Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 22nd, 2019
I have to be honest; when I got this title and saw that Jim Gaffigan was starring, I didn’t know what to expect, but I went into this film with some low expectations. I’m a fan of Gaffigan, and I own a few of his stand-up albums, but seeing him headlining a thriller, well, it was a tough leap for me. Now that I’ve seen the film, I got to say I’m impressed by what he pulled off with this film. That being said, as I was watching this film, I couldn’t help but see a similarity between Gaffigan and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. I doubt this was intentional, and perhaps it’s just my subconscious attempting to make these connections, but Gaffigan’s performance in this film is on par with many of the performances we saw from Hoffman in his later years. As for the film, American Dreamer follows Cam (Gaffigan), a down-on-his-luck schlub who at one point was living the American dream: a good job, a nice home, and a wife and child. Then he lost his job, and everything else seemed to disappear around him. Now he’s a driver for a ride share company, where he struggles with paying child support and has had a bit of a mental breakdown.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 18th, 2019
Blumhouse Productions has been the go-to company when it comes to horror and suspense films being marketed for the more mainstream audiences. The Purge films, Happy Death Day, and most recently Halloween (2018) have been some of their successful releases, though they’ve had several other films that didn’t fare so well that you can catch on Netflix. Now there is Prey. I knew going in this would be a Blumhouse film; I just wasn’t sure if I’d be watching a potential genre gem, or if it would be a dud. As it turns out, it’s somewhere in between, and I’m a little surprised that there seems to be little to no marketing campaign for this one. The film starts off innocently enough with Toby (Logan Miller) at home and on his cell phone. While Toby is immersed in his social media, outside his father is being attacked by a couple of robbers and is killed. This sequence is a bit of a bummer; it’s lacking anything that resembles tension, and while it’s attempting to insert this message about today’s youth being disconnected from the real world, it just falls flat. We don’t get to see Toby deal with loss or guilt, instead the film has us follow Toby as he in enrolled in a “Lost and Found” program that has people spending three days and three nights alone on a tropical island. It seems like it would almost be paradise, but all they are left with is a backpack filled with some supplies, and in case of emergency, you get a flare. OK, I was in scouts for 12 years, and there was never a time where they would just abandon us for three days. On our own and with our troop we had extensive wilderness survival training, so to see this was not only reckless but unbelievable.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 15th, 2019
It’s frustrating seeing a film starring Michael Chiklis and Bruce Willis and knowing before you’ve even watched five minutes of the film that it’s not going to be good. I mean, come on; you have the star of The Shield and then an action movie icon, but neither can save this film. 10 Minutes Gone is one of those films where on paper it seems like a surefire hit, but somehow instead of a white-knuckle action thriller, the result is a snooze-fest that will keep you guessing as to why these actors signed on for this film. Frank (Chiklis) has been hired by Rex (Willis) to pull off what seems to be an easy heist. Frank and his team seemed to have thought of everything and have even put together some backup plans, but as expected, the heist ends up going bad, and in the process Frank is knocked out cold and loses 10 minutes. In this time he’s lost possession of the jewels, and he needs to figure out what happened to them before Rex has him killed. It’s not a bad idea for a movie, but it’s the execution of this film that is a mess. Willis and Chiklis do their best to make the dialog work, and at times the can make the scenes flow, but once the film shifts to any other character you start to wonder if this film was written by a 12-yea- old boy who just binged a bunch of older action/ detective films while chugging Red Bull and snorting lines of sugar.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on November 1st, 2019
The folks over at Shout have done it again, finding a forgotten title and polishing it up for a nice Blu-ray under their Scream Factory release. This time they have pulled out the 1998 western/horror mash-up that is John Carpenter’s Vampires. It only seems fitting that a John Carpenter film gets covered for the 31 Nights of Terror, though this is definitely a title not many would expect to hear about. When I say this film wouldn’t even crack my top five Carpenter films, it may at first seem like a jab, but you’ve got to remember John Carpenter has one of the most impressive bodies of work, not just for a horror director, but for a director, period. Big Trouble in Little China, The Fog, The Thing, They Live, The Assault on Precinct 13, In The Mouth of Madness, oh, and then there was that little film everyone forgets about, Halloween…and seriously, there are numerous other films I didn’t even mention. I love the filmography Carpenter has given us, but I’m still hoping he’ll release at least one more classic before he hangs up his directing duties for good.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 30th, 2019
“Thrill Me!”
When it comes to catch phrases, at least in this household “Thrill Me!” is easily the most used, and it’s all because of Night of the Creeps. I’m not quite sure how many times I’ve seen this film, but for me, when you name off classic horror films, this makes my top 10. I was only six when this film first came out, and I actually discovered it in the mid-90’s upon realizing it was directed by Fred Dekker who was responsible for The Monster Squad (the movie I blame and love for my introduction to horror). What I’m trying to get at is, I’m not sure if it is possible for me to be “objective” with this film. Night of the Creeps is simply a film that is fueled with nostalgia, but I feel has aged better than most horror films from the 80’s. For those who are fans of the film, at least the ones I’ve met, can agree on the film’s awesomeness and its fun B-movie campy-ness that manages to toe the line perfectly between remaining fun while playing a homage to the old 50’s monster films while being a legit horror film. Also there is Tom Atkins, who is a legend in my eyes because of this film.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on October 29th, 2019
When it comes to Rob Zombie, his films are a bit hit-or-miss. Halloween and The Devils Rejects are his biggest commercial successes, but when he delivers films like Halloween 2, fans tend to be unforgiving. Now we have 3 From Hell, the final chapter in his Firefly family saga that began way back with House of 1000 Corpses and followed up by The Devils Rejects. While many fans have been excited about this third film, I’ve been on the fence wondering if this is really something I want to see. The Devils Rejects is a dark and mean little film that delivers one of the most satisfying endings for a horror film. It’s so good I have my doubts that it could ever be topped. But in Hollywood, if there is potential to make more money off a “franchise”, then there is going to be a sequel whether you want it or not. It’s been 16 years since the franchise began. How does he wrap it up? Well, buckle up, it’s a bit of a bumpy ride; that’s for sure.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on October 25th, 2019
When it comes to writer/director Robert Eggers, despite only directing The Witch, he’s currently one of the most divisive directors working today. Personally I loved The Witch and feel it’s one of the best horror films in the past decade, while others openly loathe the film and consider it a snooze-fest. Eggers has a style that really isn’t for everyone, but for those who are fans (myself included), he’s a breath of fresh air to the horror genre, though his style is very much a throwback to the times before computer graphics and his films rely heavily on atmosphere, where his stories take time to develop as he wants us to be like a fly on the wall as we watch his characters fall apart. The Lighthouse is very much a claustrophobic character piece that will once again divide audiences, but one thing I believe we can all agree on: the performances of Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are phenomenal and deserve all the recognition that will be coming their way.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 23rd, 2019
When it comes to gritty detective films, Seven and Zodiac are two that help define the genre. It seems like there are so many films that are attempting to piggyback off the style, but so many films fail because they are trying so hard to copycat the films, or they simply pull their punches with the material. Night Hunter is the newest film to make an attempt but sadly just falls apart. There is a lot of potential in this film, with Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) taking the top billing; then there are Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci, and Nathan Fillion filling out the cast. The cast and the storyline give this the potential to be a great thriller, but unfortunately the delivery ends up being something just a little better than an episode of Law and Order.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 17th, 2019
The novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is certainly a literary classic, but for the sake of this review you’ll need to ignore the book and the previous film adaptations…I think it’ll be easy to forget the 1999 film The Haunting. I say this mostly because if you go into this series expecting that story, you will be disappointed. Instead, what creator and director Mike Flanagan has delivered is a masterpiece of horror that is so good that as the season plays out it manages to outdo itself again and again up to its final episode. When it first aired on Netflix I binged it and instantly fell in love, and when the opportunity arose to return to the series and see extended cuts of the episodes, I was more than happy to oblige.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 16th, 2019
Ever since I saw High Tension, I’ve been a fan of Alexandre Aja. The guy simply has a nice visual flair and for the most part puts out quality horror films. From The Hills Have Eyes remake, to Mirrors, and the beautifully shot Piranha 3D, Aja has made gore look like fine art on the big screen. So to hear he’d be working with Sam Raimi on a horror film, well, that’s simply music to my ears. It’s been a while since we’ve had a good man vs. nature horror film, and the concept of a family attempting to survive a category 5 hurricane in Florida while being hunted by alligators in their crawlspace, well, if that doesn’t get you excited, then just back away now. Crawl isn’t a movie attempting to be high art or go for Oscars; it’s a movie that just wants you to have fun for 90 minutes, and it delivers on that.
