An introduction is needed to welcome newcomers to the Sniper franchise and who Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) is. He is a Master Gunnery Sergeant and throughout the many films released since the 1993 original, he’s rising up the ranks. In Sniper: G.R.I.T., Global Response and Intelligence Team, he’s ready to join a new team to take on terrorists all over the world, and that also includes a religious zealot who kind of reminds me of a certain someone in a cartoon.
To be fair, I had to catch up to find out what has happened since the first film. After the one theatrical release, I didn’t realise there were many more direct to video releases. Thankfully to play catchup is easy; they are now available to stream online on platforms like Google Play, Netflix, and Amazon Prime.
Anyone having the post-Halloween blues may want to check out this hybrid Prosjekt Z as it’s not always about the terror, but the blues.
Coming to DVD/VOD
Nov 3, 2023
Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken‘s Prosjekt Z is a rather strange hybrid that doesn’t quite know what kind of movie it wants to be. When it’s hitting select theatres after All Hallow’s Eve, just who will be anxious to see this must be for folks craving anything postmortem. Here, the story is about a group of students out to make a zombie film out in the woods. But there’s much more going on, since we also get something akin to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes going on later on.
If that’s not this work’s premise, then the Rocky Horror moments even get curiouser and curiouser–minus the music. That is, there’s a couple who’s out in the woods and after having a bit of a spat, find themselves in front of a lone mansion. They’re just characters to a story within a story where afterwards, a meteorite comes zooming through and crashes! Its radiation is turning the locals into the walking dead.
Although this film won’t give rise to a net urban legend, it does well to say be careful in what you wish for, than reap, with Dark Harvest!
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Available on VOD and Amazon Prime
At long last, the film Dark Harvest is ready to reap! As crops fail, and one sleepy, unknown mid-western town needs to find the means to survive, just what they must do is literally the stuff of nightmares! The novel by Norman Partridge draws from various sources, and it’s only that not only I approve of, but perhaps also Stephen King!
Here, David Slade’s adaptation of the book is gentle on the ideas. Although it’s very weak in giving the supernatural terror an appropriate background story, I just went with it. It’s rare to get a creature that might give Michael Myers a run for his money. This new terror’s hatchet job is far more gory and flick of the wrist than what the other shambling mound of muscle can do, and I believe part of his origins may allude to some relationship with Spring-heeled Jack.
As much as I enjoyed watching the Dumont bandits make their last hurrah in Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, their fates are no longer intertwined and I’ll just leave it at that.
DreamWorks Animation
Po has certainly grown since becoming the Dragon Warrior back when Kung Fu Panda first started. He had to deal with classic wuxia style villains in the movies, face many foes in the television series, train a new generation in The Paws of Destiny and, with The Dragon Knight, prove his worth elsewhere. He’s lost the former title, and the difference may well rest in where he’s honoured.
Much of the third season takes place in England and it feels drawn out. After the events of the much shorter second season at Tikal to locate the Tianshang weapons, simply retrieving them and becoming the new custodians isn’t enough. They’ll have to destroy them. I had to rewatch much of the prior season to remind myself about what went on, and then realised, perhaps viewing the first again would also help refresh my memory.
Frank Baum’s books about the fantasy world of Oz have never been cause for concern amongst those familiar with the entire series. After watching the horror film, simply titled Gale, Stay Away From Oz, I have to watch Return to Oz (1985) again to refresh my memory. It seems this short is clearly influenced by it along with the books. The story here concerns how insanity has affected the Gale family.
Just when fans of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s film Wizard of Oz thought that film was the end all be all, there’s been attempts to continue the story with Journey Back to Oz, produced by Filmation, but it largely lays forgotten when compared to other attempts by the House of Mouse, which includes Oz, The Great and Powerful, along with other studios’s interpretation. The original tale is in the public domain, and filmmakers and playwrights can do whatever they want with this fond classical piece of children’s literature.
With the novels, I like to see if it ever alluded to Dorothy Gale going insane after returning to Earth. Fans of the books know the author also included scarier elements later on in the series. As for which work made Daniel Alexander reimagine this world to a product of true nightmares, I’m glad he’s taking a chance and releasing it early, before Spooktober.