal, yet mostly uneventful moment in time. He takes the road of the similarly pedestrian costume drama that Tom Hooper's undeservedly championed but handsomely framed biopic, The King's Speech, did in demystifying recent historical figures and world leaders, making relatable the previously mystified. Here, the dirty laundry being aired comes from the Roosevelt administration, with FDR (Bill Murray) accepting the occasional hand-job from fifth cousin Daisy (Laura...Read More

The End of Time - Directed by Peter Mettler

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:47:18 -0400

Regardless of the subject Peter Mettler has selected to preach about, his documentaries have a unique, experimental, beautiful form, featuring stunning cinematography and visual juxtapositions, capturing aspects of the natural industrial world few would observe or consider. He defies the format, embracing the impressionistic and experiential in challenging the perception and engagement of the viewer, which, in the modern context of interchangeable, talking head, issue documentaries, is of utmost importance and relevance. His latest work, The End of Time, is no exception, tackling the...Read More

Midnight's Children [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Deepa Mehta

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:35:16 -0400

Salman Rushdie's 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel, Midnight's Children, was an ambitious work blending the political history of modern India with magical realism to create a loose post-colonial allegory. Compressing Indian history, it entwined ideologies from the East and West to make the mindset and experience of a globally influenced, newly independent nation into an expansive fable. The protagonist, Saleem Sinai (Satya Bhabha), was born precisely at midnight on August 15, 1947, endowed with the metaphorical significance of being the embodiment of a new era. He and the many other...Read More

Antiviral [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Brandon Cronenberg

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:14:29 -0400

Superficially, Brandon Cronenberg's debut feature, Antiviral, draws obvious inspirations from the works of acclaimed father David. It's a "down the rabbit hole" horror and sci-fi hybrid preoccupied with the modification and deterioration of the physical body in relation to psychological illness. But beyond the stylized, sensationalist similarities between Brandon's work and his progenitor's, this story about Syd (Caleb Landry Jones) — a celebrity virus insider that deliberately contracts a mystery illness from superstar Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) — has a caustic wit...Read More

John Dies at the End [Blu-Ray] - Directed by Don Coscarelli

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:59:43 -0400

Crackling with irreverent, surrealist humour and insidiously oozing creative absurdities that congeal to flip a rotting middle finger to mindless consumerism, John Dies at the End is quite possibly the best film of Don Coscarelli's career. This is in no small part thanks to the feverish, maniacal whimsy of David Wong's book. That page-turning tome of crazy is loaded with enough nutty, misanthropic imagination to fuel a mini-series. And herein lays the movie's greatest problem: in trying to cram as much as possible into a feature-length film, significant character development is...Read More

Police Story/Police Story 2 - Directed by Jackie Chan

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:39:18 -0400

Following a few disastrous attempts to break into the American film market, nimble martial arts comedian Jackie Chan took his career into his own hands by conceiving, directing and starring in the Police Story series. With its mix of broad slapstick, highly complex action choreography and death-defying stunt work taking full advantage of the scenery of each setting, the first Police Story refined the Chan formula into an easily repeatable formula for success. The plots are essentially interchangeable variations on themes of police corruption, gang violence and letting duty get...Read More

Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXVI

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:17:06 -0400

In its original series format, Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a minor narrative trajectory, loosely tying together makeshift episodic plots with overriding punishments from ever-changing villains. With the box set format established for the very gradual DVD releases, episodes from different seasons are tossed together with little thematic or linear continuity (likely due to obtaining rights), heightening the erratic sense of disorganization present in the low budget shenanigans of Mike, Joel, Tom Servo and Crow as they watch crappy movies and make smartass comments. This 26th...Read More

Jay and Silent Bob Get Irish: The Swearing o' the Green

editorial@exclaim.ca (Scott A. Gray) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:34:26 -0400

There's no shortage of sanctioned footage of Kevin Smith spewing his charming brand of filthy over-sharing to be had for free all over the Internet. So what, you may be asking, makes a trio of shows from the "Jay and Silent Bob Get Old" tour worth releasing on DVD? In a name: Jason Mewes. Now, the tour is marketed under the monikers of Smith and Mewes's not-so-dynamic duo from the View Askewniverse due to international name recognition, but make no mistake: Smith is anything but silent. That said, Mewes is clearly the main star and attraction of this globetrotting endeavour. The familiar,...Read More

A Man Escaped [Blu-ray] - Directed by Robert Bresson

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:54:29 -0400

Being a comprehensive Criterion package, the Blu-ray release of Robert Bresson's ascetic, cold and exact prison escape movie, A Man Escaped comes complete with three documentaries from three different decades on the subject of the reclusive, exceptionally single-minded director. The first, a 1965 episode of Cinéastes de Notre Temps, features Bresson's first on-camera interview, which is broken up into an abundance of brief quotes suggesting a focus on cinematography as an art form unrelated to performance and theatre. Amidst many protracted clips from his films, he discusses...Read More

That '70s Show: Season Seven

editorial@exclaim.ca (Robert Bell) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:20:24 -0400

By the seventh season of the hit Fox series, That '70s Show, it had reached its popularity plateau, featuring endless guest stars and stale plotlines to sustain what was little more than protracted laziness. Lindsay Lohan, Brooke Shields, Shannon Elizabeth, Luke Wilson and Eliza Dushku are just a few of the celebrities to pop up through the season, doling out a handful of atrociously written one-liners amidst a cast of mostly bored, overly media saturated, actors. By 2004, Ashton Kutcher had already starred in the crappy comedies, My Boss's Daughter and Just Married...Read More