It seemed like yesterday that straight-to-video movies deserved to be treated like nuclear waste – to be buried under tons of concrete and steel just to be safe.
No more.
The current film market is putting the squeeze on movies just as deserving of a theatrical release, if not more, than some of the films which hit your neighborhood movie house.
Sure, we still get straight-to-video sequels which exist solely to make a quick buck, but I’m seeing plenty of films lately that skipped theaters entirely but are still worth your time.
Take “Tortured,” a new-to-DVD flick coming out tomorrow (Sept. 16). Cole Hauser stars as an FBI agent neck deep under cover. He’s infiltrated a shadowly drug lord and must torture a family man (Laurence Fishburne) for information.
The movie made my head spin with all its snaky plot turns, and the torture sequence are hard to endure. Still, “Tortured” kept me engaged, and guessing, through the final minutes and boasts two sneaky smart performances. Fishburne radiates intensity even while handcuffed and tortured, and Hauser opened my eyes wide with his effective performance.
Films like “Tortured” are changing the way we think about the straight-to-video label.
UPDATE: Here’s another straight-to-vid movie that deserved a far better fate – “Joshua.”
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