If you’re still reeling from the sudden death of music icon Prince at the age of 57, Warner has made three of his banner vanity films available for collectors. While the discs are compiled together in a very slim and deluxe boxed set, Warner also makes a lot of bells and whistles available to Prince fans, including a treasury of his music videos from “Purple Rain” and his other films. Even if you’re a Prince fan you have to admit that collecting his trio of films is purely approached from a fan standpoint. Critics and fans alike consider “Purple Rain” is absolute master work that fueled his popularity even more, while “Graffiti Bridge” and “Under the Cherry Moon” were critically derided flops that didn’t make an impact at all. Regardless you have to appreciate the inherent ambition behind Prince’s cinematic efforts.
The PC Thug: George Romero and The Blame Game
I should preface this rant by saying that I avoided making this article for a few days if only because I am a big Romero fan. I think Night, Dawn and Day of the Dead are brilliant masterpieces that should be analyzed by film students everywhere, while films like “Knight Riders” and “Creepshow” are pretty fantastic in their own right. Hell I’ve even ardently defended Romero at every turn, cheering on his efforts to make a “Resident Evil” movie, “Dead Reckoning,” and I’ve even defended “Land,” “Diary,” and “Survival of the Dead” despite being his lesser movies. But lately I’ve managed to come across an interview with George Romero who has decided to bring the whole house down with him despite someone who has offered films with diminishing returns. And what’s worse is some media outlets are pretty much enabling him.
The Fiancé (2016)
It’s rough around the edges here and there, but “The Fiancé” manages to be a unique idea that allows for some interesting moments of horror and drama altogether. I like how director Mark Allen Michaels turns transforming in to a monster in to something of a metaphor for how the relationship between our main characters is doomed to fail. Dallas Valdez plays Michael, a wealthy man who is on the verge of losing all of his money after criminal dealings with the Russian mafia. Convinced his beautiful wife Sara, as played by Carrie Keagan, will leave him, he invites her up to a cabin in the woods to propose to her. Meanwhile a Sasquatch is on the loose, murdering people and hunting down whoever gets in its way. We follow a documentary crew and a small group of hikers as they’re all injected in to the movie to transform the mythical beast in to a valid threat.
Fetish Factory (2017)
In the “Fetish Factory” every male client comes attached with his own fetish and arrives to the special mansion to watch some of the best and sexiest burlesque performers realize some of their weirdest fantasies. Director and writer Staci Layne Wilson delivers a horror comedy that’s admittedly rough around the edges but has enough charm and laughs to entertain audiences that enjoy a bit of kink with their zombie carnage. Carrie Keagan plays burlesque performer Bettie, a dancer at the Fetish Factory who takes on the persona of Bettie Page for her clientele and dances almost every night. After a mysterious wild storm takes hold of Hollywood, the walking dead begin swarming the Fetish Factory mansion, prompting the surviving dancers to fight off the hordes of flesh eating zombies.
Doctor Strange (2016)
I freely admit that I was skeptical until the very end that comic book fans would ever get a good or respectable movie about “Doctor Strange.” Some comics just don’t translate at all to the cinematic medium. Thankfully, director Scott Derrickson proves me wrong, providing a cinematic adaptation of “Doctor Strange” that’s very much its own superhero tale while also embedding itself as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Marvel spirit is in full force here, but the movie does take the source material seriously while subtly injecting a sense of whimsy here and there. “Doctor Strange” comes during a good time where movie audiences like some magic with their adventures, and Doctor Strange is that kind of fantasy movie for comic book fans that they’ve always wanted.
Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell (2016)
You can’t get anymore Halloween than teaming up Marvel’s monstrous Hulk alongside the Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange. On Halloween Night, demons begin wreaking havoc in New York City, prompting Doctor Strange to do everything he can to slay them and bring them in to his holding cell in his temple. Thankfully he calls upon the Incredible Hulk to help him, and Hulk is more than happy to oblige in stomping some demons. Little does Hulk know that the demons are manifestations of human victims that are being held hostage by the villainous Nightmare who has kept them held in their own dream plains. Strange ventures in to the dream dimension to save Bruce Banner when Nightmare begins using the Hulk to hurt Strange.
Dr. Strange (1978) (DVD)
The 1978 TV movie “Dr. Strange” is one of the many failed pilots for a potential series based on a Marvel comic. This is yet another of the many seventies pilot movies that didn’t just misunderstand the source material, but didn’t have enough of a budget to realize the concept of its characters. Dr. Strange is a man who battles demons and monsters, and uses his will to use magic. “Dr. Strange” looks like a supernatural version of “Quincy M.E,” following a Dr. Stephen Strange as he focuses his efforts on troubled patients in his hospital while accidentally entering in to the magical arts. The movie even goes so far as setting up the entire series with the beautiful Jessica Walter as the series’ primary antagonist, but the storyline is a big hint at a sequel that would never come. It’s probably a good thing since the pilot movie is ninety minutes and we only get to see Dr. Strange in full garb in the final half hour.