Project X (2012)

Movie: 2.5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: .5/5
Overall: 3/5

"This is an Asylum Film."

Movie: 2.5/5

It's hard to believe that Superbad came out over five years ago. The story of three high schoolers who set out to party and get laid. Oh, wait... Project X... This review is for Project X. The story of three high schooler who set out to party and get laid. This feels like The Asylum pulling a mockbuster and ripping off Superbad, over five years too late. The plot is almost similar. Main character is an awkward nerdy type who is setting out to lose his virginity. Then you have the annoying type, but wait, they switched it around! The fat annoying character in Superbad is the somewhat chubby kid from New York! It's the perfect switch! And on top of that, they'll have the fat kid be more like the McLovin' character!

I'm being harsh on the film. But, there is some laughs. The film was not as funny as the trailers made it out to be. You can only push the same footage so many times before it becomes flat. I know that, because I did that. The few laughs here and there gave me some enjoyment, but, if you're looking for a better movie, watch Superbad. Movie gets a 2.5/5.

Video: 4/5

Presented in 1.85 along with some various other aspect ratios to make it feel like it's from multiple cameras, Project X sports an almost flawless HD transfer. However, when we go to a different aspect ratio, quality drops drastically. Police car cameras, cellphone cameras, and various other B-roll shots bring the quality down, like how B-roll footage brought down the video in Piranha 3DD. That's probably about two to five minutes total of the ninety minutes. I cannot complain with how the majority of the film looks. Video gets a 4/5.

Audio: 4.5/5

Project X has the film in English DTS-HD MA 5.1. With the English audio, it's pretty good and vibrant, whenever it's the main HD footage that was shot from the group's camera operator. Whenever it changes cameras, the quality changes. Just like with the video. Audio gets a 4.5/5.

Extras: .5/5

Only feature on here is "The Pasadena Three". A small behind the scenes the featurette where it talks about the casting and how Todd Phillips and the crew set up a website to find the actors for the film. Not really that great. Extra gets a .5/5.

Overall: 3/5

If it wasn't for the few laughs that I had here and there throughout the film, the rating would be much lower. This feels like a recent Asylum film where it's a found footage film. You'd think that if you had a film produced from Todd Phillips who directed The Hangover, you'd get a better film. I only paid $4 for this on Black Friday. Don't pay more than that for this film. 3/5.

Other Side of the Game (2009)

Movie: .5/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: .5/5
Overall: 2/5

"Were They Trying to One Up 'The Room' ?"

Movie: .5/5

I sat through this movie hoping for something coherent. Characters come and go and the plot is all over the place. Seriously, actors show up for one scene and are pretty much never seen again. Tony's best bud, Stephen, steals a bunch of drugs and is then murdered. Before the murder, Tony and Stephen fight and Tony tells him that he wants nothing to do with these drugs. Tony is then forced to sell the drugs to make the money back from the man who's drugs were stolen.

That's the movie. An hour and twenty-seven minutes of nothing. I don't know what the filmmakers were trying to do with this movie. I think they were trying to do a British version of Tommy Wiseau's The Room. Acting is bad and the characters are not interesting at all. Stephen's girlfriend is possibly cheating on him; two minutes later, it's nothing. Tony might have his business up and running; two minutes later, what business? Movie gets a .5/5.

Video: 3.5/5

This movie was sourced from a film transfer. In 1.85:1 with an AVC encode; It's not perfect and film damage pops up here and there. There is a nice layer of grain all throughout the film. It is a very nice layer of grain. However, some shots appear to be a bit soft; especially at around seven minutes into the film. Video scores a 3.5/5.

Audio: 3.5/5

Despite the fact that the cover advertises DTS-HD MA, the film contains a simple Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track. It sounds ok. Considering how quiet this film gets throughout, it's a good audio track. I had to pop this movie into my PS3 to get the audio information. There's no set up menu on this disc at all. Audio gets a 3.5/5.

Extras: .5/5

Just a trailer that is two minutes and ten seconds. And for that, the opening thirty seconds is two studio logos. You could cut that down to ten seconds total for those logos. Why waste that much time? Extras get a .5/5.

Overall: 2/5

I've seen some bad movies and this one is one for the books for me. It was hard to stomach. I paid $6 for this. I had never heard of this movie until last week while I was web searching on Amazon and found it. I looked it up on Blu-ray.com and saw that only one person had this in their database collection. I am sadly the second person. I wouldn't recommend this film unless you like bad movies. Honestly, Transmorphers is a better film than this. And that's saying something. This release gets a 2/5.

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.

Psycho Street (2011)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: 5/5
Overall: 4/5

"Lock Away Your Alien Daughters."

To quote Sid Haig who played Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses; "Do you like blood, violence, freaks of nature?" That is essentially how I felt after viewing this film. This is what you get with Psycho Street. Created and executive produced by Marv Blauvelt, this is like an independent and a hardcore version of the old school Creepshow films from the 1980's.

We start with Leyla who is played by Tiffany Shepis, a scream queen who has starred in numerous low budget horror films, is the attractive woman next door with a sinister secret. A couple has moved in next door, Austin Dossey as Casey and Raine Brown as Aubrie Harris. Leyla has all ready gotten her hands on Casey and Aubrie comes looking for him. Leyla lures her in and begins to tell her about the horrors of living in the town of "Kronenburg".

We segment into Hypochondriac. This story takes place at a doctor's office. Nurse Lovejoy, played by Raine Brown; hits on every backwards redneck and plans on bringing down the new doctor taking over the practice, played by Marv Blauvelt. We see a crazy old lady, Alan Rowe Kelly, who comes in and goes on about every illness under the sun. And the side plot to this short is that Nurse Lovejoy is fascinated by a lady who was abducted by aliens and is going to give birth to an alien. This crazed lady arrives in the office one day and that's what brings the whole short together.

In the next story, Anti-Bodies, a woman has her daughter tied and sells her to any and every man who can pay up. This is the one where you can kinda feel uncomfortable until we get to the twist which comes quickly. We get into a dark area with sadism and rape that is kinda comparable to A Serbian Film, until the twist. Without going too much into it; it's probably the sleaziest of the short stories in this film.

We go back into the story line of Leyla and Aubrie and Leyla's intentions are made clear. Aubrie is attacked and then thrown down into the basement where someone is hiding. Then we get into the final story, Lewis, about a woman, named Amanda, takes her daughter and goes to a small town. Once in the small town, the locals start to go a little crazy; as it is their "breeding season". We learn that the townsfolk worship some sort of demon and Amanda and her daughter is the key.

My thoughts on the film is simple; if this was made in the 1980's, this would be a classic. No doubt in my mind. Raine Brown stole the show and I think she will probably go far in the business and is highly under-rated as an actress. I looked her up on the IMDB and she's got dozens of titles since the year 2000. The other person who stood out is the person who created all of this, Marv Blauvelt. His role as Dr. Combs in Hypochondriac is probably one of the best doctor roles I have seen. Tiffany Shepis is in the film for probably about ten to fifteen minutes and she looks great. She could probably lure me in and hack me up and throw me in the basement too. I give the film a 7/10.

Video: 3.5/5
Presented in 1080p, 1.78:1, MPEG2, and encoded at 13.12 GB; the transfer for Psycho Street sports an odd transfer. If I understood this correctly from the commentary, this was not all shot at once, so some of this must have been shot with different cameras at different points in time. The footage with Tiffany Shepis and Raine Brown looks crisp and great. Hypochondriac has a bit of a rougher look to it, I cannot put my finger on it. Anti-Bodies looks good, there's a lot of digital manipulations to the video in that short, as well with Lewis. It could be worse, but, since this was all shot on HD equipment, it looks good. I give it a 3.5/5.

Audio: 4.5/5
The film only has a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. It sounds good and it does it's job well. Sound effects sound great and most of the dialogue is clear. Some of the dialogue sounds a bit muted, or it could be how it was recorded during the Tiffany Shepis scenes. I give the audio a 4.5/5.

Extras: 5/5
There is not much in terms of extras; we have a commentary track, trailers, and an acting class. The commentary shows how much they all had fun making the film. Make references to other films and at one point, during Anti-Bodies, how some people can compare that to A Serbian Film. Marv Blauvelt talking about where the inspiration comes from for his portrayal of Dr. Combs and the whole premise for Hypochondriac. The trailers which is listed just as "Farmer's Daughters Trailer". It has the trailer for that film, as well as advertising that it is part of another anthology film called "Closed Casket".

Finally, you have the "Muscle Wolf Acting School". This centers around Marv Blauvelt talking to everyone about acting with testosterone. And this is where you can really appreciate everything, it's that they don't take themselves seriously. When Marv does the "pop quiz" and asks about steroids on the question, that's when it's like; "They're all having fun making movies". I give the extras a 5/5.

Overall: 4/5
This is an entertaining disc and I felt was worth the $20. I was surprised that my copy was personally autographed by Marv Blauvelt himself. This group has gotten some great talent in hand with their production on Psycho Street as well as having Michael Berryman with Closed Casket. I think what will make this group go far is that they can joke about themselves while being serious. I give this disc a 4/5.

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.

Godzilla Vs Biollante (1989)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 3.5/5
Overall: 4.5/5

"Godzilla's 17th Outing."

Godzilla Vs Biollante, the seventeenth outing of Japan's biggest monster, makes it's way to the U.S. on Blu-ray for the first time since it's original VHS release in 1992 by HBO Video for Miramax, pre-Disney buyout. After the events in the 1984 reboot, Godzilla (or Godzilla 1985 to us in the States); Godzilla is reawakened after a Middle Eastern terror cell and a group known as "Bio-Major" blow up Mt. Mihara. Which is where he was sucked into at the end of the last film. At the same time, a mad scientist takes Godzilla cells and mixes them with the DNA of a rose and accidentally creates a giant monster named Biollante. The first incarnation of Biollante is in the form of a beautiful rose but with some nasty vines with Godzilla-esque jaws. Biollante is quickly defeated and burned up by Godzilla's heat ray. Biollante returns in a deadlier form ready to take on Godzilla and save Japan.

I remember being about four years old whenever I saw this, probably around 1993. This was the first Godzilla film I saw in it's original aspect ratio as HBO presented all VHS copies of this film in 1.85:1. A rarity as most Godzilla films were presented in their hacked up 1.33:1 crops. What I love about this film is that this is like Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla in a way, we have a monster that is Godzilla-esque. Especially when we have the final form of Biollante going up against Godzilla, it's DNA really makes it close to Godzilla. I give the film a 5/5.

Video: 4/5
The video source is the Toho remaster from 2008. Which is amazing that both Echo Bridge and the horrible Media Blasters can get their hands on the Japanese prints as opposed to being handed the international prints by Toho. My biggest complaint about this restoration is that since this is the Japanese remasters, it has Japanese subtitles burned into the video for whenever the film has English dialogue. The overall image is soft; it doesn't hurt the detail at all in the image. There is some slight compression that is noticeable when there's smoke, but only if you are looking for it. 4/5.

Audio: 5/5
We have three audio tracks present on the disc; Japanese 5.1 DTS-HD MA; Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0; and English Mono Dolby Digital 1.0. For an old English Mono track that seems that it's sourced from a VHS tape, it's passable. The Japanese DTS-HD MA track is beautiful. I believe this is the remixed audio created back in the early 2000's. The 2.0 Japanese track sounds ok. I give it a 5/5.

Extras: 3.5/5
We have about an hour of bonus material, presented in SD. This making of was presented on the Thai DVD that I own, so I have seen it before. It contains behind the scenes footage as well as deleted scenes. Then we have concept models made for what Biollante was originally supposed to look like. There was like three or so designs that we had on it. It's pretty amazing. I give the extras a 3.5/5.

Overall: 4.5/5
For us Godzilla fans, this is a no brainer, considering that it's going for $7.99. This Blu-ray is amazing and is a must own. We got the same restoration as Japan got and for a fraction of the price that it goes for over in Japan. I give this release a 4.5/5.