American Hustle Release Short Review

2 stars for this disappointing crime drama/comedy/thriller.

American Hustle is written and directed by David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, Three Kings) and he carries on his theme here of trying to present "human opera".

It is a work of fiction although some of the characters are based upon real-life counterparts from the criminal world.

American Hustle starts in 1978 and tells the story of Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale - The Dark Knight Rises, American Psycho), a con artist working scams with his mistress, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams - Man Of Steel, The Master), who has improved his success rate by posing as English aristocrat "Lady Edith Greensly".

Irving is worried that although he loves Sydney, if he leaves his wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games) she will deny him access to her son Danny. She has also threatened to go to the police with details of his work if he tries to leave.

Things begin to go downhill with the introduction of FBI Agent Richard "Richie" DiMaso (Bradley Cooper - The Hangover Part III, Limitless), who is about as corrupt as they come. He has proof that Sydney's aristocratic background is false, but offers to let them go free in return for the use of their skills to aid in four arrests.

Read the rest of our review over at Road Rash Reviews.

K- The Coplete Series DVD Short Review

4 Stars of Find the Killer School Boy.

This is a great series that has you taking sides with either of the camps and the animation is just a joy to watch as your eye is taken on a journey with the camera.

Forgetful but friendly Yashiro Isana is a young college student attending the Ashinaka High School, a notable high school that is located on an island just outside the areas of the technologically-advanced Shizume City. Always forgetting his PDA and his lunch, so he scrounges and this annoys his friend Kukuri who wants to eat healthier but he always disappears before she can get to him.
Later he and his cat are on an errand for Kukuri to get fireworks for the end of year performance. Whilst on his quest he is attacked by members of HOMRA. A violent gang run by the Red King, they chase him and accuse him of killing their member Tatara Totsuka. The main attacker is Yata Misaki, a young man with a baseball bat and a skateboard, (this is where we get a treat as the camera follows Yata, (X Games style) around the city in his chase of Isana).

For the full review please click Road Rash Reviews

Available to Buy on DVD and Blu-ray on the 5th of May.

Guilty Crown Series1 Part 2 Short Review

5 stars for the final installment of this glorious animation.

The usual spoiler warning applies, this is Part 2 so you should check out Guilty Crown Part 1 first!

Following the tense ending of the first part, with Inori's kidnapping by the mysterious youngster who Gai calls Death, Shu teleports to the Crystal Tower that was once GHQ headquarters to rescue her from Death and Shuichiro.

On the way, he is told by "Death" that he must remember his past before he can continue. In a flashback, Shu remembers himself and his sister Mana finding a young boy washed up on a beach. Unable to remember his own name, the siblings decided to call him Triton. They were all raised together by their parents and he eventually grew up to become Gai.

It is revealed to him that Mana was in fact "Eve", the first human to come into contact with the Apocalypse virus, who, with the help of a chosen "Adam", could spread the virus worldwide. When Shu turned down her advances, she channeled her rage into what became known as Lost Christmas, when Tokyo was almost lost to the virus.

Read the rest of our review over at Road Rash Reviews.

Fairy Tail Part 7 DVD Release Short Review

4 Star Natsu and the Fairy Tail on the Flip-side.

Episodes 73 - 84 start the Edolas Arc from the pen of Hiro Mishima, Monster Hunter Orange.

Fairy Tail Part 5
Fairy Tail Part 6
This series sees the gang of Natsu, Happy, Grey, Wendy, Carla, Erza and Lucy out on a mission to retrieve a very rare herb located high on a snowy mountain. The moods are good as they could be with this lot, talking about the annual flower watching celebrations as the cherry trees bloom and at night they glow in rainbow colours, as the  girls moan about the cold until Lucy summons Horologium where she and Wendy can ride out the climb, lead by Natsu's nose to the white wyvern protected herbs at the summit. But this endeavour leaves Lucy feeling unwell and unable to attend the ceremony even after Wendy's healing. This leaves Natsu in the doldrums, he cannot enjoy the event whilst Lucy languishes in bed, so he and Happy do something about it.

For full review please click Road Rash Reviews

Available to Buy on DVD and Blu-ray on 28th April.

Bomb Girls the complete series 2 short DVD Review

5 Star Canadian War Effort, "Different Battles,Same War"

The Second Season of this great war time drama, set at Victory Munitions (VicMu) in East Toronto Canada.
Once again we see the Blue shift workers hard at work supplying the armed forces with bombs.
With the great acting talents of Meg Tilly, Jodi Balfour, Sebastian Pigot, Peter Outerbridge.


For those new to this please read Bomb Girls Series One


It's now 1942 and America has joined the foray and the pressure is on at VicMu to maintain and increase production whilst rationing takes hold for all the workers. As Lorna Corbett tries to keep all the girls on the straight whilst she has to deal with Marco and the after-affects of their liaisons.

It's all shoulders to the effort to give our boys the fighting chance they deserve.

For the full review please click Road Rash Reviews

Available to Buy on DVD Now and Box set of series 1+2 Now

The War Lord Blu-ray Realease Short Review

4 Star of Classic Film from the Master Franklin Schaffner,(Planet of the Apes) with Charlton Heston at his best.
Now in beautiful 1080 the picture is sharper than the swords used in the great fight scenes.
We see Chrysagon de la Cruex, (Charlton Heston, Planet of the Apes) arriving at his new castle in Normandy along with his brother Draco,(Guy Stockwell, Tobruk) and his trusted man Bors, (Richard Boone, The Shootist). Set in a disputed area that no other Knight wants, but Chrysagon must rebuild his tower and defend the neighbouring Pagan villages that get plundered by Frisian raiders.

For the full review please click Road Rash Reviews

Available to Buy on Blu-ray Now.

The Harry Hill Movie Short Review

2 stars for this occasionally  funny but very weird film.

The Harry Hill Movie is directed by Steve Bendelack (The League Of Gentleman, Mr. Bean's Holiday) and it is certainly easy to recognize his bizarre brand of comedy here.

Written by Harry Hill, he also stars in the film as himself. The story-line (if you want to call it that) is a bit strange but fairly simple.

Harry is living with his Nan (Julie Walters - Harry Potter, Mama Mia!). They have a pet hamster, Abu (Johnny Vegas - Sex Live Of The Potato Men, Benidorm) who has his own bedroom, as you do for a hamster obviously. When he falls ill, they take him to see the vet (Simon Bird - The Inbetweeners).

Unfortunately the vet turns out to be an evil henchman in the employ of Harry's crazy and long lost evil twin brother Otto (Matt Lucas - Alice In Wonderland, Little Britain), who was abandoned by Nan at an early age and raised by Alsatians.

Read the rest of the review over at Road Rash Reviews

Bleach Series 13 Part 1 Short Review

5 stars of fast paced Bleach action from Ichigo and his friends.

Series 13 Part 1 comprises episodes 266 - 278.

Yay, back to the story-line again, as you can tell by the title of the first episode, "Ichigo Vs. Ulquiorra, Restart!"

This series begins where series 11 left off and is the beginning of The Fake Karakura Town arc Part 2. Lord Aizen continues in his attempts to destroy Karakura Town in order to create the Ōken  (the key to the dimension in which the Soul King resides).

As he departs for Soul Society to fight the 13 Court Guard squads defending the fake Karakura town there, taking with him his top three Espada and their Fracción, he leaves Orihime and Las Noches under the protection of Ulquiorra until his return.

However, Ichigo is on his way to the rescue, with Rukia, Sado and Renji heading to Las Noches to save Orihime. As the others become embroiled in their own fights with hollows, Ichigo continues alone to take on Ulquiorra.

Can Ichigo save Orihime? Will the 13 Court guard squads be able to defend Karakura town against the Arrancar forces?

Read the rest of our review over at Road Rash Reviews.

Pit Stop Dual Format Short Review

5 Star Remastered work by Jack Hill.

Now in marvellous Hi-definition this Monochrome budget masterpiece surpasses those films that came after it.

Right from the start this is a petrol-heads dream, loud engines, big cars and drag racing.
Grant Willard, (Brian Donlevy, Kiss of Death) runs California Custom and he likes to see people in his cars winning and the established driver is his worker and stock-car driver Hawk Sidney, (Sid Haig, The Devils Rejects), but there is a new spring buck on the scene, Rick Bowman, (Richard Davalos, Kelly's Heroes).
Willard wants to open Rick's eyes to his new race "The Figure Eight " race which Rick thinks is madness, but if he can beat the steely Hawk his name would be something. With hard racing and big smashes when they hit the intersection, fenders are bent and cars are smashed.

For the Full Review please click Road Rash Reviews 

Available to Buy on Dual Format on the 7th April,

The Hobbit - The Desolation Of Smaug Short Review

5 stars of further glorious adventures in Middle Earth.

The Hobbit - The Desolation Of Smaug continues where The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey finishes.

As the film opens, we see Gandalf (Ian McKellen - X-Men, Lord Of The Rings) and Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage - Captain America, Robin Hood) at the Prancing Pony Inn in Bree, where Gandalf persuades him to hire the services of a "burglar" to retrieve The Arkenstone, that he may unite the dwarfs and retake their homeland beneath the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug, who has taken up residence on the horde of gold assembled by the King.

One year later and our strange party consisting of lots of Dwarves, a Wizard (Gandalf) and Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit (Martin Freeman - Hot Fuzz, Love Actually) strike out to find the secret door to The Lonely Mountain, visible only in the last light of Durin's Day.

Read the rest of our review of this great new Blu-ray release from Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro over at Road Rash Reviews.

Sparks DVD Release Review

4 Stars of Black Hero action.

A dark tale of when trying to do the right thing, is not necessarily the right thing to be doing and what happens when you realise the consequences.
Rochester - New York 1920 and the state is in the grip of a serial killer "Ring Master Jesus" with over 40 victims the state is in fear, the sick killer films his victims whilst he enjoys himself.

But on that fateful night, out of the night sky falls a meteorite smashing into Rochester killing 230 and releasing radiation that kills more apart from the Rochester 13,  whom gain super powers.
Around the same time there is a family with a six year old son waiting at a level crossing whilst behind them is a high speed shoot-out between the police and a bank robber who is shot and his car rams into the car waiting at the crossing just as a tanker train passes by, the car is propelled into the train derailing the tanker and rips it open spilling its contents all over the young Ian Sparks, he is rescued by the police officer but it was to late for his parents.

For the Full Review please click Road Rash Reviews

 Available to Buy on DVD and Blu-ray on the 7th of April.

Naruto Shippūden Box Set 17 Short Review

4 stars for this next installment of the story of Team 7.

Naruto Shippūden Box Set 17 is set during the Five Kage Summit Arc and comprises episodes 206-218.

The story follows on from the shocking events of the summit, where Tobi (Madara) of the Akatsuki demanded that the Kage hand over the tailed beasts so that he could create the ten tailed beast and become it's jinchūriki, paving the way for global domination and then declared the Fourth Shinobi World War when they refused to comply.

As Sakura heads to meet Naruto with news of her decision to tackle and kill Sasuke herself, she finds she cannot tell him, so instead tells him she loves him and then leaves to take on Sasuke alone.

When Gaara arrives from the summit and tells Naruto of the events there and of Sasuke's involvement, he begins to realize that Sasuke is no longer the member of Team 7 that he hoped he would be. He is now a member of Akatsuki, and as such is a wanted criminal.

Read the rest of our review over at Road Rash Reviews.

Midsomer Murders The Killings of Copenhagen DVD Short Review

4 Stars as Barnaby and Nelson strike out in this Nordic Noir Murder Mystery.

This iconic series reaches it's 100th episode as Midsomer's death toll once more increases.

Set partly in Copenhagen as the show is the most popular imported show and will be released as a unique and collectable O-ring packaging.
The story as always will keep you guessing the full 89 minutes to find out who did it and why.
The Calder family run a successful biscuit factory and it has put the village of Badgers Drift on the map and it employees are loyal and keen to see the success continue abroad.
But when the owner goes on a business trip to Copenhagen there is a stranger staring up at him, whilst he is on his hotel balcony. When Eric Calder, (Marcus Hutton, Made in Dagenham) arrives at the hotel he is handed a package that he takes to his room, he opens it and it's a biscuit tin from his factory, but its empty, so he finds it strange and goes out onto the balcony.
Suddenly he feels unwell and this gets worse until...

For full Review please Click Road Rash Reviews 

Available To Buy on DVD on the 7th April.

White Of The Eye Dual Format Short Review

3 stars for this bizarre and slightly surreal British thriller.

White Of The Eye was first released in 1987 and this release represents the Worldwide debut on Blu-ray and UK debut to DVD.

It is written and directed by Donald Cammell (Demon Seed, Wild Side) and tells the story of Paul White (David Keith - U-571, Behind Enemy Lines) and his wife Joan (Cathy Moriarty - Casper, Analyze That), who live in the quiet town of Globe, Arizona.

As the film opens, we see an eagle flying majestically over the landscape, until it gets to Tucson, where we see Goldwaters, a large department store being exited by what passed in the 80s for a posh housewife. As we follow her to her home we realize, to our horror, that someone is in the house! (We can tell this by the full screen eyeball watching us, and also by the bloke in gardening gloves putting a goldfish into the pot roast (I don't know, your guess is as good as mine).

A serial killer is on the loose and the hunt is on to catch him, before he can strike again.

Read the rest of the review over at Road Rash Reviews.