I had completely forgotten what a great little movie this was.  I haven't seen it I bet in over 10 years and watching it again, on Blu-ray none the less was nothing short of a great experience.

A true gem, UNCLE SAM tells the tale of one Sam Harper one feisty gulf war solider who sadly loses his life in a "friendly fire" incident.  Thing is, he ain't going down that easy.  His body is returned to his family back in the states but before they can get him buried he climbs on out of his casket, kills a local UNCLE SAM stilt walker, who just happens to be lurking around getting ready for the big JULY 4th celebration, steals his suit and mask and goes an a wild killing spree that is as disturbing as it is entertaining.

Written by genre legend Larry Cohen and directed by none other then William Lustig UNCLE SAM deserves to be placed high within the rankings of "cult classics" everywhere.

Explotation slasher cinema at its best and a definate "must have" addition to anyone's Blu-ray collection.

BLUE UNDERGROUND has done nothing short of a spectacular job on all these recent BLU-RAY releases that they have sent our way these last several months and UNCLE SAM just keeps the streak a rolling along.

The film looks great and sounds great as it comes to us in a brand spankin new remastered HD transfer from original negative materials and they have packed in some pretty fun special features:

Audio Commentary #1 with Director William Lustig, Writer Larry Cohen and Producer George G. Braunstein
Audio Commentary #2 with Director William Lustig and Star Isaac Hayes
"Fire Stunts" with Audio Commentary by Stunt Coordinator Spiro Razatos
Deleted Scene
Gag Reel
Theatrical Trailer
Poster & Still Galleries

Watch for some great little cameos from Isaac Hayes, Timothy Bottoms, PJ Soles and Robert Forster.

This JULY 4th, skip the lame fireworks display, run out and pick up this beauty of a Blu-ray and celebrate our Independence in a way only us horror fans can understand, celebrate it with UNCLE SAM!

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This probably isn't going to be a popular review.

For whatever reason the "horror community" and by "community" I mean the plethora of other horror sites out there have kind of stuck it to THE CRAZIES from the get go.  From the casting to the camera work I have read poor review after poor review of this ( in my humble opinion) one of the best films to come out of this whole remake craze we find ourselves mired in.

So I am here to sing it's praises.  I loved this movie. 

It just worked for me.  I remember watching the Romero classic (?) a long, long time ago and thinking, "what the hell?  This is from the same guy that did Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow? "  I just didn't get it.  It was dry and filled with INCREDIBLY boring dialogue and very little action or gore.

Proponents of the film will scream about its riveting political commentary of the time but you know what, I didn't really care about that, I wanted to see jaw dropping effects and blood, lots and lots of blood.  I didn't get turned onto Romero's THE CRAZIES until after some of his more modern masterpieces and to me THE CRAZIES was a step back.

But this remake, it kicks butt on just about every level.

It starts out quick and just ramps up from there. 

SPOILERS AHEAD - WATCHOUT!!!!

The film opens in the small town that is Ogden Marsh.  It's rural America at its best and a local baseball game is the center of attention.  Most of the town is thee including the town sheriff David Dutton played by Timothy Olyphant.  Suddenly one of the locals wanders into the outfield, shotgun in hand.  It's obvious something is wrong but the sheriff is just chalking it up to the dude being drunk.  Things escalate way to quick and before you know, the man is dead.

Things balloon rapidly from there and before you know it the government has arrived, the town is in quarantine and folks are being held in a concentration camp style lockdown.

Through a series of events Dutton's wife ends up being tagged as being infected and is hauled away to a "medical lab" that has been set up in the town school.  She's a doctor, she knows she is fine but still finds herself strapped to a gurney with a bunch of infected psycho's wandering around.

The film is taught with tension and suspense.  You don't know who to trust, who's infected, what's the government up too.

It makes for a real edge of your seat viewing experience.

Oh yeah, and they don't skimp on the blood.  Rob Hall handled the FX and they rock, they truly do.  I think Hall is probably the best FX dude on the scene right now and he really shines in this one. 

THE CRAZIES just kind of winds itself from one memorable scene to another.  Great stuff in the morgue, even better stuff in the school.  Some really messed up stuff at the truck stop.

Director Breck Eisner has a great eye for taking the mundane and making it creepy.  He does it throughout the film but all the while infusing enough heart into the film that we actually care what happens to those stuck in the situation. 

He's supposedly attached to a couple other horror remake projects (Escape from New York, The Brood) and based on what I'm seeing here I say, bring it on!!

And THE CRAIZES doesn't sell out at the end.  Sure, it leaves the door open for a sequel but it does it in a smart way without selling the story short.

I'm telling you, don't listen to the nay-sayers.  pick this bad boy up, strap in and enjoy.  It's a really fun ride and I highly recommend it.

Special feature wise, more goodness.

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I eagerly await any new work by BRIAN KEENE but I know, just like any author I follow eventually he's going to release one that I just don't connect with.  Well, THE CAGE isn't it. 

THE CAGE quite simply ROCKS!!

It's a short one, a novella actually and it can easily be read in an evening while the kids play and the wife watches prime time TV.  It's a simple  story told a hundred times over but in the hands of the greatness that is Keene it is once again transformed into mind numbing terror the likes of which you will not be able to forget.

THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS AHEAD so you may want to hold off if you're touchy about such things.

It's just another night at BIG BILLS ELECTRONICS.  Closing time is at hand and the nightly closing process is well underway.  Everything is as it always is, till the dude with the shotgun comes in.

Within a matter of mere seconds folks are dead and those that aren't find themselves knee deep in a shit pile that they could have never imagined.

At it's core the story is the good old "put a group of folks in a stressful situation and watch them self-destruct" tale but as only Keene cam do,  the story gets such a twist that you end up on the last page covered in sweat and mumbling to yourself. 

What basically transpires is our last minute door crasher takes a group of about 6 workers and locks them in THE CAGE.  Anyone who has ever worked anyplace that they sell small electronics (i-pods, digital cameras, etc) is probably familiar with THE CAGE.  It's quite simply a fenced in area where those items that can "walk off" are kept and only the manager on duty has access.

So, our baddie locks our group of workers up mumbling something about "needing six" and the game is on.  One by one he comes back and removes a hostage.  As the numbers in the cage dwindle the tension among those left ratchets higher and higher.  Of course, folks break down and things quickly deteriorate into the type of situation you would imagine.

Things start getting a little strange though when a buzz or hum or tone is heard by those that are left in the cage.  They quickly figure out that with each hostage that leaves, the noise gets louder.  Now they are not only scared shitless but they are massively freaked out.

In the end the truth about what's happening is revealed and lets just say that you'll never listen to static quite the same way again.

THE CAGE is a fantastic, fast paced, white knuckle ride into madness and I want to strongly urge you to CLICK HERE And head on over to the Cemetery Dance website and pre-order this great tale.

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On the surface this 2010 remake of the classic UNIVERSAL staple THE WOLFMAN appears to have it all going on.  Big stars, huge budget, one of the best make up artists in the world, you get the picture.

That is why I find it hard to believe that I am actually sitting here writing a review to let you all know that the film is just not that good.  Plain and simple.

When I look at the film in segments as opposed to a whole feature I find myself raving about it but when you put all those segments together and look at the film as a whole, it just don't work.

I know, it makes no sense.  I'm hoping that as I write this maybe it will all come to light, but don't hold your breath.

Of course, SPOILERS AHEAD SO STOP NOW IF YOU DON"T WANT TO KNOW IMPORTANT PLOT POINTS!

The film opens with a man being attacked in the foggy woods. 

We quickly learn that it is the brother of Lawrence Talbot, an actor who is asked to return to his family home by his brothers wife to help search for his brother.  Talbot reluctantly returns only to find that earlier that day his brothers body had been discovered and had been ravaged by some kind of wild animal.

Talbot has been at odds with his father (played by Anthony Hopkins) since he had Lawrence placed in an asylum as a child after breaking down having seen his mother killed, we see all this via flashback.

The family home has fallen into great disrepair over the years  and Lawrence is suspicious over his brothers death so he hangs around to investigate.  After a little sleuthing he discovers that a band of gypsies have been hanging around at the edge of town and some suspect has been cast that they may be involved with his brothers death.  He shows up at the camp, conveniently on the night of a full moon, just in time to witness a wolf like creature attacking the camp.  He goes after a child that runs into the woods in all the confusion and ends up getting himself bitten.

You can kind of figure out the middle of the film for yourself. 

Where things veer off a bit is when Talbot's father again has him admitted to the asylum, the same one he was at as a child and he is submitted to inhuman testing and one night while being used as a demonstration, of course during a a full moon, turns into the WOLFMAN in front of a group of witnesses, promptly kills a bunch of folks and escapes.  He heads back to the family home

He there discovers the truth about his family and a fiery battle ensues.  The ending is what you would expect.

Trying not to give away all the details but I think you get the idea of where this one heads.  It follows the Lon Chaney Jr. original close enough to be recognizable but makes enough changes, particularly at the end to stand alone as its own film.

I wish I could accurately put my finger on just why this film falls so short for me.  I don't know if it's pacing, cause this sucker drags like no ones business or just poor writing, I don't know.  I just don't all click.

I actually watched the disc twice. The first time I watched the unrated version, the second time I watched it with the U-CONTROL feature enabled.  It made the film more enjoyable.  It's kind of a POP UP VIDEO feature where videos and little graphic factoids pop up from time to time.  It greatly enhanced a so so film.

By all means I urge you to pick up this disc and judge for yourself.  It wasn't what I was hoping for but it might just turn out to be the one film you've been waiting your whole life for.  But I doubt it.

THE WOLFMAN Blu-Ray is out now.  The film is also available on DVD.  Here's all the specs for the Blu-ray disc:

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I think I liked it better when Vampires only stalked at night and could always be found in a coffin hidden in some dank dark basement.  Vampires today are just to accessible, to easy to find.

No longer creatures of the night.

The latest entry into the same vein (pun intended) as Tru Blood and dare I say Twilight is DAYBREAKERS.  It's the old "Vampires living among" us plot.  It's actually kind of getting used to death. 

DAYBREAKERS comes with some pretty heavy star power attached.  Ethan Hawke, Willem DaFoe and Sam Neal pack a pretty hefty punch and it's a good thing as the three of them pretty much carry the whole film.  Yeah, there's a couple of problems.

First up, what the hell is up with the washed out, blue tinted color scheme?  Ugh, it is like the whole film is just washed out.  I hate when film makers do this.  Just like Spielberg in MINORITY REPORT.  It just looks like they couldn't afford the good camera, in my opinion.  Enough of the artsy crap, just make a good flick.

The storyline is severely heavy handed playing off of many recent concerns.  Corporate greed, high unemployment, high violence,  the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.  You know the drill.  The story takes place in  2019 and almost the whole world population has been converted to Vampire.  This has caused a severe shortage of blood for all to feed on.  Along comes the evil corporate entity headed by Sam Neil, who secretly farms humans for their blood storing them in these huge facility's where folks are hooked up to what is the equivalent of a milking machine.  We kind of already seen something like this in one of the BLADE flicks. Don't remember which one but I know it was in one of them.

Ethan Hawke's character works for the evil corporation and secretly works at tying to come up with a blood replacement (Tru Blood anyone) to help feed the teaming masses. 

There are a couple of good FX moments but overall the film just comes across as another preachy, soapbox flick to allow a political point of view to be blasted at you but masked as entertainment.

Greed, corruption, treachery, hell I can get this on CSPAN. 

I guess that my biggest problem with DAYBREAKERS is just that it brings nothing new to the table.  It kind of grabs bits and pieces of some current popular Vampire projects ( Tru Blood, Twilight, Blade) and  puts a political thriller twist on it, throws in some poorly hidden references to today's financial and political theater, tints it blue and hopes we all buy it.

I wouldn't.

DAYBREAKERS comes to us from The SPIERIG BROTHERS, Michael and Peter whose film UNDEAD I really enjoyed.  They just really missed the mark for me on this one.  Technically the film is fine but I really found myself distracted to a point of not being able to enjoy the film with that annoying washed out blue tinting.  Guys, I don't know if that was your idea or not but next time someone suggests you add an artsy flare, turn and run.  I'm sure there is some political point that the tinting is supposed to represent but guess what, it don't work.  It just makes everything look blue.

It's always fun to watch Sam Neil do his thing and Ethan Hawke and Willem DaFoe bring their usual high caliber A game.  So, no problems there.  Problem is, even with those three giving great performances the film as a whole is average at best.  Kind of says it all.

DAYBREAKERS is avaialbe now on DVD and Blu-Ray.  You can CLICK HERE to head on over to AMAZON and pick it up if so inclined.

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