Tag Archives: Foreign

Ultraseven: The Complete Series (DVD)

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Courtesy of Shout! Factory, Tsuburaya Productions iconic “Ultraseven” series from 1967 is available on DVD in a fully restored edition with all episodes present and accounted for. With subtitles options and a crisp picture and color scheme, “Ultraseven” is about as good as it’s ever been, a truly interesting and entertaining icarnation of Ultra Man that promises to keep audiences watching.

“Ultraseven” focuses on the Terrestrial Defense Force establishes the Ultra Guard, Earth’s six guardians who act as enforcers for the planet, protecting citizens from extra terrestrials and monsters with the use of high tech machinery and vehicles.

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Apocalypse of the Dead (2009)

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I don’t know why indie filmmakers are still under the delusion that referencing horror maestros in some form during your film is clever or cute. Granted, it worked to some effect in “Night of the Creeps,” and in a slight degree in “Final Destination,” but now every indie filmmaker who drudges up a zombie movie feels the need to reference George Romero or Tom Savini in some way. There is actually a character off-screen named Agent Savini. Come on, quit it. I’m surprised there wasn’t a Romero hospital by Fulci street and Nicotero Lane. Hey, that’s going in my screenplay! “Apocalypse of the Dead” basically combines “Assault on Precinct 13” with “Dawn of the Dead” and completely throws the shit in the fan.

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Primal (2010)

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primal11You would think a survivalist horror film about a group of campers fighting off monsters born from stagnant infected lake water would be material for a gripping and intense horror film. But you’d be wrong. In fact, most of “Primal” is quite tedious and rote. I wanted to be choked with tension throughout most of “Primal” and just found myself basically yawning and zoning out for the most part. I wish I could attribute it to being high, but I’m not one to get high. In either case, “Primal” is pretty derivative of Bava’s “Demons,” where anyone who ingests the tainted water find themselves transforming in to demonic beings in an instant.

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Truth or Die (2012) (DVD)

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Director Robert Heath creates a horror film that starts out like “Slaughter High” and ends like “Saw.” Basically, “Truth or Die” is a revenge film of the twisted kind where no one is truly just. In the end, it’s about despicable people hurting despicable people. As is the trend with most modern revenge tales, “Truth or Die” is about the destruction of revenge and how nothing is ever as it seems.

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0, 1, 2, 3, 1, 0 [Diligo Victum] (2010)

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Director Dick Jane is really succeeding in distinguishing himself from other indie filmmakers, and slowly he’s turning in to a filmmaker I’m looking for most times. While he’s not always a home run cinematically, he does opt for daring. And it comes through. With “Kiddy Kiddy Bang Bang” that was a film guaranteed to turn heads and even incense some people. His first short film “0, 1, 2, 3, 1, 0” is a short Bergman-esque meditation on a woman struggling with suicide.

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Ichi (2008)

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I guess you can refer to “Ichi” as part of the official Zatoichi canon since the story of Ichi is one the reflects the effect Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman had on the people of Japan during his travels. Though not a remake or a reboot of the Zatoichi series, “Ichi” is an unofficial spin off that takes from the film series and creates its own branch off of an epic story about a beautiful young Goze who is taking a journey to find her savior before finally lying down to die. Haruka Ayase is incredibly beautiful and fierce as the Goze Ichi who spends most of her life wandering around from village to village trying to survive one more day while on a search for something in her life that’s kept her motivated to fight ever since she was a child.

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The Raid: Redemption (2012)

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aKQ3mKlI said goddamn. If action movie buffs were concerned that the action genre was dying on its bed, then director Gareth Evans just stabbed it in the heart with adrenaline and revived it for a new audience. “The Raid Redemption” courtesy of Indonesia is one of the most frantic and ballistic action films I’ve ever seen, and director Gareth Evans delivers an action movie buffet of kicks, punches, and gashes that will leave audiences pumping their fists anxiously from beginning to end.

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