The DTV Digest

Episode 207: Black Site, Day Shift, East of the Mountains, The Captive, Special Delivery, The Legend of Pipi, Black Site

In this episode, Mike and Rich bookend the show with two films with the same title!
 
We kick off with BLACK SITE, a film we'd been looking forward to seeing ever since the buzz from its US release. Does it stand up to expectations?
Next is DAY SHIFT, the feature directorial debut of renowned fight choreographer, J J Perry, and stars Jamie Foxx as a blue-collar vampire hunter. This film is a Netflix original, which have been a bit hit-and-miss, so how does this stand up?
EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS finds Tom Skerrit and his dog un against the elements...
THE CAPTIVE finds a trafficking survivor re-tormented by her original captor,
SPECIAL DELIVERY is a Korean action movie which are usually right up my alley but after being burned by Carter in the last episode, will this renew my faith in the genre?
Our Short Shot is the excellent animated film, THE LEGEND OF PIPI - click on the link for some great dark humour!
Finally, our DTV Throwback is another film called BLACK SITE - this one is a British film, directed by Tom Paton. This is available on the ROKU channel, or to rent from other streaming services.
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!
 

Episode 206: Prey, Carter, The Last Son, King Knight, The Voices, Scooty, Reigo

In our latest episode we kick off with the biggest film of the week, PREY, the new Predator movie in which the alien hunter sets his sights on a Comanche tribe. (Prey is currently available on Hulu or Disney+),
Meanwhile, over on Netflix there's CARTER, a hyperkinetic action movie about a Korean agent with no past memories. Take a listen to here our thoughts on it!
I have to fly solo on the next review, as i was the only person to have managed to watch the new western, THE LAST SON - take a listen to hear my opinions!
KING KNIGHT is the lasted pairing of actor Matthew Gray Gubler and Richard  Bates Jr, and there are some very divided opinions on the panel!
THE VOICES (aka The Free Fall) is a new horror film co-starring Shawn Ashmore and directed by Adam Stilwell, who made one of my personal fave fakumentaries The Triangle.
Our Short Shot is SCOOTY - click the link for the whole 15 mins, you won't regret it!
Finally our DTV Throwback is REIGO, THE DEEP-SEA MONSTER vs. THE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, a low budget attempt at making a Kaiju movie without a monster suit!
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!
 

Episode 205 - Hot Seat,. Charles, Bring Him Back Dead, Graphic Design, Life After, Hellbinders

This week Mike, Rich and Steve tackle three new features and a new fan film...
Kicking with HOT SEAT, in which Kevin Dillon is stuck on his chair by a mad bomber, while Mel Gibson has the unenviable task of trying to rescue him...
CHARLES is a not-for-profit fan film which gives an alternative take on how Chucky came to be....click the link to watch the whole 1-hour feature!
BRING HIM BACK DEAD finds Gary Daniels in a lead role up against Louis Mandylor in a plot which proves to be painfully familiar...
GRAPHIC DESIGN is a British erotic thriller which provides a lot of graphic couplings but in today's age, is this kind of thing redundant? Funny enough there doesn't seem to be a trailer for this film at the moment!
Our Short Shot is LIFE AFTER - this 30 min short does have a small cost ($2) but we feel it's worth checking out, so please click the link!
Finally, our DTV Throwback is HELLBINDERS, starring Ray Park and Johnny Yong Bosch, in a comic-book style film from before the MCU showed how its done. You can find this film free to watch (with ads) on PLEX.
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!
 

Episode 204: The Reef: Stalked, 18 1/2, Executive Order, Crook$, TC2000

In this episode Mike, Rich and Steve take a look at three new releases...
 
We kick off with the latest Shark Peril movie, THE REEF: STALKED, which features four young women being stalked by a killer shark when they go on a kayaking holiday.
Next is the political thriller 18 1/2. Set during the height of the Watergate scandal, this finds a young Whitehouse clerk in deep water when she discovers a tape of the infamous "missing 18 1/2 minutes" of President Nixon's recordings.
EXECUTIVE ORDER is another political thriller, this time from Brazil and deals with an abhorrent situation and in today's political climate proves not to be as satirical and absurd as it might have hoped.
 
Our Short Shot is CROOK$, in which two inept women attempt to hold up a convenience store and run into a complication. Click the link to watch this excellent short!
Our DTV Throwback is TC2000, a futuristic action movie which stars Billy Blanks, Matthias Hues and Bolo Yeung!
 
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!
 

Episode 203: Clean, Corrective Measures, Fortress: Snipers Eye, Rubikon, The Pond, The Princess, Baby Fever, Marked Man

In this episode Mike, Rich and Steve take a look at six recent releases:
Starting with CLEAN, starring Adrien Brody as a garbage man trying to atone for a violent past...
CORRECTIVE MEASURES is the first of two films this week starring Bruce Willis - this one had a few surprises in store!
FORTRESS: SNIPERS EYE is a sequel hot on the heels of its predecessor and again stars Jesse Metcalfe, Chad Michael Murray and Bruce Willis...
RUBIKON is an Austrian sci-fi thriller where the crew of a space station must battle with some huge decisions....
...Serbian film THE POND is heavy on existential atmosphere...
...and THE PRINCESS, which can be viewed either on Hulu (US) or Disney+ (UK), allows Furie director Le-Van Kiet to deliver a kick-ass fairytale!
Our Short Shot is BABY FEVER from the wonderful Monstrous Femme, directed by Hannah May Cumming. This film is still on the competition/festival circuit so cannot be shared at the moment, but click on the link for more info.
Finally our DTV Throwback is MARKED MAN, starring "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as a convict forced to escape when he witnesses guards kill a fellow in-mate! This is currently available on Amazon Prime.
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!
 
 
 

Episode 202 - The Modern Way, When Darkness Falls, Martyrs Lane, Gatlopp: Hell of a Game, Gabriel, Ambulancen

In this episode, Mike and Rich tackle a bit of a mixed bag which nevertheless contains at least one gem!
We kick off with THE MODERN WAY, an anthem for the 80's when Mods and Rockers had resurrected thanks to  the likes of Quadrophenia being a cult VHS hit...
Next is WHEN DARKNESS FALLS,a brit horror written by one of our old colleagues, Tom Jolliffe! However our friendship won't stop us from giving the film an honest going over!
MARTYRS LANE is the latest SHUDDER film to be released by Acorn films. I'm on record for saying that I'd gladly sling in any of their curated films without any fore-knowledge, given their success to date. Will I be eating my words?
Finally there is GATLOPP: HELL OF  A GAME. Dismiss this film at your peril. Check out our thoughts on it in the episode!
 
Our Short Shot is the French horror/action/thriller, GABRIEL, in which a troubled boy becomes a cop only to find himself battling inner demons. Click the link to watch the whole film.
Did you know that Michael Bay's Ambulance is actually a remake? This week's DTV Throwback is the Danish original, AMBULANCEN, in which two armed robbers are forced to steal an ambulance in order to escape their botched bank job! This can be currently found on Netflix!
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!
 

Episode 201: White Elephant, Last Looks, The Retreat, Stay Out - Stay Alive, A Mother’s Fury, Narco Sub, Ultrasound, Kung Fu Kerfuffle, Take Down

We're back after a short break with a haul of seven new films to cover! Mike, Rich and Steve kick off with the latest film from Jesse V. Johnson, WHITE ELEPHANT. This stars Michael Rooker as a mob enforcer whose conscience is starting to bother him and Olga Kurylenko as a cop targeted for assassination.
LAST LOOKS sees Charlie Hunham as an ex cop hired to discover who killed the wife of a larger-than-life tv actor (Mel Gibson)...
THE RETREAT follows two LGBT couples who are being hunted when they rent a remote cabin for the weekend...
STAY OUT - STAY ALIVE follows five friends who go camping and fall foul to native american curses, ghosts and their own greed when they discover an abandoned gold mine...
A MOTHER'S FURY follows one woman's attempt to get justice for her son when he is the tragic victim of a college hazing...
NARCO SUB finds  DEA agent compromised when his wife and daughter are kidnapped by a drug cartel and he is forced to help them smuggle their drugs via a stolen submarine...
ULTRASOUND...this defies description and you should just go an watch it...
Our Short Shot is KUNG FU KERFUFFLE, in which an illicit roof-top exchange goes wrong...click the link to watch the whole short.
our DTV Throwback is TAKEDOWN (aka Billionaire Ransom) which finds a bunch of spoilt rich kids sent to a remote Scottish Island to learn to take responsibility for themselves, only to be taken hostage and held for ransom.
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!
 

Episode 200 - Shark Bait, Cop Secret, Nine Bullets, Shut In, Ghosts of the Ozarks, Image of Victory, Fatal Love, Backtrack

in our 200th (!) episode Mike Rich and Steve check out six new releases....
We received the screener for SHARK BAIT the same day we were due to record the episode, but there was no way we were going to miss the opportunity to watch the latest film by director James Nunn, who has consistently delivered excellent DTV thrillers, and this feels like something of a step-change. Check out our review!
Next is COP SECRET, an Icelandic love-letter to the buddy cop genre, with all of the nods to Bay, Bruckheimer, et al that you would want.
NINE BULLETS finds Lena Heady's hard-hearted burlesque singer taking on the local mob boss in order to protect a child's life...
The genre of "person stuck in a single location" has had a lot of traction recently, probably as a consequence of COVID, but SHUT IN takes this to the Nth degree as our protagonist is locked in a pantry and must help her kids keep out of the hands of a child molester!
GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS is next - take a listen to find out what we thought!
Finally we have IMAGE OF VICTORY, a film set shortly after WW2 and is about a kibbutz under seige by the Egyptian army.
 
Our short Shot is FATAL LOVE, which sees a young man's marriage hanging by a thread when he starts getting phone calls from an old flame.
 
The DTV Throwback is BACKTRACK, starring Adrien Brody as a psychiatrist whose patients are more than they seem. Look out for The Loved Ones' Robin McLeavy in the cast!
 
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!

Episode 199: Shattered, The Return, Rhino, We Are Not Safe Here, Crossbreed

In this episode Mike and Steve take a look at three new releases:
SHATTERED is the latest in the genre of "protagonist stuck inside a single location" - how does it hold up to some of the other films we've covered with the same premise?
THE RETURN  finds a young scientist revisiting his family home when his father mysteriously dies. Some of the fx are a bit ropey but is there enough here to keep you engrossed?
RHINO is a film from Ukraine, a gritty gangster movie which is well-made, but is that enough?
Our Short Shot is WE ARE NOT SAFE HERE, featuring three friends on a camping trip telling ghost stories...but are they just stories? Click the link to watch the whole short film.
Finally in our DTV Throwback is CROSSBREED, a low budget Alien style movie - but is there any entertainment value to be had out of it?
Find out the answer to all these questions by tuning in to this episode!
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!

Short Shots Episode 15: Interview with independent filmmaker Karlee Boon

As a change of pace - and hopefully the start of an ongoing feature for this podcast, Mike speaks with KARLEE BOON, a young filmmaker looking to direct her first short film, NIGHT SHIFT.
Please check out Karlee's Seed and Spark page where you will find details of the project and ways you can help fund it.
We would like to hear from other short film makers if they want to come and chat about their work!
Follow the Short Shots TWITTER page, where we will be linking to a short film every day! 
Don't forget to also check out our main show, the DTV DIGEST on TWITTER and FACEBOOK!