More Articles By Ed Hulse

• Hack!
  ALLUMINATION Street: Dec. 11 Prebook: now > Cheeky, self-referential homage to slasher films has plenty for gorehounds and parody lovers. Unapologetically self-aware, this jokey slasher movie references more horror flicks in one reel than all the Scary Movie installments put together. A handful of students on a biology field trip to a remote island are invited by married filmmakers (Sean Ka... More
  
• Werewolf: The Devil’s Hound
  LIONSGATE Street: Dec. 4 Prebook: now > Gorefest’s reach exceeds its grasp but will satisfy undemanding genre fans. In this low-budget shocker, a young pyrotechnics specialist (Michael Dionne) preys on his friends and co-workers after a werewolf’s bite infects his bloodstream and turns him into a lycanthrope. More
  
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End—Two-Disc Special Edition
  DISNEY Street: Dec. 4 Prebook: now > Perfectly timed for Christmas, this extras-loaded Pirates holds plenty of treasure for consumers. The third Pirates film downplays Johnny Depp (Captain Jack) and Orlando Bloom (Will) to build up Keira Knightley (Elizabeth) and the returning Geoffrey Rush (Barbossa), but the real stars are the special-effects techies, whose work the entire film seems to h... More
  
• Midnight Clear
  LIONSGATE Street: Dec. 4 Prebook: now > Heartwarming holiday drama is skewed toward Christian/traditionalist audiences. When Christmas Eve finds divorced loser Lefty (Stephen Baldwin), his mother (K Callan) and a handful of strangers at their wits end, a series of seemingly random meetings that night changes their lives forever. More
  
• The Lady Vanishes
  CRITERION/IMAGE Street: Nov. 20 Prebook: now > Classic thriller receives new high-def transfer and is supplemented by a previously unreleased bonus film. Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller, centering on a sweet old lady (Dame May Whitty) who disappears from a crowded train rolling across Europe, has aged quite gracefully and remains a near flawless example of its genre. More
  
• Pigs
  THINKFILM Street: Nov. 27 Prebook: Nov. 1 > Hackneyed sex comedy has great packaging but fails to deliver on its promise. Goaded by his dorm buddies, ladies man Miles (Jefferson Brown) intends to sleep with the whole alphabet—girls whose names begin with letters A to Z—in the interest of winning a bet. More
  
• Innocent Voices
  POLYCHROME/WARNER Street: April 8 Prebook: now > Heartrending drama about the ’80s conflict in El Salvador is crafted with skill and sensitivity. Innocent Voices focuses on Chava (Carlos Padilla), an 11-year-old boy who helps his single mother, Kella (Leonor Varela), raise his siblings in war-torn El Salvador and faces forced conscription into the government army when he turns 12. More
  
• Father of Lies
  VIVENDI VISUAL Street: Oct. 30 Prebook: now > Uneven direction mars an otherwise creditable indie effort aimed at faith-based, African-American consumers. In this drama, Bishop Calvin Jacobs (Clifton Powell), a recovering alcoholic, takes desperate measures to save his financially strapped church—even accepting a loan from a Turkish businessman who wants assistance in a money-launderi... More
  
• 3000 Miles
  REVOLVER/IMAGE Street: Nov. 13 Prebook: now > A wild ride that crams a lot of high-spirited fun into less than two hours. The first American release from British company Revolver Entertainment, 3000 Miles documents the eighth Gumball Rally, a 120-vehicle extravaganza that began in London, headed through Belgium, Vienna, Belgrade and ultimately finished in Los Angeles at the Playboy Mansion. More
  
• Barry Cooper’s Never Get Busted Again: Vol. 1—Traffic Stops
  DISINFORMATION Street: Oct. 30 Prebook: now > A stoner’s primer to evading discovery and arrest. Whoa, dude, how cool is that?! Ex-cop and self-confessed stoner Barry Cooper, having decided that America’s drug laws are too strict, claims in this vanity production that he has been motivated by “compassion” to prepare this video how-to manual for avoiding arrest. More
  
• Fighting Words
  INDICAN Street: Oct. 30 Prebook: now > Yarn about slam poetry could pass muster with young, hip viewers. Enter the tense, exciting, dramatic world of … slam poetry. Yes, you heard right, slam poetry. It has got a powerful hold on young wordsmith Jake (Jeff Stearns), who’s encouraged by a poetry-loving bar owner, Gabriel (Fred Williamson), to compete in a “cutthroat” ... More
  
• Show Business: The Road to Broadway
  LIBERATION/GENIUS Street: Oct. 16 Prebook: now > A unique inside look behind the scenes of a quartet of Broadway shows. Those who’ve always wondered what goes on behind the curtains at Broadway’s biggest hits will enjoy this engrossing documentary, which specifically focuses on four daring shows launched during the controversial 2003-04 season: Wicked; Avenue Q; Taboo and Caroli... More
  
• Valentino Collection
  FLICKER ALLEY Available now > Lovingly produced tribute to the silent-era star. The silent screen’s original “Latin lover,” Rudolph Valentino, is seen to good advantage in this two-disc compilation of rarities, including four previously unavailable films: A Society Sensation (1918), Stolen Moments (1920), The Young Rajah and Moran of the Lady Letty (both 1922). More
  
• Three Days of Rain
  VIVENDI VISUAL Street: Oct. 16 Prebook: now > Fine acting from ensemble cast highlights this attempt to update Chekhovian short stories. This ambitious indie adapts six Anton Chekhov stories by grouping them together and transferring the action to present-day Cleveland during a torrential downpour. More
  
• The Jazz Singer: 80th Anniversary Collectors Edition
  WARNER Street: Oct. 16 Prebook: now > Historically important collection will wow fans and collectors. This schmaltzy 1927 classic starring legendary entertainer Al Jolson was the first feature-length film with synchronized dialog and songs, and it sparked the “talkie revolution” that transformed the movie business. More
  
• Strike
  DOKUMENT/MPI Available now > Solidly entertaining inspirational film will have specialized appeal. Director Volker Schlöndorff takes a leisurely, episodic approach to telling the story of Polish shipyard worker Agnieszka Kowalska (effectively played by Katharina Thalbach)... More
  
• Commune
  FIRST RUN FEATURES Street: Oct. 23 Prebook: now > Honest, unromanticized and quite compelling account of commune life. Beginning in the late ’60s, Northern California’s Black Bear Ranch was ground zero for counterculture rebels who shunned their bourgeois backgrounds and embraced the values of communal living. More
  
• Into Great Silence
  ZEITGEIST Street: Oct. 23 Prebook: now > Transcendently beautiful, meditative documentary on the Grande Chartreuse monastery in France. After waiting 16 years for permission to document life in the Grande Chartreuse, one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries, German filmmaker Philip Gröning spent six months filming the daily rituals of Carthusian monks. More
  
• Heavens Fall
  ALLUMINATION Street: Nov. 6 Prebook: Oct. 2 > Well-acted drama of racial intolerance in the Deep South has a familiar ring. This is a sturdy but unspectacular dramatization of the notorious 1931 “Scottsboro Boys” trial, which ended with nine black men being sentenced to death for raping two white women in Alabama. More
  
• Flock of Dodos
  DOCURAMA/NEW VIDEO Available now > Occasionally witty attempt to declare a truce in one battle of the culture wars. Former biologist Randy Olson mixes it up with both evolutionists and creationists (actually, to be more precise, proponents of intelligent design) in this light-hearted look at a serious issue. More