Animals (DVD Review) - Artsploitation Films

Spain/2012
Directed By: Marcal Fores
Written By: Marcal Fores, Enric Pardo, Aintza Serra
Starring: Oriol Pla, Augustus Prew, Dimitri Leonidas
Color/94 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1

 The Film
Pol is a high school student with a couple of very close friends, and his best friend a talking stuffed bear that he has had since childhood. His bear plays drums in his band and is his closest companion. Of course the bear can only be heard by Pol, who is struggling with the growing feelings of lust and love, for a couple of very different classmates, the monotony of daily school life and an older brother who thinks little of him. Pol's friend Laia is obviously in love with him but Pol's feelings stretch beyond her and perhaps beyond women in general. After a decision to sever the ties with his best friend, Pol's world and experiences hit new extremes which the adolescent finds difficult to deal with without his best friend.

ANIMALS is a coming-of-age film but it cannot be summed up that simply. It is far greater than the sum of its parts. This is the story of growing up, learning the gravity and consequences of every choice you make and learning to stay true to yourself while holding the people you love closer and not letting go. And that growing up doesn't mean you have to lose yourself This movie is smart, funny, insightful and features some beautiful images. There is a strong resemblance to the Marky Mark film Ted here, and it isn't too far away from that, just without he weed and fart jokes. Really though, ANIMALS transcends the high school age of its cast, who are simply fantastic in their roles from top to bottom, and will resonate with viewers of all ages as something that you can really latch on to and take something away from. This is a great film.

The Audio & Video
Artsploitation Films delivers the debut of ANIMALS  to DVD with a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that looks good. Daytime scenes are strong with good color reproduction, clean picture and allowing the photography to shine while night time and darker scenes suffer from a bit of blocking up and weaker black levels as previous releases from this label have. It isn't that big of a deal and the scenes in question still look decent. The Spanish (and partially English) 5.1 audio track sounds great and features English subtitles. There are no hiccups or annoyances to speak of. 

The Extras
-Audio Commentary with director Marcal Fores and Travis Crawford
-"Making Of" Featurette 
-The Bear Truth: A Short Film
-Animals: A Short Film
-Beautiful 12 page booklet featuring an interview with the director
-Official trailer for ANIMALS
-Other Artsploitation trailers
-Reversible cover art 

The Bottom Line 
Artsploitation Films has yet to release a film that I haven't liked. It is getting to the point where I can safely predict that I'll enjoy whatever they put out for me to watch. Their DVDs are always packed with interesting and cool special features and the reversible covers are a great touch. This is a top notch product from a company getting it right.

ANIMALS is available HERE

The Twilight Zone Complete Series - RLJ / Image Entertainment

Few television series have had the impact and staying power that came from a little Sci-Fi series in 1959 known as THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Hosted and narrated by it's own creator, Rod Serling, the series ran for 5 seasons until 1964, totaling 156 episodes, eventually spawning a re-boot in 1985 which ran for 2 seasons and another in 2002 which ran for a single season. In 1983 there was even a feature film simply titled Twilight Zone: The Movie. The series has been referenced and parodied by dozens, perhaps hundreds of other television series and films over the years. The impact the series has had on pop culture would be hard to measure, but it goes without saying that it is great.

The series brought us into future worlds and alien worlds, we got to see robots and martians, the supernatural and doomsday, the mad and the macabre. THE TWILIGHT ZONE featured many current stars and future stars that hadn't become household names including but certainly not limited to Buster Keaton, Charles Bronson, Dennis Hopper, Carol Burnett, Martin Landau, Ron Howard, Elizabeth Montgomery and many more. The list truly goes on and on. Each episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE brought us something new, something exciting, the anthology format made it easy to follow as each week was separate from every other episode.

 Image and RLJ Entertainment provided me with their DVD release of season 1 to preview and spread the word to all you loyal followers on their new release of each season and the complete series sets. I must say that they did an excellent job with these new discs. The picture and sound quality of each of the 36 episodes from season 1 were on point. The source material were in great condition and the digital transfer did them justice. Prints are clean without wiping away detail and digitalizing everything. It looks like we're watching a pristine presentation of the series in its original syndication. The audio is also excellent with a clean track free of any annoying Rice Krispies (snap, crackle, pop).

THE TWILIGHT ZONE isn't going anywhere anytime soon, it will remain an entertaining and important series for decades to come and the new box set from RLJ/IMAGE make sure viewers have an opportunity to add this classic series to their collection.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMPLETE SERIES was released on November 19th and is available HERE

Schoolgirl Report Volume 11 (DVD Review) - Impulse Pictures

Germany/1977
Directed By: Erns Hofbauer
Written By: Gunther Heller
Starring: Helga Anders, Sandra Atia, Ulrich Beiger
Color/80 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE

The Film
Few film series reach 11 entries, normally the steam, creativity and profitability is long gone and dried up before we get to double digit entries in a franchise. The simple, cheap and profitable idea of the SCHOOLGIRL REPORT series made making more and more of these sexploitation films an easy decision. 

Subtitled TRYING BEATS STUDYING, SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 11 is yet another series of stories of young women and their sexual encounters. This entry features a struggling student who finds her confidence and academic success after luring the straight-A student to bed. That is until he moves on to another girl. And how about the young blond who is sexually assaulted by her tutor? Or is he seduced by the young girl? It is up to the police to decide who's story is true. Then there are the young boys who have sex in an old barn with more experienced girls and it ends up in a hilarious mess that literally brings the roof down. And those are just the beginning of the fun that SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 11 brings us!

After almost a dozen entries you may think that seeing attractive girls romp around naked while dealing with the drama that their specific story deals with but you'd be wrong. The SCHOOLGIRL REPORT films are quick moving films that are like quick flashes of sexy lightning. What does that mean, you ask? I really don't know but it sounded good. These films are a lot of fun to watch, and they manage to balance out effective comedy and sexy girls and it always equals a good time even if this entry wasn't quite as good as previous SGR chapters.


The Audio & Video
The Impulse Pictures imprint of Synapse Films delivers SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 11 on DVD with an anamorphic widescreen transfer in the films OAR or 1.66:1. The transfer looks good with natural skin tones which is probably the most important thing about the film's look. There isn't a ton of color in the film's palette but what is there also looks good. A bit of dirt and print damage can be found but we are talking about sexploitation films from the 70s. The lone soundtrack option is a 2.0 track in the film's native German with optional English subtitles, which are newly translated. The track is nothing special but it is clean and free of hiss, crackling or otherwise annoying background noise. 

 

The Extras
Bare bones. 

 
The Bottom Line
The series quality may be taking a bit of a dip at this point, we'll have to wait until we see the release of parts 12 and 13 to really say, but there is still plenty of exploitative fun with the girls here to please previous fans of the series. If you've never seen a SCHOOLGIRL REPORT film I'd suggest an earlier one to see if you're into it but returning viewers will gladly find a spot on their shelf for this disc.

SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 11: TRYING BEATS STUDYING is available HERE

The 7th Day (2012)

Allan is a quiet man, a loner who works as a dish washer at a local bar, he hates his job, his loud and annoying neighbor, and his co-workers who give him shit. He does have a soft spot for the cute waitress at the bar named Denise who treats him with kindness. Oh, and Allan also has a love for murder that dates back to his childhood.

Allan gets urges to kill every so often, but lately these urges have become stronger and much more frequent. He picks and chooses his victims, often using some sort of knife to kill them off. His madness has been getting worse as he has now started experimenting with rape and necrophilia. He believes he will change the world, even to the point that he is being followed around by an interviewer documenting his life. His delusions are getting worse and worse over the last week and on the seventh day he realizes who he is and what he does and nobody can escape that when he select them.

THE 7TH DAY is an independent horror film made by a team of people from the Baltimore area. Directed by Jason M. Koch, who has an ever growing resume of special effects work with the Aftermath FX team (who worked on this film), the film is a simplistic horror film that works in its minimalism. The cast does a good job being believable in their roles, with Mark S. Sanders being very good in the lead role. Aftermath FX provides plenty of gore that is just dripping with nastiness. They're a team that does excellent work. THE 7TH DAY is a low budget, simple and effective. It isn't perfect but it is definitely shows that the up-and-coming group responsible for this movie have a bright future ahead of them.

7/10

Shoot The Sun Down (Blu-ray Review) - Kino Lorber

USA/1978
Directed By: David Leeds
Written By: David Leeds
Starring: Christopher Walken, Margot Kidder, Geoffrey Lewis
Color/99 Minutes/Not Rated
Region A

The Film
Christopher Walken stars as Rainbow, an ex-Confederate soldier who left the war due to being ordered to slaughter indians. Now Rainbow spends his time as a bounty hunter, making money taking in wanted criminals dead or alive. He encounters a young woman (Margot Kidder) who is trying to get home to New Orleans from their current location in Santa Fe. She tells Rainbow a story that he doesn't believe, trying to get him to escort her through the dangerous territories back to her home. All the while a nasty man (Geoffrey Lewis) is on the loose, hunting Montezuma's gold and taking scalps along the way. 

The nasty man, gets a hold of the woman, who was sold into servanthood as a young girl, and discovers some golden treasure. Rainbow and some of his Native American friends team up to take down the scalphunters and rescue the damsel in distress. 

SHOOT THE SUN DOWN is, if anything, an uneven film. Made by the time the Euro Western cycle had practically been dead for a few years, this American production, the only credit for writer/director David Leeds toes the line between a piece of avant garde filmmaking ripe with social commentary and a rather dull western that feels like we've been-there-done-that and it was better before. David Leeds is capable as director, but his writing lacks the punch and feeling of urgency that the powerful and climactic moments need to get the audience to feel their full potential. 

The cast is decent. I'd say nobody really drops the ball but before watching the film I found it difficult to picture Christopher Walken as some sort of gunslinging old west badass and after watching the film he did little to change my mind. I think Walken is a good actor, don't get me wrong, but he just doesn't pull off a convincing western character and that is a major detractor for me as he is the lead and main protagonist.  The film features a pretty solid spaghetti western-esque score that is one of the highlights of the film. There is also enough action and fighting to keep things fun. 

The Audio & Video
The anamorphic widescreen transfer maintains the film's original Scope aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and Kino Lorber has done a decent job with the video side of things. As always with Kino they haven't done much in the way of cleaning up the print, there is a bit of white speckling throughout the duration. This is nothing to get annoyed over, it only reminds us that we are watching a film. There are some other instances of dirt, scratches and very minor print damage but nothing major at all. The quality of the transfer is generally good, flesh tones look nice and there is no edge enhancement or digital fuckery to be found. Detail levels are a mixed bag as sometimes they're quite strong and other times the image is soft and muddy. I find this to be more of the source material than anything Kino has done wrong. 

From an audio standpoint SHOOT THE SUN DOWN is great. The 2.0 track is in English and sounds pretty damn good. There is no background noise, and overall there's nothing to complain about the sound quality or audio mix. There are no subtitles available.  

The Extras 
Special features include an alternate opening title sequence with an original song by Kinky Friedman. It is nice to have but I prefer it the standard way. There is also a theatrical trailer.

The Bottom Line
While SHOOT THE SUN DOWN is by no means an essential western, it is decent and filled with familiar names in the cast. Kino did a nice job with the transfer and overall disc presentation so fans of the genre will find enough here to be pleased about. I'd love to see Kino tackle some spaghetti western films as they've shown they're capable of doing solid work within the western genre. 

SHOOT THE SUN DOWN is available HERE

Oui, Girls (DVD Review) - Impulse Pictures

USA/1982
Directed By: Fred J. Lincoln
Written By:  Fred J. Lincoln
Starring: Anna Ventura, Lisa De Leeuw, Sharon Kane
Color/81 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1

The Film
Ever want to see a guy jerk off just feet away from a woman changing a tire? Ever want to see a slow-mo cumshot that would make any modern day action film director envious? How about a little murder investigation with your sex? Well you've come to the right place. Barbara and Nick go to the Circle S swingers ranch to investigate a murder. While there the pair sleeps around with the other guests trying to gain information to solve the mystery all the while becoming closer than ever before with each other.



OUI, GIRLS is a pretty solid little porno. The movie is more decently acted than almost any other vintage porno I've seen. This could be due to the fact that there is a cast member that looks like Jeffrey Jones from Beetlejuice and Ferris Bueller's Day Off and one that resembles Pamela Springsteen from Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3... not that there was any sort of award winning acting in those slashers. And while the movie certainly focuses more on the sex than the story (and who really would blame them) they got the idea right, at least for this format of film. The sex scenes are certainly more interesting than the average skin flick and it features some pretty funny moments too. 

The Audio & Video
Impulse Pictures brings OUI, GIRLS to DVD with an anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 widescreen transfer that looks pretty good after you get by the rough opening credits. The print isn't perfect but for an early 80s porno it has an attractive and natural looking transfer. The audio is good as well, with just a bit of background noise. The surprisingly catchy and well written theme song might even get stuck in your head. 

The Extras
 Bare bones.

The Bottom Line 
OUI, GIRLS is one of the better vintage porn titles I've reviewed this year and the DVD deserves a place on your shelf (or in the box under your bed) if you're into these movies.  

OUI, GIRLS is available HERE

The Blue Hour Triple Feature (DVD Review) - Vinegar Syndrome

USA/1971, 1965, 1969
Directed By: Sergei Goncharoff, Albert T. Viola, Marty Rackum
Written By:
Starring: Edward Blessington, Anne Chapman, Mary Beth Hughes
Color and B&W/220 Minutes/Not Rated

The Films
THE BLUE HOUR is a visually striking, oddly entertaining and just a bit out there story of a young girl with a clouded past who finds herself the victim of the seedy and strange side of Los Angeles. The main attraction of this set is, not surprisingly, the best film included from its writing to its direction and photography. The film is full of as much art house as it is sexploitation and deserves to be discovered and respected.

In ONE NAKED NIGHT a small town girl move to New York City to escape the prying eyes of small town life and to truly experience life. She quickly gets into the modeling community with the help of her friend and ends up in bed with her photographer after a night on the town with him. Her relationships begin to fall apart and she realizes that she moved to the city to escape the judgement from her old life but now must face the mirror and judge herself.

ONE NAKED NIGHT is a pretty decent little movie. The main girl is a likable girl, innocent and curious who finds out that not everything in life works out the way you planned and there will be plenty of setbacks that you have to deal with when trying to find yourself. I enjoyed this one a good bit.

If you like nude hippie girls enjoying their sexuality and freedom then THREE IN A TOWEL is for you. That really is all it is, with some Shakespeare narration over top. This movie is a rare one from what I can tell as I've been able to find very little information about it on the internet. This is a little known piece of hippie film culture that, while very simple, displays a large part in the free spirit nature of the 1960s.

The Audio & Video

THE BLUE HOUR looks very good, in its anamorphic widescreen transfer which does justice to the film's striking images. Colors are strong and bright without being over saturated and there is only a sparse amount of print damage. The audio is also strong with a bit of background noise in limited areas being the only complaint. ONE NAKED NIGHT looks very good overall. The black and white cinematography benefits from a clean print that has been kept in good condition over the years. Black levels are deep and whites never get too hot. The night time New York City streets look especially beautiful in this presentation. The audio track is just as crisp and clean as the picture with a well mixed track and no background noise to speak of. I don't think Vinegar Syndrome could have done better without it being on Blu-ray.

THREE IN A TOWEL is a mixed bag. At times the full frame transfer look reasonably good with natural skin tones and a clean print but it often goes right into a scene that is scratchy and a bit washed out. Dark scenes suffer from poor lighting and cinematography so they look green and blocky. The audio is fine, with background whirling and crackling present but not enough to become a real annoyance. 

The Extras
The lone extra is an original theatrical trailer for THREE IN A TOWEL

The Bottom Line
While the films vary in quality as they do on most multi-feature sets such as this, this is a strong offering from Vinegar Syndrome that will please fans of the label and of sexploitation films.

THE BLUE HOUR triple feature is available HERE