[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 it’s 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 direct-to-DVD prequels and sequels released since July.
And click on this link to see Top 10 Direct-to-DVD Premieres: June 2008
10. Get Smart’s Bruce & Lloyd: Out of Control (1 out of 5 stars)
Cast: Masi Oka, Nate Torrence, Jayma Mays and Larry Miller
The Verdict: The running joke in this short but hardly sweet Get Smart spinoff is that Control’s underchief (Miller) can’t tell lab tech Bruce (Heroes’ Oka) from Lloyd (Torrence). And that’s the problem with Bruce and Lloyd—they’re the same unfunny, personality-free technogeek. Together, these interchangeable nonentities don’t even make one Q, and that means there’s not much fun to be had watching them cause havoc while out in the field. But, as this sorry excuse of a standalone story runs concurrent to the events in Get Smart, our heroes are the only Control operatives available to retrieve the invisibility cloak they invented and subsequently lost to an enemy agent. Anne Hathaway actually phones in a cameo, but Steve Carell makes the smart decision to let Bruce and Lloyd go it alone.
DVD Features: Bruce & Lloyd’s Confessional, Cut the Anti-Follicular, and Bruce & Lloyd Tech featurettes.
NEXT: Rapper/actor The Game Gets Rich the Hard Way
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9. Belly 2: Millionaire Boyz Club (1 out of 5 stars)
Cast: The Game and Shari Headley
The Verdict: Belly served no other purpose than to help rappers DMX and Nas go Hollywood. This unrelated sequel finds The Game trying to carry his own film after appearing in Street Kings. Sure, The Game’s got attitude to spare, but not much else as he assumes the familiar role of a recently released convict forced to return to a life of crime. He sadly tries to sell himself as a threatening presence by grimacing at all times, even when seducing undercover cop Headley. But when he opens his mouth, and mumbles his clichéd street-tough dialogue, he sounds as soft as silk. He’s Mike Tyson with a gun. If that isn’t bad enough, director Ivan Frank executes everything from shootouts to love scenes in awfully slapdash fashion. LAX this off your list.
DVD Features: None.
NEXT: Wargames Without Matthew Broderick
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8. War Games 2: The Dead Code (2 out of 5 stars)
Cast: Matt Lanter, Amanda Walsh and Colm Feore
The Verdict: No, an older Matthew Broderick is not back to take on an upgrade WOPR. Instead, Lanter finds himself in another Disaster Movie when a government spyware program labels his high school hacker a terrorist threat. And so history repeats itself as a second self-aware supercomputer goes haywire, forcing Professor Stephen Falken (Gary Reineke, replacing John Wood) to again come out of seclusion and help save the world. Given the advances in technology in the past 25 years, you would think some effort would be made to deliver an innovative WarGames sequel. But, as director Stuart Gillard moves things along slower than a dial-up Internet connection, The Dead Code reveals itself to be more remake than sequel. How dull it is to play WarGames when you can predict every move coming.
DVD Features: Commentary by Matt Lanter and director Stuart Gillard; The Making of Wargames: The Dead Code featurette; and Text/Photo Galleries.
NEXT: Wesley Snipes Masters Art of War…Again
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7. The Art of War II: Betrayal (2 out of 5 stars)
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Athena Karkanis and Lochlyn Munro
The Verdict: Snipes hasn’t had a film open in theaters in years. But is anything more embarrassing than having to make a sequel to a flop? Not that Snipes’ sharp-dressed, emotionally withdrawn Neil Shaw—last seen faking his own death—bears any resemblance to the meat-and-potatoes U.N. operative of the first film. He also has not learned anything from his past experiences, as he’s again framed for the murder. Director Josef Rusnak offers a fistfight here and some gunplay there, but everything is done on such a small scale that it’s evident he’s working with a budget that wouldn’t even cover the catering costs on The Art of War. Even the politics behind Betrayal seem trivial. The shame of it is, unlike Steven Seagal, Snipes doesn’t deserve being trapped in direct-to-DVD oblivion.
DVD Features: Alternative Fight Scenes.
NEXT: The Lost Boys Are Back–and They Are Damned Thirsty
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6. Lost Boys: The Tribe (2 out of 5 stars)
Cast: Tad Hilgenbrink, Angus Sutherland, Autumn Reeser and Corey Feldman
The Verdict: Cry little sister—the Lost Boys are back and they’re damn thirsty. This belated sequel to Joel Schumacher’s influential teen-oriented vampire yarn finds Feldman’s Edgar Frog looking to drive a stake through Sutherland’s heart. Yes, this is Keifer’s younger half-brother, and he’s pitifully anemic as a bloodsucking surfer dude with an eye for Reeser. Director P.J. Pesce tries his best, but The Tribe looks and feels like every other pale imitation of The Lost Boys made since 1987. A croaky Feldman’s clearly having fun picking up from where he left off, but if you want a Frog Brothers reunion, you’ll going to have to check out the deleted scenes. As for the other Corey, the end credits include a scene with Haim that suggests a third Lost Boys is forthcoming.
DVD Features: Lost Boys: The Tribe Action Junkies and Edgar Frog’s Guide to Coming Back Alive featurettes; Alternative Endings; and Music Videos.
NEXT: Little Mermaid Starts at the Beginning
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5. The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning (3 out of 5 stars)
Voice Cast: Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Jim Cummings and Sally Field
The Verdict: Who would have guessed it, but that sweet little mermaid Ariel possessed a rebellious streak long before she swapped her tail for a pair of legs so she could hook up with Prince Eric. This prequel follows Ariel’s efforts to persuade her grieving father King Triton to overturn a ban on music being played in Atlantica. That’s all well and good, except the songs sung in secret are unmemorable by Disney’s standard. And, sadly, Ariel’s new nemesis, Field’s unremarkably voiced villainess Marina Del Ray, is no Ursula. Adequately animated, and briskly told by director Peggy Holmes, Ariel’s Beginning is a cut above the likes of The Return of Jafar. And that should be enough for the kids who love nothing better than taking a dip with everyone’s favorite redheaded mermaid.
DVD Features: Deleted Scenes; Disney Song Selection; Mermaid Discovery Vanity Game; and Splashdance, The Little Mermaid: Under the Sea; and Behind-the-Scenes on Broadway featurettes.
NEXT: One Badass Scorpion King
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4. The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (3 stars)
Cast: Randy Couture, Michael Copon and Karen David
The Verdict: With The Rock too busy these days courting family audiences, this prequel to his Mummy spinoff finds former Power Ranger Michael Copon inheriting the role of the future Scorpion King. Resident Evil: Extinction director Russell Mulcahy turns back the clock to tell how a young Mathayus avenged his father’s death. Copon lacks Johnson’s charisma and comedic timing, so it’s unlikely the franchise will do for him what it did for The Rock. And mixed martial artist Randy Couture, as Mathayus’ archenemy Sargon, fails to live up to his nickname “The Natural” when it comes to acting. Mulcahy, though, keeps things moving at a furious pace, and the special effects look better than those in The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Thank goodness Mulcahy knows how to make a buck stretch.
DVD Features: Deleted Scenes; Gag Reel; and Becoming Sargon: One on One with Randy Couture and Fight Like an Akkadian: Black Scorpion Training Camp featurettes.
NEXT: One Badass Trooper Killing Bugs for a Third Time
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3. Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (3 out of 5 stars)
Cast: Casper Van Dien, Jolene Blalock and Amanda Donahue
The Verdict: From the cut of the arachnid-squashing Federation’s military uniforms to its tongue-in-cheek propaganda-style newscasts, director Paul Verhoeven was hardly subtle in his efforts to draw parallels between the militaristic society depicted in Starship Troopers and Hitler’s Nazi regime. Naturally, director Edward Neumeier’s surprisingly exciting and expensive-looking threquel equates the endless war on bugs to the continuing hostilities in Iraq. With the bugs bigger and nastier than ever, Neuemier wisely brings back the chiseled-jawed Johnny Rico (Van Dien) so he can rescue some stranded soldiers from a planet crawling with arachnids. Too bad it takes Neuemier forever to get to the much-anticipated showdown between the Marauders, who don RoboCop-looking battle suits, and the bugs. But as victory is nowhere in sight, expect the Marauders to suit up soon for another mission.
DVD Features: Evolution: The Bugs of Starship Troops 3: Marauder and Enlist: Marauder’s Mobile Infantry featurettes; Music Video; Commentary by Casper Van Dien, Jolene Blalock and writer/director Ed Neumeier.
NEXT: Hustlin’ with the “Cocaine Queen”
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2. Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with the Godmother (4 out of 5 stars)
The Verdict: Director Billy Corben takes a closer look at the life and crimes of Griselda Blanco, the most compelling of all the drug dealers profiled in Cocaine Cowboys. Corben, though, doesn’t rehash the trigger-happy Blanco’s involvement in Miami’s drug wars of the 1970s and 1980s. Instead, he shifts the action shifts from Miami to Oakland, Calif., as Corben grippingly details mid-level drug dealer Charles Cosby’s relationship with Blanco while she was imprisoned in California. Unfortunately, Corben doesn’t score an audience with the Colombian “Cocaine Queen,” who’s whereabouts are now unknown. Instead, Cosby reveals in unflinchingly fashion his riches-to-rags tale. He’s a colorful, engaging storyteller, so you’re hooked as he reveals how Blanco made him a millionaire, her boy toy, and an accomplice in a plot to kidnap John F. Kennedy, Jr.
DVD Features: The Making of Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with Charles Cosby featurette; Commentary by director Billy Corben and co-producer David Cypkin; Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery; Archival Photo Gallery; Art Gallery; and Deleted Scenes.
NEXT: Anime’s Gotham Knight Looks Way Cool
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1. Batman: Gotham Knight (4 out of 5 stars)
Voice Cast: Kevin Conroy, Jason Marsden and Gary Dourdan
The Verdict: It’s easy to lose count of the number of animated films and TV shows that have featured the Caped Crusader over the years. But the animé-influenced Gotham Knight serves an unusual purpose: it chronicles the events between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. During the course of six dark and twisted short films, we’re shown how Batman (voiced, as usual when in animated form, with an authoritative growl by Conroy) cleaned up Gotham City and inspired a new breed of criminal. Cue appearances by such villains as Deadshot, Killer Croc and Scarecrow, which helps explain Cillian Murphy’s Dark Knight cameo. The best short, though, is Have a Got a Story for You, which incisively deconstructs the public’s perception of the mysterious, brooding superhero. This is a Gotham Knight to remember.
DVD Features: Commentary by Kevin Conroy, Gregory Noveck Dennis O’Neil; A Mirror for the Bat: The Evil Denizens of Gotham City documentary; Batman and Me a Devotion to Destiny: The Bob Kane Story featurette; and four episodes from Batman the Animated Series.
