Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on May 13th, 2014
by Alan Robinson
Made-for-TV movies are rarely remarkable works. Usually, they are poorly-written science-fiction films with laughable special effects, or some sort of dramatic “based on a true story” event. Survival Code, however, is one of those films that comes along every so often that truly has potential to become something bigger. And perhaps that’s where the film’s greatest weakness lies; it never really lives up to that potential.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 13th, 2014
Her is someone you could fall in love with. Her is full of wonderful qualities. Her is elusive and unattainable as well as enticing and satisfying. Her is the awkward title of the new Spike Jonze film starring Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson (though not all of her), Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde and Chris Pratt. It does not star Samantha Morton, Carey Mulligan or Chris Cooper. It might have, but the project evolved so much that they dropped by the wayside. It grew out of the third collaboration between Jonze and Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) but Charlie Kaufman also dropped out, and this became a written-by-Spike Jonze project. Her takes place in a non-specific but soon-to-be future in a gorgeous and ethereal L.A. The production design and cinematography couldn’t be more tantalizing and beautiful. The performances by all are soulful and full of nuance in every nook and cranny of their being. Joaquin Phoenix is a whole new bunch of wonderful as our main character. It also applies to her (even though her being is much more elusive).
Her is an Operating System, but an advanced one. It ponders the day that is soon coming where artificial intelligences will start to proliferate. That day is practically here, but it hasn’t quite happened yet. But that day is here in movies. We all remember Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey. That led Kubrick much later to develop Artificial Intelligence, which show us a little boy who was created to love.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on May 11th, 2014
by Alan Robinson
An ex-con falling back into old habits isn't exactly an original idea. There have been countless films that have followed this formula, often covering the same basic twists and turns one would expect. Such is the case with Joint Body, an independent crime-drama from writer/director Brian Jun. The film follows recently-paroled everyman Nick Burke (Mark Pellegrino, Lost, Supernatural), who finds himself alone in a small town in southern Illinois as he attempts a fresh start at life. During his stay in prison, Burke's wife filed for divorce, and forced him to give up his rights to see his daughter through his parole agreement. Now a free man, he lives in a hotel room while searching for a job in a changed world, crossing paths with a troubled stripper named Michelle (Alicia Witt, Justified).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 8th, 2014
Well, considering that there were so many different strange film ideas in the 1980s, it was only a matter of time before someone would write and produce a film about a dead guy, right? Well, you’re in luck, as two names from the period (Andrew McCarthy, St. Elmo’s Fire, and Jonathan Silverman, Brighton Beach Memoirs) fulfill your wish as Weekend at Bernie’s returns to Blu-ray.
McCarthy and Silverman play insurance reps with bigger aspirations in a company owned by Bernie Lomax (Manimal), who discover a glitch which may have resulted in $2 million of the company’s money being stolen. As a reward, Bernie invites them to his beach house, but we find out the money was stolen by Bernie himself, and he asks some members of the mob to kill the two. However, in a twist, the mob boss decides to have Bernie killed, in part because of an affair Bernie is having with the boss’ girlfriend. Bernie is killed before McCarthy and Silverman get to the beach house, and once they realize Bernie is dead, the wacky hijinks commence.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 8th, 2014
Revenge of the Nerds is an 80's cult classic making its way to Blu-ray. Basically you get a standard catalog release and a handful of features thrown at you. I remember seeing this movie about ten years back. I found it amusing then, so I was looking forward to being able to watch it again; maybe this time I'd get more of the jokes.
The movie takes place where two nerds played by Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards are off to attend the fictional Adams College. They have both enrolled in the acclaimed computer studies department. The two dress like typical nerds with tucked-in shirts, thick black-rimmed glasses, buck teeth, and pens in their shirt pockets. This is of course noticed by some of the frat members the minute they set foot into the quad and are already labeled as nerds. The Alpha Beta frat house are the apparent bullies of the school and also happen to all be star players on the football team, coached by the arrogant John Goodman. While partying the group accidentally burn down their frat house and take over the freshman dorm, forcing them all to sleep in the gymnasium. Of course while some of the freshman are recruited for frats and sororities a group of them are left out, the nerds. Sick of living in the gym they set out to find a house, which they turn, into a frat house, Lambda Lambda Lambda. Gaining some respect around the school the jocks of Alpha Beta set out to make their lives hell, while the nerds get a little revenge for themselves.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 8th, 2014
Anyone who is a parent of a teenage boy is very familiar with the film Napoleon Dynamite. Released in theaters in 2004, this film rapidly developed a cult following and continues to be popular among the high school and middle school crowd. Napoleon Dynamite is a very charming and witty film about a tall and lanky teenage nerd (played by Jon Herder) who lives with his older brother and grandmother in Preston, Idaho. His brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) is 32 and unemployed and how spends most of the day at home on the internet on chat rooms trolling for women. Napoleon, on the other hand, is a bit more industrious, as he at least does attend high school. However, he spends most of his time daydreaming. When he is not daydreaming, he is being bullied at school.
To say that Napoleon is quirky would be an understatement. He has a very deadpan and monotone delivery except when he is asked a question, which more often than not results in a loud, short and abrupt answer which is a trait my kids seem to have adopted! Napoleon also has a very tough time being able to communicate with the other kids in the school, being somewhat of an outcast. However, he meets two students who share some of the same personality quirks as he does, Pedro and Deb, and decides to try to help Pedro, a recent immigrant from Mexico, in his bid to get elected as class president. (Remember those Vote for Pedro t-shirts?)
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on May 7th, 2014
Call Me Crazy is about mental illness. It tells five different stories with women’s names as titles (well, one exception confirms the rule). Mental illness is an extremely important topic because an enormous part of the population is mentally ill. This collection deals with women mostly, but it should be noted that men are just as crazy but in different ways. This film is a followup to another film called Five about breast cancer. Both films have a heavy group of heavy hitters on both sides of the camera. They are produced by the Lifetime network, and both films are to be considered prestige projects for them. Mental illness is more of a sad secret in most families (although having a mastectomy still has some stigma, as well). It is something to be hidden and ashamed of. It shouldn't be. That is part of the point to Call Me Crazy. It wants to show that we should all work together to help people with mental illness. These problems are as real as cancer. I have seen it many times firsthand.
Lucy (Brittany Snow) is a law student with a little problem. She hears voices all the time, and they hate her and torment her. That is called schizophrenia, which is carefully pointed out to be completely different from multiple personality disorder. She winds up at a fancy hospital with serene psychiatrist Dr. Nance (Oscar winner Octavia Spencer). It is directed by movie star Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of movie star/famed director Ron Howard (she even throws a small part to her uncle, Clint). Lucy has come to see that Dr. Nance was right all along when she said that medications would allow her to live a more normal life. She has a brief encounter with Bruce (Jason Ritter, son of John) in group therapy. He is sweet to her but then has to leave when his insurance runs out. It is obvious her story is not over.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 29th, 2014
There have been complaints that there are not enough films that have decent lead roles for women. There are those that say that Hollywood does not make enough movies for women. Then when they do, critics tend to dismiss them as “Lifetime” movies (a term that is dismissive because of the cable channel that churns out generic movies for women). It seems far easier to accept excessive violence or male-oriented films with sexual content. If a movie tries to legitimately capture real situations from a woman's point of view, it can be patronizingly categorized as pap and schmaltz. 
I see an awful lot of movies, and what disappoints me most about many of them is the insincerity of the experience. We get to see a lot of violent movies and a lot of funny movies, and if they seem halfhearted, I shrug it off as the norm. If I see romantic comedies that seem like weak rip-offs of movies made years ago, I assume they just don't know how to make them anymore, but an even rarer commodity is a serious romantic movie that works. Today that usually means it has to be laced with cynicism and anger.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on April 28th, 2014
They don't make good romantic comedies anymore. The Other Woman is not a romantic comedy. It is a comedy...about three women having a romance with the same man. But the three women find out about each other and bond together in a “Sismance”. That's not a word, and it doesn't sound as good as bromance, but there you have it. Part of the problem is they don't make enough movies just for women, and that's what this is. It's a charming trifle along the lines of The First Wife's Club. There is always a creepy guy at the center, so creepy guys beware. It's a revenge comedy part of the time.
Cameron Diaz (Carly Whitten) is a high-powered lawyer who thinks she's found good boyfriend material in Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Mark King). He's a rich business developer who blows off a date because he's juggling too many women. Diaz's father, played by Don Johnson, suggests she fix King's pipes herself in Connecticut (since that was the boyfriend's excuse). Diaz finds Leslie Mann (Kate King) as the unsuspecting wife. Diaz didn't know and isn't happy, but she's over it. Leslie is not over it. She freaks out when she finds out her husband is cheating on her. She is floundering and out of control. Leslie doesn't know what to do. Then Cameron and Leslie find out there is mistress number three, Kate Upton (Amber).
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on April 19th, 2014
Let me say something about myself. I have a saying. Atheists are stupid and agnostics are smart. The reason agnostics are smart is because they know they don't know. Faith is belief. The problem is that this is a cynical age. There are so many people who are atheists because they can cite facts about the universe and science. I always think it's absurd to hear an atheist talk, because they are so insulting to anyone who doesn't agree with them. So am I an agnostic? I would say I am not. I have faith, but I will say that it is not an easy or blind faith. I have examined all areas of the unknown which includes a wide variety of religions and various scientific investigations. My problem with atheists is that human knowledge is limited. It has grown tremendously, especially in the last century, but the more we learn, the more we open new unexamined areas of knowledge. I'm going to have to come back to that.
Heaven Is for Real is a sincere and enjoyable film of faith. It's about a family of four who live in a beautiful Nebraska farmland countryside. Todd (Greg Kinnear) and Sonja (Kelly Reilly) Burpo have two lovely young children. They live in a place that seems like heaven. Todd works as a pastor for the local church, a repair man, a volunteer fireman and whatever else he has to do to make ends meet. He is not making ends meet. His four-year-old son gets a ruptured appendix which has complications in emergency surgery. Everyone thinks Colton (Conor Corum) will die, and when the boy finally pulls through, everyone is overjoyed. Colton's life goes back to normal except for some things he starts remembering. He remembers seeing Jesus on a horse, angels, and a sister he never knew he had.
