All right, folks, strap in and keep your remotes handy because today I’m going to talk about Heat, one of the longest movies you’ll ever love.
The folks out at Warner Brothers sent me a copy of Heat, and you might be wondering why I’m talking about a movie this old. Well, it’s not like some of you haven’t heard of it, but it was just released on Blu-ray, so we’ve got a responsibility to cover it.
Heat features Val Kilmer and the gigantic concentrated awesome heap that is Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the same movie. It’s about a career thief who leads a team of thieves through an incredible robbery that nets the team just over a million and a half bucks in bearer bonds. The bonds were insured, so the only real victim here is the insurance company, and we’ve all been able to agree that they could have used a kick in the slats since 1995 anyway. Anyway, the fun really starts when the team tries to sell back the stolen bonds instead of laundering them.
Heat is a long–VERY long!–and incredibly involving tale of deceit, thievery and murder that’s actually very engrossing. I’d actually seen this one maybe five or six times over the last (nearly) fifteen years, so it was a welcome treat. But you will have to brace yourself adequately. Clear your calendar, get your snacks together in advance, because this is a LONG movie. Nearly THREE HOURS worth of long, in fact.
But the critical takeaway here is that it’s also really, REALLY exciting.
The Screenhead Ten Scale loves my taste in movies and hands this a seven out of ten for being a solid actioner with a lot of twists, even if it’s a bit too long.
FIGHT CLUB 10thAnniversary Edition Blu-ray disc will be available on November 17, 2009. The Ed Norton and Brad Pitt movie is packed full of punches with all-new bonus materials including two interactive featurettes – “A Hit In The Ear: Ren Klyce and the Sound Design of Fight Club” which allows usersto remix four key scenes themselves with the help of Oscar-nominated sound designer Ren Klyce; and “Insomniac Mode: I Am Jack’s Search Index,” giving viewers the ability to access any part of the disc’s extensive bonus material via interactive tools.
Fight Club is based on the book of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk (Choke). A lonely, isolated thirty-something young professional in an unidentified, semi-stylized city, seeks an escape from his ordinary life with the help of a devious soap salesman. They find their release from the prison of reality through underground fight clubs, where men can be what the world denies them.
Fight Clubwas directed by David Fincher and stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter.
To win a copy of Fight Club 10thAnniversary Edition Blu-ray disc, post your name and Screenhead will pick the winner Wednesday, December 2, 2009.
I, unlike a whole lot of people, actually enjoyed one of the first films from WWE Entertainment, a movie studio that seems to exist for no other reason than to give wrestlers movie roles and try and make some quick bank. And when Lions Gate put this sucker back on Blu-ray, it gave me just the opportunity I needed to start writing about it.
Today we’re talking See No Evil, a movie that acquaints you with Jacob Goodnight, played by massive man / mountain hybrid Kane, who won’t actually SAY anything through most of the movie, but you won’t really notice. Goodnight, spurred on by a horrendous religious upbringing, went on to become the Hand of God killer, a serial killer who delighted in brutality and taking the eyes from his victims. But when a bunch of juvenile detention subjects arrive at a run-down hotel in a bid to clean it to become a homeless shelter, for which they receive time served credit on their sentences, they’ll run afoul of the Hand of God, and most of them won’t survive.
One thing that See No Evil will do is make you actively hate it for introducing the well-known children’s Christian song, “Jesus Loves The Little Children”, into its proceedings. There are some things that horror flicks just shouldn’t do, and bringing that song into things is just plain wrong. I understand it was thematically necessary, given that Jacob Goodnight was a lunatic on par with the Westboro Baptist Church, only more apt to throw things, but still…surely they could’ve left the music out of it.
However, there’s a lot to like about this movie. Kane is sufficiently menacing that he really doesn’t need lines, and the hotel they shot in is sufficiently run-down to project its own menace. Plus there are all sorts of little hidey-holes and secret passages and whatnot to really add to the proceedings. You don’t know who’s going to pop out of where and where they’ll do it next. There’s even a taste of irony–check out what happens to the hippie chick who feeds a starving dog! And, there’s a beautifully subverted trope in which someone’s cell phone actually works, much to their detriment.
Despite its problems, and they’re fairly minor, the Screenhead Ten Scale gives See No Evil a seven out of ten for its effectiveness as a thriller, even if it’s not exactly high brow.
Yes, I know that The Ninth Gate has been around for some time now, and reviewing it may seem a little out of the ordinary, but it’s getting a re-release on Blu-Ray, so it’s an opportune time to go back and visit this collectible from the vault.
Featuring Johnny Depp as unscrupulous (it’s the perfect term for him because they actually CALL him that in the movie) chain-smoking rare book dealer Dean Corso, who’s been contracted to find the last copies of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, a book that reputedly has the power to summon the devil himself.
This is not hyperbole.
That’s actually the plot in a nutshell right there, and in true Roman Polanski style (yes, he actually directed a Johnny Depp movie), it will be incomprehensible and occasionally frightening. The Ninth Gate is an extremely dense work, and if you’re not big on rare books, chances are this is going to go skating right over you. This is Cigarette Burns for the literati.
The question of course is, how game are you for a gigantic treasure hunt where the treasure is the most evil book known to mankind and the road to get it is littered with dead bodies. As a horror movie, it’s not that scary, and as a thriller, there’s not much thrill here. It’s really rather sedate, for the most part, and won’t be throwing a whole lot of shocks at you. But it does do a bang-up job of sheer foreboding, and in that sense it succeeds admirably.
The Screenhead Ten Scale, therefore, assigns the resurgent Blu-Ray title a seven out of ten for being a rather cold thriller that does still deliver, just not so much.
One of the greatest action films of all time can now be seen and heard like never before!
On behalf of Lionsgate Home Entertainment, we are pleased to present Terminator 2 Skynet Edition on Blu-ray. Today May 19th, for the first time fans can experience multiple versions of the movie in explosive, THX certified high-definition and all-new English 6.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Lossless.
Terminator 2 Skynet Edition is packed with over 8 hours of interactive special features including over 140 minutes of behind the scenes video and multimedia galleries; interactive quizzes and games; and additional BD-Live enabled content featuring extra content, games and more accessible through internet-connected players.
If that doesn’t get you excited then get this, Terminator 2 Skynet Edition Blu-ray will be available for a limited time in the Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector’s Set, a 6-disc set that allows the ultimate T2 fan to play the film anytime, anywhere! Packaged with a 14″ T-800 Endoskull bust that plays sound effects from the film while its eyes light up, this collectible set features the Terminator 2 Skynet Edition Blu-ray plus both the Extreme Edition DVD and Ultimate Edition DVD’s – which, combined, include every T2 special feature ever released on DVD. As a bonus, the Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector’s Set comes with a digital copy of the film for iTunes or Windows Media.
The release of Terminator 2 Skynet Edition on Blu-ray Disc and the Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector’s Set today May 19th will coincide with the theatrical release of Terminator: Salvation and the DVD release of the Schwarzenegger DVD Collection.
Screenhead has one copy of Terminator 2 Skynet Edition on Blu-ray as a giveaway. Please post your name and Screenhead will pick the winner Tuesday, June 9, 2009.
For people who loved the horror movies like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, brace yourself for something along that niche in “The Unborn” that is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD.
From the co-writer of The Dark Knight and the producers who brought you The Texas Chainsaw Massacre comes a terrifying glimpse into the life of the undead in this chilling thriller that will haunt your soul. Writer and director David Goyer (The Dark Knight, Blade: Trinity) gives a terrifying glimpse into the life of the undead in The Unborn, a supernatural thriller that follows a young woman pulled into a world of nightmares when a demonic spirit haunts her and threatens everyone she loves.
Own two versions on one disc, including the unrated cut too terrifying for theaters. Starring Odette Yustman (Cloverfield), Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight, Harry Potter film series), Cam Gigandet (Twilight), Meagan Good (Saw V, Stomp the Yard) and Jane Alexander (Terminator: Salvation, The Ring).
Enter a world of unrelenting evil as terror finds a new form in The Unborn. In this shocking supernatural thriller, a young woman, Casey (Yustman), is plagued by chilling dreams and tortured by a demonic ghost that haunts her waking hours. Her only hope to break the debilitating paranormal curse is in an exorcism with spiritual advisor Sendak (Oldman).
(Source) Press
Legendary Japanese anime Akira is coming to Blu-ray this month – February 24 to be precise.
The film will make use of the BD-50 dual-layer discs that hold 50GB of data. The video will be a new 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer (1.85:1) and Japanese audio in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround (192 KHz/24 bit), PCM 2.0 Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. An English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround will also be on the disc.
On Blu-ray.com is a long article that explains the meticulous process that is being used to restore the 1988 Japanese film for the HD release. While the film was remastered in 2001 for DVD, advancements in technology meant they had to start all over again.
Posted on Feb 10, 2009 under Action, Actors, Adventure, Comedy, Dvd, Fun/Entertainment, Games, Movies, Reviews, Sci-Fi, The Movie Biz, Video Games, horror |
Coming out on Blu-Ray this week is the special edition of Doom, a movie that proves that sometimes, all you need is a name.
Only vaguely resembling the video game, Doom plants us squarely on Mars, along with a half-squad of Space Marines who’ve been sent to investigate recent disturbances at the Union Aerospace Corporation’s facility there. What’s causing the disturbances? Why, what else but a series of genetically engineered horrors!
For those of you who thought that demons were actually causing the problems on Mars in the Doom universe, well, you’re not alone. This is only one of several discrepancies between the original game and the movie.
This isn’t to say, of course, that Doom isn’t a fun and fairly exciting little piece of fluff. There’s lots of gunplay and explosions and big creepy nasties roaming around and getting blasted. There’s a sequence toward the end that’s almost exactly like the video game, in a fairly clever homage. But no one’s ever going to mistake this for an Oscar candidate, or anything more than a mediocre action film featuring nothing less than The Rock. The Rock is very familiar with cheesy action film.
And can we ever smell what The Rock is cooking…no pancakes this time, but rather a half-baked warmed-over leftover of a movie.
Dave (111) is the winner — congratulations!
The decadent side of high definition! Before Rome… Before Gladiator… The most controversial film of all time as 
you’ve never experienced it before! Combining lavish spectacle and award-winning stars, this landmark production was shrouded in secrecy since its first day of filming. Now, this unprecedented edition presents a more revealing Caligula than ever before, with a high-definition transfers of the uncensored theatrical cut and revealing, alternate pre-release version from negative elements. Loaded with Hours of Bonus Material!
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Three revealing audio commentaries with stars Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren and on-set writer Ernest Volkman
- Video interviews with director Tinto Brass and actors John Steiner and Lori Wagner
- Hours of deleted and alternate scenes and behind-the-scenes footage
- Hundreds of astonishing, never-before-seen photographs from the set
- Theatrical trailers
- DVD-Rom extras including Gore Vidal’s original screenplay, three Penthouse magazine features, an interview with Bob Guccione, press kit notes, cast and crew bios and filmographies and more!