Friday, September 01, 2006

DVD Review: Night Watch


This movie is brilliant! The first in a trilogy, Night Watch tells the tale of a world in which vampires and witches and other nasties walk among us. Centuries before, the battle between the forces of light and the forces of dark raged on and eventually came to a standstill. A pact was formed to lend balance to the land. Thus the Night Watch and the Day Watch were formed. The Night Watch is a group of people, who have supernatural powers, that watch over the legions of the dark and ensure they don't get too out of control. They even issue licenses for the dark ones to legally do their bad deeds. The dark ones are fed up with the control issues and some act out. Every time an Other is found, the two forces each try to get him to join their faction. This synopsis doesn't do this movie justice. This is a kick-ass, visually beautiful film with an engaging storyline. It's hard to believe this Russian filmed epic was made for about 4 million dollars. If it was made in America, it would have cost at least 100 million to get these kinds of visuals. I don't know why, I just know it doesn't make sense. Expertly directed, this was a joy to watch, and now I can't wait for the sequel called Day Watch. My only beef is, I wish the subtitles were below the picture, in the black letterbox frame. With the words in the picture, it was a little hard to get used to, but eventually you enter the movie and you forget about it. This is another disc that really sounds as good as it looks. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. Night Watch gets ***** out of *****.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

DVD Review: Zombie Honeymoon


I thought this was supposed to be a comedy, but it wasn't. It was a heartfelt tragic story of newlyweds and their horrific honeymoon at the Jersey shore. Yeah, honeymooning at the Jersey shore is tragic and horrific, but that's not the worst of it. After spending a blissful day of loving and laughing, our doomed pair head to the beach for a bit of surf and relaxation, with a little infection thrown in. After a chance encounter at the beach, Danny is pronounced dead at the hospital, only to come back to life on his own later. Thinking they narrowly missed a disaster, the couple continue to love life and plan to escape to Portugal. There's only one problem. Danny's not the same since he came back to life. He's found his once vegetarian lifestyle to be slowing him down. Now, he's a meat man, as in flesh, yo! What's a loving wife to do? This movie tugs at the heartstrings like no other zombie flick I've seen. Brilliantly acted and directed, this is a very good movie. Plus, it has it's share of gore for being such a love story! This is truly an original and fresh view of the undead, and those who love them. It has a great soundtrack to boot! This honeymoon suite gets ****1/2 out of *****.