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Rick's Flicks Picks on AWN

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THE BLACK CAT (1981) (**)

Lucio Fulci has forged his name as a master of horror with his outlandish death sequences. He brings that style to this very loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe. It certainly does nothing for the classic tale.

An English town is plagued by gruesome deaths. Present at the deaths is a black cat with a mesmerizing stare. He belongs to former professor turned psychic Robert Miles (Patrick Magee, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE). He claims he can communicate with the dead and tries to record their voices. Drawn into the investigation of the deaths are American photographer Jill Trevers (Mimsy Farmer, AUTOPSY) and Scotland Yard inspector Gorley (David Warback, THE BEYOND). The question they need to answer is whether Miles controls the cat or if it's the other way around.

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127 HOURS (2010) (***1/2)

This true-life survival story makes you wonder how you would handle the same situation. If you were trapped in a remote canyon could you cut off your own arm with a dull blade? Danny Boyle's film puts the viewer in that situation with all its physical and mental challenges. This is the rare thriller with an existential thread.

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127 HOURS (2010) (***1/2)

This true-life survival story makes you wonder how you would handle the same situation. If you were trapped in a remote canyon could you cut off your own arm with a dull blade? Danny Boyle's film puts the viewer in that situation with all its physical and mental challenges. This is the rare thriller with an existential thread.

James Franco plays Aron Ralston, an experienced hiker, who took off by himself to hike Blue John Canyon in Utah. Even though he was a member of the search and rescue team, he told no one where he was going. While climbing down he canyon, a boulder broke loose and crushed his right forearm, pinning him between the rock and canyon wall. Chipping away at or trying to move the rock quickly proved futile. The title tells us how long he was stuck there with little food and water. His multi-tool was dull and could barely scratch his skin, so when he got desperate enough he broke the bones in his arm and used the pliers to snap the stronger tendons.

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IT'S ALIVE! (1974) (***1/2)

When expecting a new child anxieties run high. You worry about them being healthy. You worry about how they will turn out. Larry Cohen's creepy horror flick takes those anxieties and blows them out into terror. How would you you feel if your new baby was a savage monster?

Frank (John P. Ryan, BOUND) and Lenore Davis (Sharon Farrell, THE STUNT MAN) are an expecting couple. They already have an eight-year-old son Chris (Daniel Holzman), who is looking forward to being a big brother. Sitting in the waiting room with other expecting fathers, Frank seems the bastion of calm. But then screams echo down the halls. And he witnesses the blood bath in the delivery room where his wife is still strapped to the table. The baby has killed the doctors and nurses and fled the hospital.

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THE SECRET OF KELLS (2010) (***1/2)

The Book of Kells is considered the pinnacle of the insular illumination style and its influence on the visuals of this film is in every corner of the frame. The elaborate calligraphy of the Irish national treasure might be simplified but it's woven into the buildings and environments. These remarkable visuals bring to life a fantasy version of the book's creation, filled with Irish lore. The visuals alone make this film captivating.

Brendan (Evan McGuire) is a young apprentice at the Abbey of Kells, where his uncle Cellach (Brendan Gleeson, IN BRUGES) is the abbot. Brendan is fascinated with the tales of the master illuminator Adian of Iona (Mick Lally, THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH) and the book he is creating. Brendan is inspired by the magic of the book, but his uncle believes he is a dreamer and needs to focus on the construction of a wall to protect the town from marauding Vikings. When Adian must flee the Vikings at Iona, he brings the book to Kells to work on it in secret. Brendan wants to help. Disobeying his uncle's orders to not venture into the forest, he goes in a search of gall nuts that can be used for ink. On his adventure, Brendan meets a fairy named Aisling (Christen Mooney) and his view of the world opens up.

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THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE: FIRST SEQUENCE (2010) (**)

One shouldn't beat around the bush when it comes to reviewing this film. It's about a mad surgeon who wants to surgically connect three humans mouth to anus, making one long, gross gastric system. Like a long car ride it really sucks to be in the middle.

Like thousands of other horror films, two pretty young women, Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams) and Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie), are on vacation when their car breaks down along some out of the way stretch of road. They wander through the woods and come upon house of Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser, THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM). Before letting them in the house, he asks them if they're sisters, and when they say they aren't, he seems disappointed. Creepy. But they go in anyway and end up drugged and then tied to an operation table. Eventually they' re joined (at first figuratively and then literally) by the unfortunate Japanese tourist Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura, PORNO).

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MONSTER A-GO-GO (1965) (*)

This sci-fi horror flick has been called the worst film ever made. Its ranking on iMDB is 1.4, making it the second lowest rated film. The film stands up to that lofty reputation. However, unlike films like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE or ROBOT MONSTER, this one isn't so bad, it's good like some claim. Those films find ways of entertaining with their ineptitude. What keeps MONSTER A-GO-GO from attaining that wonderful BOMB status is that it's painfully boring.

A space capsule crashes to Earth. Frank Douglas (Henry Hite) has been infected with radiation portion, which has shriveled his skin like a prune and made him wander around like a zombie. Anyone who comes too close to him turns into a raisin and dies. Dr. Manning (George Perry) has been keeping him alive with an antidote, but now he's on the loose. Col. Steve Connors (Phil Morton) leads a force to contain the "monster."

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PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW (1971) (***)

There are so many elements of this film that make it cult. It's a high school sex comedy that is pitch black. The director is BARBARELLA auteur Roger Vadim and the writer/producer is STAR TREK creator Gene Roddenberry. The star is Rock Hudson as the football coach who beds his underage female students on a daily basis. Come on you can't write irony better than that.

Hudson is Tiger McDrew, a local hero who just has women fawning over him when he walks into a room. In between sleeping with every hot girl in the school and spending time with his wife (Barbara Leigh, JUNIOR BONNER) and daughter, he takes forever-young football team manager Ponce de Leon Harper (John David Carson, THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN) under his wing. The boy has a problem; he has a constant erection. Especially in the class of new teacher Miss Betty Smith (Angie Dickinson, RIO BRAVO). So all Tiger needs to do to get the older woman to teach Ponce the sexual ropes is to ask. Oh yeah, the pretty co-heads are turning up dead.

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Blu-ray: PLEASE GIVE (2010)

Read my review of PLEASE GIVE.

This indie comedy was shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm. This gives the picture a softer look overall. This quality carries over to this 1080p transfer. For a Blu-ray the detail is not robust. The color balance is natural and the film grain is consistent with the source material. When it comes to the soundtrack, this isn't a title to show off the sound system with. The soundscape is heavily weighted to the front speakers. Dialogue stands out from the nicely balanced music and sound effects. Presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless, the soundtrack is what might expect from an indie comedy.

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PLEASE GIVE (2010) (***1/2)

Nicole Holofcener, who made the wonderful WALKING & TALKING and LOVELY & AMAZING, is a writer who understands people and knows precisely how to show an audience these people. Particularly she knows how to write women characters. They act like women and more importantly they feel like women. And by that I mean they feel a range of emotions.

Kate (Catherine Keener, LOVELY & AMAZING) and her husband Alex (Oliver Platt, DIGGSTOWN) run a vintage furniture shop in New York City. They buy their product from the children of the recently deceased. Kate feels guilty for everything. She’s the kind of person who looks for homeless people to give money to. They have bought the apartment of the old woman Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert, GRUMPIER OLD MEN) next door, giving her the right to stay there until she passes.

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SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD (2010) (**1/2)

Everyone knows that George A. Romeo is the creator of the modern day zombie. I have enjoyed all previous entries in this horror sub-genre he has made. Each in some way commented on the era in which they were made. Now with zombies more popular than ever, Romeo doesn't have to wait a decade to turn a new one out. I don't think that's a good thing.

This entry in his zombie canon is the first direct sequel to any of his zombie films. It follows characters that appeared in the faux-doc DIARY OF THE DEAD. Nicotine Crocket (Alan Van Spring, LAND OF THE DEAD) is a National Guard sergeant who along with his troops has gone rogue since the zombie outbreak. It's a zombie eat zombie world out there. Along with Kenny (Eric Woolfe, NEW YORK MINUTE), Francisco (Stefano Colacitti, THE BOONDOCK SAINTS II: ALL SAINTS DAY) and Tomboy (Athena Karkanis, SAW IV), they rob a RV full of film students (featured in DIARY). The military deserters run into a solo teen called Boy (Devon Bostick, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID), who tells them of an island off the coast of Delaware that is inviting strangers over to live in a zombie-free zone.

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DATE NIGHT (2010) (***1/2)

Marriage and life sometimes seem to get in the way of each other. You meet the right woman, fall in love, get hitched, have kids and end up wondering how you got stuck in some routine. The routine tests marriages. The one's that last are often the ones that can take a moment to break free from the routine and remember what sparked it all in the beginning. For the Fosters, blackmailers, gangsters, corrupt cops and a deviant DA really do put a spark in their relationship.

Phil and Claire Foster (Steve Carell, THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN & Tina Fey, TV's 30 ROCK) are in that kind of rut. Their best friends the Sullivans (Kristen Wiig, TV's SNL & Mark Ruffalo, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT) are getting a divorce, because they got in a rut. This scares Phil, because he loves Claire, but he can see their light fizzling out. He tries to make their date night special by taking her to a trendy new restaurant in NYC on Friday night without a reservation. No luck getting a table. So Phil acts spontaneously and takes the reservation of the Tripplehorns, who don't seem to be there. Not a great call.

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HEREAFTER (2010) (***1/2)

For this film, 80-year-old Clint Eastwood looks at death. Based on a script from Peter Morgan (FROST/NIXON), the film weaves together three different experiences with death — a near death experience, the loss of a loved one and a metaphysical look at the issue. Each is told on a haunting emotional level. No matter what your own personal beliefs are about the afterlife, this film actually reinforces the most important part of life.

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HEREAFTER (2010) (***1/2)

For this film, 80-year-old Clint Eastwood looks at death. Based on a script from Peter Morgan (FROST/NIXON), the film weaves together three different experiences with death — a near death experience, the loss of a loved one and a metaphysical look at the issue. Each is told on a haunting emotional level. No matter what your own personal beliefs are about the afterlife, this film actually reinforces the most important part of life.

Marie LeLay (Cecile De France, HIGH TENSION) is a famous French newscaster. On vacation with her boyfriend/producer Didier (Thierry Neuvic, TELL NO ONE), she goes out to a street market to buy gifts and is swept away as a sudden tsunami strikes. She is pulled from the water, but not before experiencing the classic near death experience of the bright white light and sense of weightlessness.

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Blu-ray: THE EXORCIST (1973)

This Blu-ray release transfers both the original theatrical cut and the 2000 never before seen cut into 1080p for the first time. For a film from the 1970s, the look is impressive in HD. While wide shots contain noise, many close-ups and medium shots are pristine. Dirt and damage has been cleaned up almost completely. Details pop in things like fabrics. For the most part more details emerge in the brighter lit scenes. The picture problems are fleeting. Black levels are a bit inconsistent and some shots are soft.

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Blu-ray: THE EXORCIST (1973)

Read my original review of THE EXORCIST!

This Blu-ray release transfers both the original theatrical cut and the 2000 never before seen cut into 1080p for the first time. For a film from the 1970s, the look is impressive in HD. While wide shots contain noise, many close-ups and medium shots are pristine. Dirt and damage has been cleaned up almost completely. Details pop in things like fabrics. For the most part more details emerge in the brighter lit scenes. The picture problems are fleeting. Black levels are a bit inconsistent and some shots are soft.

As for the sound, the extended cut is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 surround and the original cut is DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. The soundscape was intended to mix the bombastic with moments of eerie silence. The LFE emphasizes the unearthly sound moments from furniture flying across the room and the unnatural voices that possess Regan. The 360 experience is nice as unsettling sounds emerge from the rear speakers than sweep across the room like an apparition. Like the picture transfer, most of the problems with canned or hollow sounds are most likely a result of the aging originals.

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EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED (2008) (*1/2)

Host and co-writer Ben Stein and director Nathan Frankowski take a Michael Moore approach to their documentary on Intelligent Design. The tone is snarky and the slant is obvious. It's an opinion piece. Each viewer will experience the film differently depending on the ideology they bring in. But unlike Moore's films, EXPELLED lacks the same wit and too often intelligence.

Stein begins by interviewing professors who have lost their jobs over their ID beliefs. The film argues that academia has no tolerance for alternative theories to Darwinism and will eliminate all those threats. He interviews many ID scientists who claim that it is valid science and not Creationism dressed up under another name. God has nothing to do with it.

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RED RIDING: IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1983 (2010) (***1/2)

The third and best film in the RED RIDING trilogy reveals the mysteries and conspiracies that surrounded the first two films. In the process, it unveils the sick depth of the cover-up. What distinguishes this entry from the others is its emotional center. The previous two films followed a crusader looking to uncover the truth. This film puts us into the shoes of one of the conspirators as he struggles with the guilt of what he's done.

Maurice Jobson (David Morrissey, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL) was a supporting character in the other two films, appearing only briefly. But, especially with his actions at the end of the first film, knew had a much bigger role to play. He was part of the police conspiracy to cover-up the crimes of businessman John Dawson (Sean Bean, LORD OF THE RINGS), because he was poised to make them rich in a land scheme. Now Jobson is confronted again with the child murders of 1974 when another little girl goes missing.

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RED RIDING: IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1980 (2010) (***1/2)

The second installment in the RED RIDING trilogy based on David Peace's novels is the least connected to the other films in the series, but integral to the overall story the three films tell. Director James Marsh (MAN ON WIRE) approaches the material as a straight police procedural. One careless statement sets this story rolling and its full ramifications are not known until the very end.

The Yorkshire Ripper is sending panic throughout the community. Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine, IN AMERICA) is brought in to help the investigation. But why him? He's known for ruffling feathers within the police ranks with his dogged investigations, particularly the one into the Karachi Club massacre, which ended the previous film. He puts together a team of the department's top investigators — Helen Marshall (Maxine Peake, TV's SHAMELESS) and John Nolan (Tony Pitts). He tries to keep his past affair with Helen quiet. When they try to get information from the previous investigators, they hit a brick wall. Officer Bob Craven (Sean Harris, 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE) tells Hunter that they'll catch their Ripper and he can have his own.

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DIARY OF A WIMPY KID (2010) (***1/2)

Having been based on Jeff Kinney's young adult book, which was based on a collection of comic strips, I wondered how the film would work as a feature film. With its stream of consciousness style, the book doesn't have the narrative structure that a feature would need to sustain momentum. But with a few tweaks to the original text, the film finds a focus, giving Kinney's keen middle school observations even more punch.

Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon, THE BROTHERS BLOOM) is about to start middle school and his anxiety is growing by the minute. He believes it is the dumbest idea ever invented because it mixes kids who haven't hit their growth spurt like him with gorillas who have to shave their bodies twice daily. He worries about saying or doing the wrong thing. Making matters worse is his best friend Rowley (Robert Capron, THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE), who still plays with toys, listens to boy bands and is completely oblivious to the rules of tweendom. His older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick, LAND OF THE DEAD), a high schooler in a band called Löded Diper, puts the fear into him by saying he won't even survive his first day.

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THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2010) (****)

Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook business card read, "I'm the CEO, bitch." It sums up nicely the impression that one gets about the youngest billionaire on the planet from this film. David Fincher's drama, his best and most sophisticated film to date, presents in detail the creation of the social networking site and the legal issues that surrounded it. Zuckerberg had to simultaneously fight two lawsuits against him. As the film's tag line so aptly states — you don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.

In the film's opening conversation, Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg, ZOMBIELAND) comes off as both arrogant and insecure to his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET). He's obsessed with making a name for himself at Harvard and after she breaks up with him that night, he goes home and does just that. He blogs terrible things about her and then hacks into the school network, steals the images of the female students and creates a website that randomly selects two pictures and allows the viewer to rank the hotness of each one. He did this while drunk.

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Blu-ray: COCO CHANEL & IGOR STRAVINSKY (2010)

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 10:32pm

Some of the best elements of Jan Kounen's real-life love affair tale are the cinematography, production design and costumes. They are exquisitely represented in this Blu-ray. Coco Chanel's monochromatic style is rich with deep blacks and pearly whites. In 1080p, the picture is crisp and detailed, while retaining the original film grain feel. When splashes of color are introduced, the picture quality remains firm and rich within the cool ascetic the film is trying to create.

As for the soundtrack, the disc is presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless. Even though this is a quiet drama, the soundscape is filled with the noises of the environments. Claps and jeers fill the room during Stravinsky's disastrous first performance of "The Rites of Spring." The sounds of the woods fill the outdoor scenes at the estate. Stravinsky's bombastic music moves the LFE track. All the elements from dialogue to sound effects to music are perfectly balanced.

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COCO CHANEL & IGOR STRAVINSKY (2010) (***)

This drama might have not been planned as a sequel to the Audrey Tautou film, COCO BEFORE CHANEL, but it works as one. The story of this film picks up pretty much where the other film left off. This film doesn't have the same ambition or storytelling sophistication, but it does tell a compelling story of a sexual affair where the woman holds all the cards.

The film begins in detail with the disastrous first performance of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." A producer tells Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen, CASINO ROYALE) that the work is too modern for those use to "Swan Lake." The famed fashion designer Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis, THE CAPTIVE) was one of the few in the audience who saw it as a new masterpiece. The work stuck with her so strongly that years later when she meet the composer again, she offered to be his sponsor. So Stravinsky, his sick wife Katarina (Yelena Morozova) and their brood of children moved into Chanel's country estate with her. Right from the start, Mrs. Stravinsky knew that their benefactor had more than just an interest in music.

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Blu-ray Buzz – The King Comes to Blu-ray

The king of all movie monsters comes to Blu-ray this week. Superheroes, real life artists, war and other indie fare grace this week’s column as well.

Pick of the Week
King Kong
The original giant ape comes to Blu-ray for the first time. Now I haven’t seen a film from the 1930s presented in 1080p, but what could be a better title to start with? The epic adventure has stop-motion animation and special effects that are still impressive today. How did they make the spears thrown at Kong seem so fluid? Fray Wray as Ann Darrow the woman who charms the savage beast is an iconic figure in cinema do to this one film. Even those who haven’t seen the picture know the imagery of her being carried up the Empire State Building. While Peter Jackson did an amazing job re-imagining the film, nothing can replace the original, which made us care about the monster more than the humans he terrorized.

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WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS (2010) (***)

Rest assured, WALL STREET fans have nothing to fear, this film does not taint the original. Oliver Stone does what successful sequels all do — build on the chapters that came before. While this critique of Wall Street is not as cutting as the 1987 film, it does have something to say about the current U.S. financial environment.

Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, ROMANCING THE STONE), the ruthless trader from the original, has been released from jail after serving eight years for insider trading. It's 2008 and he has written a book that reveals the precarious footing the financial system is on. Wall Street big wigs just ignore him. But he does draw the attention of young hotshot broker Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf, TRANSFORMERS), who just happens to be engaged to Gekko's estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION). Jake wants Gekko's help digging up info on billionaire broker Bretton James (Josh Brolin, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), who both have an ax to grind with.

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