There’s a point in one of the interviews with a director of Darfur Diaries: Message From Home in the special features section of the DVD, where she mentions one of the bitter ironies of the crises in Darfur. A group of dignitaries from the international community had come together to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda and apologize for having allowed it to happen.

As they were all standing up there swearing that they would never let something like that happen again and how they would be super vigilant to prevent it, the government of Sudan was busy bombing and slaughtering its own people in the province of Darfur.

Darfur Diaries: Message From Home was shot in 2004 by three young film makers who traveled to Darfur on their own and spent time in both the Northern and Southern areas of the province, and in refugee camps in the neighbouring country of Chad. Here, they spent time interviewing the people who had been affected by the attacks. Burnt out houses stand as mute testimony to the bombing raids conducted by the government against its own citizens.

Even as they filmed, an Anatolov bomber flew overhead dropping bombs randomly on the countryside. Parents cried out to children “don’t run, sit down under the trees so they can’t see you.” The pilots of the bombers circle around and target movement and release their bombs killing indiscriminately. Livestock, humans, it doesn’t seem to matter as long as the people and their abilities to survive are destroyed.

Just like the genocides that have been conducted all over the world — from North America to Asia — the theory goes that to completely destroy a people is to destroy their means of survival. With the natives of North America, it was taking away their food supply by exterminating it. With the people of Darfur, the policy seems to be to destroy their villages and steal their livestock as well as killing them.

After the bombers, the strategy of the government was to send in both the Sudanese army and vigilante groups to kill, rape, and steal from the people. Families were exterminated and survivors were forced to flee, after watching their loved ones killed in front of them. The excuse the government continues to make for these attacks is the existence of the Sudanese Liberation Army.

They conveniently forget that the rebel army only formed in response to increasing discrimination against Africans in Sudan, and to the attacks upon their villages by the government forces. What little that the media reported on what was happening in Darfur was to ape what the government said — not bothering to find out for themselves what the real story was.

What’s wonderful about Darfur Diaries is that the only times politics is mentioned is in the interviews with the filmmakers in the special features. For the people on the ground, what matters is what has happened to them and being given opportunity to tell their stories. From the young boy who looks into the camera and talks of watching his brother being shot, to the mothers talking about their babies and their injuries.

The filmmakers interview children who draw pictures of men on camels and horses firing guns; of soldiers in jeeps firing guns; and planes dropping bombs on villages and setting them on fire. They draw pictures of people running away with their arms in the air — fleeing from men with guns and swords who are charging on horses. They draw pictures of dead people laid out on the ground.

Sudan has long been comprised of two distinct Muslim populations, Arab and African. According to the people interviewed here, it has a long history of the two races co-existing peacefully with intermarriages being commonplace. Only since the coup that brought the existing government into power have measures been taken against the majority African population to reduce their means of making a livelihood. There were occasional disputes about grazing rights but the people interviewed in this movie claim they were always settled amicably.

Now however, the government has created a racial war to keep a majority population in check. But not even within the minority Arab population is there unanimity for this war. It appears that aside from the government and it’s army – the only people who support the war are the crooks, rapists, and miserable excuses for human beings who raid the villages after the bombing raids.

The government started attacking the Africans by cutting funding to the village schools, until there was no money to pay for teachers and supplies. They also arrested all the teachers on charges of treason and tortured them. One man interviewed showed the scars where he had been beaten with bricks by his guards and told about other teachers still in jail.

What’s wondrous is the lack of anger displayed by the Africans towards the Arab population of Sudan in general. As one puts it, the government is using the Arab people like a weapon and doesn’t really care about them anymore than they care about us. In fact, according to the Sudanese Liberation Army, there is extensive intermingling between the two peoples in villages to the north. Just as many Arabs are dieing as Africans.

Nobody seems to want to venture as to why this has happened. But in some ways the why is not as important as the fact that it is happening. A government is systematically killing a segment of its own population without remorse or hesitation. They are destroying whole villages and forcing people to leave their homes for any shelter they can find elsewhere.

To me it seems obvious why the government is doing this – they want the land for the people they would prefer to have it. Just like everywhere else that indigenous people have been inconvenient enough to be living where the government wants to make use of the land, the quickest and easiest way of dealing with the matter is to kill or force them off the land.

Darfur Diaries: Message From Home is wonderful in its simplicity. The people tell their stories of what happened to them, tell you about themselves and their families, and are completely matter of fact. These are the faces of the people we never see in the news stories, and the voices we never hear.

Who better to tell the story of what is happening to them than the people themselves. This movie acts as a direct pipeline from them to whoever will listen.

Don’t you think you owe it to them to listen?

Richard Marcus is a long-haired Canadian iconoclast who writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees it at Leap In The Dark and Epic India.

If ever there was a pointless documentary made about an oddly obsessed individual and a quest that does not seem to have any real worth, or an end for that matter, this is it. I have to wonder what possessed this man to make him want to go on this particular journey. This is a a movie that I cannot really make a good argument to watch this movie, but if you happen to start watching it, there is a very good chance that you will not be able to look away. So, if you have ever wanted to know what it was like to drive around the country and drink gallons of coffee, Starbucking is the movie for you.

Starbucking is a document of a man named Winter (yes, just Winter) who has set out to visit each and every Starbuck’s coffee shop in the world. It is a quest that has lasted for the past ten years, and has had him visiting well over one thousand of the shops at a clip of 20-30 a day at some point. It plays out like a cross of the charm of Supersize Me and the obsessive-compulsiveness of Grizzly Man, without the doctors and without becoming coffee flavored bear cuisine.

The movie does not go after the evils of corporate expansion, nor is it a study about the value of the food and drink offered by the chain. It is about a man who may, or may not, have some sort of mental issue. It is brought up that he may suffer from OCD, and it is even suggested that he may be bi-polar.

Like I said, this is a movie that is hard to look away from. It does not take you very far into the minds of men, just a charismatic individual who spends most of his camera time hopped up on caffeine. He is a truly odd individual, and is a good example of the effects that caffeine can have on a body in such high quantities. Watch as Winter dances in line, rubs his hands together, gets a caffeine crazed look in his eyes, runs down streets and through traffic, and just jitters his way through the 73 minute documentary. I cannot say that I learned much about Winter, other than that he seems to obsess about this to the level that any type of relationship he has, or attempts to have suffers in the end. To that end, Starbucking gives you a look inside the life of man that begins and ends with Starbucks coffee, the occasional strip club, and a man who does not seem to have much going for him outside of this quest and the shallow spiritualism that seems to have grown out of his never ending desire to visit all of the shops.

The DVD is presented in the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio of the guerilla documentary. It is shot in whatever light is available, so the source quality is suspect at times, but the transfer is clean and free of any technical issues. The audio is a fine sounding stereo mix. As for extras, seven deleted scenes, and a commentary track with Winter and director Bill Tangeman which is an intriguing extension of the neverending pointlessness of the quest.

Bottomline. This is a strange film, if you start, you will finish, however you will question why you watched it, why he is doing this, and why the movie was made. I cannot recommend that you buy this, but if you happen to Netflix it, you could do worse. Winter is a kind of sad personality, although he will always have a friend at the next Starbucks.

Mildly Recommended.

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn’t sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the “Movie Guy” and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99’s Musings, as well as Film School Rejects.

On Wednesday's General Hospital:

Spinelli and Milo were both steaming mad at Logan for his unwanted assault on Lulu. Can't say as I blame them, but the violent outrage by Milo was not only predictable but just another example of how those in charge seem to migrate toward brute violence as a solution to all problems. Always level headed Georgie made a more practical offer and volunteered to speak to Lulu for Spinelli and Milo, so she wouldn't feel overwhelmed by the two of them. It was really nice to watch the young women hash out their past problems and come to an understanding with one another.

Serving up a king-sized breakfast to Jason in jail, Carly asked for his assurance that neither he nor Sonny offed Jerry. With that piece of mind, she then began plotting how she was going to get Jason out his recent jam. Jason begged, pleaded, and then made Carly promise she would do nothing to secure his freedom. He later had to have the very same argument with Spinelli who had hacked into the jail computer system to help set-up a jail-break opportunity. Expected and annoying, Ric threatened to charge Spinelli as an accessory if he didn't cooperate with the police.

Ric has always been hot to punish his brother through Jason, but he's been too involved with Lorenzo's murder from the get go for my liking, realizing he was missing only hours after he was killed. I'm getting a sneaky suspicion he's more involved with Lo's death than we've been led to believe.

The happy newlyweds had yet another heated argument over the usual topics. Carly doesn't want Jax to try and save his brother. Jax doesn't want Carly to be so involved with Jason's problems. Trouble in paradise is bound to continue because I don't see either giving up on their cause.

As predicted, the judge awarded guardianship of Laura to Scotty, much to her family's shock and dismay. All the while, Maxie informed Logan it was the perfect opportunity to proceed with their plan, reaffirming if Logan seduced Lulu and then broke her heart, she would spend a night between the sheets with him. Uhm, Maxie, Cooper is standing right behind you. How about explaining to your boyfriend how you're going to sleep with his best friend?

Warning! News and Spoilers Ahead!

• In the upcoming days and weeks, GH is going to look more like an episode of Maury Povich with multiple "Who's the Daddy" questions being answered. Look for Logan's daddy reveal, many more will learn who Jake's daddy is, and Emily begins a search for her real father.

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she’s not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. Contact: Phillips.connie@gmail.com

Allow me to present a helpful hint for aspiring genre filmmakers around the world: If and when you make the questionable decision to give your horrific cinematic monstrosity the gift of gab, you should pay very careful attention to the words and phrases that pour from his/her/its blood-stained maw. Many directors have attempted to inject some much-needed humor into their horror-based production by allowing their hairy creations to spout off at the mouth whenever the urge strikes them, only to watch in absolute terror as their celluloid offspring fails to elicit anything other than a few unintentional chuckles from its intended audience. Sometimes silence can speak volumes.

Director Lance W. Dreesen's nouveau werewolf opus Big Bad Wolf suffers greatly from what I like to refer to as Chatty Villain Syndrome, or CVS. Warwick Davis' Leprechaun series, while obviously not a barometer for what the genre can accomplish, is another franchise stricken with this oh so deadly disease, as are the last few Nightmare on Elm Street entries we've been forced to nibble upon. I've always held the belief that villains are much more frightening and intimidating when they're not trying to make me wet my diapers with the kind of ribald humor only mentally-challenged fifth graders would find remotely appealing. After all, nobody likes to die laughing.

Big Bad Wolf, on the other hand, has something going for it few werewolf flicks can claim, namely an engaging, well-scripted narrative worthy of your dwindling, media-saturated attention span. The inclusion of '80s bad-ass Richard Tyson (Three O'Clock High, Kindergarten Cop) is also a huge golden bonus, allowing this intimidating, square-jawed nightmare of a man to do exactly what he does best: scare the unsweetened Jesus Christ Superstar out of me. Had this intriguing concept come packaged with an interesting creature that didn't upchuck ridiculously cheesy one-liners all over his would-be victims, perhaps Dreesen's clever little film wouldn't strongly resemble a neutered puppy whimpering sadly in a soiled cardboard box.

Awww. Poor puppy.

The story, choking desperately on its borrowed plotlines, follows the nerdy misadventures of teenage outcast Derek Cowley (Trevor Duke). When he's not busy desperately trying to make friends with a couple of brainless fraternity clowns or pining endlessly for best friend/sexy auto mechanic Samantha (Kimberly J. Brown), our virginal hero is trying to determine whether or not his abusive stepfather Mitchell (Tyson) is a shape-shifting member of the lycanthropian race. With the help of his devilishly handsome uncle and his lifelong fellatio-prone sidekick, Derek must unravel the mystery behind a series of horrific murders before he and his crew become a plate of tasty name brand dog food — the kind that makes its own gravy. The horror!

Though I'm quick to poke Big Bad Wolf's ticklish storyline with my trusty Ball Point Pen of Giggling Cinematic Justice, I was actually more interested in the character's struggle to stop this suburban werewolf than the end result of the titular creature's gore-encrusted midnight snacks. There's a surprising amount of depth to be found here, that is, if you can get past a painfully trite opening sequence that involves not only a walking, talking, wise-cracking wolf man, but a particularly foul, bestiality-tinged rape scene as well. Of course, chances are you'll be thrusting your fingers towards the stop button long before his wolf dork gets down to serious womanizing business.

A quick question for all the genre fans in the house tonight: What crucial element is essential to the successful creation of a balls-out werewolf picture? If you're one of the pasty individuals who boldly proclaimed "Decent make-up effects!" to a room full of stuffed animals, pat yourself firmly on the back until you have achieved sufficient self-satisfaction. Unfortunately, the effects department is where Big Bad Wolf falls painfully short. For the film's wolf-oriented sequences, Richard Tyson appears to have been dipped in a vat of pine tar and covered with several pounds of unsanitized pubic hair, resulting in a hilariously awful sight gag that is compounded exponentially by the atrocious dialogue that flows like spoiled Cream of Wheat from his barely functioning mouth. Good or bad, it's definitely unique.

On the performance end of town, the film is unexpectedly tight. Trevor Duke and Kimberly J. Brown do wonders with their respective roles, giving you plenty of reasons to keep watching long after the thrill of a talking werewolf has shuffled off its mortal coil. And while Richard Tyson does an incredible job of making my anus quiver with unbridled fear, he seems a little befuddled when it comes to delivering his comedic catch phrases. Everyone else is either pleasant, uneven, or forgettable. I'll let you figure out the specifics for yourself. Why should I have all the fun?

Before you decide to pick up this Big Bad Wolf from the local Humane Society, you should adequately prepare yourself for a meaty selection of cornball dialogue, a creature design that lacks both a believable creature and a solid design, and twenty minutes worth of material that smells a little too much like Wes Craven's outhouse floater Cursed for me to be anything other than completely uncomfortable. However, if you can overlook these flaws and embrace the film for what it is, the underlying theme of abusive relationships and how they affect the human condition will lovingly curl up at your misshapen feet.

And, possibly, piss on your trousers.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

“The Blue Comet” is an interesting episode because it’s simultaneously exactly what you’d expect and totally unexpected. After Tony was shot I concluded that the show was not likely to go out with a bang; more likely we’d see Tony fade away, life go on. After the slow fade of last season’s finale, and even through the first couple of episodes of this season, I still felt that way. But starting with “Walk Like a Man,” everything changed and since that episode, we’ve been on a march to this point, with everything falling apart, to the point that this episode leaves Tony alone in a safehouse, all his close friends dead, separated from his family. It’s an apocalyptic episode and another masterpiece from Chase and his team.

The show has teased a New York/New Jersey war for a long time, from Tony’s betrayal of Johnny Sack in “Whitecaps,” to the near war in last season’s “Kaisha,” and after the buildup last week, I was hoping that he wouldn’t stop things before they started again. This entire season has had a feeling of dread, and this episode took it to almost unbearable levels. The opening scene, with Silvio murdering Burt Gervasi, set up that this was going to be a big episode, though I was a bit unclear who he was murdering.

Being near the end of a series makes every threat a bit more real. Last season, you’d never have thought that Phil really might take out the top guys in Tony’s crew; now it was a real possibility, and as Bobby walked into that train store, he was already dead – it was just about waiting for it to happen. Things were so bad after Silvio died I legitimately thought Tony might go.

On a thematic level, the episode integrates a lot of things that have been going on under the surface for a while. Phil says that he needs to take out Tony Soprano’s “glorified crew” because they don’t really believe in the mythology of the mafia. It is the ritual that makes them more than gangsters; the ritual is the reason Phil spent time in prison, and if that’s meaningless, then so is his time in prison. That’s also why Tony isn’t a “real” gangster: Phil mentions his lack of jail time here and shut Tony down with it last episode with his already classic speech about compromising.

The entire series has been about Tony’s inability to live up to his father's and the cinema’s image of what a mobster should be. Now, Phil cracks on his team, marveling at the fact that Bobby is one of the top three guys. After the deaths of Sil and Bobby, Paulie is Tony’s only ally, and he’s constantly shown himself to be selfish, oblivious to the needs of others. Tony is left with basically no one, sitting alone in a room, holding a machine gun.

It’s almost surreal to have these murders actually happening. While I think Chase needed to pay off all this buildup, I do think it’s a bit of a resignation to go down this road. I had come to terms with the fact that the show wasn’t going to have a big ending, and it’s a surprise to see this happen. I would have liked to see Chase screw with people one final time and throw out a big dream sequence or something like that at the close, but this payoff is certainly better than something like “Kaisha.”

The dissolution of Tony’s crew fits with one of the central themes of the series, the decline of the Mafia. Even if Tony survives and either kills Phil or negotiates a peace settlement, he’s got no one left. All his successors are dead. It’s just a bunch of random thugs left, no one to carry the legacy. Can Tony run things like this? How will it work? The only person I could see stepping up to follow him would be Meadow, but I don’t think protocol would allow that.

On a familial level, we see Tony pushing away from them. He’s too much of a target, and now the only way to protect his family is to leave them. It felt final when they left the house, like they’ll never be back there. I do like the implications of him abandoning his suburban mansion to go back to an old neighborhood-style house.

This episode also sees AJ fail another test. I’m perhaps most curious to see how his story resolves. He seems completely incapable of dealing with the world. Will this latest outburst from Tony get him back on track or push him completely away? His arc this season has been phenomenal: here we see Tony finally treating AJ like his parents treated him, harsh, stripping him of his autonomy. He clearly blames Carmela for what happened to him and he’s trying to reverse some of that now.

This comes up in the fantastic Melfi scene, where she finishes his sentences as he goes through a rote list of complaints. She’s so cold here, I feared for her. Tony respects her too much to hurt her, but he is hurt by her abandonment of him at such a low point. It is questionable of her to dump him so suddenly, but that study clearly pointed out what was always apparent: that her work was helping him be a better criminal. Does someone like Tony deserve to be helped? Wouldn’t "progress" only make him worse? Melfi never seemed to think that she could save him, and she must have known that much of what she said led to violence. I always thought she was complicit in that – maybe she didn’t realize how much she was until Elliot told her.

I’m guessing that’s the last time we’ll see Melfi, barring some kind of closing montage with all the characters, and it’s a great way to go out. She realizes that her work isn’t going anywhere and that by treating him, she is in some ways complicit in what he’s doing. She tried to help him, but he wound up saying the same things and not facing up to the basic morality of his life. Unable to do that, she has a right to let him go.

The scene with Janice and Bobby’s kids was heartbreaking because Janice wasn’t reacting the way we’d expect her to. It was just quiet sadness, driving home that for all the over-the-top cool of his murder, what’s left are three kids who will be raised by someone who will resent them and hurt them. Bobby’s kids in particular will be scarred by these next few years. We’ve already seen Janice turning into her mother in “Soprano Home Movies” – this will only make things worse.

While that scene really got to me, the deaths themselves were curiously lacking in emotion. I think it’s because we were so aware of the impending death, it was almost a relief when it happened. Particularly in Bobby’s scene, the minute he walked into train shop, I knew he was gone, and it was excruciating sitting there, wondering when it would come. Christopher’s death was like that as well: he was on such a downward spiral, the death felt like an inevitability, not a surprise. There were moments of sadness surrounding all the deaths, but never in the traditional sappy way most TV shows do it.

Perhaps the best thing I can say about this episode is that it feels like a second-to-last episode. There’s a lot still up in the air, but this was the 84th piece of an 85-piece story. Ever since “Walk Like a Man,” the show has been as good as anything to ever air on TV or in the movies. It’s incredibly tense and perfectly focused on what matters. It’s hard to believe, but AJ has become one of the best characters on the show and Tony remains intensely fascinating. I really can’t wait to see what Chase does with the final chapter.

Written by El Mono Santo

Take some classic Svankmajer, throw in Little Shop of Horrors, add a touch of Pinocchio, and the result is a dark, quirky comedy in which secret, inner monsters are made incarnate.

Jan Svankmajer, the famous Czech cinema surrealist, is perhaps best known for shorts like Darkness-Light-Darkness or his feature length Alice (Neco z Alenky). Like all his films (and characteristic of surrealism itself) Svankmajer focuses on self-consuming human desire. This takes many forms, from consumption of food to sexual lust. The single most obsessive desideratum in Little Otik, however, is procreation. A barren woman’s unquenchable, animal desire for progeny animates an uprooted tree stump. Unable to reveal the irrational nature and terrifying appetite of her offspring, and surrounded by a community that can’t help but stick its nose into other people’s business, the couple engages in a humorous series of attempts to maintain a normal life.

Svankmajer may use less of his signature stop-motion animation, repetitive activity, and earthy, visceral sound production than usual, and come much closer to traditional narrative than previous films, but don’t think you won’t get a healthy dose of surrealism. One of my favorite moments was when an old man lusts after a small girl. The girl’s eyes widen with fright as she watches his pants unzip of their own accord and a human arm reach out from the area of his genitals to grope her. Other memorable moments were several inconspicuous homages to Luis Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou sprinkled throughout the film (though I’ll let you investigate those for yourself).

Besides run-time and an anti-climactic ending, my biggest gripe with the film was its sexist leanings. It seemed to portray at least a subset of women as so entirely needful of childbearing that they are unable to function or live a happy life without it. It is easy to laugh at the absurd longings of the wife, including its influence on her weak husband, if one thinks of the film as doing little more than overdoing a stereotype. But like most surrealism, it has a point. And also like most surrealism, that point can be easily missed. Sometimes it's just a lot of fun to miss it.

In celebration of the series’ 25th anniversary, Cagney & Lacey 1 arrives on DVD presenting the second season, which ran 22 episodes from October 1982 to May 1983. The set is subtitled “The True Beginning” because this was when Sharon Gless and Tyne Daley started their partnership.

Writer-producers Barbara Corday and Barbara Avedon shopped the project around for years. CBS was finally interested as a vehicle for Loretta Swit, who was working on M*A*S*H, so they greenlit a TV-movie version in which she would play Christine Cagney. Corday’s husband, Barney Rozenzweig was the executive producer and Tyne Daly starred as Mary Beth Lacey. The show did so well a series was ordered, but Swit couldn’t get out of M*A*S*H.

The producers wanted Sharon Gless, but she was under contract to Universal, so Meg Foster was cast as Cagney. The series got poor ratings and was cancelled after its six episode run in the spring of 1982. Negotiations took place to get the show back, but they had to lose Foster because she was considered masculine and aggressive, which really means people saw her character as a lesbian. Foster having played one in A Different Story probably contributed to this view. Gless became available and the rest is television history.

Quoting from Rozenzweig on the show’s website, “Cagney & Lacey was never a police drama; it was about two women who happened to be cops.” Cagney is a single, career woman. Lacey is a wife and mother. They have an interesting dynamic as they struggle to make in this male world as each take different paths. Cagney is usually willing to accept circumstances at work to get in good with the males. Lacey is her own woman and won’t compromise. For example, when a stripper performs at the police station, Cagney joined the fellows, but Lacey had no part because she found it degrading. Cagney pointed out that a year ago they wouldn’t even have been asked.

The show was cancelled at the end of this season. Fans wrote in complaining and Rozenzweig told them rather than write the network, write letters to newspapers. Dorothy Swanson asked what she could do and started a letter-writing campaign. It was the first act of Viewers for Quality Television, a non-profit group that ran until 2000 with the mission of saving “critically acclaimed programs from cancellation despite their Nielsen program rating.” CBS couldn’t ignore the response, and asked for the show to come back, which it did in the spring of 1984 for a truncated seven-episode season. Before the hiatus, the 1982-83 season was awarded an Emmy to Daly for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and nominations to Gless in the same category to the series for Outstanding Drama.

Even though Cagney & Lacey contains its fair share of melodrama, it was well written and dealt believably for a network drama about issues such as drug use, homosexuality, date rape, and domestic violence. Women issues are explored and not always through one point of view. There is a constant reminder of the male attitude towards women in the workplace, both subtle and overt. The series is entertaining and thought-provoking.

The DVD comes with a two-part featurette called “Breaking the Laws of TV” about the show. The cast, crew, and people like Gloria Steinem discussed the show’s history and its impact. “Pt. 2” focuses on the supporting cast, a talented group, although it is impossible for me not to see Martin Kove as that evil bastard John Kreese from The Karate Kid. I kept waiting for a bad guy to sweep his legs.

Warner Bros. has released yet another expansive box set from its very large film library. Like the title says, World War II Collection, Vol. 2 – Heroes Fight For Freedom gives us more films about World War II but this collection primarily deals with the battles in the Pacific.

It’s nice to see more of these lesser known war films — well, lesser known compared to The Big Red One and The Dirty Dozen that were found in the first World War II Collection box set.

Air Force

Howard Hawks (The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo) directs this tale about The Mary Ann – a B-17 Flying Fortress – as it deals with the battle at Pearl Harbor and flies missions over the Philippines, Wake Island, and the Coral Sea.

One of the refreshing aspects of Air Force is the film’s focus on the crew of The Mary Ann rather than on any specific battle. The crewmen interact with each other. These interactions are classic moments of boys being boys, as these guys have carefree conversations about anything on their mind. This carefree attitude even extends to some characters that aren't well-liked.

Aerial Gunner Joe Winocki (John Garfield) is one such character who didn’t seem cut out for the Air Force. He was cut from the pilot program and had been moping around ever since. It isn’t until The Mary Ann picks up a dog named Tripoli from some Marines stationed on Wake Island that he is able to find his spirit. Even though it’s against regulations to have animals on board, Winocki fights adamantly to keep him. This fight for Tripoli reinvigorates Winocki and his sense of purpose on the B-17, even causing him to want to stay past his enlistment period.

Some of the crew felt uneasy about one addition — Pursuit Pilot Tex Radar (James Brown) — after the Pearl Harbor attack. Radar rubbed some the wrong way over his dislike of big planes. He might also have a thing for one crew member’s sister. But who knows?

The focus on the crew members’ relationships with each other isn’t fully realized until later in the film when much of the action (and for 1943 effects, they’re pretty darn good) happens. Getting to know each of the men allows you to become more involved in their well-being. When the Japanese attack, you worry for them; you root for them; you applaud them.

36 Hours

The most important battle in World War II is the historic D-Day invasion. D-Day was the major turning point of the war in the Allies’ favor. James Garner (Major Jefferson Pike) stars in this George Seaton-directed tale of an elaborate Nazi ruse to get information about D-Day.

Pike is one of the few people who knows intimate details about the D-Day invasion, and the Nazis have had some success with falsifying their prisoners’ environment to make them think they are among friends. Major Walter Gerber (Rod Taylor) has 36 hours to obtain the information before the Nazis send in the SS to get it themselves.

Gerber is very confident that he will get what he wants. He’s been successful in eighteen other cases, and thinks he knows Pike as well as a brother. Despite Gerber’s successes, everyone is gunning for his failure. Will he succeed? The outcome of the war rides on it.

The film’s one weak spot is its lack of suspense. Gerber is a likeable character to hate. The hospital setting is too comforting an environment. Pike doesn’t seem in any real danger. 36 Hours is a fine movie, but it lacks the dire suspense that made Hitchcock films so thrilling.

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

“The Doolittle Raid” was one of the most important missions in the war over the Pacific. Numerous defeats to the Japanese navy made World War II’s duration seem longer and longer. The Allies needed a victory. America needed a victory. Lt. Col. James Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) devised a plan to bomb Tokyo and put fear into the Japanese.

Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Considine and Major Ted W. Lawson, Mervyn LeRoy’s film is a comprehensive look into the training and execution of the raid, following Lt. Lawson (Van Johnson) — one of the brave volunteers — as he balances work and home with his pregnant wife Ellen (Phyllis Thaxter).

Since Lawson himself wrote the book, it’s unsurprising that much of the movie deals with the intimate relationships between Lawson and his wife, and Lawson and his fellow pilots and crew. Lawson and Ellen have very cute and passionate conversations, reminding me of the dialogue in Casablanca. Lawson even plays a poker game with a few Army and Navy guys, if you can believe it. Their camaraderie is stunning. Despite the circumstances and bleak outlook of the deadly mission, these soldiers kept calm and focused, never wavered and never quit.

The Hill

Sidney Lumet (Network) directs this unique film about a British disciplinary camp in the Libyan Desert. For any offense, minor or otherwise, British soldiers are sent here to learn to be soldiers or to be broken men.

Sean Connery stars as Trooper Joe Roberts, and he is the main target of Staff Sergeant Williams (Ian Hendry), who makes Roberts repeatedly traverse the hill of the title — a towering sand hill. Even as he is made to perform more hill runs than his cabin mates, Roberts still finds the energy to mock Williams, including shoveling sand into the faces of other soldiers who Williams ordered to toss water at him.

At first the cabin mates don’t get along, a couple men even fight amongst themselves. But they soon realize that they’re all in it together. Their situation is worsened by mate George Stevens (Alfred Lynch) having a mental breakdown after being repeatedly made to run the hill, once even doing it in the intense heat with a gas mask on.

The gas mask is one of many allusions that the film makes comparing the disciplinary camp to Nazi concentration camps. In one scene, the heat made the others delirious, and Roberts jokes that it isn’t the sun that they’re staring at but a Gestapo lamp.

Lumet directs surprisingly large number of scenes using the handheld camera. This camera use shows how rough the camp is. There is a huge difference between the language of the terms "prison camp" and "disciplinary camp". Lumet suggests that they aren’t as dissimilar as they seem. Cells are small, but look thick and suffocating when you’re behind them.

Hell To Eternity

There aren’t many heroes in this world. Guy Gabaldon is one. Hell To Eternity tells the true story of Guy as he grows up to be a great man. As a boy, he goes through harsh times, living by himself during the Depression. His friend’s father invites Guy (Jeffrey Hunter) to live with them in their Japanese household, and Guy finally knows what family and love really are.

His world is turned upside down when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and one of the saddest chapters in American history begins. The U.S. government feared its own citizens and ordered all Japanese-Americans into internment camps. Guy feels extraordinary pain that his foster family faces such discrimination. But his family tells Guy to turn the other cheek, and that the government is doing what it thinks is best: “No one bats a thousand.”

Guy is initially rejected from the Army because of a perforated eardrum. He drifts through the years without any purpose; but when he visits his family at one of the camps he asks to join the Marines, citing his fluency in Japanese. He is accepted and is sent to Saipan where he finds why he is special compared to the rest of the Marines. He is the only one who can convince the many Japanese civilians and soldiers scattered throughout the island to surrender.

Risking his own life, Guy roams alone to prevent any more bloodshed, American or Japanese. He is credited with saving hundreds of Japanese from suicide and hopeless fighting as the Americans capture the island. He faced long odds as a child, but got through it with the love of his family. Guy returned the favor and the love.

Command Decision

Commanding military officers usually get the benefit of the doubt for the decisions they make. They research them, and take responsibility for them. Sam Wood (The Pride Of The Yankees) directs this rare glimpse into the process that General Dennis (Clark Gable) has to go through to for permission to order a massive bomb raid (Operation Stitch) on a German air force installation that is building jet fighter planes.

Based on the play by William Wister Haines, Command Decision tells of a World War II battle fought with words as dangerous as guns. The officers argue back and forth, each trying to convince the other that he is right and the other is wrong. Casualties mount as Dennis’ bombing raids go unsuccessfully. The longer the mission goes without meeting its objective, the longer the war seems without an end.

Dennis finally convinces Brigadier General Clifton Garnet (Brian Donlevy) with a firm and passionate speech on why his air raid mission will win the war and how waiting would cede Europe to Hitler. It’s Dennis’ unflinching conviction that the raids’ success means Allies’ success that makes Dennis a great general, as well as a great leader. You can see the hurt in his eye as other generals spew out the numbers of lost Americans in the previous losing missions.

Dennis contends that failure to continue the missions would mean that all of those American deaths would be for nothing. To the top brass, all of those deaths are just numbers; to Dennis, they’re men that he has personally shared meals with. He makes decisions that he hopes will shorten the war for everyone, praying that everyone comes back alive. These are decisions that no one wants to make.

Special Features

Like other Warner Bros. DVD catalog box sets, the studio included various vintage short films. It’s nice to see these in some digital form, especially the World War II shorts, but wouldn’t it be better to devote an entire box set to these shorts instead of scattering them on dozens, if not hundreds of DVDs?

Many of these WWII shorts are propaganda pieces, plain and simple. Many of them are Oscar nominated as well. The Air Force DVD includes the Women At War short that gives an account of the wives of soldiers who volunteered to work for the military and factories. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo includes Movie Pests, which gives a very bland assessment of distractions we all hope to avoid at the movie theatre.

Many cartoon shorts make their way too. Bear Raid Warden is funny and King-Size Canary is so comical you’d think you see it on The Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Every DVD has trailer galleries, but it’s a shame more featurettes could not be found that were specific to the movies in the set. Other than that, this set does a fine job giving these overlooked WWII movies a shot at reaching more viewers.

by Iloz Zoc

Around two-thirds into Murder-Set-Pieces I looked at my watch. I don't do that often when watching a film. In this case, though, I looked at it twice. I really wanted to get it over with, and, unlike some reviewers less meticulous (or masochistic) than I, I always watch the whole movie just to make sure I don't miss anything that remotely resembles art, or scares, or anything that stands out as a memorable horror-moment. I was disappointed that I didn't find anything like that here.

At the end of the movie I sighed with relief and wondered what I ever did to the staff at The Haunted Report to warrant them sending me this emotionless and tensionless excursion into the mind and actions of a one-dimensional, neo-Nazi, muscle-bound serial killing photographer prowling Las Vegas for his next torture-gig photo shoot. America's Top Model has more tension. Maybe I should send the staff a fruit basket for the holidays. Then maybe they'd send me the A stuff.

While many of the reviews for Murder-Set-Pieces mercilessly castigate director Nick Palumbo as a misogynistic this or racist that, that's not quite the vibe I picked up. He's just doing what any director does — telling his unsavory story through the camera lens. I actually thought Palumbo did a solid job of direction, but just made some questionable choices with the material, like his confusing use of ill-placed, tinkling music, flashbacks and shock-montages into the fractured mind of the nutbag photographer, or the spin-art overuse of blood on everything in sight. Then there's the bordering-on-comic way he'd cut to the photographer driving in his Mustang, again and again, prowling night-time Las Vegas for more nudie-cutie opportunities, with the same overused audio of the car's engine racing and sputtering.

But the most important directorial misstep here is the lack of tension-building suspense and the pedestrian way in which each murder-set-piece is handled. At no time are any of the tortures or murders the least bit shocking, the least bit emotionally draining. We follow the photographer around, as he bounces off the padded walls of his mind, as if we're carrying his equipment bag and nothing more. And when he whips out that straight razor, there's no fearful whimper from us, no gasps. Perhaps I'd have been more drawn in with the uncut version of the film, but Anchor Bay's R-rated DVD only implies defilement and torture, and cuts away from the chainsaw-through-head type of chunky violence gore-hounds love. So gore-hounds be warned: look for the uncut version if you are so inclined. As for me, I'd rather have more meat and less sauce.

Which brings us to the storyline itself, which is less meaty and less filling than a horror movie should be. Due in large part to Sven Garrett's lifeless performance as the photographer with too much killing time on his hands. Even though he suffers from manic bouts of shouting in German, and nose-bleeds as he flashbacks in weird vignettes with him as a boy walking train tracks while a flirtatious blonde parades in front of him, while his look is right, that's where his energy for the role ends. When he pumps iron, all sweaty and gritty, he still doesn't pump enough energy to light a diode, let alone a performance that cries out for psychotic, balls-to the-wall-abandon. His torture and killing sprees are monotone, with the only lively color coming from the blood all around him. So what if he likes to eat his meat raw and bloody? Without the gusto, it's just undercooked.

Even the cameos with Gunnar Hansen and Tony Todd do nothing to fortify the film. Hansen, playing another neo-Nazi crazy, sells the photographer a gun, and Todd, who manages an Adult Video store, tries to throw him out after he asks for a snuff film called Nutbag (an in-joke reference to Palumbo's other film).

The hidden torture-death playroom he uses to humiliate and terrorize his victims is a caricature of a hidden torture-death playroom, and doesn't generate an atmosphere of dread anticipation and fear. Way too much red blood is spattered over everything, making it more of a demonic Pee Wee Herman's acid-trip induced idea of what a playroom should be. While it does reflect a bit of a 1970s gleefully repellent grindhouse sensibility, with naked, hanging upside down and chair-bound women, it fails to elicit feelings of disgust or shocks of horror. Palumbo and Garrett show no finesse in the fine art of building and sustaining tension, even when the chainsaw comes out for some head-scratching the hard way.

The plot motivations also lead to some head-scratching. When the photographer's girlfriend pines away for him after he breaks off the relationship, he's such a lifeless kind of guy, you wonder where her tears are coming from. Even her little sister knows the guy's a creep and good riddance. Even after the break-up, he's still stalking the kid, watching her from his Mustang. When the kid complains, her big sister doesn't want to hear it; so she steals the spare, creepy-freaky guy's house key, begs a total stranger to drive her to his house, and lets herself in — to do what, exactly? Why didn't she just go to the police? What, the Vegas cops too busy to follow up on one more psycho? Especially when they've got a trail of dead bimbos across the strip? That's when I looked at my watch a second time.

The ensuing encounter between her and him, as he's all bloodied-up from playing with another hapless victim, is devoid of terror and suspense. There was no build-up leading to this encounter, so when it comes, it plays out without fanfare or intensity. When she hides under his bed — apparently the kid has never seen a horror film — I rolled my eyes in disbelief, and when she runs back to the playroom to hide — you know, the no-exit, basement torture-chamber soaked in wall to wall blood and nicely decorated with his recent kills — I doubted Palumbo ran his script through the reality-checker first.

The ending leaves the photographer with a headache and a sequelization antic that could spawn another film, and the blood-spattered, and hopefully wiser kid, walking down the highway in shock.

She wasn't the only one.

Well, it's been awhile, but the Mrs. and myself finally got around to sitting down and watching another flick together. This time around we take a look at E.G. Daily (of Tommy Pickles and Pee Wee Herman fame) as she jumps into the reins of a madame hell-bent on revenge. Does it work? Read on to find out!

She said:

So my husband messages me and tells me he has a new movie for us to watch. Mustang Sally is the name, starring one of my favorite B-movie queens E.G. Daily (yeah, Tommy Pickles, also in Valley Girl and Pee Wee's Big Adventure). He tells me she plays a prostitute who kills her clients. Okay, interesting idea… however there is more to it, or rather they meant to have more to it than that.

One thing I will start off saying is that the movie was not that bad. I enjoyed it. Got a lot of chuckles out of the writing. However the story is a tad confusing at times and unfortunately, too obvious at others. Our writer, director, and cameo actor Iren Koster had some great ideas on this movie. However he let too many things slip which ruined what could have been a great twist. There were no misdirections, there were no red herrings, there were no big shocks at all as far as the story line went. When major plot information came out, it just spurted all at once (pun intended) and came at you so fast that you almost couldn't digest it, then once you did it was like — well now what are we going to do with the second half of this movie?

The young men visiting the bordello are sent in on what is an obvious set-up. Three bikers enter a bar and talk the place up within ear-shot of the boys. The characters were very stereotypical. We had our jock who carried a football around like a security blanket, we had our goofy little comedy relief (and I am sorry, the boy needs some acting classes, his deliveries were way off), we had our rich boy, our sensitive guy — you name it, they were there, but only on the surface. No depth to them, nothing. The prostitutes were the same way. It was all very cut-and-paste, and not a lot of information on where Sally met these women.

We had characters show up that made neither real sense nor helped to really further along the plot line, such as the sheriff. We got too much information on Sally; we didn't get enough information on the boys' fathers who actually committed the crime against Sally. The ending was confusing on how our main boy got into the hospital in the first place. And had we not been given the information on who Sally was, well the ending would have been a great shocker.

The gore and the deaths were pretty damn creative for the most part. I got a kick out of that. The acting was below par, mood swings happened that made no sense, deliveries were pretty weak, but the writing was good. Very funny stuff throughout. Nudity, for those of you who care — not so much, considering the theme.

2 boot lickings out of 5.

He said:

So, for starters I must be honest. My original draw here was for E.G. Daily dressing up as a prostitute. Just so you all know what expectations I had going into this.

That said, I was pleased with what I got! Outside of general eye candy, I still remained somewhat pleased with this low budget extravaganza despite the issues contained within.

Plot descriptions on IMDb lead one to believe that Mustang Sally could be the tale of some evil prostitutes doing evil for evil’s sake. Once we dig down to the meat and potatoes, that’s not the case at all. What we have here is a pure and simple revenge fantasy al la I Spit on Your Grave without the gritty realism of said flick. More along the lines of Pumpkinhead 2 sans the big-headed revenge demon, the story here is near identical. Where the two flicks differ however is this time around, they give too much story too early, leaving us with little to no fat to chew on in between. Revealing the hooker motive early on, there’s little to no mystery involved. But, when you’re watching scantily clad women murder all of the stereotyped clichés that you loathed in high school, how much mystery do you really need?

Mustang Sally, in the end, is just a good time; mindless watching with nothing to figure out, nothing to concentrate on. The acting throughout is mediocre at best and cringe-worthy at worst, but it all adds up to B-movie fare that will make you giggle a fair bit throughout. And did I mention the scantily clad women? Those are always nice too. You know what’s going to happen; you know how it’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of what order they are going to fall. With the bookend scenes of the main emo boy in the hospital going over his story, the beginning works as a good setup for the tale; when we go full circle to the point he is in the hospital, we never really find out how. As confusion sets in, the twist unfolds and all becomes clear. While this was a nice twist it was handled in the muddiest and most confusing manner possible, making this go from a "holy shit!" twist to a "eh, figured that’s where they were going" in about two seconds flat.

So if you think you’d like to see E.G. Daily in stripper shoes, this is your flick. If you’d like to watch prostitutes dressed as laughable stereotypes laying waste to annoying teenage boys, fire it up. If you’re looking for an engrossing tale filled with twists and turns and edge of your seat tension — better head back to Blockbuster.

2.5 scantily clad stabbers out of 5.