Tag: Denise Richards

Denise Richards and Matt Dillon Get Wild in WILD THINGS – Available on 4K Ultra HD May 24th From Arrow Video

“People aren’t always what they appear to be. Don’t forget that.”

Denise Richards and Matt Dillon Get Wild in WILD THINGS (1998) will be available on 4K Ultra HD May 24th from Arrow Video

A spoiled rich kid, a troubled teen from the wrong side of the tracks, a carefree playboy and a dogged detective find themselves all caught up in the sex crime of the century in this steamy star-studded crime thriller from the director of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Popular and charming, student counsellor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) is no stranger to being the focus of female attention within the moneyed cliques of Florida’s Blue Bay. His fortunes are about to change dramatically, however, when one of the wealthiest students at his high school, sultry siren Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards), accuses him of rape. The charge looks sure to stick when another girl from the other end of the social spectrum, Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell), steps forward with her own allegations, but Detective Duquette (Kevin Bacon) smells something fishy, and the truth is as murky and dangerous as the alligator-infested swamps in the hinterlands of this affluent beach community.

Presented in new 4K restorations of its original theatrical version and extended ‘Unrated Edition’, Wild Things is a classic piece of sexy late-90s neo-noir from director John McNaughton and writer Stephen Peters, whose serpentine plotting will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end credits roll.

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

  • New 4K restorations of both the Original Theatrical Version and the Unrated Edition from the original camera negatives by Sony Pictures Entertainment
  • 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
  • Original uncompressed stereo audio and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
  • Exclusive new audio commentary by director John McNaughton and producer Steven A. Jones
  • Commentary by director John McNaughton, cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball, producers Steven A. Jones and Rodney Liber, editor Elena Maganini and score composer George S. Clinton
  • Exclusive new interview with John McNaughton
  • Exclusive new interview with Denise Richards
  • Making of documentary
  • An Understanding Lawyer outtakes
  • Trailer
  • Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anne Billson and Sean Hogan
  • Double-sided fold-out poster
  • Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Hadley

TAMMY AND THE T-REX – The ‘Gore Cut’ Screening Friday November 22nd at Webster University

TAMMY AND THE T-REX – The ‘Gore Cut’ screens Friday, November 22nd at Webster University’s Moor Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave) at 9:00pm. A Facebook invite for the film can be found HERE

A cinematic whatsit on the order of Miami Connection or Dangerous Men, but this time replete with recognizable stars, Tammy & the T-Rex was initially released as a PG-13 teen film circa 1994, but earlier this year resurfaced in a “gore cut,” which reinstates a few bloody scenes excised to achieve that PG-13 rating. The plot concerns a mad doctor who implants the brain of  murdered teen Michael (played by Paul Walker of The Fast & the Furious fame) into a mechanical tyrannosaurus rex, and, once in t-rex form, Michael reunites with his sweetheart (Denise Richards of Starship Troopers and Wild Things) and takes revenge on his tormentors. Imagine a cross between Saved by the Bell, King Kong, and The Re-Animator, and you’re getting close.

Admission is:

$7 for the general public
$6 for seniors, Webster alumni and students from other schools
$5 for Webster University staff and faculty

Free for Webster students with proper I.D.

THE TOYBOX – Review

Review by Mark Longden

Possessed of an interesting title – why is it called “The Toybox” if it’s about a family taking a ride in an RV which breaks down in the desert? – and a cast of a much higher calibre than the average indie horror movie – Denise Richards and Mischa Barton are two of the stars – I was looking forward to watching this.

Without being too critical, it’s never a good sign when you can predict how the first scene in a movie will play out. There’s a dirty, old-looking RV parked on a street, and a kid on his bicycle. The RV’s door swings open. My wife immediately chimes in with “that kid’s getting sucked into that RV and the door will slam shut”. I guessed “blood splatter on the windows, as seen from the outside”. We were both right!

But, originality is sometimes overrated, and it’s what you do with the building blocks that’s important, not which building blocks you use. A family, led by patriarch Charles (David Violand), is about to go for a trip in his newly-purchased RV. There’s son Steve (writer Jeff Denton), his wife Jennifer (Denise Richards) and their daughter Olivia (Malika Michelle); as well as black sheep son Jay (other writer Brian Nagel). Along the way, they stop to help out a brother and sister who are broken down by the side of the road – Mark (Matt Mercer) and Samantha (Mischa Barton). As they turn off the main road to go and look at some cave paintings, they break down in the middle of the middle of nowhere.

I find it difficult to shake logic at times. Like, put yourself in Charles’ position. You’ve bought some old RV and are planning to take it on a long journey through some inhospitable terrain. Do you:

  1. get it checked out by a mechanic, stock up on supplies, and make sure you’ve got some method of contacting help if you get stuck; then maybe pop a bike on the back so you can drive to get help if all else fails?

Or

  1. do absolutely nothing and assume it’ll all work out?

No prizes for guessing which one Charles picked. As they sit in the baking heat, trying to work out how to fix the RV, tensions – already at a pretty high level – rise further, and they also start seeing things, like figures out of the corner of their eye, or the broken TV will turn itself on, showing scenes from earlier in the movie, but with a blood-soaked ghostly figure in the middle of the action. And then people start dying. Can they figure out what’s going on or get out of danger before they all succumb?

There are lots and lots of problems with this movie, but I’m going to start with the obvious ones. They’re on a road, a small road, sure, but how far can they possibly be from either a busier road or a town? In 2018? Even with their poor preparedness, why not send one of the reasonably fit brothers with plenty of water to walk back to the road and find help / a working phone signal? There’s a strong feeling of “The Hills Have Eyes”, but that at least had the excuse of being made over 40 years ago. Also, did he not open a single drawer or cupboard in that RV before buying it?

Mischa Barton is excellent, not sure why she’s not getting bigger roles than this; she’s sadly the outlier. Richards is terrible, with a weirdly immobile face not really helping proceedings, and the two brothers are just painfully average. The lack of emotion shown when their nearest and dearest start dying is one of the more curious choices “The Toybox” makes. I’ve not mentioned one character, but when you see him you’ll definitely think “why is Fred Armisen doing an impression of someone from the 1970s in this movie?”

It’s not terrible. It’s shot handheld competently, although when I see those massive desert vistas, I don’t think they’re particularly beautiful, just empty. It’s just like so many other horror movies, the “spam in a can” genre with the can changed a little. It’s fine, and it does make a couple of bold choices, but if you’ve seen many horror movies, you’ll recognise perhaps a little too much of this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mischa Barton in THE TOYBOX Available on Digital, Blu-ray and DVD September 18th


The terrifying thriller THE TOYBOX will be available on Digital, Blu-ray and DVD September 18th


Check out this trailer:

In THE TOYBOX, a nged family go on a trip to the desert but become stranded by their RV, which is possessed by the spirit of a serial killer.


Jennifer and her family go on a summer road trip in a used RV with her husband’s estranged father and brother. Along the way, they find Samantha and her brother, broken down on the side of the highway. After driving into the middle of nowhere, the RV takes on a mind of its own, crashing and stranding them in the scorching and isolated desert. Little by little, the unsuspecting group of travelers is blindsided by the terrible secrets within the walls of the RV and find themselves fighting to survive.


CAST
Jennifer …………………….. Denise Richards
Samantha ……………………. Mischa Barton
Steve …………………………….. Jeff Denton
Jay ………………………………. Brian Nagel
Charles ………………………… Greg Violand
Olivia …………………………. Malika Michelle
Robert Gunthry ……….. David H Greathouse
Mark …………………………….. Matt Mercer
Ghost Girl ………………………. Katie Keene

DESTINED TO RIDE Arrives on Digital and DVD August 14th


Madeline Carroll (I Can Only Imagine) stars as a teenager who thinks her social life is over when she is sent to her aunt’s ranch for the summer but to her surprise develops an unbreakable bond with a horse named Pistachio in the family-friendly drama DESTINED TO RIDE, debuting on digital and DVD August 14 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. She tames the spirited horse and finds herself in a competitive race to win her aunt’s land and avoid losing her now treasured new companion. DESTINED TO RIDE also stars Joey Lawrence (“Melissa & Joey”), Denise Richards (Starship Troopers), Cassi Thomson (Left Behind), Amber Frank (“The Haunted Hathaways”) and Manolo Gonzalez Vergara (Hot Pursuit).


Lily’s life is turned upside down when she is forced to leave her friends to spend the summer on a remote ranch with her nature-loving aunt. Convinced her social life is over, she is surprised to meet an unlikely group of friends and embarks on an adventure of a lifetime. When her aunt is threatened by unfriendly neighbors, Lily knows it is up to her and Pistachio, the horse she has discovered and developed an unbreakable bond with, to save the ranch and to find her destiny along the way. Starring I Can Only Imagine’s Madeline Carroll, Denise Richards and Joey Lawrence.


Directed by Anna Elizabeth James from a story by Anna Elizabeth James and Tyler W. Konney and a screenplay by Anna Elizabeth James and Brennan Elizabeth Peters, DESTINED TO RIDE was produced by Tyler W. Konney; and executive produced by Madeline Carroll and Barbara Greaves.


DESTINED TO RIDE has a run time of approximately 90 minutes and is rated G.

ALTITUDE Starring Dolph Lundgren and Denise Richards Lands on Blu-ray and DVD June 20th


Buckle up for high-stakes action when Altitude arrives on Blu-ray (plus Digital HD), DVD and Digital HDJune 20 from Lionsgate. Depart on flight 709 with star Denise Richards as she embarks on a thrilling ride fighting action veteran Dolph Lundgren and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell. Packed full of nonstop action, the Altitude Blu-ray and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.99 and $19.98, respectively.

A headstrong FBI agent (Denise Richards) is offered millions to help a thief escape from a hijacked airplane. When she finds out that his ex-partners (Greer Grammer, Chuck Liddell, and Dolph Lundgren) are leading the deadly operation, she must choose sides and do whatever it takes to keep the plane from going down.

CAST
Denise Richards                      Wild Things, Starship Troopers, The World Is Not Enough
Greer Grammer                       TV’s “The Middle” and “Awkward,” Life Partners
Chuck Liddell                           Cradle 2 the Grave, Kick-Ass 2, War Pigs
and Dolph Lundgren                The Expendables Franchise, Universal Soldier, Rocky IV

AMERICAN VIOLENCE – Review

americanviolence2

Review by Stephen Tronicek

American Violence is trash, but it’s trash with a good bibliography. This is a movie that takes the movies: Goodfellas, Drive, American History X, Silence of the Lambs, Hell or High Water, Mel Gibson revenge films, and even most recently The Birth of a Nation and tries to squash them all into the same movie.

American Violence has nowhere near the execution of those films though and this almost allows it to play like a dark comedy about all the violence that is championed in American films. Its inspiration is, in fact, some of the bloodiest movies of all time. The fact that Denise Richards is around also clues us into the fact that this could all be satire with the straightest face. Richard’s pioneered this type of schlocky, violent film in the 90’s with great hilarious thrillers like Starship Troopers and Wild Things, and American Violence seems to be playing that angle. Not horrible, not good, just somewhere in the middle where you’re wondering whether or not you should be taking the copying of famous violent scenes, and dramatic grimacing seriously or just be having as good of a time as possible as Denise Richards stares with wide blue eyes at the inmate she’s doing a psych evaluation for.

A little bit of both might be the answer. For all of this to be funny, you have to take it seriously, and let the overblown grim sensibility slowly becomes hilarious. The over the top disparity of its events can’t help but be comedic at their best, and it all is to present to not be the intention.

This composure seems to break when the film inevitably gets too dark (ie. child abuse and prison rape) and American Violence gets really obnoxious when it gets gritty. Bruce Dern (who was so perfect in Nebraska) shows up as the warden, a hugely despicable character who just depresses on the screen while reading off stock lines. Dern’s fine, his character just seems to take all the satirical air out of the movie as he creates a horrible sense of all the fun being drained from the film. This American Violence feeling long at 106 minutes and that’s not an ideal situation.

It is helpful that most of the actors seem to be in on the joke as they mug to the camera in an overly dramatic way. Again, the line of satire isn’t really distinguished, so all this acting isn’t ever consistently dramatic or funny, but credit is due to those who try. If anything, this enthusiasm adds to the satiric aesthetic, making the acting really even something of a treat.

American Violence is just the type of film one might expect to come out in the wake of Goodfellas and Basic Instinct. One of those enthusiastic, but just a little too ironic clones that is trying to be as epic and disturbing as the hyper-violent films that inspired it and instead comes off satiric (yes, I understand that Basic Instinct is also satiric). As satire, American Violence succeeds. If only it would stop breaking that illusion and taking itself so seriously.

2 1/2  of 5 Stars

AMERICAN VIOLENCE Debuts in Theaters, Video on Demand and Digital HD on February 3 Blu-Ray and DVD Release on March 14

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