Contracted
(2013/MPI/IFC Midnight DVD)/Cybergeddon
(2012/Arc DVD)/The Face Of
Fu Manchu
(1965)/The
Vengeance Of Fu Manchu
(1967/Warner Archive DVDs)/In
The Name Of The King 3: The Last Mission
(2013/Fox Blu-ray)/Machine
Head (2012/Anchor Bay
DVD)/Odd Thomas
(2013/Image Blu-ray w/DVD)/Sparks:
The Origin Of Ian Sparks
(2012/Image DVD)/The Truth
About Emanuel (2013/Well
Go USA Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/C/C/C/C+/C/B- & C+/C/B- Sound: C+ (Thomas
Blu-ray: B-) Extras: C/D/D/D/D/D/D/C-/C Films:
C/C/C/C-/D/C/C/C/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Fu
Manchu
DVDs are only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here's
an odd group of genre releases that have things going for them, but
cannot seem to pull off what they intend, save the latest Uwe Boll
disaster.
Eric
England's Contracted
(2013) has a good cast of unknowns and an idea that could have really
worked, but it played for cheap thrills instead of suspense, mystery,
ironic or impact as a pretty young woman (Najarra Townsend) has a
one-night stand, but instead of mere VD or something as deadly as
AIDS, she starts to get sick and literally, her body starts falling
apart! Reminding one of The
Incredible Shrinking Man,
The
Incredible Melting Man
or even The
Incredible Shrinking Woman,
the script even has good plotting.
However,
it starts to lose itself midway to a lack of energy, ideas and spends
a little too much time on showing off its make-up and visual effects
to its detriment. It did not even have to make the big statement,
but that ambition could have at least made this a better picture. A
film like this has not been done (it is NOT a zombie film) in a while
and certainly not done well, so this one is a big missed opportunity.
Extras
include two feature length audio commentary tracks, Behind The Scenes
Promo, Making Of featurette, Original Theatrical Trailer, Animated
Pitch and lead Najarra Townsend's Audition clip
Diego
Velasco's Cybergeddon
(2012) says it is from the creator of CSI
and some of this also has its moments, but it is also too derivative
(the chase for a hidden agent is too much like Salt
and how many plots have been built around computer programs lately?
Lost count.) Yet, this has some energy, a few good action moments
and all after starting with one of the dumbest scenes I have seen in
anything in months. Oliver Martinez (not here enough) shows up and
that does not hurt, but lead Missy Peregrym as the framed agent, is
not bad.
The
result is something that looks like a rejected TV pilot, but could
have been much more. Some of the computer look and the like is
generic, but with more development, this could have worked. Too bad.
There
are no extras.
Don
Sharp's The
Face Of Fu Manchu
(1965) and Jeremy Summers' The
Vengeance Of Fu Manchu
(1967) were the fourth and fifth installments of the series of new
Sax Rohmer-based films with Christopher Lee. Now antiquated, the
stereotypes of the evil Chinese criminal mastermind killer was
relaunched to take advantage of Lee's star status and on the success
of the Bond films.
In
the earliest film adaptations, the small Stoll Pictures studio made
24 silent shorts with actor H. Agar Lyons in the early 1920s,
Paramount cast Warren Oland as Fu Manchu in three films (1929 -
1931), then MGM cast Boris Karloff in the 1932 Mask
Of Fu Manchu
and that is a film that still works, which you can read more about
here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4451/Hollywood's+Legends+of+Horror+Collection+(Doctor
Then
in 1940, Republic Pictures picked up the rights and launched a fun
movie serial entitled The
Drums Of Fu Manchu,
which you can read more about here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/28/Drums+Of+Fu+Manchu+serial
And
even some of the early Lee/Manchu films were interesting enough, if
not as watchable, as you can see with The
Brides Of Fu Manchu
(1966), which we reviewed at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7917/Chamber+Of+Horrors/The+Brides+Of+Fu+Manchu
Unfortunately,
it was all played out by 1965, even with the producers turning to
widescreen scope framing and Technicolor, but there was still talent
involved. Face
has Nigel Green as his nemesis Nayland Smith and Karin Dor (You
Only Live Twice)
as the supervillain is beheaded and dead... or is he? A deadly gas
in minimal amounts that can kill massive numbers of people adds to
the feel that the makers wanted to capitalize on the Bond films.
Unfortunately, they do not have the script or money, but they did get
genius Director of Photography Ernest Day (Psycho-Circus,
Deadlier
Than The Male,
Ten
Little Indians
(1965) and series like The
Avengers,
New
Avengers
and The
Professionals
(all reviewed elsewhere on this site)), who does deliver some nice
scope compositions that make this one of the best visually in the
whole Lee series.
Vengeance
rightly took two years to make and tries out a cloning plot that is
very clunky, much like its script and falls amazingly flat. Somehow,
the series went on for two more films which would be interesting to
see after all these years. These two are for fans only and the most
highly curious exclusively from Warner Archive.
Nether
discs has any extras.
Uwe
Boll's (we have to keep naming him so you know who to blame if you
suffer through this one) In The Name Of The King 3: The Last
Mission (2013) is the second unnecessary sequel to the
unnecessary original by the most unnecessary foreign director alive!
Dominic Purcell continues to attempt career suicide here as a modern
day sword-wielding contract killer (it never seems to kill the
contracts to make slop like this though) but is (we are not joking)
is suddenly transported back to medieval times (must be that damned
sword... and script... and director) where more madness happens.
To
say anything else is a hideous waste of time, but like a bad
slice-and-dice killer series (think Freddie or Jason), calling this a
Last
Mission
is wishful thinking. Fox must need a tax write-off.
Sadly,
extras include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and
iTunes capable devices so you can lose friends and make enemies by
tormenting them with this garbage and a horrid
Making Of
featurette.
Jim
Valdez's Machine
Head
(2012) has some similarities to Tarantino's Death
Proof
segment of Grindhouse (see elsewhere on this site), but wants to be a
regular slasher feature as some pretty gals are followed by a unknown
guy in a black 1970s muscle car. Here, they are going on Spring
Break and some guys are going to join them, though one of them has
some annoying sister that is not helping. Some of the script is just
plain dumb, especially the silly, goofy, cynical, lame ending that is
way too smug for tis won good. Screaming and being histrionic is
also not acting, but the makers seem to think you can't get enough of
it in a project like this.
And
that is why this could have ben much more and again, they settled for
formula, are clueless as where to go with this material and miss a
few opportunities on the way. Also, some of the dialogue is just
plain bad.
Extras
include a Photo Gallery and Original Theatrical Trailer.
Stephan
Sommers (The
Mummy
films with Brendan Frazier) is far from the best filmmaker, stuck in
generic commercial cinema at best, so here he is making Dean Koontz's
Odd
Thomas
(2013) with Anton Yelchin (the new Scotty in the new Star
Trek
films) as the title character who sees dead people, but they keep
visiting him to get help from him for closure in the afterlife. The
film wants to be eccentric, slick, tricky, hip and clever, but even
with Yelchin's best efforts, this too gets too convoluted, even if
the ideas Koontz has (like that of bodachs)
retains its internal logic.
Most
Koontz adaptations (like Phantoms)
never work, though Donald Cammell's Demon
Seed
(1977, reviewed elsewhere on this site) proves how effective his work
can translate to the big screen in the proper hands. This is not
that case at all. Still, fans might want to see it, but it does not
get enough done in its 96 minutes and its not the worse curio, but al
scenes with sped-up action (usually done digitally) is especially a
mess. Patton Oswald and an underused Willem Dafoe also star.
There
are no extras.
Christopher
Folino and Todd Burrows co-directed Sparks:
The Origin Of Ian Sparks
(2012), the latest superhero genre work trying to mix the 1920s and
1930s with today as
today. Chase Williamson is the title character, talking about his
desire to become a super
(oh how hip) and meeting a supergal (Ashley Bell) who calls herself
Lady Heavenly. The script wants to follow The
Shadow
and Watchmen,
but is not as fun as the former could be and as scattered as the
latter. If anything, this will remind you of the likes of Sky
Captain,
which I thought was a real dud, but this is not that bad.
Jake
Busey shows up as an frienemy hero (or is he) in an underdeveloped
role, Clancy Brown shows up, even Clint Howard shows up and
co-producer William Katt (The
Greatest American Hero)
is here looking a little ghostly. However, this has nothing new to
say, never adds up and even with a few good-looking shots, is not
visually memorable either. At least fans might be mildly amused by
what seems like Kick-Ass
for older people.... or maybe not.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary track, Outtakes and Making
Of featurette.
Finally
we have Francesca Gregorini's The
Truth About Emanuel
(2013) in which a young woman (Kaya Scodelario) is suffering from the
loss of her mother and taking out at least verbally on everyone
around her, but she is distracted a bit by her new neighbor (Jessica
Biel) who lives alone with her newborn baby. When the younger (who
lives with her father and stepmother) gets to know her better, she
agrees to babysit the toddler. Unfortunately, it is not what she
thinks.
Now
this is a great set up for some kind of creepy horror film and things
get creepy, but the script instead uses trappings of the genre to
make this a character examination of women and make it stick. The
result is a mixed-but-interesting film trying to have a purely female
discourse that it achieves on some level, yet it does not achieve as
much as it could have in its 96 minutes and is still a film I think
everyone should see. It is easily the best release on this list.
Extras
include Outtakes, Original Theatrical Trailer, Deleted Scenes and on
camera interview with the director.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 AVC @ 22 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer
on King
should look as good as any of the Blu-rays here, but it is awful, has
all kinds of sloppiness, motion blur and other flaws. That leaves
the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Thomas
and Emanuel
tying as the visual champs, both HD shoots that are far more
professional and the DVD of Thomas can more than compete with the
King
Blu, both matched by the anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on the Contracted
DVD.
The
rest of the DVDs are on the weak side from the aged, anamorphically
enhanced 1.66 X 1 image on Face
and anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Vengeance
discs, as the film copies of both Fu
Manchu
films need some work. The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on
Cybergeddon,
Machine
and Sparks,
despite some nice shots in each, are also just too soft tying those
old Fu
Manchu
films for overall performance and have no excuses, though I wonder if
the would improve on Blu-ray. I would give them some benefit of the
doubt.
In
the sound department, all three Blu-rays offer DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, bit only Thomas
really uses the surrounds and that is inconsistently, more apparent
on the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 DVD version, which sadly can compete
with the awful DTS on King
(beware of volume levels if you must hear it) and DTS on Emanuel,
which can be compressed and too restrained to the front channels.
The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound on the Fu
Manchu
films holds up better than their prints and hold their own against
the rest of the DVDs, which are in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 that might
sound better lossless but are on the weak side in all cases here
without being really bad.
You
can order either of the Fu
Manchu
Warner Archive DVDs by going to this link for them and many more
great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo