March 28th - April 4th Downloads
& DVDs
 
  • RETIREMENT...

    Thank you for your continued support throughout the years. I am retiring the website and April 4th will be the last day of my reviews here.  When I began this site more than two decades ago, there was no easy place to find new DVD releases available in Canada, and what might be available on demand on our side of the border, but in today's world there are many, many places to find this information.  Most of those are ad-supported or offer other means of generating revenue.  When I started this site, it was all about what was new on VHS. Those days are long gone!  It's now time for me to hang it up, and I appreciate all the back-and-forth communication that we have enjoyed over the years.  Thanks to all of you!

     

     

  •  The Weapon (2023):

    Dallas is not happy. Dallas is making a Vegas mob boss angry because Dallas is consistently attacking biker gangs and drug labs, and the mob boss isn’t exactly certain why this is happening. That’s the basic premise of this action thriller that stars Tony Shiena in the lead role as the beyond-tough-guy who has set everything in motion with his disrupting attacks on organized crime. The mob boss has Dallas’s girlfriend as a hostage, but that doesn’t seem to make much difference. They want to know for whom Dallas is working, but he won’t talk even when they threaten the girlfriend. Tony Shiena is an undefeated world karate champion, so doing his own stunt work on this project just comes naturally. He was discovered by a producer while working as a security guard, and his early work consisted of Shakespearian projects such as “The Merchant of Venice” in 2004 with Leo DiCaprio, but his talents on direct-to-video releases in Europe and Asia, got people on this side of the ocean thinking that maybe they were missing something, and Shiena is now working on more violent action pics. This is a hyperviolent movie that follows the exploits of Dallas as he becomes a one-man killing machine, and it works well for action buffs who don’t want to much plot and story to get in the way of the mayhem. Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Bruce Dern also star. Rated 18A.

     

  • Kids VS Aliens (2022):

    the original idea for this 1980s-set sci-fi thriller was a found-footage short film that inspired the action here. Every stereotype ever put into a teen-oriented Spring-Break-type movie shows up as a raging house party is taking place at the home of a kid whose parents are away. We have the nerd, the cool guy, the jerk, the jock, and the class clown, and they are all played up with gusto. In the middle of the night, when most of the revellers have passed out, those who are still conscious are shocked when the party is crashed by evil aliens from space bent on world domination. Young Gary (Dominic Mariche from “Are You Afraid of the Dark”) and his smarter-than-your-average-teen sister Samantha Phoebe Rex spring into action to try to head off the bloodthirsty space invaders at the pass. The director here is Jason Eisner whose major claim to fame is the Grindhouse movie, “Hobo with a Shotgun” from the Quentin Tarantino stable of unusual movies. The actors here have limited experience with not much on their resumes, so the slightly amateurish nature of the film is easily explained. Rated 14A.

  • Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023):

    Not a live action film, but rather a stylized version of the graphic comic book that spawned it, this Caped Crusader tale has a sci-fi twist with a little horror on the side as we settle into the Gotham City of the 1920s. This version of Bruce Wayne features him as a world explorer, and he unwittingly, after having been away from his home city for nearly 10 years, unleashes an ancient evil. There was no intent on Wayne’s part, but when he realizes what has happened, and sees the horror of demonic proportions going to work on Gotham, he needs to recruit some help in order to put things right. That means dealing with allies and enemies including Green Arrow, Mr. Freeze, and Two-Face, as well as his long-time friend and colleague, James Gordon, not yet the police commissioner. The distinctive voice of Batman is provided by David Giuntoli who was the star of the successful TV series “Grimm,” and continues on television on the series “A Million Little Things.” Rated 14A.

  • That '90s Show (2023) (TV Series):

    Two decades have passed since a teenaged Eric Forman (Topher Grace), living with his family, and enjoying a life of 8 track tapes, the music of Led Zeppelin, and Farrah Fawcett posters, was the perception many had of what those days were like. To help make the transition to the '90s, a much more grown-up Topher Grace reprises his role of Erik in the first episode of this new series, not to be seen for the balance of the episodes of season one. The actors who played his parents, Red and Kitty Forman (Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp) are back for the full 10 segments of this new show however. Wilmer Valderrama who played Fez in the original series also makes an appearance in the initial episode. The venue is still the State of Wisconsin, and it's 1995. Leia Forman, daughter of Eric and Donna (Laura Prepon) pays a summer visit to her grandparents and is introduced to a whole new generation of friends, not-so-friendly teens, and some that will become friends for life in the town of Point Place. Rated 14A.

     

    Slumberland (2022):

    A good cast shows up for this adventure story that will appeal to children 8 or 10 and up. Based on the comic book series "Little Nemo in Slumberland '' by Winston McClay, we follow the adventures of a tweenage girl named Nemo and her eccentric companion Flip (Jason Mamoa) who come together after Nemo's father Peter (Kyle Chandler goes missing at sea. Set in the Pacific Northwest, but shot in Toronto, we follow Nemo as she is sent to live with relatives in the big city, a place foreign to her after the coastline life she had been living. While struggling in a new school with new people all around her, Nemo finds a secret map which hooks her up with Flip, and begins a challenging journey through lands of dreams and nightmares that she believes will help reunite her with her lost father. Rated PG.

New on CRAVE

The Serpent Queen (2022) (TV Series):

The only snakes and serpents in this historical drama are of the human variety as we get an eight-part series based on Leona Friede's book "Catherine de Medici, Renaissance Queen of France." Samantha Morton ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them") plays the title role here. She was queen of France by marriage to King Henry II for a dozen years and became one of the most significant political voices of her generation. After the death of her husband, she continued to become increasingly more influential, pulling the strings on the reigns of her subsequent sons who had no idea of the extent to which they were being manipulated. For most of the 16th century she was the most important woman in Europe, and was known for her ruthlessness and for her ability to make ground-breaking decisions with no concern for the human price. Rated 14A.

 

New on AMAZON PRIME

Detective Knight: Independence (2022):

The third and final segment of this trilogy that features a tough detective (Bruce Willis) has our hero struggling with a case in which an errant first responder threatens to make a disaster out of the Independence Day holiday using a stolen gun, a police uniform, and a lot of reasons to blow up a bank vault. Willis doesn't do a lot here, having filmed this segment, and the previous two simultaneously in Vancouver, using a number of Canadians to flesh out the cast. If you are a longtime fan of Willis, it's worth watching just to see what he is doing at the end of his acting career, but as a movie, it doesn't offer a lot that is new. Rated 14A.

 

New on DISNEY + /Star

Disenchanted (2022):

Amy Adams and much of the original cast, including James Marsden and Patrick Dempsey, show up 15 years after the movie "Enchanted" graced the big screen and was a blockbuster hit bringing in more than $350 million. In that film, Princess Giselle (Adams), living in an animated fairytale land, was just biding her time and singing her songs while she waited for Prince Charming. He showed up in the person of Prince Edward (Marsden) and the day before their marriage, a tragedy befell the princess. At the hands of an evil hag (Susan Sarandon), she was dumped into a well, which was actually a conduit between two worlds, the animate land of Andalasia, and now, the harsh, racaus world of New York City, complete with honking taxis and frenetic pedestrians. There she met a divorce lawyer named Robert Philip (Dempsey) and eventually fell in love, married, and lived happily ... well, not quite ever after. As this new story opens, it is 10 years later and Giselle and her husband are moving to the suburbs with their child and new baby in tow. On arrival, it's clear that something isn't quite right as their new home in Monroeville seems to be under the control of Malvina Monroe (Maya Rudolph) who is not what she seems. As Giselle struggles with this new twist, she makes a wish, wanting everything to be a perfect fairy-tale. The spell backfires and it turns both her live-action world and the animated world of Andalasia upside down. There are more songs in this sequel than in the original, a good account given by Idena Menzel who once again plays Nancy. Rated PG.

New on Apple +

Spirited (2022):
Just when you thought you had seen every possible variation on the Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol," from the Muppets to George C. Scott, to the Alistair Sim version from 1951, along comes a truly different twist. Set in the present day, the star here, the Scrooge of the story, is a character named Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds). As expected, he is a miserable soul given to creating chaos and grief all around himself through his thoughtless, sometimes mean, stingy mannerisms. As Christmas Eve approaches, Briggs is visited by the first of three ghosts, this one being the spirit of Christmas Present played by Will Farrell. Each Christmas Eve, this spirit seeks out a wretched person to reform, and this time it's Briggs. Unlike Dickens' original story, Briggs turns the tables on the ghost and soon has Christmas Present examining his own past, present and future, completely forgetting the original mission. This is the first version of "A Christmas Carol" told from the perspective of the spirits themselves, Past, Present, and Future, and it's clear that they picked on the wrong Scrooge this time. Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer also stars, as does Sunita Mani from the series GLOW, as the spirit of Christmas Past. An interesting spin on an old classic, and a musical version at that. Rated PG.