This is where I normally tell you that you should check out this week’s release of THE EYE in theaters this weekend, but actually… I’m going to tell you to live in the past. If you missed RAMBO last weekend, GO SEE IT this weekend. If you saw RAMBO already… go see it again! On DVD, we have the much anticipated LAKE PLACID 2 to drool over, as well as the big budget alien invasion movie THE INVASION. Killer robots (AUTOMATONS) and weird Italian horror (TRAGIC CEREMONY) wrap up the week in DVD. Will THE EYE be as good as Jessica Alba’s hot ass? I guess you may want to check it out this weekend and find out (after you see RAMBO).
THE EYE
Rated PG-13 for violence/terror and disturbing content.
Directed by David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Starring Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola, Parker Posey
Run Time: 1 hr. 37 min.
Sydney Wells is an accomplished concert violinist who has been blind since a childhood tragedy. Sydney undergoes a double corneal transplant, and her sight is restored. But Sydney’s happiness is short-lived as unexplainable shadowy and frightening images start to haunt her. Are they a passing aftermath of her surgery, Sydney’s mind adjusting to sight, a product of her imagination, or something horrifyingly real? As Sydney’s family and friends begin to doubt her sanity, Sydney is soon convinced that her anonymous eye donor has somehow opened the door to a terrifying world only she can now see.
LAKE PLACID 2
Rated: R
Starring John Schneider, Sarah Lafleur, Sam McMurray
Directed by David Flores
Run Time: 88 Min.
Years after two 30 foot prehistoric crocodiles are captured and killed in Maine, the local sheriff teams up with an EPA agent, a female Fish and Wildlife agent and a big game hunter, to kill four blood-thirsty offspring of the original killer crocs.
Rated: PG-13
Starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam
Directed by James McTeigue, Oliver Hirschbiegel
Run Time: 99 minutes
The Invasion tells the story of a mysterious epidemic that alters the behavior of human beings. When a Washington D.C. psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman) discovers the epidemics origins are extraterrestrial, she must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping the escalating invasion.
AUTOMATONS
Rated: UnRated
Directed by James Felix McKenney
Starring Christine Spencer, Brenda Cooney, Angus Scrimm
Run Time: 83 Minutes
Fresh off a limited theatrical release and shot in Robo-monstervision, a black-and-white retro style reminiscent of old television series and even older movies, AUTOMATONS is a tip of the hat to the imagination and humanity of shows such as The Outer Limits and One Step Beyond. The deceptively simple cinematography evokes a time before big-budget CGI–and thus a time when theme and content were more important than empty action and special effects.
The story focuses on a lone woman in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have been engaging in a futile war of competing philosophies and belief systems. Newcomer Christine Spencer stars as the Girl, who lives in a crumbling laboratory repairing outdated robots while fending off the destructive video beams of the Enemy Leader. Cult horror star Angus Scrimm (Phantasm) stands out as the Scientist who has seen it all.
TRAGIC CEREMONY
Rated: UnRated
Directed by Riccardo Freda
Starring Camille Keaton, Tony Isbert, Máximo Valverde
Run Time: 87 Minutes
An odd film from Italian Cult Gothic Horror director Riccardo Freda, starring Camille Keaton from I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE.