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No Man’s Land: Rise of the Reeker is written and directed by Dave Payne, and is something of a one-trick pony of a movie. The main trick of the movie is a misdirect of who the bad guy is; the opening scene plays this to the hilt and once it’s over and the opening credits roll, the rest of the movie is as uninspired as a catalog of office chairs.

The film relies on some rather cliché SF and horror conventions, one element of which even brings some miming into play. The film essentially quickly becomes a survival of the fittest flick, but with a supernatural twist as people who shouldn’t survive certain wounds somehow do.

Relying more on gore and gross-out than actual suspense, No Name’s Land: Rise of the Reeker aims at a lower target than some of the other films in this collection. If they had hit that target solidly, that might be forgivable, but that’s not so much the case here. Despite a nice little shocker opening sequence, the rest of the film fails to live up to that same level of creativity and ends up being more tedious than a film of this type ought to be.

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Written and directed by Gregg Bishop, Dance of the Dead is a zombie movie that was made right here in the US, and bypassed theatrical release, going directly to video as part of the Ghost House Underground collection of eight horror flicks. A good-natured film that builds characters well, the zombie content is foreshadowed early and yet allows enough time for the viewer to connect with the characters before the movie gets really dark.

The main ingredient that seems to hold this film back from being a mainstream theatrical release, it seems, is the low profile casting; while that kept the budget small, the lack of any established, recognizable stars also is the main reason this film got lumped into a collection of DVDs rather than going onto the silver screen. This makes Dance of the Dead the movie equivalent to a once-rotund person after using the Alli diet pill

That’s not a knock on the performances given by those cast, however; though less experienced actors, most do well with the material they’re given. A nuclear power plant is generally cast as the reason for the zombification of the dead, though that’s barely explored in this release, though it’s hinted that an assault on the power plant will be the main action behind an anticipated sequel.

Though a bit cornball and predictable, Dance of the Dead is the most commercial of the movies in this collection. If they had snagged someone like Smallville’s Kristen Kruek or Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki to take up a key role or two in the film, this would be a movie review, and not a DVD review.

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Part of the eight-movie horror-flick fest known as Ghost House Underground, Room 205 is a spooky film focusing on a haunted dorm room, and a Danish import brought to the US by Lion’s Gate Films.

The movie focuses on freshman Katerine, who tries to gain the acceptance of her peers while still getting her bearings as a new university student, but undergoes a hazing related to Room 2005’s reputation as a haunted dorm room.

Unfortunately, there’s more to the haunting of the room than pure legend and when a haunted mirror starts to show people who are about to die their fate rather than their reflection, Katerine’s dorm-mates begin to suspect her in the series of deaths that soon follow.

Paced like a slasher film, Room 205 contains a sexual assault scene that, while not overly graphic, may be disturbing to some viewers. The language is rather tame and the English dub job may not be seemless, but it’s quite a bit better than the dub-job on The Substitute. Atmospheric but a bit cliché, Room 205 is effective at building up a sense of suspense, yet suffers from being a bit predictable.

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The movie The Substitute, which is part of the Ghost House Underground collection, is not to be confused with the 1996 Tom Berenger movie or its sequels. This is a Danish film released this year and collected as part of an eight-movie horror film grab bag. The film stars aging Danish film star Paprika Steen at the blonde substitute teacher of the film’s title.

More kitschy SF flick than pure horror film the movie opens with some gobbledygook about another planet finding Earth that didn’t know how to love, and it was humanity’s capacity to love that drew them here. Of course, there’s very little loving done in the story that follows. When Steen appears as a substitute teacher, her class of students sense there’s something freaky-deaky about her right away; of course, the parents don’t see it and she somehow rises above suspicion for much of the film, even though she never does anything as innocent as playing with dollhouses.

On the upside, the film is relatively clean on the language front and low on the gore factor, relying on more of a building suspense than blood-n-guts. On the down side, the final act is pure hokum, the English dub job is haphazard at best and painfully out-of-synch at times, and the film as a whole is not very spooky at all.

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Appearances by Tina Fey and the real GOP vice presidential nominee, Alaska governor Sarah Palin, boosted Saturday Night Live to its biggest overnight rating in 14 years, as the show garnered a 10.7 rating, 24 share in the 56 local markets metered by Nielsen Media Research, according to online reports.

Palin’s appearance was planned for weeks and SNL had typical fun with her appearance and playing her off Fey’s amusing imitation. One can be sure, it was not guest host Josh Brolin (star of Oliver Stone’s bombing comedy, W.) or musical guest Adele that pushed SNL to such unheard-of ratings success.

No, it was the Fey and Palin appearances that must be credited with such ratings success. Give Fey some nice Brazil vacation packages as a reward for her part in the success. Can’t offer Palin the same, though, without violating campaign contribution laws that her running mate, John McCain, helped create.

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The heavily-promoted videogame movie, Max Payne, topped all challengers this weekend to win the peak box office position, culling an estimated $18 million in its opening weekend, against a $35 million budget, to take the honor.

Taco Bell dog, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, showed surprising resiliency in its third week of release, garnering $11.2 million for the second spot on the Top 5 movies chart this weekend. Its total take to date is $69 million, one of the strongest of the fall flicks.

Meanwhile, the Queen Latifah-Dakota Fanning PG-13 drama, The Secret Life of Bees, came out of nowhere to take the third spot in the list with an estimated $11.0 million. The achievement is an upset result that foiled even the worst expectations Hollywood had set on the new Oliver Stone movie, W., a comedic polemic against the outgoing George W. Bush administration that had nothing to do with NC health insurance. Bees pulled off this upset despite appearing on a considerably lower number of screens compared to W. (Bees appeared on 1,591 screens, compared to 2,030 screens for W.) The result is especially encouraging for Bees, which cost $11 million to make and, therefore, has already recouped its investment.

Oliver Stone’s W. underachieved below even the worst industry expectations, garnering a mere $10.5 million over the weekend, against a $25.1 million in box office. While the film will likely make its money back, most analysts expected it to top the box office in its debut weekend, and come in somewhere around $20 million, so it underperformed expectations by about half.

Perhaps it is the fact that the film is being marketed as a light comedy - never Stone’s strong point; perhaps it is exhaustion from the long political season, or the timing of the flick (since Bush isn’t running for re-election). Whatever the cause, a fourth-place finish and only $10.5 million is well below what Stone and his producers were hoping for.

Steven Spielburg-backed espionage movie Eagle Eye rounded out the top 5, with only $7.3 million, though the flick has earned $81 million in four weeks, against an $80 million budget.

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Rogue Pictures has made most of its reputation of releasing hardcore horror films and cheesy, direct-to-video fare like the recent American Pie sequels, as well as some Chucky films. (And, rumor has it, a cheesy documentary on term life insurance… or not.) In other words, they’re not exactly the home of much in the way of high-class horror, or, really, high class comedy or anything else.

That’s part of what makes The Strangers so notable. Written and directed by Bryan Bertino, The Strangers is a throwback to the paranoia horror films of the 1970s, as well as the 1950s work of Alfred Hitchcock. The Hitchcockian elements are on display in the director’s restraint; resisting the recent torture-film trend, the movie gets its biggest reactions by what it suggests rather than what it shows. It is the sort of film, one senses, that a young John Carpenter or Tobe Hooper might produce if they were getting their start today, rather than 30 years ago.

Released on Blu-Ray in both a theatrical and an unrated version, the unrated edition of The Strangers adds only five minutes more footage than the theatrical release. The Strangers features a high-class duo in the main roles of Kristen McKay and James Hoyt. McKay is portrayed by Liv Tyler, while Scott Speedman of TV’s Felicity fame fills in the role of James. Both are young, talented and ready for the challenge of their roles.

Although the film claims to be inspired by true events, the actual basis for the film is far less enthralling than the film itself. When he was young, writer-director Bertino claims someone knocked on his family’s door asking for someone who was not there, and he later found out that several neighborhood homes had been broken into and robbed. That’s the extent to which The Strangers relates to any “true events.” However, Bertino did admit that the book Helter Skelter, about the Manson family murders, also served as partial inspiration for the movie.

The film opens as McKay and Hoyt are returning from a friend’s wedding reception; they seem angry, hurt and emotionally distant, and the source of this, it is revealed, is that Hoyt had proposed to McKay earlier that evening, but she’d turned him down, saying she wasn’t ready. As a disappointed Hoyt tries to make arrangements to leave McKay alone at the cabin, a stranger knocks at the door and asks if Tamara is home. They shoo her away, explaining there’s no one at the house by that name. Her face is never revealed since, thanks to a malfunctioning porch light, she is never shown in a lighted area.

Later, Hoyt leaves to buy McKay a pack of cigarettes and once he’s gone, the woman comes back to the door, knocking again and asking for Tamara. From there, the tension escalates into a full-blown tale of home invasion. The movie features striking little dialog, displaying the old cinematic storytelling axiom that character is defined by action rather than dialog, and that film is a primarily visual medium.

The Strangers takes full advantage of this wisdom, using character action and the visuals of the movie to full effect; this is not a film one can fully appreciate while doing a Sudoku puzzle and not really watching the screen. To do so would result in missing most of the story.

Still, what little dialog there is, is used to great effect. When asked to explain why they were chosen as targets by the killers, the simple three-word reply – “You were home” – is both memorable and chilling. And in one of the very few extras, a deleted scene shows that early cuts of the movie featured some very talky, expository scenes that were later cut from the film to keep the emotion of the action more intense and naturalistic.

There is a deeply disappointing lack of special features, which makes this release a very plain Jane package; aside from a very sparse collection of deleted scenes and a very brief documentary called The Elements of Terror, there’s nothing else on the disc. No audio commentary, no wealth of making-of features, no gag reel. Blu-Ray players connected to the internet are able to take advantage of some additional content via BD Live, but even there the choices are sparse at best.

The good news is that the movie did so well – including a $20 million-plus opening weekend and over $54 million in overall box office against a mere $9 million budget – that the sequel is already planned, with filming to begin in 2009. If the sequel can match the restraint and suspense of the original, it should be a film worth watching. This one certainly is, although the sparse selection of special features is especially disappointing.

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Camp Rock is the latest in a recent series of movie musicals, and this one features the Jonas Brothers in a starring role, as well as newcomer Demi Lovato. The Disney Channel-original film is good-natured, family-oriented and fun, despite being as predictable as car insurance.

Lovato stars in the film as Mitchie, a blue-collar girl who loves music and wants to attend the pricey, exclusive music-oriented summer camp, Camp Rock, to further develop her talents. Although her parents cannot afford to pay her way, her mother decides to take a break from her catering business to become the camp’s cook, in exchange for a tuition waiver for her daughter.

As is typical of movie teens, Mitchie is embarrassed by her own blue collar origins and, to camouflage them, invents a story about her mother being a talent scout for a record label. This fib initially draws the admiration and attention of the super-competitive camp diva, Tess Tyler, who recruits Mitchie into her group. Turns out Tess likes to recruit the most talented girls into her group, where she is the featured star, so that she can’t be outshone by anyone.

Meanwhile, a self-indulgent rock star, himself a Camp Rock graduate (Joe Jonas), is sent by his bandmates back to Camp Rock as an instructor, as a lesson in humility and “finding himself.” While pouting around the camp, he hears Mitchie singing but does not see the person attached to the voice, and so in Cinderella fashion spends much of the movie trying to match the voice he heard to the girls he encounters.

Of course, many girls want to be the one Shane is looking for and try to impress him with their voices, but none of them seem right to him. Mitchie is aware of his quest but, unaware he heard her singing, doesn’t believe it’s her he’s looking for.

As is the case in any Disney movies in which deception is involved, the truth about Mitchie’s blue-collar roots eventually comes out and humiliates her, and she must struggle to come to terms with self-acceptance. Many of the numbers in the film are catchy, but ultimately forgettable, teen pop tunes, and Camp Rock suffers from the same contrivances of other live action movie musicals of late: namely, that in a scene that involves one person strumming on a guitar and singing to another, mysteriously the song that is performed includes a full band arrangement and backup singers.

While this may make the songs more commercial and appealing, it draws the viewer out of the story and the cinematic moment and makes you wonder, “where the hell are the backup singers, drummer, keyboardist and bass guitarist? This is just supposed to be Shane singing to Mitchie.

The other problem with the musical concept as conceived here is that, much like American Mall or the High School Musical series of films, all the singers have their voices highly filtered as they sing; while such a production value might cover over some of the weaker voices in the cast, it again doesn’t seem like something that ought to be occurring “in the moment” in which the movie is taking place.

There is a scant selection of Blu-Ray extras on display, but only very few and nothing that stands out as particularly of interest. As a result, they add little to the appeal of the Blu-Ray package. The movie is OK, but it will certainly leave older viewers pining for the good old days of Singin’ In the Rain, The Sound of Music and, perhaps, even Grease.

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Comic Bill Engvall, one of the key members of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, is the star of Bait Shop, a good-natured family comedy about the modest owner of a small, local bait shop who is struggling to make ends meet and keep his shop open when hotshot pro fishing celebrity Hot Rod Johnson (Billy Ray Cyrus) moves in and opens a huge, Cabela’s-style sporting goods store across the street from him, threatening his livelihood and his Vegas vacations (OK, maybe that last part’s an exaggeration).

Engvall is surrounded by a group of friends who, while usually reliable, are as tempted as anyone by the lure of Hot Rod Johnson’s glitzy sporting goods shop. Worse, his own son, who has looked down at his dad’s way of life, is lured into Hot Rod’s circle of friends, becoming a sort of apprentice to the celebrity fisherman, even though there are few differences between Johnson’s life and the life of Bill Duggan (Engvall) at the most basic level, aside from success.

A huge celebrity fishing contest is scheduled, and soon becomes the focus of the film; to save his Bait Shop, Duggan must enter and win the fishing contest, but the odds against him are long, especially with the escalating rivalry with reigning champ, Johnson.

The general tone and feel of the movie is family-oriented and relatable. Engvall’s comedy celebrates the blue-collar working hero without looking down on their culture as so much of Hollywood tends to do. Anyone who enjoys fishing will find something likable in this film.

Of course, the film isn’t without its Hollywood contrivances. The underdog overcoming long odds against him is a standard movie formula, long typified by films as diverse as The Mighty Ducks and Rocky. And the ending is a typical Hollywood “happy ending” that celebrates the victory of the moral common man over the corrupt celebrity.

That being said, the film is pleasingly lacking in crudity or foul language, making it safe viewing for the entire family. While mired in cliché and corny, predictable humor, the core of the film is appealing and fun to watch. Though hardly a classic, Baitshop is certainly a good popcorn movie on a weekend afternoon at home.

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When it began and despite a relatively weak first season, Smallville became one of my favorite shows on television. Had it not been for the writer’s strike last season, this Season Seven collection would likely have become the final season of Smallville.

In many ways, even though the show is now into its eighth season on The CW, Smallville really did end with this seventh season. It marks the final season in which Kristin Kruek appears as Lana Lang, in which Michael Rosenbaum appears as Lex Luthor as a series regular (he will appear infrequently in Season Eight), John Glover as Lionel Luthor (his character dies in Season Seven), and Laura Vandervoort as Kara (although guest-star appearances are not out of the question in the future).

In addition to losing four cast members who made investing in HDMI cable worthwhile, the most important losses after Season Seven completed was the exit of Smallville series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. The show almost nearly lost Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan, who, along with Welling as Clark, is now among the only characters still on the show in Season Eight, who were there in Season One.

While a trio of producers have been elevated as show runners for Season Eight, the exit of Gough and Millar would seem to mark Season Eight as the final run of the show, although Tom Welling is rumored to be “open” to a possible Season Nine.

In the meantime, Season Seven is as solid a season as the show has turned in, despite being shortened by the writers strike. It features a maturing Clark who could easily take on the costume of Superman at any point, and whose only super-powered handicap seems to be the ability to fly. Original show-runners Gough and Millar’s initial plan had been for the donning of the Superman costume and Clark’s first at-will flight as the final image of the Smallville show; however, with the exit of Gough and Millar, it’s difficult to predict if this plan will remain in place.

Season Seven of Smallville featured the return of many familiar faces, some in fan service to Superman lore. Helen Slater, who played Supergirl in a 1984 movie, made an appearance, as did former Superman actor Dean Cain of Lois & Clark fame; Marc McClure also appears in this season after historically portraying Jimmy Olson in all the Christopher Reeve Superman films, as well as Supergirl. James Marsters returned as Brainiac, Justin Hartley reprised his role as Green Arrow, and most importantly, Sam Jones III reprised his role as Pete Ross after a four-year absence from the show.

The season kicks off with a wrap-up of Season Six’s Bizarro-centric cliffhanger, and then focuses on the new character of Kara, Clark’s Kryptonian cousin. Chloe adjusts to being a “meteor freak” herself with the ability to heal and even bring people back from the dead, while Lana establishes her independence from both Clark and Lex, leading to her exit from the show.

Yet the main storyline thrust for the season is the existence of Veritas, a secret society to which Lionel Luthor belonged which is dedicated to protecting a mythical “Traveler,” who is supposed to play a savior role for mankind, and who, it appears, is embodied by Clark. The season reaches another cliffhanger conclusion during a final showdown between Lex and Clark at the Fortress of Solitude, in which Lex finally learns all of Clark’s secrets.

A bit less affected than most shows by the writers strike, Smallville was able to produce 20 episodes, only two shy of its normal season count of 22 episodes. However, the strike still caused several episodes to air later than originally planned, and one of the two episodes cut would have featured the directorial debut of Allison Mack.

As has long been the case, Smallville Season Seven is packed with special features and while it would have been nice to have more commentary tracks, there are plenty of mini-documentaries and special features that previously were available only to Sprint-Nextel customers. A satisfying package made all the more appealing on high-def Blu-Ray format, this is a season collection that is a must for all long-time Smallville fans. Only time will tell if the same will be said of the current Season Eight.

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About 15 years after the brutal murder of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, OJ Simpson has finally been found guilty of something. No, it’s not doing a commercial promoting the best fat burner; it’s apparently kidnapping and robbery charges stemming from a Las Vegas hotel raid he staged: the jury found Simpson and an accomplice guilty on all counts.

Now, of course, Simpson’s lawyers will get plenty of time to endlessly appeal the decision. But at last, without a cop to blame because at some point he might have said something stupid, Simpson has run out of excuses and is going to prison to pay for something he did.

Sure, it may not be that he’s going to jail for the worst thing he was guilty of, but at least he’s off the streets and is finally no longer made of Teflon. He, remember, they nailed Al Capone on tax evasion, not on ordering the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. So Simpson’s in appropriate company, at last.

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The Taco Bell dog is out of alcohol rehab and ready to rule the box office! With his drug treatment center days behind him, this Taco Bell dog family pet comedy Beverly Hills Chihuahua ruled the top of the box office this weekend with an estimated $29 million take and a healthy $9,020 per screen average, blowing away the competition.

The Steven Spielberg-produced Eagle Eye held strong in week two, drawing in $17.7 million to bring its 10-day total to $54.6 million, good enough for the second spot on the chart. In third place was Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, the Michael Cera-starred romantic dramedy, which took in $12 million.

Perhaps most surprising is the poor performance of the David Zucker-produced comedy, An American Carol, a conservative-perspective send-up of filmmaker Michael Moore. Despite overwhelmingly positive reviews (except for a few liberal reviewers who panned it on political principal) and lots of publicity in the conservative talk-radio punditry, the film drew only an estimated $3.8 million on only 1,639 screens nationwide (about half the screens that ran Beverly Hills Chihuahua). That was good enough only for ninth place in the first week of release, against weak competition.

Liberals will no doubt take heart from the performance of the Bill Maher comedy, Religulous, which took tenth place behind An American Carol and drew $3.5 million despite playing on only 502 screens (or about one-third of the screens American Carol enjoyed). On a per-screen average, Religulous outperformed An American Carol considerably; An American Carol averaged $2,325 per screen, while Religulous averaged $6,972 per screen.

About the only comfort conservatives can take from this is that An American Carol received little in the way of traditional TV promotion, and Zucker, who was one of the minds behind the Airplane! movies, has not had a runaway box office hit in a couple decades now, so the box office performance of American Carol is not out of line with the appeal of his films in general.

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