Grotesque (2009)

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

"Ugh..."

I wonder what possess a filmmaker to make nothing but extreme violence because Grotesque takes it to the point of overkill. While most people will bash the seven Saw films and brand them with the idiotic and very snobish term "Torture Porn", those films at least have a plot. Hostel at least had a plot. A Serbian Film had a plot. Grotesque does not have a plot. And this is why this film fails.

The film is about a crazed doctor who kidnaps a couple and performs various sexual and violent acts upon them both. That's it, a film with no plot that wants to just show human suffering for seventy-three minutes. Why do I give this film a 2.5/5? I found it somewhat creative and the effects are not a total waste.

Video: 3/5
Presented in 2.35:1 in a 1080p presentation, Grotesque looks like it was shot with a basic high definition camera. While compression artifacts are present throughout, the film does not look completely bad. It's main color scheme of green and brown is somewhat strongly preserved through the whole "film". I give the presentation 3/5.

Audio: 3/5
Media Blasters give Grotesque only one audio presentation; Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo.  For what it is, it does it well. Does it honestly matter if you hear the man and woman scream in 2.0 or 5.1 DTS-HD MA? 3/5.

Extras: .5/5
Only bonus features is a trailer in SD and a DVD copy. Fantastic, .5/5.

Overall: 2.5/5
I question how much it cost Media Blasters to get the rights to this film. A studio that has been running themselves into the ground for years and they cling to whatever shocking garbage that they can get their hands on or make themselves like Late Fee. I think I paid $13 for this, don't pay more than that. 2.5/5.

Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror (1980)

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

"This Blu-ray Smells of Death."

Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror is a 1980 Italian zombie film in the vain of Zombi 2. Group of people set out to a location only to discover this place is overrun with zombies. An archaeologist goes to a tomb to discover a horde of zombies and is soon eaten by his "friends". A group of people meet together at a castle for no real specific reason are then killed off and try to survive the night.

The film is fun for what it is, not perfect by any means. I loved seeing it for the first time at a film festival at one of the local drive-in theaters in 2010. You got to love the creepy Peter Bark as Michael, an actor playing a small child who loves his mother a little too much. The film has some cheesy dialogue, most of which comes from Michael. And then, most of the scenes that are memorable are of Michael. Film gets a 3.5/5.

Video: 3/5

When it comes to Media Blasters, if it's not one of their two-dollar films, the transfer is supposedly made from the studio where the film originates. Someone in Italy did a poor job on this transfer. Shots appear fuzzy and the grain is almost depleted by whatever this fake grain is which seems to be red, green, and blue. At the 1hr 18min, one shot is fuzzy and you can barely make out what it is going on in this shot as a zombie is being thrown down from a flight of stairs. Media Blasters honestly thought this was acceptable? While I make this out to be a nightmare-ish transfer, it's watchable and a little above average. 3/5.

Audio: 3.5/5

Presented on the disc is only English DTS-HD MA 2.0. While it is true a lot of Italian films made around this time were shot without sound, it would be nice if Media Blasters would have put an Italian audio track for the film. God knows why they did it with "Devil Dog", it wasn't Italian. We have some pops and hisses and what not on our English audio track. Why was this not remastered? 3.5/5.

Extras: 2.5/5

Media Blasters creates some of the most frustrating extras I have ever seen. In my review for "Devil Dog", I ranted about how there was an hour and a half of interviews where the two child stars and the director really didn't give a damn about that film. Same kinda goes here with "Burial Ground", as we have a twenty minute interview with producer Gabriele Crisanti and the actress who played Michael's mother, Mariangela Giordano. Crisanti seems uninterested in the questions and basically gives short answers to the bumbling interviewer who stutters in Italian, as it is obviously not his first language. Then with Mariangela Giordano, and she's obviously forgotten this movie. She was asked questions and one of her responses was; "I do not remember a blonde actress". I was like; "What the hell, man?" You couldn't have asked her to re-watch the film to refresh her memory? Seriously...

Next is the "Still and Poster Gallery". What I find funny is that this gallery that Media Blasters put together has photographs of VHS copies of the film laying out on someone's table. Most of these VHS covers that they have in this gallery are most likely ripped from a Google image search as most of these seem poor quality. Then we have what is listed as "Out takes", which should be called "Deleted Scenes" as these are not out takes. These deleted scenes do not contain sound, but have music playing in the background.

Then there's a trailer or trailers for the film. I could not honestly tell as this ran for four minutes. If it is indeed two trailers, there was no real gap between to tell that it is. Menu states "Original Trailers", while the cover states "Original Trailer". Finally, we have four trailers for other films released and/or made by Media Blasters themselves.

First up is "Late Fee". A horrible looking trailer with Media Blasters branding all over it. Hey, there's posters up on the wall for "Zombi 2" which we did an unauthorized release of, some anime, etc. Then we cut to a video store where all of the movies in stock are Media Blasters titles, like "Machine Girl" and "Wicked Lake". Yes, clearly this is a hipster wannabe video store that this guy goes too.

Then we have trailers for "Zombi Holocaust"; a crappy looking horror film with porn star Sasha Grey, called "Smash Cut"; and finally Joe D'amato's "Buio Omega", which is a classic. Extras score a dismal 2.5/5. If Media Blasters actually put in the effort to make their interviews entertaining, it would be very nice.

Overall: 3/5

Media Blasters; where quality doesn't matter, but they'll take your dollar. It's a shame "Burial Grounds" got this kind of treatment, then again, it could be worse. They could have cancelled it like they did "Zombie 4" and "Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals". They do not respect Italian cinema and give you a crappy transfer for most of their titles. Extras with interviews where the cast and crew don't care. And delay titles constantly. It's a shame 3/5.

Female Convict Scorpion (2007)

Movie: 2.5/5
Video: 3/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 1.5/5
Overall: 3/5

"An Example of a Poor Screen Writing"

"Sasori" aka "Female Convict: Scorpion" is a 2007 Chinese-Japanese co-production. Based on the Japanese manga and 70's film series with the same name, Miki Mizuno of "Gamera 2" fame is Nami. A beautiful woman who is forced to kill her boyfriend's father. After her boyfriend arrives, he finds Nami holding a knife to her boyfriend's sister. After killing her, she is taken into police custody and is put into a harsh prison environment that is kill or be killed.

This film tries too hard to be smart and it leaves you with more questions than answers to the villain's true plot to the film. Why did the villain want the boyfriend's father dead? Why did we not learn who the villain was until the last half hour of the film? Why were the fight scenes with Nami and the people who forced her to kill her boyfriend's father so short at the end of the film? The whole damn prison fight sequences went on and on, but this was like two second kills here.

This film is nothing more but an example of poor screen writing. As an audience who are watching Nami go out for revenge are stuck watching her fight in a prison and questioning when she is going to be getting her vengeance. Where the writing is poor for most of the film, the action was mostly entertaining. I will give it that. Film gets a dismal 2.5/5.

Video:
This is my third outing with the despicable Media Blasters, the other two being Devil Dog and Destroy All Monsters. I am going to guess the Chinese studio who released the film handled the transfer for the film. It's amazing how rough a five year film can actually look. The film has constant print damage througout. There is a scene or two that you can tell is meant to have print damage as part of the story, but, that you can tell is faked print damage. Also, there's a few shots that looked blurry. Also, the film looks totally washed out and contrast is blown out. I am not sure if it's a director's choice or not, but this does not bode well. Video scores a 3/5.

Audio:
Media Blasters has given us two audio tracks present on this disc; Chinese DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 5.1. Why we need a 2.0 track when 5.1 is fine as it is make that whole audio track questionable and a waste of space. The 5.1 track sounds great. We can hear sounds of Nami's sword hitting nicely. However, something feels a bit missing from the audio. Also, this registers as Japanese even though it's Chinese on my system. An authoring error by Media Blasters, go figure. I give the audio a 4/5.

Extras:
We only have trailers for Female Convict: Scorpion; Crows Zero; and Hansel and Gretel. The two trailers for the last two titles do have my interest and I might seek them out in the future. However, as far as extras go, this is a weak offering from Media Blasters. 1.5/5.

Overall:
Why was this film made? Can someone answer this question for me? I really don't know. It's just a poorly written and paced action movie that really had it's climax in the whole prison sequence with 45 minutes of filler after it. Don't pay more than $6 like I did for this. 3/5.

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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

Godzilla's Second Blu-ray Outing in the U.S.

I was full of dread once Media Blasters announced that they had gotten the rights to two Godzilla films; the other being Godzilla Vs Megalon, which still hasn't been released since it's original November release date. Media Blasters is a horrible studio who does nothing but delay titles on Blu-ray much to the frustration of fans of the films that they have. Luckily, the release of Destroy All Monsters was only delayed by two weeks, whereas we waited over a year for Ichi the Killer and about a year for Machine Girl, just to give some examples. I paid about $18 for this release, I wouldn't pay more for it if you can it for that. There is problems with this release in terms of quality control.

In Godzilla's ninth outing; the film starts off in the year 1999 when all of the monsters are contained on Ogasawara Island, aka Monster Island or in this film Monster Land. A group of astronauts are called back to Earth after Monster Land is ravaged and the monsters have been unleashed. They learn that a race of aliens are bent on dominating the Earth and are using the monsters a pawns in their plan. The astronauts, as well as the higher ups in Japan, are scrambling to find ways to bring down the aliens and stop the monsters from destroying the planet.

Godzilla was my inspiration for wanting to be a filmmaker. I had first seen Destroy All Monsters when it was released by ADV video; it was amazing to actually see a Godzilla film in it's original aspect ratio at the time in 1999. I really enjoy how Toho seemed to go all out with the usage of all the monsters; sure this film focuses a lot on the Human interaction, but it is great to see Godzilla on the screen when he appears. I give the film a 5/5.

The video is problematic and this is due to Toho's HD remaster of the film that occurred in 2008. Some shots appear nice and crisp while other shots will be dull or covered in dirt and scratches. I found this to be quite frustrating at times. If Toho would have done better job at their remastering, I think this could have been a phenomenal release. Colors do pop out with great definition, like with how green the grass and trees look while Anguirus is on Monster Land in the opening of the film for example. Video scores a 3.5/5.

Now, I do like that Media Blasters brought in the AIP dub of the film since I've never heard it before. However, I wonder where they sourced it from. At times is sounds like it's rolling around and the pitch seems to drop. It especially was bothersome when all of the monsters destroy Tokyo as you hear the pitch dropping and rising. Also on the disc is the Toho international dub which sounds just the same as it did on the ADV Video release of the film. And then we have the Japanese audio presented in DTS-HD 5.1 and a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. The Japanese track sounds great, but the problems with AIP dub of the film brings it down and I give the audio a 3.5/5.

While there is a good amount of bonus material, Media Blasters could have encoded it much better and needed to do some serious quality control. We have a series of Destroy All Monsters trailers listed as "Promo Reel". The first trailer is an English trailer that's 4:3 widescreen and most likely sourced from the PAL format given the black and white lines at the top of the video. The audio sounds weak and is very low and then as it ends, you get the Japanese trailer which is booming in comparison. After the Japanese trailer, we have a French trailer, which again is very weak sounding and low. Also, it's another PAL formatted video converted over to NTSC and it's obviously telecined from a print that was stretched to 1.33:1 from 2.35:1 as we see the lines just right above the image. Then after the French trailer, we have several English language radio spots for the film.

After that, we have an 8mm sourced reel that could be found in the 70's whenever people owned 8mm and Super 8mm projectors and cameras. It's 4:3 full screen, cropped from it's original aspect ratio. It's very worn and faded with brownish/redish tone to the image. Again, could Media Blasters not worry themselves about trying to fix the audio, it's very low. After that we have some photo galleries and storyboards. There's a commentary track by two Godzilla experts as well some trailers for coming attractions on the main menu screen. These two trailers are for Godzilla Vs Megalon and Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. Again, Riki-Oh's trailer is 4:3 widescreen. Could they not be convinced to shave off the black bars on the top and bottom to have it fit properly? I mean, this is a Blu-ray and we all have 16:9 set ups here. Bonus materials score a 3/5.

Media Blasters could have done a better on this Blu-ray and it feels rushed and that they did the authoring at the last minute since this title was delayed by two weeks. If you announce a title in April and then waste all that time in between just screwing around, it's gonna show and it does here. How hard would it be to actually take the time to fix these issues with the audio to make it just right? Overall, I give this release a 3.5/5. If you're a hardcore Godzilla fan like myself, you'll enjoy it but wish for more.

Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

A Great Release From MEDIA BLASTERS.

"Devil Dog: Hound of Hell" is a television movie from the late 70's. The film is about a family who adopts a dog after the death of their previous dog. After a year of owning the beloved German Shepard, things start to spiral downward as the father starts to realize that the dog is not of this world. The film is pretty entertaining as far as television movies go, but there's always room for improvement on television movies due to the budget. I haven't really been that big on TV movies but I was quite surprised with this film; I give Devil Dog a 3.5/5.

The video is in pretty amazing shape for an almost 35 year old film. Now, there's one thing I want to address about this film; the scenes where we have our "Devil Dog" were shot on film, but edited in VHS due to the special effects. The scenes with the "Devil Dog" are about a minute in length and it's not that bad but you can tell the PQ drops in these scenes. Now, my issues with the film and why I give it a 4/5, there's print damage here and there that is present, especially in the opening credits and various scenes throughout, but it's not that bad. Now, towards the end 10 minutes when we are taken to the plant where the father works, the low lit interior shots look faded and could have been possibly corrected by doing some contrasting. Overall this is a pretty amazing transfer.

There are two audio tracks present; DTS-HD MA 2.0 English and Italian (Dub). When selecting the Italian dub in the main menu, before the film starts it gives you a message stating that the audio was taken from a television broadcast and that drop outs will occur. And I think both of the audio tracks sound great on this release. 4/5.

Now on to the extras; I have to say that this movie contains the most pointless extras I have ever seen for a film. There's several hours of material, but it's the most boring material I have ever watched. We have a 73 min interview which is divided up between the producer Jerry Zeitman; Kim Richards; and Ike Eisenmann. Jerry Zeitman talks for about 20 minutes about the film and then in the last five minutes or so, talks about other projects. Kim Richards takes up over 30 minutes and barely talks about the film. SHE TALKS AND TALKS AND TALKS AND TALKS SOME MORE ABOUT EVERYTHING! And the only person who actually talks about the film is Ike Eisenmann and he only got like 12 minutes to talk time. And then as soon as the 73 minutes are up, it cuts to an extra 23 minutes of Kim Richards just going on and on. I honestly wanted to hit my head against the wall because of what this woman talks about. Her career is obviously past the point of no return as she's only done two movies last decade; Black Snake Moan and Race to Witch Mountain.

Then, we have an audio interview with the director, which was done some point before his passing. He's really seemed to show no respect for the film and said that it was made for the paychecks. He said he would have rather had his film "Killer Bees" released over this. I don't think this interview should be even present on this disc. Then there's a scrolling video which lists the director's credits. A photo gallery on Martine Beswick who was only in the opening of the film. There's a trailer for the film. And then finally some trailers for Media Blasters releases such as; "Hansel & Gretel"; "Shooting April"; and "The Man Who Collected Food". Extras score a dismal 2.5/5.

Overall, these extras are a doozy; I felt this hurt my overall views on this release. I mean, why put two hours of pointless ramblings from two child actors and a deceased director who seemed to disown the film? I found the addition of an Italian dubbing to be an odd choice to add to this release. But, I am very pleased with the PQ, it is pretty amazing and I hope that Media Blasters treats Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla Vs Megalon with this much respect PQ wise. Movie is entertaining, especially if you love old school films. I spent $13 total on this release, I recommend it. 3.5/5 for this release.