So it’s a bit late this week but here are the pick of the new DVD releases…
The big one is Rambo. It’s dumb and very violent (very) but at about 80 mins manages to remain a very very guilty pleasure. As I mentioned in my original review the bad guys are the Burmese army and there ain’t so much jingoism so I’m not sure if that means it is any less reprehensible than part II and III (First Blood is untouchable) or if it has just swapped right wing chest beating for hypocritical ‘killing for peace’ to allow liberals like myself to enjoy the carnage – either way I doubt I’ll bother watching it again.
Next up is Christina Ricci vehicle Penelope. It’s about a girl that is cursed with a pig’s nose until she can find love. I hope someone finds her inner beauty and and steals her heart so that she loses her pig nose – the message being that looks don’t matter but when all is said and done no sane person is going to live with a freaky pig nose gal. You know, I know it and Hollywood knows that we know it (even if we pretend we don’t).
Couple of films that I’ll
be looking out for are Lars Von Trier’s latest The Boss Of It All in which a company hires an actor to pose as their boss and Thai reality TV horror Ghost Game (Laa Thaa Phii).
Guernsey residents might be interested to know that the WWII based Peter Sellers drama The Blockhouse is also out this week. Released in 1974, the film tells the story of a group of forced labourers who take refuge in a storage bunker during the D-Day bombardment of the French coat only to find themselves sealed in. Based on a true story (it is said that a couple of German soldiers emerged from such tunnels in 1951 after being similarly trapped) the film was shot in Guernsey in the Underground Hospital and at L’Ancresse. I saw this at CineGuernsey’s Liberation Day screening a couple of years back and can honestly say that although it is worth seeing, the ‘grim’ does not quite cover the overall feeling one is left with.
