Home Media Magazine - October 7-13, 2007 - (Page 26) NEW ON DVD from FIRST RUN FEATURES “LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FUNNY! AN INDISPENSABLE LOOK AT THE TWISTED MARRIAGE OF MEDIA & POLITICS. VOTE FEED!” –Rolling Stone REVIEWS I PLANET TERROR Street 10/16 Genius/Weinstein, Action, B.O. $25 million (as part of Grindhouse), $29.95 DVD, Unrated. Stars Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Marley Shelton, Josh Brolin, Bruce Willis, Stacy Ferguson. Edited by John Latchem P Using footage shot during the primaries and intercepted satellite feeds of unsuspecting candidates, FEED presents the wild, wacky world of American politics. Watch Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, Jerry Brown snort nose inhalers, Ross Perot talk dirty, Pat Buchanan get mad, and Bill Clinton sidestep Gennifer Flowers! SRP: $24.95 • 76 minutes • color • 1992 • Catalog #: FRF 912891D lanet Terror is a lot of fun, an hour and a half of blood and guts, topped off by the utterly preposterous and iconic image of Rose McGowan with a machine gun for a leg. Welcome to exploitation, Robert Rodriguez style. And style is the key word here. The screen scratches and pops in sync with the action, mirroring the mood of the film and paying perfect homage to the ‘B’ movies of the 1970s. The film is the antithesis of the other half of the Grindhouse double feature, Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. Where Death Proof is plodding and methodical, Planet Terror is hyper and gleefully absurd. Rodriguez barely gives the audience time to breath as he revels in the gory excess of a story about a literal army of flesh-eating zombies. The DVD has some great bonus features about the special effects, detailing how they were used mostly to make the film look cheaper. After greenscreen-heavy projects such as Sin City and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Rodriguez’s usual crew was happy to get back to doing some real stunts for a change. Most interesting is a featurette about Rodriguez casting his son Rebel in a key role. Leave it to Rodriguez to kill off his own son in a movie, but even he didn’t have the heart to tell the kid that. So he filmed a whole sequence of alternate scenes that follow Rebel through the end of the story. Don’t think this completes the Grindhouse experience on DVD. In one of the special features, Rodriguez confirms a two-DVD set of the theatrical version of Grindhouse is on the way. Triple-dip, anyone? — John Latchem Both Titles Prebook: 10/16 • Street: 11/20 I ICE SPIDERS Street 10/16 Sony Pictures, Sci-Fi, $24.96 DVD, NR. Stars David Millbern, Vanessa Williams, Patrick Muldoon, Thomas Calabro, Stephen J. Cannell. “AN EXCELLENT RESOURCE AND VALUABLE DOCUMENT.” -The Bulletin of the History of Medicine S Elisabeth Kübler-Ross devoted her life to death and dying and achieved world fame in the process. She de-stigmatized dying and drew attention to the treatment of the terminally ill. This remarkably intimate film was made when Kübler-Ross lived secluded in the desert, awaiting her own death - on the verge of the transition she researched so passionately. SRP: $24.95 • 98 minutes • color • Catalog #: FRF 912907D Contact Us at 800-229-8575 or email sales@firstrunfeatures.com ci-Fi Channel has been producing some arresting original movies lately, and Ice Spiders is no exception. Much like Eight Legged Freaks, this campy, yet strangely charming, movie relies on a fast-paced story and some exceptional CGI to deliver a chilling good time. The plot of Ice Spiders unfolds at a secluded ski resort where a group of young Olympic hopefuls have come to train in peace. Before the team gets a chance to settle in, the tranquility of the mountain is shattered when gigantic spiders with insatiable appetites escape from a nearby lab and come looking to prey on the locals. As the snow turns red with blood, and leftover body parts pile up, only two people are brave enough to intervene: Dash Dashiell (Muldoon), a washed-up skiing legend who works as a ski instructor at the resort, and Dr. Summers (Williams), who was one of the people responsible for creating the genetically altered arachnids. Standing in their way is a crazed professor and gung-ho Capt. Baker (Calabro), who keeps trying unsuccessfully to use his paramilitary unit to capture the spiders alive so they don’t lose funding for their topsecret program, which has been breeding these mutant spiders to produce silk webbing for covert military purposes. As the spiders continue to wreak havoc on the mountaintop resort, it’s up to Dash and Dr. Summers to devise an extermination plan quickly before everyone barricaded in the lodge is torn apart by the vicious spiders. The movie’s mix of awesome ski footage and special effects, including showing things from the spiders’ point of view, creates a unique and highly entertaining sci-fi adventure. The filmmakers should be commended for adding a fresh spin to an otherwise tired story. Plus, it’s hard to dislike a movie about giant man-eating spiders that stars a perfectly cast trio of lively actors from “Melrose Place” (Muldoon, Williams and Calabro). I BURT LANCASTER: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION Street 10/23 Warner, Drama, $49.92 five-DVD set, Single titles $19.97 each, NR. ith a superb body, a result of being a professional acrobat in his youth, and ruggedly handsome leading-man looks, Burt Lancaster was one of Hollywood’s most popular and durable stars. This collection shows his acting range from the South Pacific adventure films His Majesty O’Keefe, South Sea Woman, to the entertaining period actioner The Flame and The Arrow. But it’s Jim Thorpe — All American that combines Lancaster’s excellent acting and athletic skills, which demonstrate why he was a unique talent. — Matt Miller The real life story of a Native Amer- W 26 Home Media Magazine October 7–13, 2007
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