DRAG ME TO HELL NOW AVAILABLE

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A loan officer ordered to evict an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.

Here is a review for the movie Drag Me to Hell from dvdtalk

Drag Me to Hell is the kind of movie that would have brought a smile to the face of horror showman William Castle, who was known for sticking buzzers in seats and dangling plastic skeletons on wires to get a giggle-worthy reaction out of audience members. Lots of movies are described as rollercoaster rides for the audience, and Castle might have suggested someone hook co-writer/director Sam Raimi's return to horror up to an actual rollercoaster, so the audience could get flung around like poor heroine Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) as they watched her desperately try to escape a curse placed on her by an incensed gypsy woman (Lorna Raver). Sadly, Castle can't, but it isn't necessary: this movie is a ride already.

So what makes Raimi's film work while other teen slasher films fall flat? Two factors stand out: Raimi's respect for his audience, and his desire to make being terrified fun again. He and his co-writer brother Ivan (the writing team that gave us Darkman, and, of course, Army of Darkness) know that people go to horror movies expecting to jump out of their seats, and it's twice as entertaining if the director lets them in on the joke, because most genre fans are anyway. When Christine looks out the window at a horrendous creaking sound, Raimi cuts closer on her face in rapid succession because he wants the viewer to get up on their toes and grab their dates in advance, and when the scare arrives, it's almost cathartic in its amusement. Raimi described the style as "spook-a-blast", which encapsulates his technique perfectly: if you're not laughing after every scream in Drag Me to Hell, then you're only getting half the experience.

Anyone worried by the movie's trailer and big studio backing -- and worse, the dreaded PG-13 rating -- that Raimi isn't going to go all the way with this one can also put their fears to rest. The first thing you'll notice is the sound; Drag Me to Hell is one of the loudest movies I can remember seeing. Weird compliment, I know, but it's almost a classic Raimi gag: I laughed because it's like he wants the viewer to experience Christine's physical torment through the abusive soundtrack (and every Raimi fan know how much the man loves to abuse). Also, while I don't agree with the common opinion that this is Evil Dead 4 with a different wrapper, it's hard not to feel like you've been transported back to 1992 when a possessed lackey, decked out in signature KNB makeup, dances comically in the air above a flaming table, or when any number of gross-out fluids spew on the movie's hapless characters. Raimi even slaps the 80's Universal logo on the movie, and an even older logo at the end of the credits. It's wonderfully nostalgic.

Drag was originally meant to star Ellen Page of Juno fame, but her trademark cynical demeanor would have derailed Raimi's intentions. Lohman plays Christine with more naïvete than Page could have mustered (or, perhaps, has ever mustered), and it's key to the character's development. Much like Bruce Campbell's Ash, Christine just doesn't understand how she's implicitly responsible for her horrid fate at the hands of the lamia, and her relative cluelessness actually drives the plot forward. You also wouldn't have been able to buy Page liking a dork like Christine's boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long), who's a different type of naïve, believing that Christine's accursed affliction can be chalked up to post-traumatic stress disorder. So often in movies, the skeptic is meant to be relatable to the audience, an icon of our own disbelief, but Raimi plays Clay's dismissal like a joke we're in on...one with a darkly amusing punchline.

As for everything else, the movie breezes by at a cool 99 minutes: it takes three days for the lamia to take you away, so Christine's time to figure out a solution is in short supply. Help comes in the form of Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), whose potential con-man status is amusingly unresolved by both the script and Rao's quiet performance. He suggests a séance, which results in one of the film's best armrest-gripping sequences. The film's only flaws are more than a fair share of sub-par CGI, and a fairly predictable resolution, but both elements are sold with enough enthusiasm to keep the audience on board through the rough patches.

It's the middle of summer, and I don't know if people are looking to be frightened, but I hope so, because Drag Me to Hell delivers. I don't know if I've seen a more successful horror movie in theaters, and it's great to get Raimi back, even if it's just for one picture. I criticized the trailer before, but it's right about one thing: this is a return to true horror, delivered with impish glee by one of the genre's modern maestros. As Christine is repeatedly besieged by floating corpse as she tries to crawl out of a flooding graveyard plot, I couldn't help but wonder if Sam himself was under the water, insistently jabbing the prop at his lead actress, trying to get a rise out of her, and by extension, the audience. It's Raimi's version of the seat buzzer, and somewhere, William Castle is laughing out loud. Boo!

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YONKERS JOE NOW AVAILABLE

Here is the summary for the movie Yonkers Joe from imdb

Family life gets in the way of a con man's search for the perfect scam.

Here is a review for the movie Yonkers Joe from dvdtalk

The Movie:

Robert Celestino's Yonkers Joe has enough material for two movies, and that's the problem: one of them is fascinating and one of them isn't, and the bad one keeps muscling the good one out of screen time. The good movie is about Chazz Palminteri's titular character, a card and dice "mechanic" (a slick operator who uses quick moves and magician-style sleight of hand) working backroom games with a crew of fellow cardsharps, dreaming of taking the house in Vegas or Atlantic City. The bad movie is about his tentative relationship with his son, who has Down Syndrome and, approaching 21, is about to be released from his care facility.

The story of Joe and his crew (which also includes Linus Roache, the always-valuable Michael Lerner, and a terrific Christine Lahti) has the same kind of gritty, compelling verve as some of David Mamet's pictures (particularly House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner). Celestino has a nice ear for dialogue--the characters speak in a jargon-heavy shorthand and are artful and inventive in their profanity. There's a real thrill in the sequences where we watch them work a room or devise a cheat; it functions on the enjoyable, "here's how this is done" level of a good heist film. An early scene in which Joe uses a card-cutting trick to take a hot-headed mark (played by Michael Rispoli, a familiar face from the great poker movie Rounders) at a poker game is beautifully executed; when that same mark turns up at a dice game they're trying to work, Celestino's writing and cutting generate real suspense.

But the business with his son, Joe Jr. (Tom Guiry) simply doesn't play, and there's no getting around it. Everything else in the movie feels written from the inside-out; in the special features, Celestino explains how he became attracted to this scene, how he's watched these guys work and hung out with them, and it is clearly a life that he understands and can write about honestly. The stuff with the kid has none of that honesty; it feels like a warmed-up leftover from countless other movies, and if you think it'd be too obviously derivative of Rain Man to have the kid end up helping his dad at the tables, you'd be wrong (we even get a shot of him coming down the casino escalators in his favorite suit).

Palminteri does the best he can in these scenes. He's getting older, his face growing wearier and more drawn, and he uses it well in this role, conveying his emotions with a look or a exasperated reaction more successfully than in the sometimes hackneyed dialogue. He's always done the sensitive brute well, from his breakthrough role in A Bronx Tale forward; it's a shame that so much of his recent work has been one-dimensional tough guys. A scene late in the film, in which he tells Lahti how he honestly feels about the kid ("He's my punishment") is awfully over-written, but there's some fine acting happening there--from both of them. She's an actress we've come to take for granted over the last few years (most of her recent work has been on TV) and that's a shame; here, she skillfully inhabits the role of a woman who has grown tired of chasing the big score.

In spite of the aforementioned predictable artifice, the climax, at a Vegas craps table, is tense and well-crafted. But the big resolution that follows is something of a disaster; the ongoing drama over Joe Jr.'s living situation is handled conveniently off-screen, and the final conversation between the father and son plays some pretty easy notes without much subtlety. It's affecting, sure, but it's manipulative as hell, and we can still be superficially moved while getting worked over by a shallow, obvious scene.

The DVD

Video:

Yonkers Joe is clearly going for a naturalistic look, but the anamorphic 1.85:1 image is frequently more grimy than gritty. The grain is heavy, often heavier than you might like, with quite a bit of noise in a rather soft overall image. It's atmospheric, sure, but sometimes borders on ugly.

Audio:

The 5.1 mix is front-heavy, which is not unexpected for a film this talky and (mostly) low-key. Dialogue is clear and well-modulated ,with no audibility issues. However, the occasional use of the surround channels is somewhat underwhelming; in rich aural environments like racetracks, casinos, and Vegas streets, there's not much happening in the rear speakers. It certainly doesn't distract, but it feels like a missed opportunity.

A 2.0 stereo track is also available, as are Spanish subtitles.

Extras:

The Yonkers Joe disc offers up a respectable selection of bonus featurettes. The "Behind the Scenes Featurette" (14:49) is interview-heavy and, frankly, a little dry. However, "The Moves" (6:29) is simply fascinating; in it, writer/director Celestino demonstrates a number of the card and dice moves seen in the film. He does these demonstrations himself, and the result is a lot of fun. "Meet Fast Jack" (8:59) is also enjoyable; it features a sit-down interview with technical consultant John "Fast Jack" Farrell, an old-school mechanic who dubs himself "The Last of the Mohicans." "The Look" (5:37) is a fairly standard examination of the visual style of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Celestino and director of photography Michael Fimognari. The final segment, "Yonkers Joe Premiere," (7:12) is a well-paced montage of interviews and footage from the film's premiere.

Final Thoughts:

When Yonkers Joe works, it works so well that you want to forgive its flaws. But the secondary storyline is so tone-deaf and warmed-over that it tries the viewer's patience; it goes so far off-track in those scenes that it takes considerable time to pull us back in to its more engrossing narrative. There are enough good scenes and interesting performances to warrant a rental, but little more.

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ANACONDA 4 NOW AVAILABLE

Here is the summary for the movie Anaconda 4 from imdb

A genetically created Anaconda, cut in half, regenerates itself into two aggressive giant snakes, due to the Blood Orchid.

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