Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 21st, 2018
Just about everyone has heard of Rolling Stone magazine. For me it was circa 1995 when I bought my first Rolling Stone magazine that had the band Green Day on the cover. While I never had a subscription, I still remember hitting up the Barnes and Noble and getting the new magazines when I could. It was the magazine I went to to read up on my favorite bands and random pop culture influences. The magazine is now celebrating 50 years of journalism on music, politics, and just about everything else in between. In the 4 ½ hour documentary, it is a combination of interviews and archival footage that tells the story from when the magazine was birthed in San Francisco to becoming one of the most popular publications of our time.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 17th, 2018
When it comes to shows that simply sneak up on you and manage to suck you in, This Is Us would be a show I never saw coming nor expected to simply fall in love with. As a show that is on network television, it stands toe to toe with the best that cable has to offer. But what is most surprising is that what sets this show apart from the rest of the pack isn’t a complex antihero or dragons; instead it is as simple as being a show that feels as real as anything I’ve seen on television in some time. As the title would suggest This Is Us is simply about a family and the struggles and successes that come day to day, though as many of you can understand and relate, there is nothing simple about life and the constant hurdles that are thrown at us on a day to day basis.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 10th, 2018
Is it such a bad thing to find it refreshing that Trench 11 is a horror film that takes place during World War I? There is something about it being placed in this time period that immediately makes the familiar plot seem entirely unique. The easiest way to describe this film is to say it’s The Dirty Dozen meets John Carpenter’s The Thing. Seriously, if that doesn’t at least raise an eyebrow and catch your interest at least a little bit, then clearly this won’t be the movie for you. Now, granted, this was shot on a low budget and is ambitious; while it doesn’t quite meet its full potential, Trench 11 is still a fun little flick to throw on late at night.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 7th, 2018
I’m pretty sure at some point we’ve all played the game Truth or Dare. Pretty much it’s a game we all play in our teenage years, where the results tend to end up with either some hurt feelings, shame, or someone getting injured. I think the worst instance I can remember in my past was on a camping trip, and it resulted in one of our friends falling into our campfire. As you’d imagine, it didn’t end well, and all our parents were pretty upset. Over the years the game has been brought to the big screen in a variety of ways, and this incarnation of Truth or Dare puts up a noble effort by injecting a supernatural spin on the game. And the result? I can honestly say I had a good time with this little flick.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 6th, 2018
There is something about the notion of movie magic that I believe can grab hold of an audience member and pull them from their living room seat and into the story they are watching. This movie magic seems to occur more often these days, as special effects seem to take leaps and bounds every year as new technology is created to dazzle us all. Here’s the thing, though, sure, it’s great how we can now see lifelike 50-story monsters destroying cities, or how underwater worlds can exist, but none of it matters if the story or the characters are not relatable. If the story isn’t there, then your big effects are nothing more than overpriced cartoons that will be forgotten by the time the audience has exited the theater. When it comes to Higher Power, the best way to describe it is to use the overused expression, “all style and no substance.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 30th, 2018
After two seasons it seemed as though Lucifer had finally found its niche, and I was looking forward to seeing what season three would have in store. The story of Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) as the devil who has been vacationing on Earth is a fitting guilty pleasure of mine. This isn’t a show aiming to win Emmys; it’s simply a show that wants to indulge its audience for 44 minutes of fun, and week after week, it succeeds in doing just that. When Season 2 left off, Lucifer was kidnapped and left in the desert, and his wings had been returned to him. This is pretty much right where Season 3 picks up, and as expected, it’s a helluva fun ride.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 27th, 2018
When it comes to Paul Schrader, I feel the argument can be made that he is the greatest American screenwriter. I know it’s a bold statement but when you look over his credits that include Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder, Hardcore, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and so many others I feel there just isn’t anyone out there that can compete. Lately though he’s seemed to have had a difficult time recapturing that greatness, there has even been a part of me that has felt that perhaps I should give up on hoping he’ll crank out one more great film and simply appreciate the filmography he’s delivered us cinema fans over the years.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 19th, 2018
“Welcome to the future.”
This is how Josephine (Ellen Burstyn) introduces a church group that is touring her geodesic home, which also doubles as a museum dedicated to inventor R. Buckminster Fuller. Josephine and her grandson, Sebastian (Asa Butterfield) have their own way of living in their home, a place where it is assumed Sebastian has never left long enough to experience how the real world functions. His interactions with the public don’t stretch beyond the casual tourists who come by the home, and as a teenager he’s never experienced “junk food” of any kind. But Sebastian’s reality crumbles after his grandmother has a stroke in the middle of a tour and he meets Jared (Alex Wolff).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 17th, 2018
When it comes to films about man vs. nature, we typically see films where they are defending themselves in the wild where weather and predators are the biggest dangers they have to face. (The Grey and The Revenant are the titles that first come to mind.) In the new release Flora, writer/director Sasha Louis Vukovic is here to show us that there is more to fear than wolves and bears, but how deadly pollen can be. Somewhere I can imagine M. Night Shyamalan is happy to see that someone else has tackled this subject since his disastrous film The Happening made a whimper at the box office years ago. Fortunately for Vukovic, he didn’t make the same mistakes and instead has crafted a film that is perhaps one of the more realistic horror scenarios that has come out in some time.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on August 12th, 2018
Ever since Jaws splashed onto the screen back in 1975, Hollywood has been attempting to follow its success, and though some films have been valiant efforts, nothing seems to come close to the Spielberg classic. Sure, effects have come a long way over the years, and through the Hollywood magic of special effects they can create a more realistic looking shark, but to be fair, many of the film’s more memorable moments don’t even have the shark on screen. When I first heard about The Meg, it was going to be in the hands of Eli Roth of Cabin Fever and Hostel fame. This seemed to be like a good pairing that would result in a blood-fest filled with shark carnage that would leave shark fans pleased, but eventually the studio decided to pass, and the project seemed almost dead in the water.
