One inexpensive way to find out: Mill Creek Entertainment’s release of “Heroes of the Old West.” Let’s run the numbers: For less than $10, you get almost 22 hours of material on four DVDs. That’s 10 feature films, 20 television shows and, hopefully, one happy camper. With the exception of John Wayne in 1963’s “McLintock!,” […]
DVDs
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Supernatural: The Anime Series
The storyline remains the same: brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki, who reprises his role for the anime) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles, who voices only a few episodes) travel the country in their ’67 Chevy Impala, encountering monsters, spirits and other paranormal activity along the way. They ain’t ‘fraid of no ghosts. The actors and series […]
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Bio-Dead
However, it takes literally 32 minutes for anything of significance to happen. Until then, it’s just a bunch of disembodied voices, belonging to faces you mostly don’t see, talking about the importance of gloves and masks like they’re stockers at Party Galaxy on the last week leading up to Halloween, as they amble about empty […]
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The Death of Andy Kaufman
In his effort to prove or disprove the rumor that the outré comedian faked his own death in 1984, director Christopher Maloney’s aim is true, but hampered by budgetary restraints. A great deal of Kaufman’s act hinged on pulling the wool over his audience’s eyes, so it’s no unreasonable for people to assume — as […]
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Turbulent Skies
While the disaster-movie craze of the 1970s and its rebirth in the late 1990s are long behind us, you wouldn’t know it with writer/director Fred Olen Ray’s take, which may as well as have been titled “Turbulence 4.” (Yes, two sequels to “Turbulence” actually got made.) Consider this: An airplane’s maiden flight controlled by new […]
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Cracks
While she’s attracting attention on Starz’s hit series “Camelot,” the public should also follow her to this low-key thriller. She plays Miss G, a teacher at an out-of-the-way British boarding school for girls in the 1930s. Amid an otherwise old-maid faculty, her youth and beauty make her popular among the students. On the surface, she’s […]
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The King of Fighters
In “Fighters,” three ancient artifacts — a sword, a shield and a chain-metal necklace that looks like Red Sonja’s thong — combine to unleash energy that opens a gateway to another dimension where characters compete in underground fighting tournaments to become the King of Fighters. There, logic and physics are on hold, tunnels are awash […]
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Within / The Dead and the Damned
In “Within,” the premise is that grade-school girl Rachel (Mia Ford, a veteran of TV’s “Barney”) sees dead people — or, rather, the evil spirits that lurk in the heart of man. Moving to a new city with her dad (Sam Jaegar, “Lucky Number Slevin”) following the senseless murder of her mother (Elaine Hendrix, TV’s […]
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13 Assassins
And this is the same man who made “Audition”? Yes, but don’t worry: He just saves most of it for the second half. Rest assured, heads will roll, literally. See the film for its visuals, not for its story. Martial arts films rarely are imbued with much in the way of plot, and this one […]
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Arthur
As “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” proved, he’s only good in small doses; as “Get Him to the Greek” proved, he’s downright grating in large ones. Taking over Dudley Moore’s iconic, Oscar-nominated title role, Brand seems not to have undergone any great stretch to portray a rich, spoiled, drunken, promiscuous man-child. We’re asked to laugh at his […]