[IMG:L]Pop quiz. You’re either checking out your local video store’s new releases shelf or online adding to your rental queue when you come across a film that you never knew existed. Maybe its a so-called “busted theatrical.” Or a made-for-DVD sequel to a hit from 10 or 20 years ago. But it stars one of your favorite actors. What do you? Take a gamble and rent it anyway? Or decide not to throw good money after bad?
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Which is why we here at Hollywood.com want to help you make the right choice when it comes to watching a film that was sent straight to DVD or made to be watched in the comfort of your at home. Here are reviews of the Top 10 films to debut on DVD the past few months.
And click on this link to see Top 10 Highest-Profile Straight-to-DVD releases since 2006:
10. American Crude (1/2 star)
Cast: Rob Schneider, Ron Livingston, Michael Clarke Duncan and Jennifer Esposito
The Verdict: Where would Schneider be today if he weren’t Adam Sandler’s crony? Probably making more embarrassing misfires like this. On the night of his bachelor party, Schneider’s recovering alcoholic gets drunk, hooks up with a transsexual prostitute, and witnesses a cop killing. While lawyer Livingston gets up to some shady business, his wife makes a play for Schneider’s fiancée. Meanwhile, Esposito’s on the hunt for her rapist. This may seem rude and crude, but it’s never truly shocking. Or funny. Indeed, director Craig Sheffer only steps over the line when he focuses on a human trafficking subplot that no one but a sexual predator would enjoy. American Crude doesn’t offer any fascinating insights as to why men and women behave so badly, but it does confirm Schneider is nothing without Sandler.
DVD Features: Deleted scenes. [PAGEBREAK]
9. My Mom’s New Boyfriend (1 star)
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Meg Ryan, Colin Hanks and Selma Blair
The Verdict: Poor Meg. She’s obviously deluded herself into thinking that, at 46, she’s still the cute and flighty ingénue who brightened up When Harry Met Sally. She isn’t, not when she looks old enough to pass for Joan Rivers’ grandmother. Her relentless mugging in this tired romantic comedy–about a woman who unknowingly falls for suspected art thief Banderas–is agonizing to watch. Worse, she has no chemistry with an admittedly bored Banderas. That’s lethal for a romcom, especially one that’s flimsily built on lies, coincidences and communication breakdowns. That an embarrassed Hanks—as an FBI agent investigating Banderas—plays Ryan’s son should be a nice nod to Ryan’s onscreen dalliances with his dad Tom. Instead, his presence makes us pine for the days when Ryan’s romantic endeavors actually mattered to us.
DVD Features: Deleted scenes; The Third Degree: The Making of My Mom’s New Boyfriend featurette. [PAGEBREAK]
8. I Really Hate My Job (2 stars)
Cast: Neve Campbell, Shirley Henderson and Danny Huston
The Verdict: Even if Campbell’s willing to do anything to shed her “scream queen” image, it’s odd she would consider delivering her despondent waitress’ big speech while naked before a restaurant packed with diners. Director Oliver Parker probably intended this to literally and figuratively to show that Campbell’s baring her soul to us. But her nudity’s a distraction, so whatever she says about her pitiful life never registers. That’s not the case with the rest of the staff in this female Clerks set in a London restaurant. Their occasionally comical whining speaks volumes about the dissatisfaction that comes with such menial work. Still, when the restaurant closes, you’re not convinced that they’ll make good on their promises to better themselves, that they’ll be back tomorrow rehashing the same old complaints. Check, please.
DVD Features: Stills gallery. [PAGEBREAK]
7. Walk All Over Me (2 stars)
Cast: Leelee Sobieski, Tricia Helfer and Lothaire Bluteau
The Verdict: First Sobieski tormented 88 Minutes’s Al Pacino. Now she’s exacting more pleasure from other people’s pain by getting her S&M on. Fleeing from an abusive relationship, Sobieski goes to stay with her sister, dominatrix Helfer. Before you can utter your safe word, Sobieski’s putting on Tricia Helfer’s saucy outfits and barking orders at her sister’s clients. Rather than explore what compels someone to engage in such fantasy play, director Robert Cuffley concocts some hokey plot involving cash stolen from Bluteau’s nightclub. While her small-town girl is liberated by pretending to be someone she’s not, Sobieski appears uncomfortable walking all over the men she encounters. Battlestar Galactica’s Helfer, though, happily busts some Number Six-like moves while trussed in leather. In the end, though, they’re all dressed up with nowhere to go.
DVD Features: Comentary by director Robert Cuffley, Leelee Sobieski and Tricia Helfer; deleted scene; Behind the Scenes of Walk All Over Me featurette; outtakes; “Safety Word” music video; still gallery; theatrical trailer. [PAGEBREAK]
6. The Backwoods (2 ½ stars)
Cast: Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine
The Verdict: You know this is a vacation that’s going to end badly the second Oldman and Considine walk into a Spanish country pub and receive the evil eye from the locals. Soon these tourists are trying to save a feral-like girl from a family straight out of Deliverance. Director Koldo Serra takes his time getting things going so he can first explore the strained relations between Considine and his wife. But once the hostilities begin, Serra executes the bloody proceedings in a furious and brutal fashion. Oldman shows off his survival skills while Considine makes a convincing transformation from mild-mannered husband to killer. There’s nothing original about The Backwoods, but it succeeds in capturing the tension and viciousness of those 1970s Straw Dogs-ish showdowns between city slickers and slack-jawed yokels.
DVD Features: None. [PAGEBREAK]
5. Cleaner (2 ½ stars)
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Ed Harris and Luis Guzman
The Verdict: How the mighty have fallen. In the 1990s Renny Harlin scored big with Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2. Now his Cleaner’s been swept under the carpet. Too bad, as the director’s right when he claims during his colorless commentary that this intimate and absorbing thriller’s “more grown-up” than his usual bombastic nonsense. OK, so it’s not hard to guess who’s hired Jackson’s crime-scene cleaner to destroy all evidence of a murder before it’s reported to the police. But it’s always a pleasure to watch Jackson—working with Harlin for the third time—when he loses himself in his character. He’s mesmerizing as a neat freak with a dirty past. Cleaner may be predictable, but it reveals Harlin is a better director when he goes against his bigger-is-better nature and exercises great restraint.
DVD Features: Digital copy of the film; deleted scenes; commentary by director Renny Harlin. [PAGEBREAK]
4. Mama’s Boy (2 ½ stars)
Cast: Jon Heder, Diane Keaton, Jeff Daniels and Anna Faris
The Verdict: What would happen if Napoleon Dynamite decided not to leave home? The answer can be found in this unexpectedly enjoyable farce that finds the typically geeky 29-year-old Jon Heder still sponging off his mother. Then Diane Keaton falls for positivity guru Daniels, resulting in the inevitable Meet the Parents-style battle of wits between son and lover. Mama’s Boy is better than it sounds because Heder and Daniels make hilarious adversaries. They really knock each other senseless in order to capture Keaton’s heart and mind. The loopy Faris adds to the nonsense as a protester singer whose anthems include “Bed, Bath and Bullshit.” As entertaining as Mama’s Boy is, though, it proves without doubt that Keaton’s stuck in a rut playing overbearing mothers and Jon Heder’s nerdy act has grown old very fast.
DVD Features: Commentary by director Tim Hamilton; additional scenes. [PAGEBREAK]
3. Otis (3 stars)
Cast: Daniel Stern, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Pollak, Ashley Johnson and Bostin Christopher
The Verdict: The fourth Raw Feed bloodbath is torture porn played for laughs, a sign that the genre popularized by Saw is nearing irrelevancy. An appropriately man-childish Christopher is the balding, overweight thirty-something loser who kidnaps high school girls so he can act out his sexual fantasy of taking them to the prom. Only Otis doesn’t bank on his latest “date” (a sympathetic Johnson) escaping his clutches. Or her family (Douglas and Stern, both deliciously hammy) deciding to get medieval on his ass. While director Tony Krantz executes Otis with tongue firmly in cheek, he doesn’t skimp on the blood and gore that’s associated with the films he’s spoofing. And, in doing so, he offers a sidesplitting cautionary tale that will make you think twice about taking justice into your own hands.
DVD Features: Commentary by director Tony Krantz and writer Erik Jendresen; The Twisted World of Otis featurette; Suite 16, a home movie by Otis; alternate ending. [PAGEBREAK]
2. The Cottage (3 stars)
Cast: Andy Serkis
The Verdict: Serkis is a long way from Middle-earth in this dark British lark that midway through makes an abrupt transformation from crime caper to a Friday the 13th spoof. Everything that can go wrong goes when siblings Andy Serkis and Reece Shearsmith hold a mobster’s daughter (Jennifer Ellison, as saucy as she is busty) for ransom in a cottage far from anywhere. No matter, because then these bumbling kidnappers and their obnoxious victim run into a psychopath who could pass for Jason Voorhees’ meaner brother. While the plot shift is a little clunky, director Paul Andrew Williams has a blast poking fun at slasher-film conventions. The Cottage might not be as whip smart as Shaun of the Dead, but there’s more laughs and grisly goings-on than can be found any Scary Movie.
DVD Features: Deleted scenes; storyboard gallery. [PAGEBREAK]
1. Inside (3 stars)
Cast: Beatrice Dalle and Alysson Paradis
The Verdict: So this explains why Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury are in contention to direct the next Halloween. Inside trumps Frontier(s) and Them as the most perverse and frightening of the recent spate of French horror yarns. The premise is simple: Ms. Betty Blue wants Paradis’ baby. That’s terrifying in itself, but Bustillo and Maury aren’t going to let Paradis give birth. Dalle’s prepared to rip the unborn child out of Paradis womb. Yes, Inside is as sick as it sounds. And by confining the action to Paradis’ home, the directors makes Inside even scarier. That doesn’t mean it’s just the tenacious Paradis and the disturbed Dalle going one on one. Others try to stop Dalle, and the result is a weird, grisly but potent portrait of maternal instincts run amok.
DVD Features: The Making of Inside; theatrical trailer.
