Drive (1997) - MVD Rewind Collection (Blu-ray) by Tyler Foster In the long history of mismastched movie duos, it's hard to think of two men less matched than Malik Brody (Kadeem Hardison) and Toby Wong (Mark Dacascos). Malik is still licking his wounds from his impending divorce, and trying to get his fledgling songwriting career off the ground. Toby is, well, a special agent and martial arts expert with a bionic implant plugged into his chest that gives him additional speed and agility, which he's stolen from the Chinese mob and hopes to sell to a Los Angeles tech company for $5 million cash. Malik needs the money more than he doesn't need the trouble, so he agrees to drive Toby from SF to LA for half the dough. In pursuit: the Gregg Allman-esque hillbilly assassin Vic Madison (John Pyper-Ferguson) and his scuzzy right-hand man Hedgehog (Tracey Walter), who have been hired by Mr. Lau (James Shigeta), who runs the company that installed the implant. Also along ...Read the entire review »

Grizzly (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV The best of the innumerable Jaws imitators, Grizzly, "Jaws with Claws!" may be derivative and uninspired, but for 1976 movie audiences it delivered the goods, with gruesome bear attacks in every reel. More impressive is that it was competently made on a budget of just $750,000 -- less than one-tenth the cost of the $9 million Jaws -- and yet it earned nearly $40 million at the box office, making it one of the most successful independent productions ever. The behind-the-scenes stories of Grizzly, exhaustively recounted on the Blu-ray disc's special features, are far more interesting than the movie itself. Edward L. Montoro's Film Ventures International, which financed and distributed Grizzly, was a notoriously crooked company, in business from 1968-1985. Montoro reportedly refused to comply with the profit-sharing agreement with Grizzly's producers/writers Da...Read the entire review »

Career Opportunities (Blu-ray) by Tyler Foster For just over a decade, John Hughes was one of the hippest, hottest names in Hollywood. Starting with The Breakfast Club in 1980, his work came to define a generation and launched the careers of several teen stars. That said, not everything he touched turned to gold: Career Opportunities was shot in 1989 and didn't manage to make it to theaters until 1991, following a tumultuous post-production process (and the breakout, career-defining box office success of Home Alone). Although the film eventually garnered a small cult following, it doesn't carry the same kind of respect that even Hughes' less-celebrated work like She's Having a Baby and Some Kind of Wonderful have. Watching it now, it's easy to see why...and why Hughes himself tried to take his name off of it before it was released.Frank Whaley plays Jim Dodge, a young man out of high school sti...Read the entire review »