Pads & Panels

The Disco Exorcist spoofs nostalgia, horror clichés

Review by Jon DePaolis

All cards on the table, I usually don’t like nostalgic movies. This is mostly because I wasn’t alive in the 1970s and I don’t get what the big deal was. So that generation had disco clubs, cocaine and a promiscuous attitude toward sex, but so what? OK … that sounds great. All the same, I didn’t live through it and, to be honest, Sega Genesis and Puff Daddy’s No Way Out suited me just fine.

Where was I? Right, The Disco Exorcist. I’m pretty sure Wild Eye produced this movie just so that it could do a retro horror movie. If that is the case, they succeeded, and I loved it.

The film is shot similar to Grindhouse, with its grainy, old film strip picture. The gore is mostly contained to red corn syrup and old-school sound effects. The plot is even cheesy, with main character Rex (Michael Reed) – a notorious ladies man – sleeping around on a witch who subsequently tries to kill him. Disco Exorcist is basically softcore porn with a horror movie attached to it, but if we are really getting down to brass tax, what horror movie isn’t these days? (more…)

Title: Wayne of Gotham

Author: Tracy Hickman

Publisher: It Books, HarperCollins Publishers

Rating:

Review by: Jon DePaolis

How much do we really know about our past?

The very set of memories that are supposed to define and determine our present and future selves tend to be the set of memories that are least reliable. How much can we truly remember about our lives after years have gone by — distancing us from those memories to the point where it is as if those memories were actually scenes from a movie instead of vignettes of reality?

Tracy Hickman’s Wayne of Gotham attempts to answer the question of how fragile and disconnected our own memories are. In order to achieve that end, Hickman crafts two stories. The first has a son trying to piece together shattered memories of his parents after a villain puts in motion a complicated maze of crime. The second, set approximately 50 years earlier, sees a young adult rebelling against his abusive father, in turn making questionable decisions in the name of morality. (more…)

Title: Baseball’s Greatest Games: 2011 World Series, Games 6

Format: Blu-ray

Studio: A+E Networks

Game Rating:

Blu-ray Rating:

Review by: Jon DePaolis

The Game

All cards on the table, I absolutely hate it when people deem something an instant classic. I hate it when ESPN pushes product by calling a first-round playoff basketball game an instant classic just because it goes to overtime. No, a classic gets its status because it changes the way someone views a sport or is so superior to anything anyone has seen in recent memory.

So take heed when I write, as much as it pains this Cubs fan’s heart to write, Game 6 of the 2011 World Series is an instant classic. And the fine folks at Major League Baseball Productions agree, as they have already packaged Game 6 as an addition to its “Baseball’s Greatest Games” series with A+E Networks. (more…)