Courtesy of Dark Sky Films
The Siren (2020)
Recently released on Blu-ray and DVD: "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: In Concert," The Siren and Invasion Planet Earth.
“Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: In Concert” (TimeLife)
Metallica’s Lars Ulrich was onstage to introduce the (partly) classic Deep Purple lineup at their 2016 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He took a swipe at the academy’s belated recognition of the group that changed his life. Turns out Ulrich’s dad brought him, age 9, to a Deep Purple concert in Copenhagen. The heavy massive sound, the spectacle: Ulrich’s destiny was set.
His is not the only memorable introduction in the three-Blu-ray set collecting 30 hours from the 2009-2017 induction ceremonies. By contrast to the rambling Ulrich, Steve Van Zandt was focused and cool as a hitman when awarding a posthumous trophy to Bert Berns, Van Morrison’s producer and writer of “Twist and Shout,” “Piece of My Heart” and many other ’60s hits. The music? Cheap Trick hadn’t lost a lick over the years. A few of the acts stunk—but there were plenty of opportunities to jam.
The Siren (Dark Sky Films)
Sirens are projections of the male libido, but in The Siren, she is also an accursed creature, once human, who begins to fall in love. The unusual protagonist (and object of her attention) is a mute evangelical Christian. However, a neighbor at the lake cottage, swearing vengeance after the siren drowned his beloved, wants her destroyed. Eerily suggestive scenes (wet finger marks on the pier) are effectively accomplished by writer-director Perry Blackshear on a minimal budget.
Invasion Planet Earth (4Digital Media)
The kids are glued to a B-grade sci-fi show on the telly (the bionic hero saves the Earth each week from aliens). Meanwhile, in adult land, the TV drones on about the U.S. president threatening war. Anxiety is pervasive, and then they appear in the sky. British director Simon Cox incorporates family and workplace melodrama, religious mythology and commentary on bad pop culture into an alien invasion film that wonders: Are we the real enemy?
