Video & DVD This Week: December 4th

By: John Thonen
Date: Tuesday, December 04, 2001

VIDEO NEWS

Media Blasters, an indie label best known for anime fare, has been making encroachments into Anchor Bay territory lately with periodic releases of some Euro horror goodies. Continuing that trend, the company recently announced their upcoming release of Italian sleaze-monger Ruggero Deodato's cannibal semi-opus, JUNGLE HOLOCAUST (a.k.a. THE LAST SURVIVOR). If you've seen one of these Italian exercises in depravity, you've pretty much seen them all. Like the others, this strands a white man in a jungle with a primitive tribe whose favorite meal is even more disgusting than McDonalds. There're lots of entrails and severed limbs, as well as the de rigueur slaughtering of animals sequence. It's not quite on a level with CANNIBAL FEROX (a.k.a. MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY) or Deodato's follow-up film, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, but it's pretty demented stuff nonetheless. So if that's your cup of grue, it's on its way soon.

THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES

THE AMY FISHER STORY easily qualifies for the lead-in I gave it last week: as "the greatest 'whore' story of our time." While I went for the all too apparent gag of confusing "horror" and "whore," this film does do a decent job of presenting the ultimate in horror, the twisted human mind. There were several TV movies rushed into production about real-life, teenage lolita Fisher, her middle-aged lover and his wife, whom Fisher tried to kill. This is easily the best of the bunch and helped re-launch Drew Barrymore's career in the lead role.

THE CRAWLING

EYE is a highly enjoyable piece of British sci-fi horror, circa 1958. Produced by Hammer Studios, and adapted for film from a BBC-TV serial (as had been the case with the better known Quatermass films), this one opens with a bang and closes with one of the most surrealistic alien monsters ever put on screen. Of course, to enjoy its pulpy pleasures you do have to put up with the limited thespic talents of token American "star" Forrest Tucker, but pretty Janet Munro should help offset that deficit fairly well.

THE LOST CONTINENT is yet another example of one of the most enduring of film sub-genres, the "lost world." While Spielberg and ILM have recently brought us the most technically advanced renderings of this concept, 1951's THE LOST CONTINENT is one of the cheesiest. Cesar Romero (actually a more lifeless screen presence than Forrest Tucker) toplines this trek to the title locale, which is lent an eerie look via a green tint job. The film features dimensionally animated dinosaurs (ala the original KING KONG) but their movements are so stilted and limited that even overblown lizards would have been more effective. The proceedings are enlivened a bit by a strong score, but this is otherwise a pretty lame entry.

MASTER OF THE RINGS is a documentary on J.R.R. Tolkien, the man who wrote the enduring LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, the upcoming film adaptation of which most of us are salivating over at this very moment. Actually, much of the documentary is a look at the effect Tolkien's Middle-Earth books have had on others, offering a look at people whose lives or art have been influenced by the RINGS books. This does not include your cousin Arnold who dresses up like Frodo every Halloween.

PEARL HARBOR needs no introduction of course, being the latest poster child for overwrought, bloated Hollywood blockbusters that it is. Two of the three DVD variations hit the streets today (a standard release and a "Gift Set") with a third "Vista Series" collection due in 2002.

VOICES FROM BEYOND sounds like one of those cheesy "documentaries" on "real-life" occult and fringe science encounters as reported by people who are happy to get out of their trailers but are really wishing they could get on JERRY SPRINGER. Instead, it's one of the last offerings of Italian gore-meister Lucio Fulci. It would be great to report that this is an unknown gem from the final stages of Fulci's erratic career but, like most of his latter day work, he looks to have been just going through the motions demanded to qualify for a paycheck on this one, which was reportedly shot for Italian TV. It's is a pretty familiar ghost story, in this case one about a wealthy man who is secretly poisoned by his greedy family, but whose spirit returns to guide his daughter to his killers. There is little in the way of the gore sequences that were the director's trademark, but fans will want to watch for the autopsy scene, with Fulci himself doing the slicing and dicing.

IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF

This is

our periodic look at less publicized titles which have slipped past our video radar thanks to obscurity, or our own ineptness. This time we look at an adaptation of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, produced by no less than Francis Ford Coppola.

The "father of THE GODFATHER" doesn't usually put his name on the kind of production to be released unceremoniously by an indie video label. At least, it would seem that way until you see this mess of a movie. O.K., now rev up your imaginations and see if you can visualize Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale presented in the present day and merged with martial arts and a Hong Kong crime film. Couldn't do it? Apparently, neither could Coppola and company.

Adam (X-FILES) Baldwin plays Dr. Jekyll, whose idyllic Hong Kong honeymoon is ruined when he runs afoul of gangsters who kill his wife and hideously scar him. Luckily, he's rescued by one of those mysterious, Asian masters who, knowing that Baldwin is the legendary "White Dragon, foretold of in ancient prophecies," teaches him martial arts and proffers a potion that changes Jekyll into Hyde, who is now kind of a "Hulk"-like good guy out for revenge, or something.

Sorry, I really haven't done any justice to just how stupid this thing is. My guess is that it's a busted TV pilot, as numerous characters and plot lines are introduced and never resolved, and the director is best known as an Australian TV filmmaker. It would seem likely that some sort of digital effects were supposed to be utilized on Baldwin's face when Hyde appears. However, well knowing they had a real turkey, the producers never completed them, though they can be glimpsed in partial form in a handful of shots, not that a battery of ILM effects would have helped this thing. Worst of all, after investing 90 precious minutes of your life in this turkey, it all just ends with no real resolution of anything it has introduced.

EASTER EGG HUNT

WWW.DVDREVIEW.COM recently

reported some hidden goodies on the newly released OSMOSIS JONES DVD. From the main menu, select "Smelly Feetures," then press your remotes "left" arrow so as to highlight the sign saying, "Gas, Next Exit." Now, press "Enter" again and you'll be treated to a short "gas" related clip from the film. Now, if you to the "Lunguages" menu and select "Continue," you'll move to a second page showing the Drix character. Press your "Up" key and you'll highlight Drix's head and receive access to a short montage of footage from the film.

For major Easter Egg fans, I should also point out that DVDReview.com also maintains an archive of past goodies that might enliven your DVD viewing pleasures on many other films. It's a highly recommended site.

WHAT A GREAT PAIR OF TIPS

Speaking of highly recommended sites, here's a couple. Have you checked out Netflix.com yet? I've been a member for the better part of a year now and strongly suggest you check out their DVD rental-by-mail program. Many of the oddball and obscure titles mentioned in the column can be found for rent on the site. If this seems a shameless plug, I suppose it is, but it's also the first of a series of tips I plan to offer in this column that will help readers track down videos for rent or purchase. So, if you're more interested in buying than renting, I'd also like to suggest you check out DeepDiscountDVD.com. I ran a test on about 50 titles and their prices were consistently lower. Sometimes they beat the competition by a couple bucks, sometimes only sixty or seventy cents, but when you factor in that they don't charge for shipping, this place is a great deal. Check 'em out. No point in telling them I sent you, it won't get either of us anything special!

Vidiocy is our weekly Video & DVD column.