Category: External Movie DVDs (Page 65 of 74)

…and greedy movie studios? That seems to be the theme of this month with the re-release of Elvis Presely’s entire film catalog. But while Paramount’s lackluster “Lights! Camera! Elvis!” set failed in offering anything new for fans of the musician-turned-actor, Warner Bros. – who just so happened to produce a majority of his films – has digitally remastered Elvis’ most popular movies just in time for the 30th anniversary celebration.

While every film is available individually in stores, Warner Bros. has packaged some of the King’s less impressive roles in “The Hollywood Collection,” a six-disc box set designed to save purists a few bucks. Let’s face it: Elvis may have made a lot of movies in his short time on this Earth, but a lot of them were really bad. Movies like “Charro,” “Kissin’ Cousins,” “Tickle Me” and “Stay Away, Joe” don’t have a very big built-in audience outside of the diehard fanbase, so it makes sense that WB would try to move a few more units by forcing the consumer to by all six. The lone classic of the bunch – “Girl Happy” – also happens to be the only film that has received a new digital transfer and a previously cut musical number added to the DVD.

Not crappy enough to make the box set, the rest of Elvis’ Warner Bros. catalog has been released, including “Harum Scarum,” “It Happened at the World’s Fair,” “Spinout,” “Speedway,” and “Double Trouble,” as well as deluxe editions of “Jailhouse Rock” and “Viva Las Vegas.” I really don’t know what the difference is between the regular releases and the deluxe editions, but the “Viva Las Vegas” disc does include an audio commentary, a never-before-seen new documentary (“Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas”), and a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, and I can only imagine that “Jailhouse Rock” (the other major Elvis picture from Warner Bros.) features much of the same.

Rounding out the August cash grab is “This Is Elvis” and “That’s the Way It Is,” two more special edition DVDs that include multiple versions of the film, featurettes on the restoration process, and never-before-seen footage. If I had to choose between one or the other, though, I’d have to go with “That’s the Way It Is,” the King’s sold-out 1970 performance at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. We’ve all seen The Story of Elvis before, but you’re not an Elvis fan until you own this seminal concert film.

“Beneath Still Waters”
It’s no secret that Lionsgate has fast replaced New Line as the go-to studio for all things horror, but as we know, with great power comes great responsibility, and that doesn’t exclude releasing every single B-movie horror flick onto DVD. Sure, the direct-to-DVD market is a very profitable business (and if there’s one genre that’s tailor-made for it, it’s horror), but does that mean that moviegoers should forego their expectations of quality because of it? Hell no, especially when men like Brian Yuzna (perhaps best known for producing the horror/comedy cult classic “Re-Animator”) are taking advantage of the system. His latest is a melting pot of bad acting, terrible effects and one of the lamest stories of the year, and it should be avoided at all costs.

“.45”
I truly hope writer/director Gary Lennon never plans to work in Hollywood again. Any movie that opens with a monologue devoted completely to the size of its character’s dick (though his name is Big Al) is suspect to some pretty heavy criticism, but the fact that he continues to insert these “interviews” throughout the rest of the movie only further proves just how lazy of a screenwriter he is. Can he not tell a simple story without some sort of lame voiceover or confessional to do it for him? Quite simply: no. Of course, it never helps when Milla Jovovich and Stephen Dorff (who are having trouble even finding work in B movies these days) are your stars, though Angus Macfayden looks to be having fun with this over-the-top criminal.

“The Mad”
In what can only be described as “Fast Food Nation” meets “Shaun of the Dead,” Billy Zane stars in this horror comedy about disease-ridden beef patties that transform their digesters into flesh-eating zombies. Trying oh-so-hard to be the goofy zombie romp that has since made “Shaun of the Dead” a cult classic, “The Mad” is mildly amusing, but easily forgettable. Zane hams it up as the lead protagonist, a former rocker-turned-doctor on a road trip with his new girlfriend and daughter, but the laughs are too few and far between to consider this a recommendation.

Ah, just what we needed – another edition of a movie that is already well represented in the DVD market. Wasn’t 2003’s Ultimate Edition of “Dirty Dancing,” well, ultimate enough?

Apparently not, because the new two-disc release celebrating the film’s 20th anniversary has two-stepped its way into stores with plenty of never-before-seen special features and updates not available three years ago.

A remastered audio track (6.1 DTS-ES) and a new interview with Patrick Swazye are among the biggest changes from the last release, while the arrival of deleted, extended and alternate scenes seem like a necessary addition. There’s also a tribute to the late Jerry Orbach, multi-angle comparisons for two of the film’s biggest dance sequences, a quick spot on the “Dirty Dancing” stage show, and all of the extras previously released – including Jennifer Grey screen tests, writer/producer audio commentary, cast/crew interviews and, of course, the film itself. It’s too bad the movie hasn’t been given the old digitally remastered treatment, because after twenty years, it definitely needs it.