The majority of the movie revolves around the Prom itself, which makes the name Prom Night more appropriate for this film than the original movie in my opinion. The storyline is pretty much straight forward but it is not a mean spirited torture flick like many of today’s offering. At times it felt more like a thriller than a horror film. Although many horror fans automatically dismiss any movie with a PG 13 rating, I think that films like this are a good example of a horror movie that is appropriate for a wider age range than just a standard R release. The killings were understated but adequate. There was a very well done throat slash and some stabbings but much like Psycho, the film left a lot of the actual murder act to the imagination of the audience. The omission of extra gore did not ruin the film for me.

The acting was, for the most part, average. Much like the Friday the 13 sequels of old, many of the characters were just victims and were treated as such. As a result there was not much character development. I though Jonathon Schaeh did a great job as homicidal stalker, Richard Fenton Idris Elba also was excellent as Detective Winn, the officer in charge of Donna’s case. As for Brittaney Snow, she was ok. Definitely one area where the original had the edge was in Jamie Lee Curtis vs. Brittaney Snow.

In his transition from direction Television Episodes to Motion Pictures, Nelson McCormack did a pretty good job. I liked the location that was used for the Prom Hotel and his work with the chase scenes in it as well as at Donna’s house. It will be interesting to see his next project as he reunites with Prom Night writer JS Cardone to helm the Stepfather remake.

I watched most of the bonus material, with the exception of the commentary track over the film. The alternate scenes were nothing ground shattering, however they did provide some additional background such as the killer going to Donna’s old house and finding it abandoned and seeing a sign at the school where he used to teach with the prom location. The deleted scenes also covered Richard Fenton’s escape from prison in detail which cleared up why he was not discovered as missing for days. I didn’t understand why these scenes were cut. The movie was pretty short and although not long they would have cleared up a few plot points. The alternate ending is pretty pointless. Much like Brittaney Snow in her commentary, I am glad they didn’t go with it.

I had fun watching this movie. A remake in name only, Prom Night is a fun, check your brain at the door slasher/thriller with some good jump scares and tense chase scenes. I recommend it for slasher fans with the caveat to get the unrated version. I have not seen the unrated version however, on the PG13 version you can see where the death scenes appear trimmed down a bit. So check out Prom Night 2008, definitely worth a watch.

Prom Night is available courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment beginning on August 19th.

To switch for the Theatrical Version of Prom Night or to order it from Amazon.com, click here
To switch for the Unrated version of Prom Night or to order it from Amazon.com, click here
To switch for the Blu Ray version of Prom Night, or to order it from Amazon.com, click here

Actors: Jeff Bridges, Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow

Director: Jon Favreau

Year: 2008

Color Code: Color

Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Synopsis: Suit up for action with Robert Downey Jr. in the ultimate adventure movie you’ve been waiting for, Iron Man! When jet-setting genius-industrialist Tony Stark is captured in enemy territory, he builds a high-tech suit of armor to escape. Now, he’s on a mission to save the world as a hero who’s built, not born, to be unlike any other. Co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges, it’s a fantastic, high-flying journey that is “hugely entertaining” (Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal).

Iron Man Standard DVD Widescreen:

PRODUCT INFO:
Runtime: 2 Hr. 6 Min. Sec.
Languages: English Subtitled, French Subtitled, Spanish Subtitled
Audio: 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital
US Rating: PG-13 - For some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content
DVD Features:
• Additional Scenes: Convoy Ambush
• Additional Scenes: Craps Table with Tony & Rhodey
• Additional Scenes: Tony & Rhodey on Stark Jet and Military Ceremony
• Additional Scenes: Rhodey and General Gabriel
• Additional Scenes: Tony Comes Home
• Additional Scenes: Tony Begins Mark II
• Additional Scenes: Dubai Party
• Additional Scenes: Pepper Discovers Tony as Iron Man
• Additional Scenes: Obadiah Addresses Scientists
• Additional Scenes: Rhodey Saves Iron Man on Freeway
• Additional Scenes: Rooftop Battle
• Trailers: Iron Man: Armored Adventures
• Easter Eggs: Easter Egg Stan Lee

Iron Man Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Widescreen:

PRODUCT INFO:
Runtime: 2 Hr. 6 Min. Sec.
Languages: English Subtitled, French Subtitled, Spanish Subtitled
Audio: 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital
US Rating: PG-13 - For some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content
DVD Features:
• Additional Scenes: Convoy Ambush
• Featurette: The Journey Begins
• Featurette: The Suit that Makes The Iron Man
• Additional Scenes: Craps Table with Tony & Rhodey
• Additional Scenes: Tony & Rhodey on Stark Jet and Military Ceremony
• Featurette: Walk of Destruction
• Additional Scenes: Rhodey and General Gabriel
• Featurette: Grounded In Reality
• Additional Scenes: Tony Comes Home
• Featurette: Beneath the Armor
• Featurette: It’s All In The Details
• Additional Scenes: Tony Begins Mark II
• Additional Scenes: Dubai Party
• Featurette: A Good Story, Well Told
• Additional Scenes: Pepper Discovers Tony as Iron Man
• Featurette: Origins
• Additional Scenes: Obadiah Addresses Scientists
• Featurette: Friends & Foe
• Featurette: The Definitive Iron Man
• Additional Scenes: Rhodey Saves Iron Man on Freeway
• Additional Scenes: Rooftop Battle
• Featurette: Demon in a Bottle
• Featurette: Extremis and Beyond
• Trailers: Iron Man: Armored Adventures
• Featurette: Ultimate Iron Man
• Easter Eggs: Easter Egg Stan Lee
• Featurette: Wired: The Visual Effects of Iron Man
• Other: Robert Downey Jr. Screen Test
• Featurette: The Actor’s Process
• Trailers: The Onion “Wildly Popular Iron Man Trailer to be Adapted into Full Length Film”
• Other: Still Galleries (175 images)

Iron Man Ultimate Edition 2 disc Blu Ray Widescreen:

PRODUCT INFO:

Runtime: 2 Hr. 6 Min. Sec.
Languages: English Subtitled, French Subtitled, Portuguese Subtitled, Spanish Subtitled
Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital, 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital
US Rating: PG-13 - For some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content
DVD Features:
• Featurette: Origins
• Featurette: The Journey Begins
• Featurette: The Suit that Makes The Iron Man
• Featurette: Friends & Foes
• Featurette: The Definitive Iron Man
• Featurette: Walk of Destruction
• Featurette: Grounded In Reality
• Featurette: Demon in a Bottle
• Featurette: Extremis and Beyond
• Featurette: Beneath the Armor
• Featurette: Ultimate Iron Man
• Featurette: It’s All In The Details
• Featurette: A Good Story, Well Told
• Additional Scenes: Convoy Ambush
• Additional Scenes: Craps Table with Tony & Rhodey
• Featurette: Wired: The Visual Effects of Iron Man
• Other: Robert Downey Jr. Screen Test
• Additional Scenes: Tony & Rhodey on Stark Jet and Military Ceremony
• Additional Scenes: Rhodey and General Gabriel
• Featurette: The Actor’s Process
• Trailers: The Onion “Wildly Popular Iron Man Trailer to be Adapted into Full Length Film”
• Additional Scenes: Tony Comes Home
• Additional Scenes: Tony Begins Mark II
• Trailers: Theatrical Teaser [Theatrical #1 - "Teaser" v.13 Rev.]
• Trailers: Theatrical Trailer [Theatrical Trailer #2]
• Additional Scenes: Dubai Party
• Additional Scenes: Pepper Discovers Tony as Iron Man
• Trailers: International Trailer B [Int'l Trailer B - "Final"]
• Trailers: International Trailer C [Int'l Trailer C - "Destiny" v.10]
• Additional Scenes: Obadiah Addresses Scientists
• Additional Scenes: Rhodey Saves Iron Man on Freeway
• Other: Still Galleries (175 images)
• Other: Credits
• Additional Scenes: Rooftop Battle
• Other: Iron Man I.Q. - BD Live

So mark your calendars!

The movie opens with Anna trailing a pedophile back to his home and confronting him about his despicable activities. The movie then takes you to Anna’s doctor appointment where you discover that she has been diagnosed with two to three months to live due to an inoperable brain tumor. Cared for by a wealthy benefactor named Jonathan after her family was murdered by a directionally challenged killer, Anna is now the face of Jonathan’s charity foundation to help children. Knowing she has a very limited window left to live, Anna vows to step up her charity work by protecting children from those predators who escape justice. As she travels around the US on behalf of the Foundation, Anna has the perfect opportunity to kill a few molesters and abusers along the way. Anyway, as Anna racks up the body counts, she starts to see visions of those she has killed as her headaches due to the tumor increase in frequency and intensity. The lines begin to blur a bit between the predator and the victims as the criteria for those deserving death begin to lessen. This is a review and not a synopsis so I will not spoil the ending for those who plan on watching Juncture. The rest of the story is pretty good and the pacing is excellent. My one challenge to the believability of the script was that Anna was very open about her killings. I find it hard to believe that she would not have been caught running people off the road in broad daylight or shooting people in public areas. Luckily for her there never seemed to be witnesses around.

The acting in Juncture was above average. Kristine Blackport was excellent as Anna, and proved she was capable of carrying a movie as the lead. Her performance reminded me a bit of Jennifer Garner in Alias. She did a good job in switching personnas between scenes as she went from terminally ill Anna to cold vigilante Anna. Jonathan Hutton was also excellent as millionaire playboy and philanthropist, Jonathan Lamont. Although her screentime was a bit limited, she made the most of it.

Director James Seale did a great job on this movie. The script took this movie all over the US and Seale was not afraid to switch locations to keep up. I was very suprised at the quality of the cinematography and the quality of the locations at which they chose to shoot. Kudos all around on a strong directoral effort.

Unfortunately I did not get a chance to view the bonus features as I watched this on a screener disc. I would like to have caught the Director’s commentary track as I thought he did an admirable job on the movie.

If you like action films then check out Juncture. I give it high marks as an original movie about a woman who has a definate plan to live out her final days in a way which she feels is for the good of those innocents who cannot protect themselves. It was an original twist on the last days on earth comedies where the star decides to treat themself like royalty before dying.

Bonus Features:
Director’s Commentary
Behind the Scenes Featurette
Spanish Subtitles

Juncture is available courtesy of MTI Home Video beginning on August 12th. For more information on the movie, check out www.jucturethemovie.com or www.mtivideo.com.

To switch for Juncture or to purchase it from Amazon.com, click here

First up is part of Mill Creek’s new Legends Series. Alfred Hitchcock: Studies in Fear is comprised primarily of Hitchcock’s earlier directoral efforts. Studies in Fear is a 2 disc set of 10 Black and White movies. The timespan of these films is from 1926 to 1939 and even over this span of 13 years, you can see Hitchcock’s adaptability as he moves from silent movies to talking pictures quite fluidly.

For me the highlights of the set were the thriller The Lodger, Sabatoge and The Man Who Knew Too Much which features a great performance by Peter Lorre. There are a few movies on here that I had a hard time sitting through such as Juno and the Paycock but overall it was interesting to see Hitchcock start to evolve his extremely unique style through these early films.

Disc 1 Disc 2
Easy Virtue (Silent) Juno and the Paycock
Jamaica Inn Sabotage
The Lodger (Silent) The Skin Game
The Ring (Silent) Number Seventeen
Young and Innocent The Man Wno Knew Too Much

Alfred Hitchcock: Studies in Fear is a great way to pick up a lot of Hitchcock’s early works. The transfers vary in quality but given that many of these films are from the 20’s and 30’s you can’t really expect much more. As with most of Mill Creek’s offerings, the set is very easy on the pocketbook with a SRP of $7.98, which is worth it for The Lodger and The Man Who Knew Too Much by themselves. With directoral credits on over 50 motion pictures, this set is a great way for the Hitchcock collectors to get a head start on tracking down some of his lesser known obscure movies at a very affordable price.

Alfred Hitchcock: Studies in Fear is available now, courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment.

To switch for Alfred Hitchcock Studies in fear or to order it from Amazon.com, click here

The next box set we will look at is actually Season 1 of the highly popular Sci-Fi channel series, Ghost Hunters. As you might remember, I reviewed The Best of Ghost Hunters volume 2 a few months ago and at the time had never watched the show. Well, thanks to Big Vision Entertainment, I had the opportunity to start at the beginning with the first season.
Clocking in around 9 hours, Season 1 shows how Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson got their start in Paranormal Research. It was interesting to watch TAPS evolve from a part time hobby to a major television series. In the early days, the 2 plumbers had to plan their paranormal research around work and family and budgeting. Some episodes, this interaction and bonding among the rest of the TAPS team was actually more interesting to me than the investigations themself.

The episodes ranged from nothing found to some downright eerie occurances and evidence of hauntings. It was good to see that the series is more of a documentary as opposed to editing out calls that did not produce results in order to just show the locations where paranormal activity appeared to occur. I had fun watching the show and will definately be moving on to season 2, as I have a long way to go to catch up with this season’s offerings.

If you enjoy shows about hauntings and paranormal research, you will definately have fun with this show. Although you can often catch it on Sci Fi Channel, I recommend picking up Season 1 and starting at the beginning. Although the episodes do not need to be watched in order, I recommend it. Watching the series chronologically will allow the viewer to experience TAPS’ growth from a weekend project to a major televison show and also allow the viewer to watch as working relationships, life situations and such among the TAPS crew play out.

Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
Interviews with Jason and Grant

Ghost Hunters Season 1 is available now courtesy of Big Vision Entertainment.

To switch for Ghost Hunters Season 1 or to purchase it from Amazon.com, click here

The CD kicks off with a cover of Welcome to the Jungle. Although it was well done, it was basically a cookie cutter of the Gn’R version. The next two tracks were just ok, nothing spectacular but not bad either. By the time the album gets to track 4, which is the song Locomotive, t started to pick up a bit. Urban Preacher added their own flavor to the song which is the way I like my tribute albums to behave. The trend carried forward to my personal favorite Gn’R song, November Rain, which was very nicely covered by Rose Reiter. I disliked both Outta Get Me and Dust N’ Bones but the album recoverd quite nicely with a really nice cover of Don’t Cry. The album finishes out with some more decent tracks, the most noteworthy being an acoustic version of You’re Crazy by Katet.

Overall it was a decent Tribute album that you can pop in and play without programming the player to skip a lot of songs. There were a few songs that really stood out as the best of the offering and really only 2 tracks which I disliked and would not listen to again. Worth noting is that 2 former Guns and Roses members do show up on it, Traci Guns and Gilby Clark who both perform on I Used to Love Her.

Listening to the bonus samplers I quickly noticed that the songs included were all cut off at the 1:40 mark, so there were no complete tracks. Most of the songs were ok but didn’t really grab my attention, pretty much just background music. I did like the group Puritan Rodeo, who have a Squirrel Nut Zipper sound to them. To me they were the group that stood out the most on both samplers.

If you are a Guns and Roses fan and see this for a decent price, go ahead and pick it up, its a decent cd to add to the collection.

Tracks:
1.Welcome to the Jungle
2.I Used to Love Her
3.14 Years
4.Locomotive
5.November Rain
6.Outta Get Me
7.Dust N’ Bones
8.Don’t Cry
9.My Michelle
10.Move to the City
11.You’re Crazy (acoustic)
12.Double Talkin’ Jive

Double Talkin’ Jive: A Hard Rock Tribute to Guns N’ Roses is available courtesy of MVD Distributors and Versailles Records beginning on August 8th, 2008.

To switch for Double Talkin’ Jive or to purchase it from Amazon.com, click here

Lets start out with a positive. I thought the special effects in the film were very well done. The transformations were good and when the vampires fed, it was a bloodbath instead of the single fangbite in the neck. This time around each of the vampires died differently and although a departure from the Lost Boys storyline, I thought that the opportunity to showcase a variety of deaths was well used by the effects team.

The acting was disappointing, Angus Sutherland as Vampire surfer Shane, did not come across as remotely believable or entertaining. As the Emerson siblings, Tad Hilgenbrink and Autumn Reeser made it through the film in mediocre performances. Cory Feldman, reprising his role as Edgar Frog, had the potential to make the movie fun. Unfortunately, the script called for Cory to act as if he had not aged in the past 21 days. He talked, dressed and acted just like Lost Boys happened the week before and he was still that little Frog kid. I felt this was unfortunate as I would have liked to see the character progress to an older, wiser frog who still dealt justice to vampires.

The big problem I had with The Tribe was in the story itself. The movie starts out with an excellent cameo from Tom Savini and some great gore scenes. At this point I found myself getting excited thinking that this would be a great movie. Unfortunately, the high point of the movie arrived before the opening credits had even finished. From that point on, the movie moves in a straight line with no side plots, characters of great interest or scare moments. There were references such as the family sharing the last name Emerson, which is the same as Michael, Sam and Lucy in the original Lost Boys. Strangely enough, no reference is ever made to that fact in the movie however. It would have made for a nice tie in in my opinion. The vampires in The Tribe, although well made up, appear to be more interested in surfing, playing Xbox and stabbing each other as a joke than getting down to vampire business. When the movie sped along to the end, I kept waiting for some twist or plot change and was suprised when the credits started rolling. The storyline was just too generic to carry the Lost Boys banner in the title.

I had my doubts going into watching The Tribe. In the 20 years since the release of the original Lost Boys, the movie has gained a sort of cult following as a horror classic and living up to that reputation would be very difficult for a direct to video title. I will definately rewatch it again in a week or so to see if perhaps my expectations are higher than they should be based on the words Lost Boys in the title. If you are a huge fan of the original or just really curious about Lost Boys the Tribe, go ahead and rent it, otherwise I would recommend passing on it.

Bonus Features:
Digital Copy of Film
Lost Boys: The Tribe- Action Junkies
Edgar Frog’s Guide to Coming Back Alive
Alternate Endings
Remix Music Video of Cry Little Sister
3 Yeah Whatever Music Videos
Both Widescreen and Fullscreen Formats

Lost Boys The Tribe is available now courtesy of Warner Premier

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PLOT

Hancock is the story of a man (Will Smith) that woke up one day in the hospital with a cracked skull and without any memories of his past. His skull cured in miraculous time, and it was discovered he had super strength and the ability to fly. As a superhero, he stops bad guys, but the millions of dollars it costs the city to fix what he destroys in his “heroics”, his alcoholic tendancies, and constant cursing and foul attitude is more than enough to get him hated by nearly everyone in the city. One day he saves a public relations spokesman, Ray Embry (Jason Bateman) from death, and he makes it his goal to change the publics opinion about Hancock. A pretty solid plot, until a one of the characters in the story reveals a plot-changing (for the worse) secret and the whole story crubles apart from there.

ACTING

All the roles were fairly well acted, it was the plot that fell short… very short. Will Smith did a believable job playing his character (John Hancock) as usual. I thought Jae Head (Embry’s son) really stole the scenes he was in because his reactions seem like the type of little boy that would have Spiderman action figures lining his walls, so being a Hancock fan fit him perfectly. Charlize Theron did an alright job as Embry’s wife, but overacted a little at some points. Finally, Jason Batman did a great job as Ray Embry, Hancock’s public relation worker, because he was very believable in the role.

A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND

Hancock was first written in 1996 by Vincent Ngo as Tonight, He Comes and was supposed to be filmed before I Am Legend. The first two cuts of the movie recieved an “R” rating, and they had to edit it until it reached a PG-13 rating,         

so it could reach a broader audience… because it’s much more important to have a chopped up movie that rakes in more money than a GOOD movie that rakes in less, apparently.

 MEMORABLE MOMENTS

**mild spoilers**

The opening scene was a fun little car chase that ended with the front of a car going through the spike of a skyscraper, and had one of the films best lines (to Hancock) “Get out of here, Soulja Boy!”. The very final scene with the “altered” moon was very well done and looked real.

 FORGETTABLE MOMENTS

All the fight scenes were mediocre, as it was pretty much all CGI and very little actual fighting. Hancock playing basketball, and shooting the ball from a huge distance and still getting it in the net looks entirely fake as well. In fact, ALL of the action sequences looked fake. Throwing kids in the air, cracking open the ground and so on… it was practically a cartoon with Will Smith in it.

**end of spoilers**

VERDICT

Please, Hollywood, stop giving us every Journey To The Centre Of The Earth and Hancock you can make simply by letting a popular actor say a few lines in front of a green screen and letting CGI cover the rest. From cutting the R rated movie to a PG-13 one, and having the plot fall apart in the last 40 minutes, it seems like they were trying their best to make me not enjoy the movie. And they succeded.

The movies language, use of alcohol, and violence make it a movie you’re probably going to want to keep your kids away from, so chopping up the movie for a faimly frendly rating was for nothing. Unless you love special effects, the overuse of CGI and fall-apart plot make it a movie you’re probably going to want to keep yourself away from too. I give Hancock a C-, or 1.5 Stars Out Of 5.

You can probably guess the rest of the plot, as pieces fall into place that make Ripley believe that Will is a threat, Ripley tracks him down, a la Enemy of the State, as Will and new girlfriend flee for their lives. As Will struggles to clear his name, he receives help from some unlikely allies, as Ripley grows in power and becomes itself a threat to world peace.

There is a lot of CGI in this movie. Some of it works quite well, some, not so much. In the end though, it just breaks even. Although it does not benefit the movie enough to bring it’s final grade up a notch, I wouldn’t take away style points for the shakey bits either. The camerawork for the film was good and Stuart Gillard did well in the director’s chair.

The acting was standard quality and suffered a bit from some badly scripted dialogue sequence. In the 90’s it would have been described as your typical WB cast, where the top names are young good looking network tv actors of marginal talent. The star of the film isn’t really any of the lead actors, but much like the original Wargames, it is Ripley the super computer.

Unlike the original, The Dead Code cannot feed off of the audiences’ new and unknown feelings toward computers and their capabilities. Also updated is the Middle East tagging in from Russia to play the threatening foreign country. There is a subtle message regarding paranoia and letting the threat of terrorism control the country as they rely on a computer to determine the threats and appropriate levels of collateral damages. I liked the storyline and thought it was a good sequel to the original.

I had a lot of fun watching War Games The Dead Code. Although another entry in the sequel from an old movie trend of this year, The Dead Code manages to rise above the others through a script that ties in the original story while updating the scenario to be relevant to the fears of the world in 2008. If you are a fan of the original and/or Enemy of the State-esque films, pick up War Games The Dead Code. You will enjoy it.

Special Features:
Audio Commentary Track
The Making of Wargames The Dead Code
Production Stills Gallary

Wargames is available courtesy of MGM Home Entertainment beginning Today! July 29th

To Switch for Wargames The Dead Code or to purchase it from Amazon.com, click here or, to win a copy, go here

Alexandra Rover (played by Jodie Foster) is in reality nothing like the adventurer chronicled in her novels, she is agoraphobic and lives in her apartment, surviving on Progresso soup and wishing she could be like her characters. After contacting the Rusoes to get some insider information on volcanoes for her new novel, she is facinated and then worried for Nim. Alexandra discovers she must face her own fears to go to a remote island and try to help Nim. She faces calamities and hardships the entire trip but, bolstered by her alter ego, Alex, keeps going until she reaches her destination.

The movie really boasts an all star cast in the lead roles. Abigail Breslin has come a long way from Little Miss Sunshine days and a much better actress at this point. In a totally different direction from her other roles, Jodie Foster takes on a more comic role in this movie and does quite well at it. Also giving a strong performance in a dual role, Gerard Butler (THIS IS SPARTA!) is good as both Jack Rusoe and the adventurer Alex Rover. Regarding the duel role, I liked that when Nim was reading and fantasizing about the action found in the pages, she pictured her father in the hero role. In the real world there is no greater complement. It was a nice touch.

The animals were CGI much of the time and were a big hit with my guest reviewers,(my son and daughter.) They were especially fond of Selkie the Sea Lion. Whenever he was not on the screen they were looking for him. The CGI looked a little bit cartoonish which kept them laughing when the lizard would open his mouth to make noises and such. It fit the spirit of the movie with all of the fantasy sequences an tried to give the story a touch of Nim’s perspective.

Overall, I am a bit middle of the road in my final score of the movie. It was extremely well acted but the plot was a bit mundane and predictible for adults watching. Although a good, solid family film, I don’t see a lot of rewatchability in it for parents. I would definately recommend it as a rental for family movie night however, as it is something your kids will enjoy, especially if they are fans of Wendy Orr’s book.

Nim’s Island is available courtesy of Fox Home Entertainment beginning on August 5th.

Bonus Features Include:
Commentary with Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin
Commentary with Directors/Writers Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett
Nim’s Friends Featurette
Abigail’s Journey Featurette
Working on Water Featurette
Deleted Scenes

To switch for Nim’s Island or to purchase it from Amazon, click Here

Seeing his research as a waste of time, the foundation that was bankrolling his project pulled his grant, leaving him unable to continue his research. Able to see through skin, Dr. Xavier saves a young girl’s life who, misdiagnosed by her doctor, was undergoing surgery. Facing malpractice charges, Xavier’s life starts spiraling out of control and he flees to a carnival, where, with the assistance of Don Rickels as a sideshow barker, he begins a new life as a “mind reader.” Things go downhill for the fugitive Xavier there and the final scene is an absolutely classic moment.

I love a good Roger Corman movie! Appropriately released on the Cheesy Flicks label, this 1963 B movie is as cheesey as they come! using a psychodelic tunnel effect for Dr. Xavier’s vision, Corman takes us through his life as he slowly slides into madness due to his discovery. My favorite moment is when, at a party, the x-ray kicks in and we are treated to a long montage of people’s bare shoulders and legs as the good Doctor is watching everyone doing the twist sans clothes. Very funny stuff you would have to see to fully appreciate.

The acting is suprisingly good for a B movie. Oscar winning Ray Milland was excellent as Dr. James Xavier. Don Rickles is very much in his element as the con man Crane and in a nice suprise cameo, longtime Corman regular, Dick Miller even makes an appearance.

The dvd is a good transfer, there are no extras but short of a commentary track from Corman, I couldn’t think of any that would be beneficial to the release. I do think it is worth pointing out the cover on this one, I absolutely hated it. It does not do the film transfer justice and looks like a quick photoshop job to me. With a suggested retail price of only $12.95, this is a good inexpensive pick up for the ’60s B movie fans on the site.

Unfortunately, when browsing over the list of new releases, many will overlook this Corman classic in favor of the latest slasher or psychological thriller. What they are missing out on is a classic horror movie from the king of the B movies, Roger Corman. Even if you are not a huge Roger Corman fan, you should consider at least renting this one and checking it out. It is a fun original story that I enjoyed watching again.

To switch for The Man With X-ray Eyes, or to purchase it from Amazon.com, click Here