Cinemas & Home Entertainment This Week…

GRIM PICKINGS this week includes key dates to dismember with a slightly distorted rom-com opening in cinemas while home entertainment gets a double helping of Rob Zombie ahead of his upcoming THREE FROM HELL.

CINEMAS

LONG SHOT
Jonathan Levine, the writer/director responsible for 2013 zom-com WARM BODIES, returns with this Charlize Theron and Seth Rogan lead rom-com. While providing its fair share of laughs, LONG SHOT unfortunately deviates a little too far into the absurd and crass to maintain a genuine sense of sincerity to deliver on its promise of romance. Charlotte Field (Theron) is one of the most influential women in the world. Smart, sophisticated, and accomplished, she’s a powerhouse diplomat with a talent for…well, mostly everything. Fred Flarsky (Rogen) is a gifted and free spirited journalist with an affinity for trouble. The two have nothing in common, except that she was his babysitter and first crush. When Fred unexpectedly reconnects with Charlotte, he charms her with his self-deprecating humour and his memories of her youthful idealism. As she prepares to make a run for the Presidency, Charlotte hires Fred as her speechwriter, much to the dismay of her trusted advisors. A fish out of water on Charlotte’s elite team, Fred is unprepared for her glamorous lifestyle in the limelight. However, sparks fly as their unmistakable chemistry leads to a round-the-world romance and a series of unexpected and dangerous incidents.

HOME ENTERTAINMENT

THE POSSESSION OF HANNAH GRACE (DVD Only)
After its scheduled theatrical release in January was pulled, THE POSSESSION OF HANNAH GRACE debuts locally on DVD this week and we can assure you that you missed nothing by not having had an opportunity to see this lacklustre affair on the big screen. For a film set within a morgue, there’s zero atmosphere and despite its slow-plotting, there’s not inch of suspense, in fact with a runtime of less than ninety minutes its absolute crawl to the finish. If the mere concept of this film interests you, you would do better to watch THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE or LAST SHIFT, two infinitely better films. Shay Mitchell (PRETTY LITTLE LIARS) stars as a cop just out of rehab, who takes the graveyard shift in a city hospital morgue where she faces a series of bizarre, violent events caused by an evil entity in one of the corpses.
SLICE
We feel it would be unfair to comment on this film after we were (willingly) unable to make it all the way through it, take from that what you will. In a spooky small town, when a slew of pizza delivery boys are slain on the job, two daring survivors (Atlanta’s Zazie Beetz and Chance the Rapper in a wild film debut) set out to catch the culprits behind the cryptic crime spree.
KRULL
Making its local Blu-ray debut this week courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment is the 1983 sci-fi cult favourite KRULL, a kitschy cosmic fairytale with a slightly sinister underbelly. Journey into a mystical time and place that belongs to neither the past nor the present, where extraordinary creatures of myth work their incredible magic, and where a horrific, omnipotent Beast is the ruler. This is the planet of Krull! Prince Colwyn (Ken Marshall, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) sets out on a daring mission to rescue his young bride, Lyssa (Lysette Anthony, Look Who’s Talking Now) who is held captive by the Beast. Slayers and alien beings under the command of the Beast oppose him at every turn Colwyn must first reach a faraway cavern to recover the legendary Glaive, a flying blade capable of phenomenal powers. Also starring Freddie Jones (Dune), Francesca Annis (The Libertine) and Liam Neeson (The Dark Knight Rises) in one of his earliest screen roles, Krull is a spectacular fantasy adventure beyond the imagination. Umbrella Entertainment’s Blu-ray is (to date) the definitive version available worldwide with a high-definition transfer, uncompressed DTS-HD Master 5.1 audio, all of the archival standard definition special features from Sony’s OOP DVD and reversible artwork with the original key theatrical art and newly commissioned art from Simon Sherry.   TWO FROM HELL (Blu-ray)
Umbrella Entertainment serve up their previous Blu-ray releases of Rob Zombie’s HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL’S REJECTS together in a cheekily dubbed TWO FROM HELL double-pack. HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES: On October 30, 1977, three intrepid youths travel across the American landscape, researching a book on unusual roadside attractions. During one pit-stop they encounter petrol station owner Captain Spaulding (exploitation legend Sid Haig, The Big Doll House, Blood Bath) who introduces them to “The Museum of Monsters & Madmen”, where they learn the local legend of Dr. Satan. In search of the particular tree from which Dr. Satan hanged, they pick up hitchhiker Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie, Toolbox Murders) and are lead to a mysterious house that will be their ultimate undoing, wherein resides a family so morally depraved that death is considered less an end and more of a vacation.A twisted and macabre tale of gut-wrenching exploitation, inspired by 1970s cult horror classics The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, directed by Goth rocker-turned horror maestro Rob Zombie (The Devil’s Rejects, Halloween), House of 1000 Corpses is a relentless blood-bath of torture and mayhem. THE DEVIL’S REJECTS: From the twisted mind of acclaimed musician and Director Rob Zombie, comes The Devil’s Rejects – a nerve-shredding violent road trip through the weirdest parts of American and the darkest corners of your mind. This grisly tale of mayhem reunites the homicidal members of the Firefly Family as they go on a rampage of senseless slaughter, pursued by a pair of sadistic bounty hunters and an outlaw sheriff hell-bent on revenge. When they finally meet, prepare yourself for one of the most depraved and terrifying showdowns you’ll ever see. As this is a mere repack of Umbrella’s previous Blu-ray releases they contain the exact same archival special features (including commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes and trailers) as the prior releases only now come with newly commissioned outer artwork from artist Simon Sherry.

Grim Pickings is written weekly by Jarret Gahan.