Coming Soon: A Necessary Death

A few years ago I had the pleasure of reviewing the excellent drama/thriller A Necessary Death, in which a documentarian films the final days of a man who’s decided to kill himself. Writer/director Daniel Stamm would go on to film the far more well known The Last Exorcism, but his gripping debut is just now becoming available on DVD as well as on demand on May 29th. My review.

I interviewed Stamm and cinematographer Zoltan Honti at SXSW 2008, where the film debuted. Both on video and as a (longer) podcast.

Here’s the trailer:

Coming Soon: The Odds

The Odds tells the noir-ish tale of a teen gambler (Tyler Johnston) who, in investigating the apparent suicide of a friend, finds the dark underbelly of his favorite pastime. The film, which had its premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, is the feature debut of Canadian writer/director Simon Davidson, an editor on the most recent incarnation of Flash Gordon. IMDb user reaction to the film is quite good, if drawn from a small sample size, scoring 8.5/10 stars from 45 votes. An even smaller sample of two critics on Rotten Tomatoes are split on the matter.

The Odds arrives tomorrow on DVD.

The Charts: Treasure Buddies on Top

Treasure Buddies, the latest installment in the now seven deep Buddies franchise, is on top of the straight-to-DVD charts as of February 12th. After debuting as the number one DVD release overall in its first week, it then dropped to number four on that measure, just behind A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas. The film has grossed over $11.9 million putting it on track to best the previous entry, Spooky Buddies, which had only made $7.9 million by its second weekend before going on to max out at $15 million.

Coming Soon: Tooth Fairy 2

The strangely inevitable Tooth Fairy 2 sees Larry the Cable Guy donning the wings so famously fluttered by The Rock in the original. The “case worker” role once inhabited by Stephen Merchant is now played by a little girl; and Billy Crystal is now, I don’t know, a flying pig.  Perhaps most strangely inevitable of all is the directorship of Alex Zamm, whose credits include Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Dr. Doolittle: Million Dollar Mutts, Inspector Gadget 2, and the Carrot Top classic Chairman of the Board. He’s next slated to direct Eddie Murphy as the voice of Hong Kong Phooey.

Tooth Fairy 2 arrives March 6th on Blu-ray and DVD.

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

Catherine Zeta-Jones Rebounds to DVD

In The Rebound, Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a recently divorced mom who goes all cougar on a new neighbor (The Hangover‘s Justin Bartha), begging the question if the relationship will turn out to be what the title implies.  Bart Freundlich (The Myth of Fingerprints, Trust the Man) wrote and directed the film, which took a world tour in theaters before arriving on DVD in the States.  John Schneider and Art Garfunkel co-star.

The Rebound arrives February 7th on DVD and Blu-ray.

Check Out a Gunfight from Sinners and Saints

In the upcoming action-thriller Sinners and Saints, Johnny Strong (The Fast and the Furious) plays a cop-on-the-edge investigating a homicide in New Orleans that involves a childhood friend (The Boondock Saints‘ Sean Patrick Flanery). In this clip, Flanery comes up with a pretty extreme solution for a hopeless gunfight.

The film, which drops tomorrow, also stars Kevin Phillips, Costas Mandylor, Bas Rutten, Clifford “Method Man” Smith, Kim Coates, Jolene Blalock, and Tom Berenger.

Cast Your Vote in the Third Annual Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards!

We’re running a little late this year but that just means you’ve had more time to decide: Who will win this year’s Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards? What were the best and brightest direct-to-video titles of 2011? Vote below in your favorite categories by January 31st, 2012.  May the best (or at least in one case worst) movies win!

Ground rules: Eligible movies never had an extended theatrical run in the US (like, a week or more).  Film festivals or road tours don’t count as a theatrical run.  Not limited to DVD.  If the film premiered on iTunes or some other non-theatrical, non-network (e.g. didn’t premiere on SyFy, Cartoon Network, etc.) outlet instead, it’s fair game, just as long as it did it in 2011.  (Movie versions of television series where the movie did NOT appear on television first also count.)  If the film’s only theatrical release was an Oscar-qualifying run, it’s eligible (we call this the Tinker Bell rule).

(No information submitted in this contest will be given, copied, transferred, or sold to any third parties.)

Out Now: A Matter of Size

A Matter of Size is a comedy from Israel about a group of overweight friends that use sumo wrestling as a way to cope with and ultimately accept the way they look. My question is simple: how could you NOT want to watch this? After spending over a year touring film festivals all around the world, it’s finally seeing release on DVD in the United States so those of us who may have missed it before can finally give it a look. Here’s the trailer, complete with subtitles (if you don’t feel like reading them, you can just go stare blankly at a corner or whatever else you normally do):

Across the board, A Matter of Size has gotten rave reviews for its comedic timing and heartwarming story. Alissa Simon of Variety says A Matter of Size has “a finely honed visual sense and superb comic timing” especially in the scenes involving their training. David O’Connell at Screen Fanatic says that the movie is almost impossible to hate.

A Matter of Size is currently out on DVD.

Coming Soon: Chop

From the gorehounds at Bloody Disgusting comes Chop, a darkly comedic riff on the “torture porn” genre made famous by the Saw and Hostel franchises. Directed by first-timer Trent Haaga (screenwriter of Deadgirl), Chop stars Troma vet Will Keenan (Tromeo and Juliet, the excellent Terror Firmer) as Lance Reed, a businessman who is kidnapped by a man known only as The Stranger. The Stranger is seeking retribution for a crime that Lance may or may not have committed, and to pry the information out of him he puts him through a series of trials as well as systematically cuts his limbs off until Lance finally admits to the skeletons in his closet.

Chop has gotten favorable reviews thus far, with Jay Seaver of EFilmCritic giving the movie three stars but also cautions that the film is not for everyone and the “combination of slapstick and sadism is something that many fans may not go for”. U.K. horror site Flick Feast praises the acting and comedic timing of Keenan, as well as the work of Haaga in making the sure the film never feels staged in any way despite its lacking budget.

I’m a huge fan of Will Keenan’s work; in the two Troma films I’ve seen him in, he’s been able to rise above the more ridiculous (okay, it’s Troma, all ridiculous) elements and deliver a really good performance, especially in Terror Firmer. And from what I’ve read about Chop, this may just be his best work yet and will hopefully lead him into some more high-profile roles. I’m definitely excited to check this one out, to see how well sadism and black comedy mix. I’m hoping for it to err on the side of great, but you never know; the fact that the trailer all but sells it as a straight horror movie is a bit telling.

Chop arrives on DVD and Video on Demand December 27, 2011 the same day as Hostel Part III, which opens up an intriguing idea for a double feature.

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