DVD PotW: City of the Living Dead

Welcome back! Well, to some of you, anyway. To the rest of you, glad you decided to stop by and I hope this humble column helps you navigate the stacks of new releases each week. My goal is to point you toward titles of interest and warn you away from those films that seek to do nothing but leech away your time and give you nothing in return.



Full disclosure: I have not seen many of these titles, and what follows are not necessarily reviews, but opinions based upon what I know of the titles I pluck from the new release lists I peruse. The opinions I give based on the new releases are my own, and my recommendations are based on my personal interest. In any case, I hope you enjoy and perhaps find something you like or a title to point me towards.

City of the Living Dead (Blu-ray). When I saw this wa arriving on Blu-ray this week, I had to make it my pick for this week. Lucio Fulci delivers the nonsensical and the bizarre. City of the Living Dead builds a world without hope, where nothing is waiting for you but a gruesome death that you cannot escape. Faith in religion? Forget it, a priest started this mess, remember? Hope in an ancient book? Nope, you get a short time frame to stop it, but it is never enough time. This is all about the dead coming back, one way or another. The future is written and you are not going to like it. Tears of blood, maggot storms, skull cap removals, gut expulsion, this has all a gore hound and horror fan would want. I wonder how it is going to look in high definition?

The Road (also Blu-ray). Pretty much any other week this would have been number one. I mean, it is my favorite movie for 2009 after all. This movie is amazing, powerful, moving, depressing, and painfully realistic. When you watch this make sure to not have any sharp objects in the area. In a post-apocalyptic landscape a father and son are forced to survive anyway they can while trying to retain their humanity. It is a great film that not enough people saw on the big screen.

True Blood: The Complete Second Season (also Blu-ray). I want to see this series but as of right now I have seen none of it. I'm up for some quality vampire television. (and I do not mean Vampire Diaries.)

Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog (also Blu-ray). Somehow I have managed to avoid seeing this. I do not know how, but it must be rectified. Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, and Nathan Fillion? How have I not seen it?

Dear John (also Blu-ray). Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum star in this Nicholas Sparks adaptation. Youn love, a soldier who goes off to war, and I am fairly certain someone will die. It is Sparks, you know. I have not seen it, but I feel as if I have had my fill of Sparks.

Spartacus: 50th Anniversary Edition (also Blu-ray). "I am Spartacus!" Do you need a reason to own this title? I wonder how the transfer looks. I have heard tha some of these older films look spectacular in high definition.

Seven Swords (Blu-ray). Donnie Yen stars in this tale of legend. It is a good film that I have seen in DVD with great action and a variety of different swords. Definitely worth checking out if you like martial arts films.

Django (Blu-ray). Franco Nero stars in this old school spaghetti western. It is one of those titles I have been meaning to see for sometime but had not found the DVD. It is now here on Blu-ray, should make it somewhat easier to find.

Samurai Princess (Blu-ray). The cover art has me sold on this one. However, it sounds like a campy, bloody good time in Japanese movies, could go nicely next to the likes of Machine Girl. It is a revenge story of a girl left for dead rebuilt with parts of her friends and some mechanical elements who sets out on a quest to find those who would have killed her.

Class of Nuke'em High (Blu-ray). Troma Studios, low budget, science fiction, and high definition, how can you go wrong? Radiation in the future has changed the education system, take a step inside the changed halls.

Tromeo and Juliet (Blu-ray). Remember seeing this some 12-13 years ago and wondering what the heck I had just seen. It is seriously low budget and twisted take on the classic Shakespeare play. This is for a specific audience only. I think you know who you are.

This article was first published at Blogcritics.