DVD Review
DVD reviews originally written for the Barclays in-house SF magazine
Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (2000)
After the first Jack Frost movie, Michael Cooney slunk away in embarrassment and struck it from his CV… no he didn’t. He returned in 2000 with Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, and if anything it’s even better than number one. Jack has a better set of one-liners and several tiny off-springs... »
Jack Frost (1997)
Jack Frost is the 1997 movie from Michael Cooney, who is the son of British farce writer Ray Cooney, and who achieved some respectability years later as the writer of the hit Identity. This one’s about, er, a killer snowman wreaking havoc in a small town. There’s some nonsense about a truck shipping DNA... »
Friday Night Lights (2004)
For anyone missing the football season and scrabbling around trying to enjoy other sports, you could do worse than watch Friday Night Lights. This opened in the cinema very briefly in the UK but is out on R1 DVD already, and it’s the true story of a small Texan town and its obsession with senior... »
Mindhunters (2004)
Mindhunters didn’t even got a UK cinema release, adding another chapter to the spotty history of director Renny Harlin. It was actually filmed back in 2001 and has been playing assorted film festivals for the past year. Val Kilmer and Christian Slater star alongside younger actors of various nationalities and accents, leading them to... »
Dead Birds (2004)
Dead Birds is heavily influenced by the recent eastern horror boom, concentrating on atmospherics and mood rather than shocks for most of its length. Unfortunately it resorts to some unlikely gore in places, and completely fails to make any sense in the plot department. It’s a shame as the cast is good (Henry Thomas, Patrick... »
Race with the Devil (1975)
Race with the Devil is one of the last big drive-in movies. Peter Fonda and Warren Oates star as two guys who go on a camping trip with their wives in a new RV, and stumble across some Satanic rituals involving human sacrifice. The movie makes good use of Texan location shooting, and if it... »
Ray (2004)
Ray stars Jamie Foxx, man of the moment, as Ray Charles. This is out now and the DVD also contains an extra 25 minutes on the directors cut. However I’d had quite enough after two hours of the original version. Foxx is terrific and looks exactly like Charles, the attention to period detail pays... »
Electra Glide in Blue (1973)
Electra Glide in Blue has finally been released in Region 1, unfortunately it’s the American release with a second of violence missing (which only partly explains the astonishing PG certificate). Even better, it’s less than a tenner and has a director’s commentary. For the uneducated, this is a story of a traffic cop in Arizona... »
Elektra (2005)
I forced myself to sit through Elektra. I did this despite having seen Daredevil in which Jennifer Garner’s character appeared to die, so I’ve only myself to blame. Anyway she reappears here to no great effect and is revived by Terence Stamp, doing his standard impression of a wise mentor, and somehow ends up on... »
Flesh and Bone (1993)
I always like to bring your attention to a classic that you might not have seen. This month sees the release in R1 of Steve Kloves’ 1993 Flesh and Bone, starring Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan (don’t let that put you off) in a moody story of revenge and tragedy set in rural... »