The 2019 acclaimed documentary You Don’t Nomi (Not Rated; 92 minutes) landed on DVD and Blu-ray today from RLJE Film (part of the AMC Networks). Written and directed by Jeffery McHale, the documentary tells the tale about one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history - Showgirls.

Directed by legendary Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas, Showgirls should have been a big hit in the Fall of 1995, but thanks to an NC-17 rating and poor reviews, the film flopped at the box office. The movie fared better on home video, bringing in over $100 million. Though it’s on the “worst films” list in history, it has become a cult classic.

The documentary isn’t about the making of the film. Instead, the director mostly focuses on how the movie dug itself out of being one of the biggest flops to becoming a cult adoration.

I was in Junior High when Showgirls arrived in theatres in 1995 and having grown up watching Saved By the Bell, I, along with every male classmate, wanted to see Elizabeth Berkley (or otherwise known as Jessie Spano) strip down to her birthday suit. An NC-17 movie would never play around my insignificant Midwest town, so I had to wait to view Showgirls when it premiered on Showtime. Luckily, I had a television in my bedroom because it would have been embarrassing to watch it with my parents. Hell, it was embarrassing to watch it by myself.

Sleazy is the only word to describe Showgirls. The film studio, MGM, promoted it as an erotic-drama, but there's nothing sexy about it. You would know what I'm talking about if you saw the movie.

You Don’t Nomi is a well-made and intriguing documentary. It features critical analysis from critics and fans and reveals the hypocrisy of Hollywood. While I’m not a big fan of Showgirls by any means, after watching the documentary, I now want to re-watch the film with a fresh perspective. If you’re a diehard Showgirls fan, then I recommend seeing You Don’t Nomi.

The low-budget horror flick Restricted Area (Not Rated; 112 minutes) crawled its way on to DVD (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart) earlier this year from ITN Distribution and Mill Creek Entertainment. A few of my readers might recall me mentioning about the movie in an old Sunday Post. It’s one of several DVDs I’ve been meaning to write a review for but haven’t had the time until now.

I’m taking a wild guess there might be a few people wondering why I’m reviewing a movie starring Dolly Parton. There’s a simple answer - Unlikely Angel (Not Rated; 96 mins) costars the late Roddy McDowall. I grew up watching the original Fright Night flicks and The Planet of the Apes films, which all starred Roddy McDowall (minus Beneath the Planet of the Apes). I remember watching Unlikely Angel when it originally aired on CBS around Christmas 1996.

My stomach cringed when I heard there would be a reboot of The Grudge, which turned out to be a sidequel with the same name as 2004’s The Grudge, or otherwise known as the American remake of the Japanese Ju-On horror franchise. Yeah, I know, what an original title!

There’s been a space in my life without an MLB season this year; though there’s a brief season starting later this month. We must see what happens with it.

Speaking of baseball, the other night I watched the underrated 1996 thriller The Fan starring Wesley Snipes and Robert De Niro. Snipes stars as Bobby Rayburn, the centerfielder for the San Francisco Giants. With a $40 million price tag, everyone is expecting Rayburn to take the team to the World Series. Unfortunately, Rayburn goes on the worst hitting slump in his career. De Niro plays a diehard Giants fan, Gil Renard, who becomes obsessed with Rayburn.

The Midnight Horror Review is back! Well, I didn’t really go anywhere. Because of an internet outage, I couldn’t post last week’s review. Yeah, it sucked.

I had planned on reviewing a different movie, but Hulu included Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter in their fresh batch of titles. I can never say no to watching a Hammer flick, so that’s what I’m reviewing tonight - 1974’s B-Movie - Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter.

I forced myself to rewatch the horrible so-called horror flick The Girl in the Crawlspace, just so I could reboot my memory before I wrote this review. It’s an ITN Distribution title that Mill Creek Entertainment released on DVD earlier this year.

Written and directed by John Oak Dalton, The Girl in the Crawlspace features a cast of nobodies that cannot act. It's like the casting director grabbed random people from off the street, gave them a dollar, and told them to read a few lines from a script that took five minutes to write. Yes, it's that bad!

Many months ago, I found The Resident (R; 91 minutes) on Blu-ray at a Dollar Tree store. Since I’ve been in a Hammer mood, I finally got around to watching it the other night. It’s a 2011 Hammer Films production starring Hilary Swank and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, with a small appearance by Hammer legend Christopher Lee.

Over the weekend, I watched 2002's Trapped (R; 97 minutes), based on the novel 24 Hours by Greg Iles, who also penned the screenplay. Directed by Luis Mandoki, the movie stars Charlize Theron, Courtney Love, Stuart Townsend, Dakota Fanning, and Kevin Bacon. It's a well-made thriller that has somehow fallen under the radar. The film got its first standalone Blu-ray (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart) release this year from Mill Creek Entertainment.

There’s nothing better to do on a Saturday night than watching a Hammer Horror flick!

I fell in love with the world of Hammer when I was a teenager in the mid-1990s, a time when TNT and AMC aired classic movies. I’m not 100% for sure what was my first Hammer movie, but my two favorite series were Dracula and Frankenstein. 

Sometime last year, Mill Creek Entertainment started releasing ITN Distribution titles. I have had several of these DVDs in my possession for several months, and I've made many excuses not to review them, as many ITN films I've reviewed in the past have been crappy. Late last night, I finally got around to watching American Zombieland (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart), which the title is a ripoff of the horror-comedy Zombieland.

Late last night, I made a cup of decaf green tea and planned on watching a scary movie, but instead, I watched two chick flicks. And, no, I wasn't on a date. Please let me explain... I have a pile of DVDs and Blu-rays to review, and a few of these titles have been in my possession for many months, so I grabbed a random Blu-ray, which was the Mill Creek Entertainment double feature featuring Wild Child and Life Happens.

For a while now, I've been wanting to bring back The Midnight Horror Review and make it a weekly event, but I've been debating with myself whether to host it on here or start a Tumblr blog. I almost went with the latter, and I even set everything up, but thanks to my Twitter poll, I stayed where I am.

Focus Features had released a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1815 coming-of-age story Emma (PG; 2 hrs 3 mins) in February, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it received a streaming platform release on March 20th. The film is now available to purchase on Blu-ray (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), and Digital from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

It’s in the wee hours past midnight, and here I am writing a review for When a Stranger Calls (R; 97 minutes), the 1979 cult-classic horror flick about a young babysitter, Jill (played by Carol Kane), being tormented by a series of disgusting phone calls from a “stranger” who's calling from upstairs. If you haven’t already seen the film, then you’ve probably at least heard about the terrifying opening minutes. This isn’t my first viewing, as I’ve seen the movie multiple times over the years. Mill Creek Entertainment had released the movie on Blu-ray (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart) earlier this year with a retro VHS-style slipcover. I've gotten a little behind on reviews for this blog, so I thought it was time I started to go through the stack of titles Mill Creek Entertainment has sent me over the last three months, starting with When a Stranger Calls.

Late last night, I watched the 2007 movie The Nines (R; 100 minutes), starring Ryan Reynolds, a movie I had never heard of before Mill Creek Entertainment released it on Blu-ray (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart). There are no special features or bonus extras.

Written and directed by John August, The Nines is split into three different chapters (The Prisoner, Reality Television, and Knowing) with Ryan Reynolds playing an unique character in each short.

The Prisoner centers on Gary (played by Reynolds), a famous actor who's under house arrest in another person's house after burning down his own home. The owner of the house is a television writer, Gavin (also played by Reynolds in "Reality Television"). His only connection to the outside world is through his public relations agent, Margaret (played by Melissa McCarthy) and his married neighbor, Sarah (played by Hope Davis). After being in isolation for a few days, Gary believes he's being haunted by "the nines."

Reality Television centers on a television writer, Gavin, who's trying to get his pilot, Knowing, produced. His series would star Melissa McCarthy as a mother who gets lost with her daughter. Sadly, Gavin's original vision for Knowing will never come to function because of a meddling executive producer, Susan (played by Davis).

Knowing centers on a video game designer Gabriel (played by Reynolds), his wife, Mary (played by McCarthy), and their daughter, Noelle (played by Elle Fanning), whose vehicle breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Leaving them behind, he goes in search of help and runs across Sierra (played by Davis), who helps him connect the dots left behind from the previous stories.

I'm a big Ryan Reynolds fan, so I was looking forward to watching The Nines, but this movie was so confusing. It begins decent, but it quickly falls apart by the second chapter. The acting from the entire cast is excellent. The main issue I have with the film is with the writing, as the story doesn't make a bit of sense.

What's the point of the movie? Please, somebody, explain the ending to me.

For those of you who need to know, the picture and sound quality on the Blu-ray is good.

Overall, The Nines is a waste of time to watch. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.