PANDORUM

PANDORUM - When he was cutting trailers for low-budget kingpin Roger Corman, director Joe Dante confessed he kept a special reel of explosions, car wrecks and topless babes to be spliced in if the actual film itself wasn’t exciting enough. Didn’t really matter if the movie lived up to those expectations; getting butts in the seats was his job. Today, almost every film makes a good trailer. But it’s still a rare thing that they actually deliver the goods. When I caught the commercials for Pandorum, a sci-fi horror hybrid that lifted elements of Alien, Event Horizon and the PS3 hit Dead Space, it had my “Spidey-sense” tingling: “No way can that be as good as it looks.” And you know what? It wasn’t. But it comes surprisingly close…and that’s high praise in today’s quick-cut era of awesome trailers and mediocre movies. Ben Foster stars as a member of the flight crew of a long-distance space vessel, reawakened from hyper-sleep with little to no memory of his mission. Dennis Quaid is his superior officer, also suffering from amnesia, and on the run from man-eating mutants who’ve taken over the ship. Where those monsters came from, where the ship is headed and who sabatoged the operation are all questions they must ponder as they fight for survival. And it’s to Pandorum’s credit that you can’t guess the answers right off the top. Director Christian Alvart crafts a superior sci-fi thriller out of what seems to be minimal resources. The action takes place entirely within the grungy bowels of the ship, suggesting a budget and scale far greater than you’d imagine. And both Quaid and Foster and completely engaged, never playing down to the material…even when they’re battling cannibalistic refugees from a Mad Max film. Anchor Bay’s Blu-ray is one of their best-looking efforts yet, with a commentary, deleted scenes, Making of and digital copy for portable media players (which inexplicably won’t play on a Mac!).

KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS - Leonard Nimoy might have sported funny ears. But William Shatner is the one who ended up becoming a walking punchline. Of course, it helps that he has a sense of humor about himself and much of the non-Trek material that made up his career. Two years prior to his pop-culture ressurection in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the Shat turned up in Kingdom of the Spiders, one of many “Nature Strikes Back” flicks that populated the ‘70s cinematic landscape. As “Rack” Hansen – part cowboy, part veternarian, all man – he struts through a small-town catastrophe as migrating tarantulas decide to add humans to their menu. Cult actress Tiffany Bolling allows herself to be touched by creepy-crawlies and Shatner too as the entomolgist-cum-love interest, while Woody Strode (veteran of countless John Ford westerns) pops up as a doomed rancher. The film itself is entertaining as high camp and a pre-CGI, post-Jaws thriller, especially the apocalyptic finale that comes out of left field. Shout Factory’s special edition is an unexpected treat, sporting a Shatner interview, featurette on “spider wrangling,” audio commentary and original promotional materials.

THE TOOLBOX MURDERS: Released in 1978, the same year John Carpenter reinvented the horror film with Halloween, director Dennis Donnelly isn’t quite up to the challenge. But then again, few films are. Toolbox starts off promisingly enough with an extended killing spree as a masked handyman uses every tool at his disposal to murder several women in an apartment complex. The sequence is surprisingly unsettling with a classic giallo feel mixed with Chainsaw-era torture. But it can’t last forever…though, as intense as it is, it may seem that way. The film shifts gears to a cop show murder-mystery format, following a local detective in his pursuit of Laurie, the 15-year-old girl who was abducted amidst the murders. Played by Pamelyn Ferdin (who we ‘70s kids will recognize instantly as the voice of “Fern” in Charlotte’s Web), we find her strapped to a bed and tenderly cared for by the killer himself who finds her a suitable replacement for his own deceased daughter. More subplots abound that spin the film in unusual directions, with Laurie’s brother searching for her alleged killer on his own (which plays like a rough draft of Brian DePalma’s Dressed To Kill). But for fans of grindhouse cinema, the movies reputation rests on that setpiece string of first-act deaths, the most famous of which is carried out with a nailgun to the forehead. Blue Underground packages a great Blu-ray upgrade that substantially improves on the old special edition DVD, plus carries over the commentary, trailers and interview with adult film star / nail gun victim Marianne Walter.

THE INVENTION OF LYING: As a romantic comedy lead, Ricky Gervais has the cards stacked against him. Chubby and sweaty by his own admission, his sense of humor is anything but charming when compared to other lovably lumpy comedians like Seth Rogan or Kevin James. In fact, he can be downright mean. But once you’ve acquired a taste for his particular style of acerbic wit, most of those flaws magically disappear. Which is exactly what happens in The Invention of Lying, a high-concept comedy set in a world in which people can only tell the truth about everything; from sneaking a bite off another person’s plate to exactly why they’re taking so long in the bathroom. Gervais plays Mark Bellison, a frumpy loser who loses his job as a screenwriter, but bounces back when he comes up with the world’s first Lie…a tiny little fib about how much money is in his bank account. But one lie leads to another, and when Mark invents a glorious afterlife to comfort his dying mother, the hospital workers overhear and spread the news. Soon Mark has become a born-again prophet, harassed by media and passersby for news from “The Old Man in the Sky,” Mark’s divine invention in a world that never had one before. If that sound a little deep for a romantic comedy, you’re right. Gervais, an admitted atheist, takes blatant shots at society’s desperate need for organized religion and the often crazy spiritual fine print it entails. Yet his film embraces the greater good and delivers a happy ending. That’s more than you can say for some parts of the Bible! Warner’s Blu-ray comes with a slew of exclusive special features including podcasts, a Making Of, outtakes and more.

GAMER: At the end of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, Alex the unrepentant hoodlum slips into his own private world of non-stop sex and ultraviolence. While we only caught a quick glimpse in 1971, directors Neveldine / Taylor push us all the way through the looking glass in Gamer, a sci-fi action satire (I hope!) that exists in a world of media saturation, corporate domination and social alienation. Unless you count the millions of people who log on to the software designed by Ken Castle (Dexter’s Michael C. Hall), a twisted version of billionaire Bill Gates, whose programs allow users to jack into actual living human beings…and in the case of his latest hit Slayers, convicted death row inmates who kill each other for a chance at absolution.

Gamer’s look and feel is a logical extension of the filmmakers’ last two movies, Crank 1 and 2, which were offensive on so many levels they just had to be joking. Here the directing team is taking things a bit more seriously, and they’re working with some first class acting talent: Gerard Butler, Kyra Sedgwick and the aforementioned Michael C. Hall. Butler is the top con in Slayers, who only needs three more wins to secure his freedom. Logan Lerman (3:10 To Yuma) is the 17-year-old punk who controls him from a virtual command center (i.e. his super-posh basement) and revels in the virtual adoration. As we discover, Butler is a hard-case with a heart of gold, set-up to take the fall for one of Castle’s experiments gone bad. So with props to The Running Man and every kid who earned a medal in Call of Duty, the movie sets on a course to bring the two men together outside of the virtual arena for an old-school deathmatch. Gamer’s visual schizophrenia carries over to its plot, which is equal parts inspired and insipid. You’re never quite sure if Neveldine / Taylor think the world they’ve created is a terrifying vision of our possible future…or just wicked awesome! There’s no question about Lionsgate’s 2-disc Blu-ray though, which sports several interactive viewing modes, a Making Of and some nifty apps for you iPhone in addition to a digital copy.