New Releases on DVD tomorrow, May 27th.
Rambo (7/10): The fourth installment in the muscles-and-big-guns series that got worse with each of the first three episodes. You won’t know you missed this crap until you watch this crap again. And then you will wonder how you went 20 years without it.
Grace Is Gone (8/10): A poweful, heartfelt movie about a family torn apart by the death of their mother in Iraq. John Cusack is terrific as the father, and so is Shelan O’Keefe as his 12-year-old daughter who becomes something of a caretaker to her father as the embark on a road trip.
Cleaner (2/10): Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Mendes star along with Ed Harris and Luis Guzman in a cop movie that is garbage. Never trust Ed Harris or Eva Mendes! And Luis Guzman and Sam Jackson will star in anything. This movie is…anything.
All Hat (3/10): A Canadian film that fails in many ways. It’s heart is in the right place, but it’s too simple, too boring, and too all-over-the-place.
Darfur Now (8/10): A star-studded cast, including Don Cheadle, George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Hilary Clinton, and John McCain, among many others, talk about the most pressing human rights situation in the world right now, Darfur. This documentary is getting rave reviews.
Jackass Presents: Mat Hoffman’s Tribute To Evel Knievel (5/10): Johnny Knoxville yammers on for thirty minutes while fifteen minutes worth of stunts actually take place. The connection to Evel Knievel himself is…tenuous. But it’s worth it just for the no-parachute sky diving stunt.
Simon Says: Horror movie starring the always-creepy Crispin Glover, as a bunch of teens get knocked off by some demented brothers in the woods. This does not at all sound familiar.
Flashpoint (7/10): Donnie Yen and a bunch of other solid Asian actors for some seriously bad-ass kung-fu, UFC fighting and hockey fighting, along with a ton of gunplay and something of a decent story.
Shelter: A surfer begins to discover he is gay in this indie drama. No actors I have ever heard of star in it.
Nightmare Detective (7/10): Japanese horror movie that is very effective, particularly in atmosphere and mood. Scary, creepy and very very dark. It all takes place in people’s nightmares, and even bikes and bridges become frightening.
Waiter: A waiter is dissatisfied with his job and his home life, and again I haven’t heard of any of these actors.
The Fall of the Roman Empire Special Edition (8/10): Three-disc special edition of one of the better epic films from the 1960s. Alec Guinness, Sophia Loren and Stephen Boyd star in this massive, impressive spectacle.
Holocaust (10/10): The famous 1978 TV miniseries starring Meryl Streep and James Woods is as powerful and devastating as ever. Requires a commitment - it is seven and a half hours of video - but this is as important a document about the holocaust as Schindler’s List. A true classic.
Degrassi: The Next Generation Season 6 (6/10): A surprisingly watchable season of this TV show. It seems watered down from that original Degrassi that was so famous and popular, mostly because there are way more hot chicks in this version. But solid writing and decent acting in places.
Gunsmoke Season 2 Volume 2 (8/10): One of the longest-running TV shows in history, still a Western classic. Guns and bullets and frontier justice and Marshall Matt Dillon and barstool wisdom equals good times.
The Invaders Season One (5/10): Sci-fi series from the 60s starring Roy Thinnes as the only man on Earth who is aware of an alien invasion. It lasted only a season and a half, so you get pretty much the entire thing on this disc.
Rawhide Season Three (7/10): Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, when he was a young, young man. Cattle-driving and gunfights and frontier justice and Clint Eastwood. It all spells awesome!