The Big White
The Big White is about how a plan to capitalize on your dead brother can go wrong. It’s kinda painful to see the interesting work that Robin Williams was doing in the last decade of his life. He had the star power to attract other talent and his name could movies greenlit. But, that was nearly 15 years ago and now we’re stuck in a world of franchises. Life sucks sometimes.
Boogie Boy
Boogie Boy is a Mark Dacascos movie. Being as that I’m not Vern, I’m not even going to attempt to pretend that I can speak as an expert on the man’s work. I liked him in the new John Wick and that’s about my grand take. This film is fascinating because it’s one of those Roger Avary films that got made after his juice from Pulp Fiction was starting to peak. It’s a fun crime/redemption/drug conflict movie. However, I don’t get the cult status it has picked up along the way.
Beer League
Beer League is Artie Lange’s third best film. The first two being Dirty Work and well, I don’t know how to finish that statement. If you were a fan of Stern during the Artie years, you’ll remember Beer League as the film Artie worked on during the first year off terrestrial radio. Sal loved it, then hated it. The rest of America casually ignored it.
While it’s not going to reinvent the wheel, the film is workable enough when compared to other comedies of that ilk. Hell, Ralph Macchio low-key turns in an amazing performance. I really wish that Lange and Frank Sebastiano teamed up to do more films. Something tells me in the era of Netflix, the duo could be cleaning up ala Adam Sandler’s online distro deal.
The Blu-ray is kinda stacked with special features. You get a short film, featurettes, interviews and more. Plus, it’s actually funny. That shouldn’t be a selling point for a comedy, but nowadays it is.
Bachman
Bachman is a documentary taking a look at the great Randy Bachman. The film covers his time with the Guess Who to the powerhouse performances of Bachman-Turner Overdrive. While most of the talking heads praise him as a pioneer in Canadian music, I’m just here for the performances. The bonus footage was pretty fun, but the trailer seemed misframed. Oh well, I still appreciate special features on indie releases.
Mortuary
Mortuary is later era Tobe Hooper horror. While that doesn’t exactly make horror fans stand up, it’s still worth a watch. If there were a few edits, I could see turning this film into a PG-13 scare tale for teenagers. It’s very youth friendly and the gore/reveals are minimalist to a fault.
Half of the time, it feels like the film ran out of money and it was speeding to a conclusion. I enjoyed having the commentary with Tobe Hooper. It’s nice to hear the old horror master’s voice again.