Jack Reed - Death & Vengeance

Starring:Brian Dennehy
Studio: Tango Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Description

While at a lab one day, Dr. Paul Beecher grabs the wrong pills and takes them home not knowing that they are made from the blood of vampire bats. After mistakenly taking one of the pills, he is instantly addicted and must take one pill every day. Each time he takes a pill he turns into a hairy insane killer, who doesn't remember what he's done, except as a vague dream. Local police and scientists work franticly to try and piece the puzzle together in the hope that they can stop THE VAMPIRE. A.K.A.: IT'S ALWAYS DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN and MARK OF THE VAMPIRE

Customer Reviews:

"Trouble with you, Buck, you're over anxious...guess you ain't had no excitement since Abe Hibble axed his mother-in-law.".......2006-01-26

After watching the film The Vampire (1957), I thought something misleading with the title, specifically the fact there appeared to be no actual vampire in the story, at least none that I could see...oh, there was a monster type character, but his characteristics aligned him more towards another famous film monster of the past, one which I'll talk about later...written by Pat `Left' Fielder (The Monster That Challenged the World, "Baretta"), and directed by Paul Landres ("Studio 57", Last of the Badmen, "77 Sunset Strip"), the film features John Beal (The Cat and the Canary, Edge of Darkness), along with Coleen Gray (Kansas City Confidential, The Leech Woman), and Kenneth Tobey (The Thing From Another World, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, It Came from Beneath the Sea). Also appearing is Lydia Reed ("The Real McCoys"), James Griffith (The Amazing Transparent Man), well known character actors, particularly to television viewers, Herb Vigran (Bedtime for Bonzo, "Gunsmoke"), and Dabbs Greer ("Gunsmoke", It! The Terror from Beyond Space, White Lightning).

Prior to that actual start of the film, there's a goofy bit of badly damaged footage with creepy sound effects blaring in the background, featuring a man in a lab coat with `Mad Doctor' printed on the breast pocket (just because your coat states you're a mad doctor doesn't make it true). Anyway, he goes into what's supposed to be a spooky, little spiel, one in which he comes off as a mix between Vincent Price and Charles Nelson Reilly (closer to the latter)...after a couple of minutes of this we kick into the film proper as we see a delivery boy dropping off some live animals in a box to a creepy looking house. No one seems to be home, so the boy enters, finds a sickly man, and runs off to get the local medical practitioner Dr. Paul Beecher (Beal). Paul makes the scene, and the man, an experimental scientist, croaks, but not before passing on some pills. Turns out the man was working on some sort of regression experiments with the intent to revert animal minds to a primitive state, the thought being that if we could make animals dumber, we could also make them smarter...or something like that. Well, Paul, who's prone to migraines, accidentally takes one of the pills (oops), which are highly addictive, and soon afterwards various townspeople begin dying of an mysterious ailment, a virus which cause capillary disintegration (this term is used a whole lot throughout the movie). Anyway, turns out this virus is being spread by some sort of maniac, one that the police, including Sheriff Buck Donnelly (Tobey), are unable to catch. As the bodies pile up, Paul comes to realize he's the monster, and begins pushing away those close to him, his nurse assistant (Gray), his daughter, etc., fearing they may become victims of his primitive, uncontrollable, throbbing urges during one of his spells (he vaguely remembers events that take place during his transformations). Eventually things come to a head, as the police close in and Paul tries to put an end to the madness.

After watching this film I couldn't help feel a little cheated...I mean, how can you have a movie called The Vampire and not have any, actual vampires? The creature Paul turned into was more akin to that of a Mr. Hyde character, given his brutish appearance, demeanor, and homicidal tendencies. The creature was certainly ugly, but didn't really exhibit the main feature which one would associate with a vampire, that being fangs (maybe I'm just too old school). The make up job was pretty hokey, as Paul in creature form looked more like a severely sunburned man with bad hair (I think the intent was to have him take on the facial features of a vampire bat, since that was the main extract in the pills). I didn't quite understand the overall purpose of the pills in that it seemed that maybe they were supposed to help keep Paul from turning into a beast, but then they also caused the initial transformation. Actually, the reasoning behind the experiments that generated the pills also seemed unclear. Why focus on regression within animals with the hope of being able to reverse the process and thereby make them smarter? Why not just forgo the regression part and work on the `smarter' part? Seems like a whole lot of extra work to me...overall the performances were decent, and Beal has a really excellent sequence as he's suffering withdrawals, desperately craving his monster pills. I was disappointed with Tobey's relatively bit part in the film, as I thought he was way under utilized. The direction was solid, but the main weakness here was the material, as it was kind of messy and brought about a bit more character development than needed in some areas (the bits with Paul and his daughter could have been removed without any loss to the story). And what was the point of that Henry Winston character, who was sensitive to light, brought in by the university to carry on the work started by the scientist who died at the beginning? The film seemed to go to great lengths to present him as an important character, only to drop him like a rock shortly after his arrival. The funniest part of the movie for me was the sequence when Paul convinced his nurse to break a date (with Tobey's character), so that she may spend the night watching Paul, as he feared if left unattended, he'd kill again. Subsequently the pair go out to a nightclub, have a number of drinks, and just as Paul is about to spill the beans to her about his condition, he gets called away for a medical emergency. Next we see Paul in a hospital operating room, preparing to perform surgery on a patient! Okay, first of all, I thought he was a general practitioner, not a qualified surgeon, but whatever...secondly, who in the world would agree to perform an operation just prior to having a number of alcoholic beverages? There's a lawsuit in there somewhere, maybe more than one...all in all this was a good effort that fell a little short, as there are some decent performances here, the direction handled well, but the main weakness for me was in the sometimes muddled and unnecessary aspects of the story.

The picture quality on this DVD release from Cheezy Flicks Entertainment, presented in fullscreen format, looks decent, albeit a little soft at times. As for the audio, I had no issues with it, as it came through clearly for me. There are a few extras including a handful of previews for films like Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), Robot Monster (1953), The Day of the Triffids (1962), and Baron Blood (1972), all titles which I believe are currently in the public domain, meaning no one studio owns the rights to them, so anyone can release them to DVD, or whatever format they wish. Also included are a handful of old timey intermission shorts, and a sort of hidden feature accessed by clicking on the `V' in the word vampire on the main menu. By doing this you'll bring up nearly eight minutes of 8mm footage of the film The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), which, by the way, is scheduled for a remake in 2006. Where they dug this archaic piece of footage up I'll never known, but it's of extremely poor quality, there's no audio, but it's there.

Cookieman108

If I learned anything from this film it's that you shouldn't take pills retrieved by your daughter from your coat without making sure they're the ones you actually want...oh yeah, I think I can go happily the rest of my life without ever hearing the phrases `cell deterioration' and `cellular disintegration' again, given their extensive usage in this movie.

warning.......2006-01-02

This DVD is actually a DVD-R. I played it only first 20 minutes and stopped it, because of horrible digital noises.I bought other titles from this label and most of them are on the same condition.I don't recommend this and other products from this label.

Average customer rating:

Great Potential - but Poor Character Depth
A good rainy afternoon, suspense drama that is worthy of praise.
Repeat: this is NOT Ruby Cairo!
Pleasant Piffle
Good one!

Deception
Starring: Andie MacDowell , Liam Neeson , Viggo Mortensen , Jack Thompson , and Paul Spencer
Director: Graeme Clifford
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002235QW
Release Date: 2004-06-22

Product Description

Danger lurks around every corner of the world, yet nothing can stop Bessie Faro from putting the puzzle of her husband's death and secret life. But she soon discovers that the only thing more treacherous than lies...can be finding out the truth.

System Requirements:

Running Time 90 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Customer Reviews:

Great Potential - but Poor Character Depth.......2006-06-11

It's a shame how US audiences - perhaps because we are many ways more "sensitive" than audiences in some other parts of the world - sometimes get watered down versions of movies. Deception is the US release of the movie "Ruby Cairo" starring Andie MacDowell, Liam Neeson, and Viggo Mortensen. Normally I try not to give away any plot in my review, but in this case pretty much every review (and every box) of this DVD gives away half the story, so I'll at least go with that.

Andie plays Bessie Faro, a "regular housewife" who is struggling to raise 3 kids in a run down town. Her husband, Johnny, is a wastrel. She knew this from the beginning - she knew he gambled, he spent money like water, and he was undependable. She says several times in voice-overs that she was along for the ride and didn't mind that there was little future for them or their kids. It's not that she's unintelligent - she just doesn't have a sense of responsibility. Since Johnny has even less, it's not a wild stretch that they ended up together.

Unfortunately for her, Johnny runs a small plane company and his plane crashes in Mexico. She goes down to see the crash and to bury him. She realizes that he left behind STACKS of bills, and she even comments that maybe at this point she should just drown the kids and shoot herself. She doesn't say this with a lot of emotion, either. I understand of course that she's in grief for her husband, but she doesn't show much grief either. My boyfriend, who watched this with me, commented several times that she really didn't seem like a widow who had cared much for her husband.

Bessie discovers in Mexico that her husband has a goodly amount of money hidden away in the bank there - and finds the key to tracking down his other accounts. I realize this is a fun "visit exotic locations around the world" plot device - but it makes NO sense. Why would someone personally fly from country to country to close down accounts? If she really got a nice windfall from the first bank, couldn't she just hire a lawyer to do that for her remotely? They could have played it many ways - had her try that and get told she must go in person for "country legal reasons" - or maybe she could say in a voiceover that she "felt like it was saying goodby to her husband, to walk in his footsteps". Instead they make it seem like this is the normal way that people do banking.

Most of the visits are simply "photo shoots" where you barely get a sense of the country she is in. Finally, though, in Greece she runs into a teller who inexplicably violates a few privacy rules to move the plot along, and she makes a pretty inane decision to hop on a cargo ship instead of flying ahead to meet it. There are a few more very questionable plot developments further ahead, but I won't spoil that part here.

Mixed in with this story is Liam, playing a "do gooder" Doctor who is trying to feed the world - or is he? He seems pretty mixed up with the path she's taking, and his affections towards Bessie seem rather sudden and at times forced. Is he making a play to gain her confidence?

I really did want to love this movie, because I love the "on the trail" style movies, and I love movies with twists and counter-twists. It sounds odd, but the plot of this one was just too "simple". The outcome was fairly obvious early on, and I kept waiting for something new to spring out. While you can see the Bessie-Johnny attraction with them both being so careless, it also made it hard to really relate to her. She was going to abandon her kids? She took off on them for weeks to travel the world, without much regard for her own safety? Her lack of knowledge about how to be safe in some of the areas she visited was pretty staggering, especially for someone who apparently had lived in not-great locations. There seems to be little motive at all for Johnny's abandonment of his family. Did he ever love her? Why did he take off like that? Does he really want her back?

It was a great basis for a story - and if the characters had been developed more fully, I really would have loved it. They were just painted too shallowly, though. Viggo and Liam both try to infuse their characters with depth, but with the dialogue they had to say, they're only cardboard cutouts of an "Irish Doctor" and a "Only Cares About Himself Scumbag". In between them, Andie is going for the every day woman caught in a spiralling nightmare, but she really doesn't even seem to care what's happening.

A good rental for a rainy day, but not one I'd really watch repeatedly for its depth of character.

A good rainy afternoon, suspense drama that is worthy of praise........2006-05-17

Back in the late 80's and early 90's a few Japanese producers were keen to break into mainstream hollywood. Sadly, the films the Japanese got involved with were things like Last Action Hero, Solar Crisis and this.....Ruby Cairo. Too bad they lost their shirts.

Ruby Cairo, however, deserves a lot more praise than the aforementioned.

Andie MacDowell stars as a housewife with three kids living out in suburbia near the airport. Her seemingly no good husband,played by Viggo Mortenson in one of his very early roles, runs his own airplane salvage company and spends months away from home.

When her husband burns up in a crash in Mexico his remains are delivered to MacDowell and she goes across the border to bury him.
Upon her arrival she finds that her husband had a secret office, some very unsavory business partners and a set of baseball cards that lead his distraught wife all over the world to try and find out just what her husband was up to. Along the way she runs into Liam Neeson who may or may not be connected to her dead husbands evil deeds.

The movie is named Ruby Cairo in various other parts of the world but was labled Deception in the U.S. I have no idea if it every made it to the theaters in America but it had quite a good run on cable tv for a number of years which made it somewhat of a minor cult movie.

The movie itself is not an award winner but there is something about the story that keeps the viewer entertained. Andie Macdowell does a good job playing the naieve housewife who slowly realizes she has been made a fool of. Mortenson's part is sadly way to short and perhaps the back story of his wheeling and dealing might have enhanced the film a bit.

The soundtrack should also be noted as a rare one by Oscar Winner John Barry, which, as always, boosts this simple film and gives it the emotion it deserves.

This movie is a simple, rainy afternoon, mystery/suspense drama. Its well made, the locations are exotic and the photography and the music well done.

Once you find out the twist at the end, you may not watch it again...however you just might join the ranks of those who still like it no matter how many times they watch.

Repeat: this is NOT Ruby Cairo!.......2005-09-11

"Deception" is the edited version of "Ruby Cairo," which is not a great movie but which is better than this one. It isn't just the sex scene that was edited out, but a total of about 20 minutes. The movie makes more sense in the RC version, and the sex scene, though dark and in Andie's case a bit airbrushed, is worth seeing, especially if you are a Viggo Mortensen fan. I don't think it was the nudity Andie objected to, though, or not entirely. The scene ends in an act of contempt that would sting any woman. It effectively lets you know what the man's character is really thinking, but it's brutal in a subtle way. There is also, of course, the (apparent) age difference between the two characters. He looks about 10 years younger than she does, even with a beard.

Pleasant Piffle.......2004-07-22

For those of you looking for "the breakout" role for any of the actors involved in this film, you will be dissappointed. Liam Neeson and Viggo Mortensen do try to make the most of the material they are given. The movie starts like a "Lifetime network" advertisement as yet another gullible woman finds out that the love of her life has staged his own death and set up a crazy trail of bank accounts all over the world revealed by her knowledge of his gambling habits and a series of baseball cards she finds. When she quite literally follows an ink trail to Cairo, the movie does finally take on a little more dimension, and we finally get to see Viggo in something other than flashbacks, but by then its just about over. I'd say this is a good popcorn flick for a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Good one!.......2004-03-26

This movie made me feel good all over. It just kinda took me by surprise and swept me offa my feet. I don't think I have ever felt this way about another movie so far, so I know I can hang with that. Anyways, it makes me feel special and when i see those actors in the love triangle, it gives me a good feeling all over.

Average customer rating:

Jack Reed: Death and Vengeance
Starring: Brian Dennehy , and Charles Dutton
Manufacturer: Tango Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000ERVKDA
Release Date: 2006-05-05

Average customer rating:

Jack Reed - Death & Vengeance
Starring: Brian Dennehy , Charles S. Dutton , Dean McDermott , Joe Morton , and Peter Outerbridge
Director: Brian Dennehy
Manufacturer: Tango Entertainment
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ASIN: B0009GX1YC
Release Date: 2005-08-09

Description

Brian Dennehy is Chicago police detective Jack Reed. This time around, Reed's investigating a mass murder in a neighborhood heavily populated by Russian immigrants who are suspicious or afraid of any law enforcement officials. Without their help can he find the perpetrator before he kills again?

Average customer rating:

A sure bet
Quaint fun

Two Dollar Bettor
Starring: Steve Brodie , Marie Windsor , John Litel , Barbara Logan , and Robert E. Sherwood (II)
Director: Edward L. Cahn
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00015HX4K
Release Date: 2004-02-24

Customer Reviews:

A sure bet.......2005-11-28

On his first visit to a racetrack, straight-laced John Litel innocently places a two-dollar bet and winds up winning ten dollars, a simple act that leads to a full-blown gambling addiction, embezzlement, and associations with seedy con artists. TWO-DOLLAR BETTOR is a preachy, ham-fisted yet entertaining "problem picture" from 1951. It's sort of the REEFER MADNESS of gambling movies, although Litel's sympathetic performance helps to smooth over some pretty implausible situations. It may not be a first-place winner, but it's still in the money.

Quaint fun.......2004-05-11

EXCERPT FROM THE BACK COVER:
"A family man loses everything in this horrifying tale of gambling addiction! ... Two-Dollar Bettor is a classic '50s "problem picture" - part noir gangster exploitation and part campy morality play, filled with glittering production design that offers an insightful and now nostalgic window into America's past."
* * * *
The director: Edward L Cahn has directed over 100 films but none that I could recognize as "significant" (and I research multitudes of films).

The first act of Two-Dollar Better tries so hard and so heavy-handedly to establish the perfect, loving American family of widower with two intelligent teenage daughters that the actors almost look like they're about to explode with happiness. Of course, the director thought the audience had to be hit over the head with this concept so that, in the second act, when he brings in the gambling fiasco YOU MIGHT SEE THE DIFFERENCE.

John Litel's acting is good, his daughters and mother-in-law are less so - Marie Windsor (who is EXCELLENT in Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing") is average as is Steve Brodie.

Watching "the kids" dance to records in the living room is, nostalgic, I guess... some of you who are old enough to remember "Our Gang" will notice the main football star is none other than Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer.

The film is in overall good shape and it MAY be worth repeated viewings as long as they are FEW-AND-FAR-BETWEEN.

Overall Quality of DVD: **1/2 /**** Sound: ** /**** Plot: ** /**** Acting: **/**** Cinematography: **/**** Direction: ** /****

Jack Reed - Death and Vengeance
Average customer rating:
Jack Reed - Death and Vengeance
Starring: John Bourgeois , Linda Carter , Amos Crawley , Nicole Crozier , and Charles S. Dutton
Manufacturer: Live / Artisan
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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A Killing in a Small Town (True Stories Collection TV Movie)

ASIN: B00008ZZ7L
Release Date: 2003-06-17

Description

Two stories intertwine dealing with the meaning of justice for the rich and poor in America. Jack Reed (Brian Dennehy) investigates the death of three Russian immigrants in Chicago against the apathy of this department. Meanwhile, the son of a prominent politician commits vehicular homicide as a powerful attempt to broker a deal and retain secrecy. Starring: Brian Dennehy, Susan Ruttan, Charles Dutton, and Joe Morton.

Average customer rating:

Reform School Girl [Region 2]
Starring: Gloria Castillo , Ross Ford , Edd Byrnes , Ralph Reed , and Jan Englund
Director: Edward Bernds
Manufacturer: Direct Video
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ASIN: B0000DCXZD

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