Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 19th, 2017
Every year it seems the “summer” movie season seems to start sooner than the year before. Here we are, the second Friday of March, and already we’ve seen the huge box office weekend for Logan, and now this weekend we have the release of Kong: Skull Island. Ever since Kong first graced the big screen back in 1933, every film that followed was a mega-event. Personally it wasn’t till 2005 that theatergoers got to fully experience the massive beast in all his glory as he became worthy of the title “the 8th wonder of the world”. Now we have Legendary Entertainment playing in the giant monster movie sandbox with plans to set up a series of monster films. All this leads up to the inevitable clash of the kaiju monsters where we will finally see the showdown of Godzilla vs. King Kong. Before we begin to get too excited, how does our current trip to Skull Island fare?
It doesn’t take long for us to get to Skull Island; in fact, the film opens up on the shore of the island in 1944. Two soldiers are shot down and crash on the island, and their fight to the death continues as they pursue one another into the heart of the island. Their fight is quickly interrupted by none other than Kong, and the pair realizes they seriously have bigger things to worry about on the island. OK, I’m fine with not drawing out the reveal of Kong, but really, the first five minutes? Where’s the tension to build to his massive 300-ft-plus reveal? Sure, we’ve all seen the trailers for about a year now, so seeing Kong should be no surprise, but come on; he deserves at least some kind of a buildup.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 11th, 2017
From creator Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Blade 2) based off a book he co-wrote, The Strain has been a horror series that has continued to impress as it revs up to begin its fourth season on FX. It’s a show that centers around a vampire outbreak that began at JFK airport when a plane arrived with all its passengers and crew “dead”, and then things quickly spiraled out of hand. If your eyes rolled at the thought of simply another vampire story, let me take a moment to explain. What del Toro and Chuck Hogan created is a very unique take on the vampire lore, having their creature of the night more a victim of a wormlike parasite that creates a mutation in the body, and as we discover in Season Three, in the brain as well. If Season One was the start of the outbreak, Season Three has the human species hanging by a thread, struggling to maintain their place in the world where the scales are precariously ready to tip and plummet in favor of the bloodsuckers.
With the fate of Dr. Ephraim Goodweather’s (Corey Stoll) wife and the disappearance of his son in Season Two, it has left the good doctor in shambles. He’s drinking heavily and popping pills as he waits at home for his son to return home, though he’s haunted by nightmares that his son has now turned. The weapon he had created to kill off the vampires has begun to lose its effect, so he is tasked to create a new weapon, something bigger to finally tip the advantage back into the favor of the humans.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 11th, 2017
The Monty Python comedy group has been a staple of British comedy for decades; personally my favorite film of theirs will always be Life of Brian. For director Terry Jones, it’s been a while since he has stepped behind the camera to helm a picture, and it’s been even longer since he directed the 1983 classic The Meaning of Life. It’s not uncommon for directors to step away for years only to come back and return with some kind of passion project. Add into this mix Simon Pegg, whose comedic timing I would have figured would make him a perfect fit for a Monty Python film / revival; it just seemed that Absolutely Anything had everything in place to be a success. And as a comedic cherry on top, you have Robin Williams doing voice work for the film. This just has the ingredients for comedy gold. So how does a film with this talent get released and no one seems to know about it?
The film starts off with a group of aliens that capture information from a rocket that was launched out into space in the hopes that the items would come into contact with intelligent life. Well, the aliens (voiced by the Monty Python team) can’t seem to decide if they want to destroy the planet or bring us into their elite group, so they decide the way to vet us is by giving one human a limitless power where he can make anything happen so long as he waves his hand and says it out loud. Neil (Pegg) is the one who is randomly picked to receive these powers, and with a wave of a hand, comedy sort of ensues.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 5th, 2017
When a film like The Belko Experiment comes along there is a part of me that wonders, how far off is the film from reality? Films like Death Race 2000, The Running Man, The Purge, and Battle Royale have all flirted with the idea of the government using murder as a form of entertainment while also using it as a way to control the public. You look at the violence in the world and how numb we’ve all seemed to have gotten towards violence in the news and our favorite TV shows. I can’t help but wonder, would it be so crazy to see murder on our television screens? Looking back at history and the gladiator times, there was murder for entertainment, where families would cheer on the bloodshed and carnage. So when I look at film like The Belko Experiment, it’s something that frightens me, more so than any creature feature Hollywood can concoct. After all, how well do we really know how governments around the world function? Perhaps a film like this wouldn’t become a reality in the states, but in places like North Korea or Russia or even South America, is it really out of the question for a game like this to go on? In a building with no windows in the middle of nowhere, is it a crime if no one is around to hear the screams? James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) pens a script that takes a harsh look at what people will do to survive under the harshest conditions, and at the helm we have Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) directing the action. Are you ready to take part in the experiment?
In Bogota, Columbia, Mike (John Gallagher Jr.) is heading into work. He works for Belko Industries which has an office building just outside of the city. On this day, it’s evident that it is not like any other normal day at the office. All the locals at the office have been sent home for the day due to a security threat to the building. All that remain at the office are its 80 American employees that are all led by Barry Norris (Tony Goldwyn). We spend a little time getting to know the employees, Wendell (John C. McGinley) who seems to have an innocent crush or is possibly stalking Adria (Leandra Florez) who is Mike’s girlfriend. There is the new girl at the office, Melonie (Dany Wilkins) and there are also a few familiar faces like Michael Rooker, who plays a maintenance worker in the building, and Sean Gunn, who is the paranoid pot smoker Marty. As you watch the film, there are plenty of faces that look familiar, and that is one of the immediate impressive things about the film: how great the cast is. Sometimes you don’t need A-listers to be a hit; you just need to fill it with the right talent. What works with the casting as well is how believable everyone is in the part. This is one of the first times in a while where an ensemble cast was put together and I could believe everyone fit the part. Whether you’ve worked in an office environment or just in a business with a variety of personalities, right from the get go you can identify with this group, and that is what is so crucial here, because when tough decisions come up and people are about to die, the decisions matter, and several of the kills and darker moments in the film are a punch to the gut.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on July 2nd, 2017
For the most part it seems the summer blockbusters tend to be sequels, superhero films, or CGI bonanzas that are simply eye candy to get us to films in the dark auditoriums to escape the heat. It’s rare that something comes along that is so clever and as fresh as Baby Driver. Personally I’ve been a fan of Edgar Wright from the moment I first saw Shaun of the Dead, he was a writer and director that I felt knew how to make films fun. When he was set to direct his dream project Ant-Man, I was excited to see him finally get a chance to do a giant tent-pole studio film, but weeks before filming was set to begin he got pulled away and replaced. When it got announced he was working on an action-comedy named Baby Driver well I was excited but the film’s title had me scared, fears of him doing something along the lines of Baby’s Day Out ran through my mind, but then as the cast started to assemble I couldn’t help but get excited. Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal and these were simply the co-stars. Then when the first trailer dropped this became the title of the year for me to keep an eye on. While this might not be the kind of film that gets nominated for best picture, for me this had potential to simply be an experience, the kind of fun you hope to have when you see a movie.
So who is Baby? Ansel Elgort heads this film with the title name and for most he’s a guy that’s come out of nowhere. He’s been in The Divergent series and The Fault in our Stars, but Baby Driver is his first step into the spotlight and as I mentioned above he is surrounded by some major talent. The casting of Baby is key. Picking up a relative unknown works because the audience doesn’t know what to expect from this guy, and this works in the film as he’s surrounded by some dangerous heavy hitters in the crime world and they see this kid with his I-pod, they can’t help but wonder what’s up with this guy. Our intro to Baby Driver, wastes no time at showing us just what Baby can do as he is the getaway driver for a bank heist in Atlanta.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 30th, 2017
From the vaults of Vestron Video has unleashed The Unholy for horror fans to indulge in for the first time on Blu-ray. Growing up and going to a Catholic school, films like The Exorcist and The Unholy managed to be all the more terrifying to me because the prospect of demons coming from hell was thought to be a possibility. Sure, Freddy and Jason could get the young me nervous at night, but what films like The Unholy presented were the kind of thoughts that had me afraid to keep the lights off at night. But does the film hold up decades later? That’s a tough call, but with the new digitally restored version of the film now hitting the shelves, it’s worth grabbing a little holy water and checking out.
Father Michael (Ben Cross) is simply your typical priest and is called out to a location where a man threatening to jump from a balcony is requesting to speak with the priest. Meeting with the man on the ledge, Father Michael seems to feel he’s gotten through to the suicidal man, and through a bizarre incident, Father Michael is pulled from the safety of the room through a window and falls to what should have been certain death. Yet by a miracle or simple luck, the priest manages to survive nearly unscathed, and the members of the church begin to believe he is special, “the chosen one,” and in the process he is placed in charge of his own parish.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 29th, 2017
When it comes to Writer, Director, Producer, Walter Hill is simply one of the best at doing the traditional tough-guy movies. Films like The Warriors and 48 Hours are simply staples of my childhood; he even was involved with Alien, which I believe is one of the best sci-fi/horror films ever made, yet his star has seemed to fade as the years have passed. His work on the underappreciated Bullet to the Head I felt was a nice throwback to the features he made back in his heyday and had me realize how much his voice is missed in today’s cinema. This week, Shout Factory rolls out a blast from the past with the 1992 film Trespass. I remember this title from my days where I would visit my mom-and-pop video store and just consume all the movies I could, and Trespass was one of those guilty treasures that I just enjoyed the hell out of when everyone else seemed to just ignore it. Does the film hold up over the years? You bet it does.
Vince (Bill Paxton) and Don (William Sadler) are a pair of firemen who discover a treasure map while fighting a fire. With a little digging they discover that the map is to a “treasure”, gold that was stolen decades earlier and then hidden and never recovered. The pair decides to travel to St. Louis and check out the location of this gold and hopefully claim it as their own.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 28th, 2017
“First, there is an opportunity. Then…there’s a betrayal.”
It’s been 20 years since the release of Trainspotting, and it’s fair to say a lot has changed in the past two decades. I remember going out to the United Artists Mission Bell Cinemas to see Trainspotting the weekend it came out. I was with my best friend at the time, and neither of us was old enough to buy tickets for the film, so we ended up having to sneak into the film. We’d seen the trailers, and in a time before the internet there just wasn’t much we could find out about it aside from reading articles in the entertainment magazines. To this day, I remember walking out of the auditorium simply floored by the film. Everything from the soundtrack to the visuals just hit me, and this was one of the first times I realized what creative influence a director has on the look and feel of a film. I came out as a fanny of Danny Boyle and the insane kinetic energy he puts into the look of his films. Over the years Danny Boyle has stepped out of the independent film spotlight and become a big-league director with several other award winning films, i.e. Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, and Steve Jobs.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 25th, 2017
Since 2011, the trio of Blake, Adam, and Ders have been reporting to their telemarketing job and bringing the laughs to Comedy Central on Workaholics. With the final season now released, it’s time to bid a fond farewell to the trio that has shown us the joys of pranking, slacking, and pot in the work place. Does the show go out with a bang, or does it fizzle before reaching that last episode? I was a little concerned how things would end up because of the years I’ve gotten to really like the show and everyone involved. It’s time to punch in that time card and check out what this final season is all about.
The final season kicks off with Blake (Blake Anderson), Adam (Adam Devine), and Anders (Anders Holm) coming into work as new trainees are being brought into the office. The guys crash the training session and decide to tell everyone they are fired, with the exception of the three youngest trainees and one old man they affectionately name sixty-nine. The guys take the new employees under their wing and show them a day in their life at the office, and this ends up backfiring on them. The new trainees take pranks to a whole other level, and it becomes an all-out prank war in the workplace. I loved this episode, but what I wasn’t expecting is how much more I was going to love this season.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 20th, 2017
When it comes to vampire films, I’m not so much a fan of the romanticized fantasy depiction that we see in Ann Rice novels. Personally, I like my monsters to be grounded in reality; films like Near Dark and Let Me In seem to have a more vicious bite to them. Why do I prefer these darker and more grim depictions? Well, I believe if vampires have had to kill to survive, whether it be for a month or generations, they should be handled as some scary bad guys, not pretty, sparkly, cuddle-bunnies. When an indie film comes along like Aaron’s Blood and it decides to go the more ground with reality horror route, it gives me hope, and it’s something I’m actually looking forward to seeing. But does the film deliver the goods?
Aaron’s Blood isn’t really about Aaron’s blood in a literal sense, but instead it is about his son Tate (Trevor Stovall), a young boy who happens to be a hemophiliac. Aaron (James Martinez) is the dutiful single father who is struggling to take care of his son after the pair lose their wife/mother nearly a year before. At school Tate seems to be the target of violence from the school bully. It’s one of their interactions that sends Tate to the hospital, and by the time Aaron arrives to see his son, he’s already been moved to the ICU. Following a chance meeting with a priest, Tate seems to be making a recovery, but we quickly see he’s making a transition into something else.
