More Articles By Buzz McClain

• Telling Lies
  ECHO BRIDGE Street: June 24 Prebook: now > U.K. mystery heats up thanks to Melanie “Scary Spice” Brown. It takes a while for the story to hit its stride, but once the pieces are in place, Telling Lies is an intriguing British murder mystery with a psychological twist. In a prolonged prelude, Faith Munro (Jenna Harrison) recalls the events leading to the murder of a stranger who ... More
  
• Picture This!
  MGM/FOX Street: July 22 Prebook: JUNE 25 > Ashley Tisdale goes from geek to chic in solid teen rom-com. Disney “It Girl” Ashley Tisdale plays to her natural strengths in this teen-targeted romantic comedy in which she goes to great lengths using a video phone to convince her over-protective father (Kevin Pollack) that she’s at a friend’s house studying on the night o... More
  
• Out of the Blue
  GENIUS Street: June 10 Prebook: now > Eyeopening depiction of an ugly New Zealand mass murder. Based on a true story, this drama depicts the shocking events of a mass murder in an unlikely place—New Zealand. In November 1990, David Gray (Matthew Sunderland) suddenly took a semi-automatic rifle and began shooting his neighbors and their children, subsequently holding the town under sie... More
  
• The First of May
  QUESTAR Available now > Cast of legends led by Joe DiMaggio puts this family film over the top. If there is a market for films grandparents can watch with their school-age grandchildren, this one from 1999 will be at the top of the chart. Despite a mind-bending drop-in by Joe DiMaggio as a baseball sage, The First of May starts off at a creaky pace. More
  
• Hip Hop for Kids: School House Hop!
  JUMPING FISH (800.454.5489) Street: July 15 Prebook: June 17 > Home-grown hip-hop production gets kids up and moving. Hip-hop dancer Roger G. leads a small group of 'tween boys and girls in dances that are intended to burn calories and help with conditioning. Accompanied by electronic music, the kids do “The Snap,” “The Motorcycle,” “Chicken Noodle Soup”... More
  
• Simon, King of the Witches
  DARK SKY/MPI Street: June 24 Prebook: now > After 37 years, a trippy cult favorite finds its way to the home market. Infused with Flower Power, 1971’s Simon, King of the Witches is a trippy slice of low-budget psychedelia and magik. It’s more low-key humor than all-out horror, although there are kitschy horror elements, as the sewer-dwelling Simon, played with wry knowing by car... More
  
• Cut Off
  UNION STATION/STARZ Street: June 17 Prebook: now > Off-kilter heist actioner boasts marginal star power. The story and tone of this heist adventure are sort of uncomfortable, as the protagonists are intentionally nasty and ill fates await the presumptive good guys. It takes getting used to before you can laugh, if at all. More
  
• Super High Me
  SCREEN MEDIA/UNIVERSAL Street: June 17 Prebook: May 20 > Doc asks: This is your brain on drugs … um, what was the question? Stand-up comic Doug Benson borrows the structure of Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me to explore the world of marijuana. Benson first goes 30 days without smoking any, followed by 30 days of 18-hours-a-day pot indulgence, with medical professionals tracking h... More
  
• Digital downloads on the rise
  MAY 12 | LIBRARY DVD GUIDE: Though digital downloads are catching on at libraries, the high-definition disc format is still a long way behind standard DVD. Patrons are increasingly requesting downloads of movies and TV programs, says Mary Getchell, communications director for the Pierce County Library System, Washington’s fourth largest system, with 95,000 DVDs representing 19,500 different titles. More
  
• Otis
  WARNER Street: June 10 Prebook: May 6 > Audacious black comedy could achieve cult status. Part torture-porn spoof, part indictment of suburbia, Otis combines elements of rough horror with the blackest of black comedy and makes it work. Newcomer Bostin Christopher is spot-on as Otis, an overweight serial killer who play-acts high school scenarios with his nubile captives before killing them,... More
  
• The Planet
  MTI Street: June 10 Prebook: May 13 > Passable sci-fi effects stand out in this Scottish adventure. There aren’t very many Scottish astronauts—Star Trek’s James Doohan notwithstanding—so it’s interesting to hear brogues in space for a change. World champion body builder Mike Mitchell leads a small platoon of space-based mercenaries who crash land on a deserted ... More
  
• The Cry: La Llorona
  MONTEREY Street: June 3 Prebook: April 29 > Mexican chiller borrows from post-modern Asian horror. Think of Bernadine Santistevan’s The Cry as The Eye with a Spanish accent, and you’ve got an idea of what’s going on in this electrically charged supernatural horror-thriller. Although the legend is new to us, director Santistevan says in a featurette (illustrated with stills... More
  
• Valentina’s Tango
  MTI Street: May 27 Prebook: April 29 > Hot dancing and sexy intrigue spice up this Latin drama. You don’t often encounter a “dance thriller,” but this tidy pickup by MTI combines elements of the increasingly popular dance genre (the Step Up series, How She Move) with low-key crime plot points that heighten the drama. More
  
• Blind Eye
  MTI Street: May 13 Prebook: April 15 > Roddy Piper is back in action in this Canadian police thriller. The dark and gritty Blind Eye falls short of its Mystic River-esque aspirations, but an engaging, scene-stealing performance by WWF grappler-turned-actor Roddy Piper keeps things interesting in this Canadian police thriller. More
  
• Gamers
  MONTEREY Street: May 6 Prebook: April 4 > Mock-doc is an across-the-board winner. This very funny mockumentary takes a few scenes to get on the absurdist wavelength, but once you see where first-time helmer Christopher Folino and his inspired cast of lesser-known TV actors are headed, you will find yourself laughing out loud. More
  
• All Hat
  SCREEN MEDIA/UNIVERSAL Street: May 27 Prebook: April 29 > Horse racing and small-town intrigue add up to an unexpectedly successful labor of love. All Hat is one of those labors of love crafted from a mutual passion and shared vision by all those involved. A gorgeously photographed, carefully paced and toned production set in a place we don’t explore everyday—the horse country o... More
  
• Between
  PORCHLIGHT Street: April 8 Prebook: now > Creepy little thriller could catch the crowd 'between' drama and mystery. In this 2005 effort, TV's Without a Trace star Poppy Montgomery is Nadine Roberts, a Chicago attorney who travels alone to Tijuana to find her missing sister. The mystery heightens as she receives evasive answers from everyone, including a local police detective (Jose Yenque o... More
  
• The Invaders: The First Season
  CBS/PARAMOUNT Street: May 6 Prebook: March 25 > Classic '60s TV series finally materializes to the delight of cult fans. Back in the mid-'60s, Larry Cohen (It's Alive, Q) invented a science-fiction series that successfully fed on Cold War paranoia and managed to become appointment TV for two taut seasons. More
  
• Last Request
  MTI Street: April 22 Prebook: March 25 > A familiar cast cuts straight to the punch lines in a zany and bizarre rom-com. Rim shot, please! The shtick factor is high in this campy farce about a dying stand-up comedian (Danny Aiello) who compels his son Jeff (Grey's Anatomy's T.R. Knight) to quit studying for the priesthood and instead sire a grandson. More
  
• The Orphanage
  NEW LINE/WARNER Street: April 22 Prebook: now > Well-received Spanish ghost story could scare up fans of horrors, thrillers and dramas. Like the ghost-story exports from Asia—Ju-On: The Grudge and Ringu come to mind—this Spanish horror offering builds genuine scares in a way that domestic filmmakers seem to have forgotten in their obsession with torture porn. More