Tekken Tops the 3rd Annual Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards

Video game adaptation Tekken has won Best Picture in the 3rd Annual Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards, also grabbing the best Sci-Fi/Fantasy award. Other winners include Tamer Hassan who won best actor for his performance in Bonded by Blood, which also took Best Director for helmer Sacha Bennett. Romola Garai won Best Actress for her work in Glorious 39. Ballistica took both Worst Picture and Title-S0-Bad-It’s Good kudos.

Here’s the full list:

Best Picture: Tekken

Best Actor: Tamer Hassan, Bonded by Blood

Best Actress: Romola Garai, Glorious 39

Best Director: Sacha Bennett, Bonded by Blood

Worst Picture: Ballistica

Best Comedy: A Matter of Size

Best Horror: Hostel: Part III

Best Action/Thriller: The Man From Nowhere

Best Family Film: Barbie: Princess Charm School

Best Documentary: Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

Best Sci Fi/Fantasy: Tekken

Title-So-Bad-It’s-Good: Ballistica

Upcoming Release Calendar Added!

For years now (has it been that long?) you’ve been clamoring (okay, asking politely) for an upcoming release calendar.  We’ve finally got one.  From here on out, you’ll be able to find it in our top nav bar, right next to “Reviews”.  It’s only got a few months so far, but we’ll add more as we go.  Check it out!  (And thanks for your patience.)

In Case Atlas Shrugged Wasn’t Enough…

Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words is a documentary by John Little and Robert Anderson about the writer/philosopher’s life narrated by the objectivist herself.  Released earlier this month, it comes just in time for the release of the self-distributed adaptation of Atlas Shrugged.  Check out the trailer below:

Out Now: The Last Continent

Donald Sutherland narrates The Last Continent, director Jean Lemire’s documentary about a group of researchers who voyage to Antarctica and essentially strand themselves there for 430 days to explore the changing ecosystem.  Lemire is no stranger to nature docs or cold climes, having directed The White Planet, Memories of Earth, and The Last Frontier over the past 12 years.  While getting mixed reviews from critics, the film is tracking a favorable 6.7/10 stars on IMDb with 155 votes counted.

The Last Continent is available now on DVD and Blu-ray.

Now on VOD: On the Shoulders of Giants

On the Shoulders of Giants chronicles the rise of the first all-African American pro-basektball team to win a national championship, the Harlem Renaissance.  The documentary comes to us from director Deborah Morales and co-writers Anna Waterhouse and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who literally wrote the book on the subject, and includes talking heads Charles Barkley, Grant Hill, Maya Angelou, Cornel West, Samuel L. Jackson, Wytnon Marsalis, and Spike Lee.  What few reviews have surfaced are sparkling, including raves from Justin Lowe at The Hollywood Reporter and Leonard Maltin at Indiewire.

On the Shoulders of Giants is available now on video-on-demand from Cox, Comcast, and Time Warner cable until March 31st.  No word yet on DVD release.

Check out the trailer.

Unthinkable Wins the 2010 Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards

Terrorism thriller Unthinkable has taken the crown in the 2nd Annual Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards, grabbing Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Action/Thriller. This year’s winners were spread among a variety of films, unlike the inaugural awards, which were dominated by horror anthology Trick ‘r Treat.

Donnie Yen took home the prize for Best Actor as the lead in Ip Man while Natasha Lyonne won for Best Actress for the horror satire All About Evil, which also won Best Comedy. The Worst Picture kudo went to Corey Feldman’s other horror flick this year, Terror Inside.

The Monica Bellucci/Sophie Marceau headlined Don’t Look Back won for Best Horror while on the other end of the spectrum, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue won for Best Family Film, an award won by its predecessor, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, last year.

Best Documentary went to Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, which also won the top prize at the Reaper Awards. DC Comics’ animated Crisis on Two Earths won for Best Sci Fi/Fantasy.

While a number of Title-So-Bad-It’s-Awesome votes went to Sharktopus, it turns out that film premiered originally on television, and isn’t even out on DVD just yet, so that award went to the latest installment in the series that won last year, Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus.

Here is the full list of winners:

Best Picture: Unthinkable

Best Actor: Donnie Yen, Ip Man

Best Actress: Natasha Lyonne, All About Evil

Best Director: Gregor Jordan, Unthinkable

Worst Picture: Terror Inside

Best Comedy: All About Evil

Best Horror: Don’t Look Back

Best Action/Thriller: Unthinkable

Best Family Film: Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue

Best Documentary: Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

Best Sci Fi/Fantasy: Crisis on Two Earths

Title-So-Bad-It’s-Good: Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus

Liquid Vinyl Reviews: “Rambling, evocative.”

Several (mostly positive) reviews are in for house music doc Liquid Vinyl.  Variety’s Joe Leydon declares it “rambling” but “evocative,” calling for “more music and fewer words” while Home Media Magazine’s Billy Gil says the film, “does a fine job of making viewers feel like they were there in the original scene.”  The Chicago Reader’s Peter Margasak is less impressed, opining that the film “offers nothing new” and is guilty of “trafficking in threadbare cliches.”

Working 9 to 5, Naked

Jens Hoffman’s documentary about the adult entertainment industry, 9 to 5: Days in Porn, is out now.  Doc focuses on several individuals and their daily lives in the porn industry including Sasha Grey and includes interviews with the likes of Nina Hartley.  This is the second documentary about adult entertainment in as many months.  Naked Ambition, which had a short theatrical run, came out on DVD in April.

Watch the NSFW trailer.

How Much Do You Love Freddy? Four Hours’ Worth?

The good folks at Dread Central have posted an interview with directors Daniel Farrands and Andrew Kasch, and writer Thommy Hutson, whose doc, Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, arrives this week.  The four hour opus tracks the epic journey of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise interviewing virtually everyone involved.  Farrands speaks to the extraordinary run time by referencing one of his earlier works, which focuses on a different horror series:

“We knew that fans were disappointed with His Name Was Jason – as was I, being the director. It just didn’t play. We didn’t want to shortchange the running time. We really put everything into this one to make it as complete and fulfilling to fans. There wasn’t a stone we left unturned.”

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy is out now.

I Need That Record!: The Straight2DVD Review

Granted, as documentary topics go, the demise of a small segment of retail stores may not have the gravity of 9-11, the economic crash, health care, or the food we eat. But the seeming end of independently owned record stores is approached with grave seriousness in the new documentary I Need That Record!: The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store—and with good reason.

To the customers and store owners interviewed onscreen, these stores were more than just a place to buy albums and CDs; they were gathering places where folks could discuss the songs that moved them, make recommendations, and just plain geek out on music. They were a way of life that is celebrated—and mourned—in this film.

My first impression was that writer/director/editor Brendan Toller would place the blame for the death of indie record stores squarely on Internet file sharing. And while that is covered, Toller presents a well-researched variety of factors that contributed to their demise, including record company greed, the influx of big-box stores, and corporate influence on rock radio.

I Need That Record is, overall, an intelligently done, well-crafted doc that wears its biases firmly on its sleeve (big business bad/indie merchants good). Along the way, Toller draws smart commentary from such music notables as critic/Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz, Minutemen bassist Mike Watts, and Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore, along with many store owners who’ve closed their stores recently or are struggling to stay in business.

The only false notes here are the occasional attempts at comedy, such as the skit in which an obnoxious store clerk sells “s—-y records in a s—-y store”, or the clumsy animated bits that try to emulate the cut-and-paste style of Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam and South Park. But overall, this is a captivating, crisply edited, at times even moving look at a dying breed., a film that offers a small glimmer of hope—the quiet but encouraging re-emergence of vinyl—at the end of its dark journey.

I Need That Record! is available now in record stores and everywhere else on July 27th.

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