Beijing Punk

It’s been a long time since punk music mattered in America. Like rap, it’s been commercialized, homogenized and packaged to sell to white kids in suburban malls. So it’s a relief to see the sound – and the stand – of honest punk music is alive and well in, of all places, Beijing, China. Director Shaun M. Jefford didn’t know he’d find it when the film started. He made the mistake of first going to the malls and the punk clothing stores to ask the people who wore the fashion what they thought of the music, but the blank stares he got in response told him he was heading in the wrong direction. That’s when he stumbled on a nightclub called D-22 that serves as ground zero for the real punk music movement and the film takes off. If you like this kind of music, watch it with a pad and paper handy so you can write down the names of bands and hunt for them online. Chances are they won’t get visas to play at a club near you in the near future.

Vamps

If this was the movie Alicia Silverstone and director Amy Heckerling made after they retooled Jane Austin’s Emma into critical and commercial gold with Clueless in 1995, it could have been a big hit … or at least made it into theaters. It’s the story of two young vampire chicks trying to make a life…or at least an existence…for themselves in the big city. It’s not as easy as it sounds, despite their decades of experience, particularly since they are vampires who refuse to kill people, sustaining themselves on rats and other vermin. Things get even more complicated when Goody (Silverstone) falls in love with a descendent of the original vampire killer, Van Helsing. It’s not frightening at all, but there are a few good laughs to be found, and it’s fun to watch Silverstone be ditzy, even if she’s a bit long in the tooth to pull of the cutesy act.

Dust Up

After seeing the horrors of war close-up, all Jack (Aaron Gaffey) wants to do is live a peaceful life in the desert hanging out with his Native American friend Mo (Devin Barry) drinking beer and doing yoga. His dreams of an uncomplicated life are shattered when a chance meeting with a young mother (Amber Benson) leads Jack down a path of bloody revenge. Writer /director Ward Roberts must have spent a lot of time watching grind house movies as a kid, because he perfectly captures the essence of the exploitation genre, combining gut wrenching violence with many mighty belly laughs. The story is twisted, to be sure, and it’s tempting to hit the stop button once the crazed bar owner/drug dealer Buzz (Jeremiah Birkett) starts spinning out of control. But if you make it though the disgusting scene with Buzz in the sheriff’s car, you’ll make it through the entire film, and have a hell of a ride along the way.

Dreamworks Holiday Classics

Alex the Lion and his fellow animals accidently shoot Santa out of the sky and have to take his place in the sleigh. Shrek, an ogre who never celebrated the holiday season before, needs his friends to show him what Christmas is all about. Hiccup the Viking discovers there’s a special reason all the dragons have flown away from their island home. As with all the repackaged Dreamworks Holiday shorts, the best thing about the trio of Christmas stories in this set is hearing the original voices recreate the characters that made the original feature films such big hits. Of the three, it is the one about the dragons, Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury, that works the best, thanks to a strong script and some dazzling imagery. The Merry Madagascar feature is fun, as is the bonus feature, The Penguins in a Christmas Caper. The Shrek adventure, Shrek the Halls, is a bit tired.

The Astonishing X-Men Blu-ray Collection

The most frustrating thing about the four X-Men stories in this set was the way they were originally released. You’d watch Gifted, the story of a doctor discovering a controversial ‘mutant cure.’ You’d be thrilled at the story, written by Josh Whedon, and blown away by the art work from John Cassaday. Then you’d be stuck for months waiting for the next chapter in the story of The Astonishing X-Men to hit stores. Now you can get the whole set – Gifted, Dangerous, Torn and Unstoppable – and watch them they way they should be watched, back-to-back on the biggest television screen you can find. If you already have the original releases, you may want to check this out, if only for the special features. If you don’t know about them or didn’t watch them because of the motion comic animation style the stories are told with, then give it a chance. The visuals fit perfectly with the story and the voice acting is top notch. It’s a real treat.

Brave

A young Scottish princess with an independent streak as fiery as the wild main of red hair that swirls around her head finds her world threatened when her mother, the queen, announces that the first born males of three neighboring clans will soon be arriving to battle for her hand in marriage. Rather than submit to the traditional ways, the princess decides to stand up for herself and, through her actions, for all young women everywhere, be they princesses, commoners or just little girls sitting out in the audience watching this delightful Pixar movie. If you think you’ve heard it all before or imagine you know how the story will precede, then get ready to be thrilled. Just when Brave seems to be following the usual fairy tale story of the youthful fight for true love, the plot takes an unexpected turn that leads you on an wild and wonderful journey. What that journey is, however, must not be spoiled in the pages of a review. It has to be experienced.

Pixar Short Film Collection Volume 2

Along with giving the world some of the best animated movies ever made, the fine folks at Pixar Entertainment have delighted fans with the addition of a separate short film as a prelude to the feature presentation. This excellent collection gives them a chance to stand on their own, which is both good and bad. The good comes when the creative teams at Pixar think outside the box to create a beautiful work of art, like they do with La Luna, the story of a young boy learning the family business, in this case catching falling stars to light the moon at night, or Presto, the tale of the rabbit getting his revenge on the magician who pulls him out of a hat every night. The bad comes when the films feel like little more than outtakes from or commercials for hit movies with established characters. Watching Toy Story’s Ken and Barbie go on their honeymoon in Hawaiian Vacation is amusing, but it doesn’t have the depth of story – or of art – that the more original pieces have. Still, even at its most complacent Pixar films are miles beyond the competition.