Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on March 9th, 2016
Life was financed by Canada and Australia with a Dutch director, but the subject matter was strictly American. I’m burying the lead because I want to give the film’s subject a proper buildup. Life is about one of the most famous people who ever lived. He was a person who was loved all over the world and whose face is the preeminent icon of youth and rebellion. One could argue there are others who could vie for the crown, but for different reasons I would insist that James Dean is the man. James Dean is unique for many reasons, but the main one is that he died at 24 at the cusp of a very big wave of fame.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on March 7th, 2016
Eric Jonrosh has written many weighty tomes full of lust and passion and desire and wanton abandon. Perhaps the greatest of these heavy and important contributions to literature is The Spoils of Babylon. He directed a 22-hour film himself that he hoped would reveal the real heart and soul and dark insides of the book. No one was ready for such an intense and unbridled examination of the human experience, so Jonrosh allowed the footage to be bastardized and submitted to television as a miniseries. Jonrosh himself introduces the multi-episode presentation, which now clocks in at two hours and 18 minutes. Jonrosh drinks freely of wine at his favorite restaurant as he is filmed and erratically rambles about the origins of his work and his copious experiences creating masterpieces.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on February 26th, 2016
Back in October I wrote about The Facts of Life: Season 7 in which I dealt with the general history and overall dynamics of the show. I suggest you go back and check that out so I don’t cover the same ground twice. The big addition that year was George Clooney. Not many series have as long and healthy a run as The Facts of Life, but as they age changes are forced on them. One of those changes that occurred in the opening episodes of Season 8 is Charlotte Rae’s (Mrs. Edna Garrett) decision to leave the show. The transition is handled gracefully with Edna’s marriage to a doctor who is leaving to help those in the third world by serving in the Peace Corps.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on February 19th, 2016
A Pew Research Poll in 2012 said that 84 percent of the world’s population believes in God. A Harris poll in 2013 said that 74 percent of Americans believed in God. I’m making some simple statements up front, because the subject is extremely complicated and confusing the more you dip into the well to try to understand. There are 2.3 billion Christians and 1.7 billion Muslims out of the over 7 billion people on the planet. There are 15 million Jews. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have overlapping tenets of faith, but you would never know it if you look at the history of the world. Religion has become a big disappointment to many.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 16th, 2016
The Martian, which is about an astronaut stranded on Mars, is one of the biggest hit movies of the summer. By the end of the movie, the entire world is united in their hope that the astronaut will be saved. The Martian is not a true story. The 33 is. It is the true story of 33 miners trapped underground for 69 days in a Chilean gold mine in 2010. The world really does come together in their hopes and prayers for the trapped miners. Even though it is a true story, it also functions as a good old-fashioned disaster flick in the tradition of The Poseidon Adventure or The Towering Inferno. It also showcases Latino actors primarily, but some other big-name actors round out the cast as well.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on February 13th, 2016
Deadpool may be one the most singular and unique characters in the history of comic book lore. His character has a very rabid fan base among the elite of Marvel comic nerddom, and they have been watching very carefully to see that he has been treated properly by the Hollywood people. He hasn’t been in the past, but more about that later. He may not be the biggest name in the Marvel universe, but he might be the most extreme. Just in case you live in a cave or under a rock, the Marvel universe is inexorably taking over the actual universe with films like The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Ant-Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Hulk, Wolverine, Daredevil, and on and on. To get back to what happened to Deadpool in the past, we go to the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 8th, 2016
“Witches live among us. Their magic passed from an ancient race, diluted, half-forgotten but dangerously powerful. After centuries of conflict, a truce was forged. Witches would be allowed to live and govern themselves if they followed one strict rule: that magic never be used against humans. But a truce is a fragile thing…”
Vin Diesel has made the Fast and Furious franchise into a massive global behemoth, but Diesel is not a global behemoth on his own. He has had successes and failures. He is someone who seems to be an unlikely star. He tried to make Riddick (Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick) into a multi-film franchise and accomplished it through sheer force of will, but his stardom largely rests on Fast and Furious. Diesel bristles at being typecast, so he has always tried to find new vehicles that will demonstrate his range
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on February 7th, 2016
Hail, Caesar is a typical example of a Coen brothers movie, which means it is completely atypical. The Coen brothers are revered for not only being different from everyone else but also making films that are different from each other. It would easy to say there is a Coen brothers style, but you would be reaching, because the two men are committed to exploring things differently each and every time they make a movie (or produce a television show like Fargo). The most characteristic identifying factor is quirkiness and individuality. They are among the few filmmakers working in Hollywood who do whatever the freaking heck they want. What I mean by that is that the movies they make would not be allowed if proposed or pitched by anyone else.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2016
Steven Spielberg. Tom Hanks. The Coen Brothers. 1957. The Cold War. Mark Rylance. There are a lot of elements to the stew that is Bridge of Spies. Let's start with the most important ingredient. Steven Spielberg has been a household name for decades now as the most reliable producer/director of movie entertainment we may have ever seen. His name is so synonymous with big-screen entertainment that he needs no introduction from me. But he has been trying to get away from pure entertainment for a long while now, often with great success.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on February 1st, 2016
There are many films that depict the ferocity and cataclysmic power of the vast ocean. It is a fearsome display that cannot be imagined in any way that compares to the reality of the experience. The Perfect Storm, Life of Pi, The Guardian, and Titanic are just a few examples of disasters at sea. It is the United States Coast Guard’s job to rescue distressed people under severe emergencies at sea. The Finest Hours is a depiction of a true-life sea rescue under the most challenging and horrifying conditions. It is known as the most successful small boat rescue ever recorded. When I say small boat, it is the rescue boat I’m talking about, but the ship they were singlehandedly sent to rescue was a gigantic T2 tanker Pendleton, which had split in half on open seas.
