Ca$h (2010)

Movie: 2.5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 1/5
Overall: 3/5

"This is Thor, Before Thor?"

I will say this, Chris Hemsworth has came a long way from his earlier films in comparison to how great his role is as Thor. I managed to get this Blu-ray off of Grooves Inc for $10 and boy was I in for a surprise. Sean Bean plays Kubic, a man who has traveled from England to Chicago to see his imprisoned brother (also Sean Bean). His brother informed him that he threw his heist money out the window while being chased by the police.

The suitcase full of money lands on Sam's (Hemsworth) car. Sam, in anger, throws the suitcase to reveal money sticking out of it. He takes it home to his wife and they believe it to a blessing from God, until Kubic comes knocking at their door. The couple blew through $75,000 out of the $625,000. While visiting his brother in prison, Kubic is told to ignore it and the money they spent is fine. Kubic ignores his brother's plea and wants all of the money back. Kubic then puts the couple into a journey of hell trying to get the cash back.

For 110 minutes, I felt that the film dragged on and on at times. If twenty minutes would have been cut, I might have enjoyed it more. Obviously, with how it ends, sets it up for a sequel that we will never get. I've seen better performances from Sean Bean and Chris Hemsworth doesn't remotely look like how he does in Thor in this movie. He's all babyface and no muscle. I give Ca$h 2.5/5.

Video: 4/5

This looks like it was shot with a basic 1080p camera judging from how looks in movement. A lot of early HD shot films have this speed problem where it moves a bit faster than it should. The video looks a bit soft at times, but, it is pretty detailed. It's not perfect, but, I can award it 4/5 for the video.

Audio: 5/5

Ascot Elite gives us two audio tracks on the disc, English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks. The English audio fares better than the video presentation. Hearing the guns lock whenever Kubic puts the clip into the gun sounds nice and crystal clear. Hearing the sound of a plane landing as Kubic comes to Chicago in the opening sounds nice and loud. I have no complaints regarding the audio tracks. 5/5.

Extras: 1/5

Not much in terms of extras. We have an English and German trailer for Cash. Then we have German dubbed trailers for What Doesn't Kill You aka Boston Streets; Cargo; and Nothing But the Truth. And English language trailers with German subtitles for a British film called the Firm and a movie starring Melissa George called Triangle. Quality on all these trailers all look like poorly ripped Youtube videos. It reminds of all the trailers on the Blu-ray for Evil Angel. I give the bonus 1/5.

Overall: 3/5

I went into Cash with high hopes. I was somewhat let down. I don't think it was that bad, nor that great. It all felt that Sean Bean dialed it in and Chris Hemsworth was a new and upcoming actor who hadn't yet landed the role as the God of Thunder. Even Bean's performance in the remake of the Hitcher was better; even in Silent Hill: Revelation 3D where he kept flipping back and forth from his English accent to his American accent. Maybe if you're looking to see it, I can recommend it for the $10 if you can play Region B discs. Will it get a replay in my book? Down the road, one day. 3/5.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 4.5/5
Overall: 5/5

"Germany's First Godzilla Blu-ray!"

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster was a turning point for the Godzilla series. This is where Godzilla changes from being the destroyer that he is to Earth's savior. After a meteorite crashes to Earth, a group of scientists go to investigate. At the same time, a princess is heading to Japan when her plane explodes during it's flight. Believing that the princess is dead, a mysterious prophet claiming to be from Venus looks exactly like the dead princess. The prophet claims that the monsters are going to be awoken and it all begins to hit the fan.

The meteorite turns out to be King Ghidorah and soon he begins laying waste to Japan. Rodan, Mothra (in larva form), and Godzilla gather. Mothra tries to stop Godzilla and Rodan from killing each other and begs them to stop and to save the world from the wrath of King Ghidorah. After the monsters ignore her pleas, Mothra goes to fight King Ghidorah by herself. Godzilla and Rodan sees Mothra's sacrifice to save the planet and soon the three unlikely monsters begin the battle for the Earth and duke it out against King Ghidorah.

I remember being six years old when I first saw this film, in 1996. I had recorded it off of the Disney channel along with Son of Godzilla. Yes, Disney channel back in the day would actually play Godzilla films. Would you see something like that now a days? No. You would get the crap you see on there today.

What I love about this film is how hysterical it gets when the monsters fight and the sarcasm that they have. You can tell that Rodan is laughing at Godzilla when Mothra is spraying him down and then Rodan shuts up as soon as he gets sprayed himself. This is a film where the suits look amazing and well done. I can't recommend this film enough, 5/5.

Video: 4.5/5

Ascot Elite presents the film in 1080p and uses the Toho remaster from 2008. How does the film fare in comparison to Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla Vs Biollante? It's spectacular. It blows the HD remaster away for Destroy All Monsters. However, there's some scratches on the lens which they couldn't remove. The picture is pretty flawless for an almost fifty year old film. I give the visual presentation 4.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

We have two audio presentations of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster; Japanese and German DTS-HD MA 5.1. Both tracks sound glorious. Hearing Godzilla's roar and the other monsters roaring and fighting all sounds amazing. Both audio tracks sound great. All around 5/5.

Extras: 4.5/5

We have some great extras, however, most of them are PAL encoded which means it won't work in your Region 1 players unless your player is compatible. We have a 40 minute score version which is in HD. And we have a German commentary track; I have some issues with it. They claimed that Shusuke Kaneko liked Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster so much that he remade it as GMK. Unless I translated it wrong, I honestly don't believe that is correct. I know that Kaneko loved this film and made Shiro Sano and Chiharu Niiyama watch the film. Also, they claimed that the American title for the film was the literal Japanese translation for the film; Giant Monsters Decisive Battle.

We have an interview with Shusuke Kaneko, which is fine and good fun, but; we have scrolling German subtitles from the right side to the left side of the screen. It honestly hurt my eyes trying to read it as moved way too fast. And these subtitles are burned into the video itself. And finally, we have the trailer in Japanese and German. Basically, it's just German audio over the Japanese trailer. I do like the bonus material; however since it's all in German, it won't help all of you. 4.5/5.

Overall: 5/5

This Blu-ray is region free and is a cheaper alternative to the Japanese Blu-ray which costs about $80. I managed to get the German Blu-ray for $17 off of Grooves Inc. Like the Japanese Blu-ray, this German Blu-ray is not English friendly. However, if you've watched this film as many times as I have, you get used to watching the film despite the fact there's no English subtitles. Much like how i can watch the German Blu-ray Casshern and don't really need subtitles whenever it's playing in Japanese or German. This is classic Godzilla, remastered, and very stunning for an almost fifty year old film. I give this Blu-ray 5/5.

Plaguers (2008)

Movie: 3/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: .5/5
Overall: 2.5/5

"An Homage or Rip-off?"

Plaguers is a film that I cannot figure out. I cannot tell if it's paying homage to space horror films of the 70's or 80's or if it's one big rip-off. A space shuttle returning to Earth gets a distress call from a nearby vessel. Once the crew goes on board, they find four somewhat attractive women and rescue them. All is not as it seems as they turn out to be space pirates. At the same time, the crew are carrying a deadly power source that is broken while fighting with the pirates. Now, the power source's fuel is turning people into blood thirsty monsters. Now the crew and pirates fight to make sure that the ship doesn't make it to Earth or else...

The monsters are not exactly zombies, but, some sort of monsters. Are re-animated corpses coming back from the dead? Yes. It felt more like Lamberto Bava's Demons set in space. It even has some effects shots that reminded me of Demons; like finger nails growing out and teeth popping out of the jaws, etc. I really like how the film wasn't that big on CGI with the exception of what was used for gun shots and bullet effects. I give the film 3/5.

Video: 3.5/5

Presented in 1080/50i, the disc is region free, however, you will need a Blu-ray player that can support this type of video format. Interlacing is seen in a few shots, but other than that; it's got a nice visual presentation. This was shot digitally, probably with an HD camera as opposed to RED. The color pallet is mostly grey as the backdrop of the sets since this is set on a spaceship, but, the green and red are strong whenever we see the Thanatos orb and the blood from the monsters. I give the video 3.5/5.

Audio: 3.5/5

We have two audio tracks on the disc, 5.1 DTS-HD MA English and German. The English audio seems to have some bad ADR work done on it. When one of the crewman starts yelling, clearly, he is yelling something quite different. I've noticed this several times throughout the film. The German dub does sync up somewhat nice to the video. However, if you do get this disc and you speak English, I doubt you'll turn over to the German dub. I give the audio element of Plaguers 3.5/5.

Extras: .5/5
The only extras on the disc are trailers for Pontypool and Delta Farce. Too bad there was nothing in terms of extras on the film itself. .5/5.

Overall: 2.5/5

I managed to buy this off a user who I have bought from in the past off of Blu-ray.com. It is region free, but the PAL menu and the film being encoded at 1080i makes it difficult for me to recommend it unless you have the capabilities to play this on you player. For what the film was, if you got time to kill, I can recommend it. 2.5/5.

Evil Angel (2009)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 5/5
Extra: 1.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

"An Interesting Horror Flick."

While I was in the process of buying the UK Blu-ray of A Tale of Two Sisters from Grooves Inc, I stumbled across this German Blu-ray for a film called Evil Angel. I never heard of it and saw that it advertised Ving Rhames (Lilo & Stitch and Piranha 3DD) as the lead. I looked up the trailer for the film and was pretty surprised. For $10, why not?

The film deals with two storylines that collide; Ving Rhames plays agent Carruthers who is investigating murders at a crackhouse when his son is killed by a woman who is under demonic possession, Lillith. Marcus (Kristopher Shepard) is a paramedic going through a crisis as he discovers that his wife is having an affair. The death of a young girl draws Marcus into learning about religion and various other possessions as the bodies pile up. Carruthers soon realizes that Marcus is possibly next on Lillith's list and must try to save his life and soul.

I think Richard Dutcher made a great film and he's not only a good writer, director, but actor as well. Richard Dutcher plays Marcus's former partner and helps him out in the last half of the film. Now, does the film need to be over two hours? Possibly not. The pacing was decent, but, I did think some events should have happened sooner when it all hits the fan for Carruthers and Marcus. I can recommend it, 3.5/5.

Video: 4/5

Shot on film and presented in 2.35:1, WGF films gives Evil Angel a very sweet and devilish presentation. The grain levels are pretty strong throughout the film. I did spot a few specks of dirt here and there, but, you won't really see it if you're focused on the story. Contrast and colors are very stunning for an unknown film. I give the visual presentation 4/5.

Audio: 5/5

WGF has given Evil Angel two different audio presentations; English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1. The English audio sounds great in motion whereas the German dubbing has been cranked up an extra notch with the dialog. Despite that small problem with the German dubbing, which most reading this will probably not watch it with that audio option, it's pretty solid. 5/5.

Extra: 1.5/5

The ball was dropped on the extras portion of the disc. Regarding Evil Angel, there's a trailer and a slideshow gallery. We also have trailers for Terra Nova aka Island of the Damned; Alexander: Der Kreuzritter; Nobel Son; and The Burrowers. Quality on the trailers looks like they were ripped straight from Youtube. I question where the Terra Nova trailer came from as it's in English and Russian with English subtitles for the Russian dialog. 1.5/5.

Overall: 3.5/5

This disc is region all, however, 1080/50i is problematic from the start. I loaded it up on my PS3 and nothing happened at all. This film hasn't been released yet in the U.S. and from what I've read on the internet, Richard Dutcher has been trying to get this film a theatrical release. It was supposedly going to be released on Halloween 2012, but, the date came and passed. It has managed to get Blu-ray releases in Australia, France, Germany, and Taiwan. If you're in the U.S. and you can play 1080/50i material, you can get this for a good $10. Go for it. 3.5/5.

Contract Killers (2008)

Movie: 3/5
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

"Almost an Asylum Film."

Movie: 3/5

A beautiful woman is having a nice dinner with her husband. As popping open a bottle of wine, things spiral. The woman, Jane, wakes up and her husband is dead. She pulls out a hidden cellphone to make a phone call to the CIA to try to find out who did this to her and plot thickens. Police scramble at the door and she flees the scene of the crime. She makes her way to Trinidad where she makes a final stand.

The movie is decent for ninety minutes. I say that this is almost an Asylum film because one of the assassins tracking Jane down is played by Rhett Giles who starred in a lot of the Asylum during the days Leigh Scott directed for them. The cast all around pretty much does a good job. Acting is not that bad, then again, this isn't a classic by any means. It's good if you got time to kill. 3/5

Video: 4.5/5

Presented in 1.78:1 and shot with HD cameras, Contract Killers has a nice and clean image. German studio KSM has given the film a pretty good transfer. There is no real complaints to the image quality in itself. I cannot find anything problematic with this film. 4.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

KSM has given us two audio options; English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and a German Dub in DTS-HD MA 5.1; with additional removable German subtitles. I have watched the film with both audio tracks and again, no real complaints. Dialogue is nice and clear and sound effects are vibrant. Audio gets a 5/5.

Extras: 3/5

There is a 25 minute making of which is presented in English with removable German subtitles. It's an ok making of. I wasn't too big on it while watching. A photo gallery; why are studios still doing these? These are the most pointless feature I have ever seen. Then finally we have German dubbed trailers of; Contract Killers, Kill Theory, Warlords, Babysitter Wanted, Hide - Love is Hell, and Diary of a Serial Killer. Even though some of these trailers are in the wrong aspect ratio and are stretched from 4:3 to 16:9, some of them look interesting. I give the extras a 3/5.

Overall: 4/5

This disc is Region B locked. If you can play Region B discs and if you got about $7 to kill on Grooves, I'd recommend it. Asylum regular Rhett Giles does a great job as an antagonist tracking down the heroine of the film. It is a great disc by KSM for a movie that is a decent action movie. I give this release a 4/5.

When Women Had Tails (1970)

Movie: 3/5
Video: .5/5
Audio: 2.5/5
Extras: 2/5
Overall: 2/5

"Who Thought Upscaling a VHS Tape Was a Good Idea?"

When Women Had Tails is a pre-historic Italian comedy from 1970. A group of brothers are abandoned as children as their mother is beaten and taken away by cavemen. We cut to several years later as they are all grown up and living on an island with an abundant food source. One stormy night, lightning hits a tree and the boys have fire. While they decide who gets to take care of the flame, one of the brothers proceeds to burn down all of the vegitation on the island. They swim off to a new land and soon come across a strange "animal". A beautiful cavewoman, Filli, played by Senta Berger.

Ulli, played by Giuliano Gema, takes an interest in Filli and spares her from being dinner. Soon after, she teaches him about sex and this sparks the brothers into a frenzy as they all begin to fight each other in order to be the dominant male. Ulli and Filli go on the run to save themselves from the others.

The movie was ok. But, before I continue, this is the German cut which is about fifteen minutes shorter than the Italian version. Nothing seemed incomprehensible, as opposed to watching the German cut version of A Serbian Film. Some of the slap-stick comedy made me laugh, but at the end of the day; the film was just slightly above average. Senta Berger was a fine thing back in the day. And Giuliano Gema is awesome as a caveman. I give the film a 3/5.

Video: .5/5

This Blu-ray is from "Best Entertainment", the same studio that did the Night of the Living Dead Blu-ray, which I reviewed a while back. And like that release, this one too has horrible video. This looks like it was sourced from a VHS tape. And a worn out one too. Was it really that hard to contact the Italian studio to get their hands on a print of this film? We could have gotten the film uncut, because I don't see what could have been so bad for them to cut fifteen minutes. Colors are bland as hell. Even when we have close ups of faces, not even close to HD. Such a shame. Video gets a .5/5.

Audio: 2.5/5

While the audio is decent, it's not that great. Only audio track is a German Dolby Digital 5.1 track. We couldn't get Best Entertainment to try and sync up an Italian audio track to the film? Or perhaps an English track since the print from the VHS source is all in English except for the title screen. Audio gets a 2.5/5.

Extras: 2/5

While Best Entertainment could care to make a "Special Features" section on the disc, all of the bonus material is scattered through the main menu. There is a group of trailers which are oddly all trailers for movies from Troma. We have "Cannibal: The Musical", "Monster in the Closet", and "Sizzle Beach, USA". Then we have a slide show of German press material for the film. And finally, in German, bios for Senta Berger and Giuliano Gema. Too bad there wasn't any trailers for the film itself included in the extras. That would have been nice. Extras get a 2/5.

Overall: 2/5

Am I being fair by giving this release a 2/5? Well, the copy I did get was Metal Pak, however it was dinged to hell. I picked this up from Grooves Inc for a little over $5. If you speak German, then, I'd only recommend it if you got time to kill. It's not something that everyone should search out unless they're into Italian films from that era of filmmaking. 2/5.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Movie: 5/5
Video: .5/5
Audio: 2/5
Extras: 3/5
Overall: 2.5/5

Restauriert & Neu Gemastert? Falsch!

Night of the Living Dead, the original 1968 classic by George Romero which sparked numerous zombie films through out the years. We all know the story, there's no need to go into it. It's a solid 5/5 film to me as it's the definitive classic zombie horror. The film is in the public domain, so, anyone can release it unless it's been new master created by another person that's been copyrighted. I'm slowly dipping my toes into the public domain and have been trying to secure a print for my own studio to use. We've seen numerous Blu-rays that are hit and miss. This release is a miss; one of the biggest misfires you have ever seen.

Video: .5/5

The video presented on this Blu-ray is upscaled 1080/50i. It's pretty bad. I watched it and the first time I saw it, I thought it was decent for an upscale, but upon really going in depth on the quality of the video, I was horrified over the image in general. This is not restored and remastered as stated in German. When I got the disc last October, I popped it in my external Blu-ray drive and the movie was just about 8GB. It's the size of a Dual Layer DVD. And the picture quality is worse than what Echo Bridge could deliver with the interlacing and jagged-ness of the upscaled image. Video scores a .5/5.

Audio: 2/5

The English audio is under average at best on this copy of the film. However, the German dubbing has new techno-ish score that kicks off right as the film starts. It is kinda out of place, especially for the time frame from which this film was made. Especially at one point in the German dubbing, they must of had some scenes missing from their master and it flips over to English with German subtitles. This happens for about two minutes in length. These German subtitles are automatically on even if the audio is set to English. I was scratching my head the first time I watched it as these subs popped up. Audio scores a 2/5.

Extras: 3/5

The extras would be phenomenal, if they weren't all upscaled to 1080/50i! The cover advertises at the top that his have the "Include 75 min Bonus Film 'Fright Night' (Francis Ford Coppola)"; this is not the vampire film Fright Night, but Francis Ford Coppola's 1963 film Dementia 13. I've seen Blu-ray covers in Germany giving the impression that it is the vampire flick instead of the serial killer on the family's estate film. Sadly, the quality of this transfer is a 4:3 non-anamorphic HD blow up, meaning that you got black bars on the top, bottom. left and right sides of the screen. And the film is dubbed in German with no English audio. This has to have been sourced from a VHS copy of the film. Nothing about it seems digital really. Run time on it; 1:14:34.

Then we have the One for the Fire documentary and once you press play on it and it has the somewhat remake B&W title opening to the original film, you see how horribly upscaled this is. It had to have been blown up from a non-16:9 source, so, 640x360 to 1920x1080. Seeing how blocky as hell everything is just horrifies me to no end. The documentary is fun to watch if you can stomach through the horrible image; run time on it is 1:23:53.

American theatrical trailer; 1:49. August 26, 2007 Interview with George A Romeo in Canada that is 15:48. December 13th, 1987 audio interview with Duane Jones which was done about seven months before the actor had passed away; 16:47. Oddly, none of these bonus materials have German subs.

Finally, a photo gallery of upscalled image. And two commentary tracks. First commentary is with George A. Romeo, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, and John A. Russo. Second audio commentary is with Russell Streiner, Vince Survinski, Judith O'Dea, Bill Hinzman, Kyra Schon, and Keith Wayne. I'm sure the die hard NOTLD fans will enjoy it. It was just average to me. The bonus would have scored much higher if it had been all HD instead of this blown up, interlaced bull. Extras score a 3/5.

Overall: 2.5/5
This Blu-ray is region free, but it will not work in North American unless you have a Blu-ray player and a HDTV that is compatible with 50hrz content. My main player, Insignia NS-WBRDVD2, plays it fine. My PS3 on the other hand just gives me a black screen. Some of the other Blu-rays I own from Germany and the UK are 1080/50i; Casshern, The Crow, Meet Bill, and Transmorphers off the top of my head. But, that doesn't matter; those that I listed above have much better transfers than this release of Night of the Living Dead. If you are a collector of Night of the Living Dead releases, this is the only way I can recommend this release of the film. 2.5/5, avoid.

A Serbian Film (2010)

Movie: 4/5
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 0.5/5
Overall: 4/5

A *Censored* Film.

NOTE: Movie score is from how I originally saw the uncut version.
I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS RELEASE DUE TO HARSH REMOVAL OF SEX AND VIOLENCE.

A Serbian Film, a highly controversial film that mixes hard sex and violence to give off a political message. However, in the German version, most sex and violence is removed. The censored German release of the film clocks in at 1:30:02 whereas the uncut version clocks in at about one hour forty-four minutes. The story is that Milos is a pornstar who has settled down but is given an offer by an old co-star who tells him that something big is happening in the porn industry in Serbia. However, horror ensues as Milos is dragged deep into something he cannot simply walk away from.

The film is heavily cut in the final act where is about one minute in length in the German release whereas in the screener, it was several minutes long. This really causes disruption in the score as it jumps shot to shot due to censorship. One cut that I am pleased with in this censored version is the "Newborn" scene. We do not see it but you do hear Vukmir screaming the line. Now, if this wasn't in the film at all, even in the original cut, I wouldn't mind at all as I do feel this is the central nerve for people being disgusted with the film. To the people that have seen the film, with all the sex and violence removed, you can get a good idea of what is missing.

The video presentation is superb. One of the best transfers I have ever seen as this was shot on the same equipment that such films like "District 9" was shot on. I award the video a 5/5. The audio, which is mislabeled on the box art is Serbian and German (Dub) in DTS-HD MA 5.1 and accompanied with removable German subtitles. The audio is like the video, SUPERB, 5/5. Only extra on the release is a trailer dubbed in German which is 576i.

Overall, the release gets a 4/5, but I cannot recommend this release due to the harsh censorship of the film. The disc is Region Free with the only problematic feature being the theatrical trailer. But, don't waste your time with it if you look to see a more complete cut like the US or Swedish or UK releases.

Meet Bill (2007)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: 3.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Made Me Want to Eat Candy Bars.

I decided to import this title since I saw it was under $9 and it's got Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Alba. Aaron Eckhart certainly plays a different type of role in this film. This performance isn't like "The Dark Knight" or "Battle: LA". In this film he's a fat, depressed, married man whose wife cheats on him with a local news reporter. Through the disastrous situation, he is stuck with a kid through a work program who tries to help him see the bigger picture. The film is all right, certainly not the greatest movie I have seen, but I think it has potential for a re-watch here and there. Movie scores a 3.5/5.

The video presentation is 1080/50i, despite being region all, means that it will not work unless your TV or player/PS3 can handle 50hrz. It has the 25fps speed up which more or less effects the audio, which will be addressed in a bit. Considering that the movie takes up about 15GB of space on the disc, it looks great, however it does not look perfect. There's specs on the film that pop up here and there and there seems to be compression problems which don't look that bad unless you have your eyes glued to the screen. Video gets a 3.5/5.

With our audio, we have a bit of a problem. Due to the 25 frame speed up, the voices sound a little high. Given that this is the first time that I have seen the film, it didn't really bother me as much. In the opening, when Aaron Eckhart speaks, it did bother me because it was high pitch. Other than that, both English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1 sound good. 3.5/5.

We have quite a few extras presented on the disc, however, not really that great. We have deleted scenes that are about 15 minutes in length, obviously in PAL and 4:3 which gives up a window boxing with black bars on all sides. Then we have a photo gallery. A German language filmography for Aaron Eckhart, Elizabeth Banks, Timothy Olyphant, and Jessica Alba. Then finally we have three trailers on the disc presented in both English and German; "Meet Bill", "I Could Never Be Your Woman", and "Miss Potter". Extras get a 3.5/5.

And with every rating getting a 3.5/5, means that are overall score is 3.5/5. If you have the capabilities of handling 50hrz 1080i in the US, then I can recommend this release. It's one of the cheapest Blu-rays off of Grooves Inc right now, coming in at under $9.

Tucker and Dale Vs Evil (2010)

Movie: 4/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

"Goin' Campin'?"

When I saw that this film was getting released on Blu-ray in Germany two months before the U.S. theatrical release, I had to jump on the chance of getting this. And I am now reviewing the Region B locked Universum Film Blu-ray of "Tucker & Dale Vs Evil". The film centers around the title characters played by Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine respectively. They are heading out to their vacation cabin that is in dire need of repairing. While en route, they bump into these college kids on vacation. Things take a turn for the worst when the college kids go skinny dipping in a lake while two good ol' boys save one of the kids from drowning. Soon, the college kids hilariously die off one by one as they think the two are going to kill their own.

I am giving the film a 4/5; in the U.S. trailer, you do see quite a few of the deaths. That kinda brought it down a bit, but the humor is pretty funny. I had a smile on my face pretty much throughout the film. I think Tudyk and Labine are great as the bumbling rednecks. Plus, another thing that bothers me about comedies lately is the run time, this film clocks in at 85 minutes not counting the credits. I recommend the film, in the horror aspects the whole cabin in the woods reminds me of like Evil Dead, Cabin Fever, and Friday the 13th Part 2.

The film is presented in 1080p and the picture has a brownish tone to it, I want to say it's an artistic choice by the director since this takes place in the woods, but I think that might bring it down for some videophiles. Especially when there's this fire and the color of the fire isn't that strong, color wise. It's pretty sharp and detailed. The film has German subs which can be removed and when you select the English audio, you have English subtitles for the German text that appears on screen in the opening which was like "3 Days Earlier" or something like that. 4/5 for the video.

Audio presented on the disc is English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1, both tracks sound pretty good. Audio has never been my strong suit but I really felt like both tracks sounded good. 4/5. We have a few extras on the disc; there's a BD-Live function which I cannot access since I don't have my player connected. German dubbed trailers for Season of the Witch, Black Dynamite, Chatroom, The Informers, Splice, and The Joneses. An English and German trailer for the feature; same trailer with just different audio. And finally an 11 minute Making Of that is in English with removable German subs. Extras score a 4/5.

This release of Tucker and Dale Vs Evil scores a 4 across the board. If you have a Region B or All player, I would recommend checking it out. Especially since the US Blu-ray probably won't be until Christmas time 2011. I paid $27 for it and I am happy with this release of the film. 4/5.

Casshern (2004)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

If Casshern Won't Do It Then Who Will?

Ok, after trying to find a webstore that was selling this cheap, which I picked up for $19 from the Swiss site Grooves Inc. I can recommend this release to die hard fans and those who speak either Japanese or German because this Blu-ray is not English friendly and luckily for me, German is my second language, so no problem for me.

Lets get to the bad news first; this major for a lot of Blu-ray owners, this release is 1080i/50 and it clearly suffers from speed up. I believe the speed up is due to having the film sync up to the German audio. I don't know if the German studio at the time made their dub straight from a PAL sourced copy of the film or not, but that seems to be the case. However, after several viewings of the film, the speed up is not that bothersome. The film clocks in at 2hrs 16min when it's 2hrs 22 min which it even states on the back of the cover that it's the latter.

Another problem, not major, but really noticeable; the video source. The German release ported the Italian video source. And the film has opening credits completely in Italian and even blurring out the original title Casshern and placing in with plain white text "KYASHAN - LA RINASCITA". And supposedly the Italian release clocks in at the original run time. Also, the end credits of the film are in Italian and then cut over to the Japanese end credits.

Now, for all of those who love the film, this is the worst of it. The film's Japanese audio has been completely redone. Music plays when in the original cut there would be silence. Some sound effects have been completely removed from the new mix; like the zapping noise that the "Neo-Cells" would make are gone. Dialog has been changed in some spots or in others completely removed. For a brief list of changes, please visit the German thread for the film.

Now, let's talk pros to this release; the video is hands down reference quality even for a 1080i video. It is beauitful. I am not giving it a 5/5 because of the 1080i and the fact that even though it's the director's intention for the Zone 7 scenes to look all grainy, it might cause some people to think that it's bad even though it's digitally done. The colors are magnificent. I closely looked over the scene where Tetsuya aka Casshern fights all of the robots and the colors are vivid and amazing.

The audio is loud and amazing. The 5.1 DTS-HD audio for both the original Japanese language and the German dubbing are essentially equal. I listened to both and really enjoyed both options. The sound effects of Tetsuya flying around with his rockets are nice and crisp during the battle with the robots. Music is good and clear and the dialog sounds like you are right there in it all. The only reason why this gets a 4/5 is due to the speed up but after a couple of viewings you won't notice it.

The extras contain German dubbed trailers for other films like Shinobi: Heart Under Blade and Goemon to name a few. There's two original Japanese trailers for Casshern; deleted scenes with forced commentary by Kazuaki Kiriya; and interviews. It did leave me wanting more out of this release. On the 2 disc Thai DVD that I own theres like a 50 minute making of that shows how the animated the film and how it was shot on green screens, etc.

I give it 4/5 overall. It's a good release despite it's flaws. I'm a die hard fan of the film, but was bothered by the changes done in the Japanese audio. But, I recommend this to die hard fans and those who know German and Japanese.