Monday 23 July 2012

The Good, the Bad and the Blu-rays

There's something for everyone this week, provided you like films about deadly cars and/or George Sampson doing the occasional backflip.


The biggest release of the week is Street Dance 2, this time taking the action abroad, more specifically to as many cliched European landmarks they can squeeze into 90 minutes. Urban dance movies don't really do it for me (particularly in 3D), and I expect that this is nothing more than another clumsy retread of West Side Story but with more fingers wiggling from the screen.

Notable for being the directorial debut of Dexter Fletcher, from the reviews it had on its theatrical release it appears he's avoided the pitfall of creating a mere Lock, Stock rip-off. I'm curious to see how this story about a man reconnecting with his sons after a stint in prison turned out, not least because of its supporting cast including Andy Serkis and Son of Rambow's Will Poulter. Slight grumble - without the tattooed knuckles of the theatrical poster the DVD cover looks a bit like he's got giant hands.

It's probably best to ignore the slick looking DVD cover for this early film from Gareth Evans, director of The Raid. In fact, it's probably best to ignore the title too, as it's all part of the repackaging that's been done to capitalise on the young Welsh director's recent success. Originally released in 2006 as Footsteps, the trailer for this super-low budget effort still shows off what we could expect from the director in the future. For fans of The Raid, this looks like it might be worth checking out.

By now, I'm getting pretty sick of the story that a group of college kids went to location X and then disappeared and the only thing that remains is their camera footage which has now been edited into a film for our entertainment which their families were totally okay about. The only reason for you to buy this film is if you've got poor eyesight and mistake it for Paranormal Activity, which of course isn't what the designers of this DVD cover want to happen at all. No sir.

What a delightful sounding film. Go on, just say it out loud. Gag. Gag. Lovely stuff. Once again, ignore the cover with its on trend colour scheme and Saw-like image; this film dates back to 2006 in the middle of Saw-mania and quite unsurprisingly is a bit of a rip-off. Essentially taking one Saw set-piece and drawing it out across a whole movie, this low budget horror looks like it takes the Human Centipede approach to valueing human life.

Not a sequel to Creep or The Van, it is however from the same people who brought us Gag.  Basically ripping off Stephen King's Christine but placing the action in a vehicle that's easier to film in, from watching the trailer for Creep Van I'm not sure whether the filmmakers are taking the piss or not.

The epitome of high concept vs low budget, in a world of rising petrol prices it's a car that runs on blood. Seriously, what more could you want? Hopefully not high production values as this film doesn't appear to have too much of that. Still, it's a film that I want to own now, and just when you think the trailer for Blood Car couldn't get any more batshit insane, up pops Anna Chlumsky, AKA the girl from My Girl.



3 comments:

  1. wowow Blood Car looks so awful it could just be brilliant!

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  2. This site sucks.
    They are talking about films they haven't even bothered to watch!
    CREEP VAN is NOTHING like the classic film CHRISTINE...watch it for yourself and you'll see...
    CREEP VAN has lots of good reviews from LEGITIMATE websites...you be the judge.

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  3. There's nothing like an anonymous comment to put me in my place, but for me your name is now going to be ALL CAPS. Much love. X

    ReplyDelete