Home Media Magazine - October 21-27, 2007 - (Page 20)

REVIEWS I STIR OF ECHOES 2: THE HOMECOMING Prebook 10/24; Street 11/20 Lionsgate, Horror, $26.98 DVD, ‘R’ for strong violent content, disturbing images and language. Stars Rob Lowe, Marnie McPhail, Katya Gardner, Zachary Bennet, Ben Lewis. www.homemediamagazine.com encing disturbing flashbacks related to that ill-fated day in Iraq, including visions of ghosts that seem to be trying to communicate with him. As Ted tries to make sense of the hallucinations without losing his mind, his family is falling apart around him, especially Max, whose and he doesn’t have to look far to find them. Stir of Echoes 2 is far from a continuation of the original 1999 film starring Kevin Bacon. Instead, the Sci Fi Channel original movie expands on the concept of a person being contacted from beyond to help solve a murder that would have otherwise gone undetected. S I THE TRIPPER Street 10/23 Fox, Horror, B.O. $0.02 million, $27.98 DVD, Unrated. Stars Thomas Jane, Jason Mewes, Lukas Haas, Jaime King, Paul Reubens, David Arquette. tir of Echoes 2 skillfully weaves together a haunting supernatural thriller with the horrific repercussions of war. The made-for-TV sequel opens in current-day Iraq as a U.S. Army unit led by Capt. Ted Cogan I f you are at all politically minded (and know your U.S. history), the premise of The Tripper is sure to make you chuckle. A group of contemporary hippies go to the Redwoods for a weekend music festival — free love, rock ‘n’ roll and lots of drugs — only to end up stalked and killed by a serial killer impersonating Ronald Reagan. And if the idea makes you giggle, then the execution by first-time director David Arquette will have you laughing out loud. I enjoy a funny horror movie, and although the cheesy special effects and ironic storyline make it almost impossible for the film to be truly scary, that doesn’t detract from the entertainment value. The political satire is continued throughout the film and the killings. Two particularly drugged-out hippies are killed while making love in a van, and are discovered with Reagan’s famous antidrug slogan “Just Say No!” written in blood on their twisted bod- ies. Balthazar Getty (“Brothers & Sisters”) has my favorite line in the entire movie: As he is about to be slain by a suit-wearing, axe-wielding Reagan he yells, “But I’m a Republican!” This does not save him. The “trickle-down effect” jokes abound, and the best lines are oft delivered by Thomas Jane (The Punisher), who plays the beleaguered Sheriff Buzz Hall. The film also boasts notable performances by Jaime King (Sin City), Jason Mewes (Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), Paul Reubens (PeeWee Herman himself) and appearances by both David and Courtney Cox Arquette. The DVD special features are the general staples we have come to expect. There is a commentary option with Arquette, a “Behind the Spleens” featurette, deleted scenes, a blooper reel, etc. Also included is the featurette “The Tripper presidential campaign tour” which follows David Arquette across the country as he promotes the film at festivals. Possibly the most entertaining bonus feature is the short about one of the production assistants finding a severed finger in the woods while shooting. Fact or fiction? Who knows, but it’s a good bonus to a funny horror movie. — Kyra Kudick (Lowe) erroneously opens fire on a van of innocent people that fails to stop at a roadblock. The gunfire brings the van to a halt in a violent explosion, which sparks a full-scale insurgent attack that injures Cogan and kills another soldier who happens to be a close friend. By the time Ted returns home to his friends and family — wife Molly (McPhail) and son Max (Lewis) — he already is experi- destructive behavior and increasing aggression continue to spiral out of control. Driven to the brink of insanity, Ted’s only salvation is to delve into the world of the paranormal to discern why the dead are singling him out. But the more he uncovers, the more he realizes that the spirits aren’t after him. They’re actually leading Ted directly to the perpetrators of a heinous crime, The sequel is just as frightening as the original and a lot more gruesome. Lowe is always a solid lead actor and gets great support from McPhail, Lewis and the rest of the cast. The film also manages to include a bold, provocative undertone about not only the war in Iraq, but also the perception of Arab-Americans living in the United States. — Matt Miller I STUDY HELL Street 10/30 MTI, Horror, $24.95 DVD, ‘R’ for violence and language. Stars Steve McDougall, Lindsay Dell, Brian Austin Jr., Shaylyn Doyle, Michael Henry, Ryan Fisher. R 20 ecipe for a hit: Take two of the most popular films of the 1980s and adapt the plot to the style of choice. This is basically the concept of Study Hell. Producer/director Mark McNabb borrows elements from Rambo, mixes them up with the premise of The Breakfast Club, and the result somehow evolves into another genre that became popular during the same era: the teen slasher film. McDougall stars as disturbed veteran Don Keller, a high-school teacher haunted by the memories of a bloody incident during combat in which most of his platoon was wiped out under mysterious circumstances. Keller now works in a school where a fellow member of his pla- toon is the custodian, and another one of their brothers-in-arms had been a teacher until he was, perhaps wrongly, convicted of the mass killing of a squad of cheerleaders. With flashbacks of the war becoming more frequent and the indelible image of the school’s recently murdered students plaguing him, Keller’s grip on sanity hits a breaking point just as his poor performance as a teacher lands him in the undesirable position of monitoring an evening session of detention for a quintet of naughty teenagers. It is here where the “homage” to John Hughes becomes blatant, even paraphrasing lines directly from the classic film. Oddly enough, in the end, from a commercial perspective, McNabb seems to know what he is doing and where he is going with his film in a way that Hughes did not. After all, there really is only one Breakfast Club, but there are scores and scores of films about teens being stalked by psychotic killers. — David Greenberg Home Media Magazine October 21–27, 2007 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - October 21-27, 2007

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