They call this week ‘dump week’ when it comes to summer movies… with BABYLON A.D. hitting theaters, you can see why. Not that I think it’ll be bad, but Fox sure it treating it like it will. On DVD, we have the awesome return of Jack Skeleton in THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, the fourth entry in the PHANTASM series, and the class grindhouse exploitation film, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. They don’t call these the dog days of summer for nothing!
SLAUGHTERING THEATERS THIS WEEK
BABYLON A.D.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some sexuality.
Starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Melanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson
Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
Run Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
It is the not-too-distant future. Thousands of satellites scan, observe and monitor our every move. Much of the planet is a war zone; the rest, a collection of wretched way stations, teeming megalopolises, and vast wastelands punctuated by areas left radioactive from nuclear meltdowns. It is a world made for hardened warriors, one of whom, a mercenary known only as Toorop, lives by a simple survivor’s code: kill or be killed. His latest assignment has him smuggling a young woman named Aurora from a convent in Kazakhstan to New York City. Toorop, his new young charge Aurora and Aurora’s guardian Sister Rebeka embark on a 6,000 mile journey that takes them from Eastern Europe, through a refugee camp in “New Russia,†across the Bering Straight in a pilfered submarine, then through the frozen tundra of Alaska and Canada, and finally to New York. Facing obstacles at every turn, Toorop, the killer for hire, is tested like never before, in ways he could never have imagined–as he comes to understand that he is the custodian of the only hope for the future of mankind. For the first time in his life, Toorop has to make a choice: to make a difference or walk away and save himself. Too bad it came on the day he died.
SLAUGHTERING STORES THIS WEEK
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: COLLECTOR’S EDITION
Rated: PG
Starring William Hickey, Edward Ivory
Directed by Henry Selick
Run Time: 76 Min.
Now digitally restored and remastered with state-of-the-art technology, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Collector s Edition is deeper, darker and more brilliant than ever as Tim Burton originally envisioned. Can Christmas be saved? Bored with the same old scare-and-scream routine, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, longs to spread the joy of Christmas. But his merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere!
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PHANTASM IV: OBLIVIAN
Rated: UnRated
Starring Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm
Directed by Don Coscarelli
Run Time: 90 minutes
The Sequel With Balls… Now Loaded With Extras! Writer/director Don Coscarelli reunites A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Bill Thornbury and Angus Scrimm for the final shocking chapter of the most unique series in horror movie history! As The Tall Man’s unholy harvest reaches its crescendo, Mike, Reggie and Jody will converge across portals of time and dimensions of the undead to uncover his startling secrets. Flying spheres will be unleashed. Ice cream vendors will reload. But will the ultimate nightmare end where it all began? The final game now begins in this decisive sequel that Digitally Obsessed calls “a superb conclusion…one of the most rewarding films in the series!”
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CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST
Rated: UnRated
Directed by Ruggero Deodato
Starring Luca Barbareschi, Robert Kerman, Salvatore Basile
Run Time: 96 Minutes
A New York anthropologist named Professor Harold Monroe travels to the wild, inhospitable jungles of South America to find out what happened to a documentary film crew that disappeared two months before while filming a documentary about primitive cannibal tribes deep in the rain forest. With the help of two local guides, Professor Monroe encounters two tribes, the Yacumo and the Yanomamo. While under the hospitality of the latter tribe, he finds the remains of the crew and several reels of their undeveloped film. Upon returning to New York City, Professor Monroe views the film in detail, featuring the director Alan Yates, his girlfriend Faye Daniels, and cameramen Jack Anders and Mark Tomaso. After a few days of traveling, the film details how the crew staged all the footage for their documentary by terrorizing and torturing the natives. Despite Monroe’s objections, the television studio Pan American still wishes to air the footage as a legitimate documentary. In order to change their minds, Monroe shows the station’s executives the film’s final reels, so they could see first hand how the crew’s fate came to be.
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