Steve Rockamaniac Reviews...

Fallen Angels finally hit DVD shelves last week, The name of this movie might ring a bell to some of you, no its not a film about Christopher Daniels, its the movie Christie Hemme was promoting on TNA programming a long while back. Earlier this week I got a chance to check the film out and here is a quick review..

The city of Harbour Cove, Ohio like many cities looking to expand their economy, is preparing to tear down a old turn of the century prison with the hopes of building a mega shopping mall in its place. However when a gruesome discovery is made in a sub basement of the building everything changes, and a hell is unleashed on the small town. The discovery is the remains of a large amount of brutally slain humans. The result of the impending investigation is the unleashing of a legion of demons, who each represent one of the seven deadly sins. A boy is murdered and a girl goes missing, and this only begins what is a 96 minute thrill ride that at the same takes a dark look at the human faith in religion.

To start off I must admit that im not a super religious person myself, Which as I began watching the movie made me wonder if I was going to be able to get through it, however I am a big fan of Horror/Thriller mysteries which kept me intrigued and watching. Ultimately I was glad I stuck with it as the story played out well and provided for an entertaining evening of movie watching. But not everyone may be the same as I so I would strongly recommend this movie if you enjoy a religion based film, less so if your not.  Also this is one of those films where you need to try and pay attention to cause it presents you with a lot in a short period of time but if you feel a bit lost halfway through the ending is able to put all the eggs back into the basket for you and go home happy so to speak.

I also must say that the visual effects are very well done for a independent film and the demons look very realistic. Meanwhile Bonus features includes commentary, featurettes on the cast and visual effects

For those wondering, Christie Hemmes role is a very small part of the film, as she reprsents the Lust Angel/Demon, but looked far from anything resembling a demon as she was jaw dropping georgeous.

Fallen Angels is available on DVD now. It is written and directed by Jeff Thomas and is released under Polychrome Pictures. For more information on the film you can check out Polychrome Pictures website at www.polychromepictures.com or you can visit the films official website at http://www.fallenangelsthemovie.com

 

The great folks at Polychrome Pictures also sent along a copy of  The Still Life which is a drama written and directed by Joel Miller, who is well known for his time in the music industry as he was first a studio producer for such acts as Poison and Billy Idol and would later go onto to tour as a stage manager for some big named bands such as Guns n Roses, Godsmack, and Disturbed. This is important to mention because it may have been his time in the music industry that helped him put together such a intriguing drama that travels along the lines of a artist who gets their big break and rises to stardom too quickly and you watch them slowly crash and burn. More specifically, The Still Life, follows Julian Lamont, a struggling artist who spearheads a new art genre called Destructionism, which is basically taking completed paintings and beating the hell out of them and selling them as artistic pieces.  

Generally this storyline may have been done before, but The Still Life offers some impressive performances, surprising cameos, and a killer soundtrack.

Wrestling wise, Al Snow (with head) makes a cameo as a art buyer who attends one of the art exhibits of the lead character Julian Lamont (played by Jason Barry) Snows cameo will give you a small laugh in the midst of this serious drama. Also I marked hard for a cameo by Jonathan Davis, lead singer of Korn, who ive big a huge fan of for many years.

Due to director Joel Millers connections in the music industry the films soundtrack is like no other indy films soundtrack as original musical contributions from members of Guns n Roses (Dizzy Reid), No Doubt (Adrian Young), Bad Religiion, Skid Row, and many more are included on the soundtrack, which actually comes as a bonus disc with the DVD, which I applaud, as I would like to see more DVDs be accompanied by their respective soundtracks, it offers a more total package so to speak.

Bonus features include a 20 minute making of featurette, which covers a lot of how this indy film came together, and after watching it I must say Im so impressed with what some small Indy films such as The Still Life are doing now a days with no budget and just under 3 weeks to shoot. Also Cast Commentary and Theatrical Trailers are included.

The Still Life is worth a watch and a listen, You can check out the films official website at http://thestilllifemovie.com/

On a related note, I also got my hands on a  copy of one of Polychrome Pictures other new films, entitled June Cabin. The film has no wrestling connection but was much more my cup of tea.

June Cabin is a thriller which sees a group of seven friends reuniting at an summer cabin deep in the woods. One guy in the group named Archie,seems a bit off when he arrives for the weekend,  he is acting rather strange and showing some bitterness  towards the rest of the group, and its becomes quite obvious that a large chunk of his anger surrounds his unreturned feelings for fellow group member Sandy. Suddenly, Archie goes missing, and as the tag line for the movie explains The woods are a big place, Its Tough to find a lost pal, or see one coming June Cabin has a great story, and an surprising ending, so although this plot description may make it sound like your cookie cutter thriller, its far from that, Its tough for me to say much more without giving away important details in the story but I will say that if your sick and tired of the typical horror/thrillers that leave you with a crappy ending because they desperately want to have a door open for a sequel then check out June Cabin on DVD and you wont be disappointed. That being said I will warn you that much like Fallen Angels, the movie requires a lot of attention as it jumps around a lot to offer in depth details of the characters relationships often in a this just happened flashback type of fashion, but I found it a bit easier to figure out than Fallen Angels.

The film is written and directed by Ross Otterman and Liz Fedorwicz, and has a run time of about 86 minutes, The DVD Bonus features include Deleted Scenes and Directors Commentary, also a featurette on the making of the film.

June Cabin is also available on DVD now, and can be purchased for under 20$ on sites such as Amazon, or check out PolychromePictures.com for more details