Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 5th, 2016
With the summer in full swing it’s time dust off those swimsuits and enjoy getting some sun with friends and family. For those of you who want to avoid the bugs and heat, well, you can always crank up the AC and enjoy a film or two. But if you’re staying inside with your Corona or whatever your drink of choice is, you’ll be sadly missing out on all the bikini-clad babes who will be lying out by the pool or beaches. No need to fret, because I think I have just about the next best thing, All American Bikini Car Wash. Sure, go ahead, roll your eyes and think I’m nuts, but if you’re looking for a fun little movie to watch alone, or with friends while throwing back some drinks, this is the film for you. And even better, this is a film you don’t have to feel weird about or hide from your girlfriend while watching, because it actually has a charming little story to go along with it.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on July 2nd, 2016
I’ve always been a fan of Tarzan; I loved the old series and the films basically because I just dug how he was this fearless character who lived in the jungles that fought the bad guys and a few wild animals as well. As I got older that was when I discovered the books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and I just had a blast with all these pulp tales about the civilized Wildman and the beautiful Jane. I even remember how excited I was about seeing Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan as a kid; even though this screen adaption bored me to tears, it was still exciting to see the character up on the screen. Now it’s 2016, and the character is swinging into action on the big screen again, and with a large budget to back it up.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 26th, 2016
You’d have to go all the way back to 1975 when Jaws was released that a film has come out that has given us a reason to be afraid to go into the water. There have been several attempts to capture the magic that we saw in Stephen Spielberg’s classic film about a large great white shark that preyed upon the swimmers in the town of Amity. Now that summer is upon us and the heat has us flocking to our A/C units or to the beaches, it couldn’t be a better time to unleash another killer shark film upon the masses. I have to admit when the trailers came out for this, all I expected from it was to be a campy film that just happened to be well shot. Instead director Jaume Collet-Serra (Run All Night & Orphan) delivers an enjoyable thriller.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 23rd, 2016
“Are you food, or are you sex?”
When it comes to director Nicolas Winding Refn, he’s a director I’m never all too sure what to expect from. For me, Drive is one of my favorite films in the past ten years, while Only God Forgives simply bored me; despite the stunning imagery, it had nothing else going for it. His films going even further back are just as much of a mixed bag, so coming into The Neon Demon I knew better than to get my hopes up, and that I should just go ahead and let the film stand on its own, as it should.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 22nd, 2016
Disaster films are something that for me screams American cinema of the 90’s. I know there were films before that had come out, but a good portion of my teen years of the 90’s were of the mega-blockbuster variety like Twister, Dante’s Peak, The Perfect Storm, and so forth. Now we have The Wave, the first disaster film to come out of Norway, and from the looks of the trailers they were going for something BIG. This is a film that comes out with so much potential and is a film that could even possibly find an American audience that could look past the fact that subtitles may be involved. With the way technology has come along over the years, smaller countries have been able to produce films as big as anything released in our cinemas here in the states. Now here’s the question: is it any good, though?
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 16th, 2016
“And away we go”
While I enjoyed the first season of Rick and Morty, I wasn’t all that sure about the show’s staying power with Adult Swim. I’d talked about the show with some friends, but for the most part this seems to be a show that finds its fan base more in their late teens. It’s fair to say it’s been more than a few years since I was a teenager, so perhaps it shouldn’t be much of a surprise I was a little hesitant with this season (feel free to check out my review of Season 1).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 15th, 2016
Bad Robot, in my eyes, is simply the best at keeping things a secret. In this day and age, to be able to surprise audiences is just about an impossible task. When the first Cloverfield trailer was released in 2007 in front of Transformers, it was a trailer that had us all guessing up until its release. In my opinion Cloverfield was one of the best found-footage films to come out and was a grand achievement, considering it was a monster film that had been pretty much been kept under wraps until its actual release. Bad Robot managed to surprise us again, releasing a trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane that set the internet on fire with theories and hopes for this to be a long-awaited sequel. But is that what this really is?
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 12th, 2016
With the success of the Teen Wolf series, it comes as no surprise that MTV would not just capitalize on creating another genre series to the channel, but also tap into the success of a young adult book series. It seems like a no-brainer. Tackling the book series of The Shannara Chronicles was a big risk for the network, with a large cast and a lot of effects, but most importantly, this may be the most dramatic shift the network has had in appealing to a demographic. Really, let’s take a moment and realize how the network that once appealed to the audience that praised the exploits of The Jersey Shore is now attempting to appeal to a geekier and, let’s face it, a smarter audience. It’s a true sign of the times and how things have changed, and it’s a change for the better.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 10th, 2016
Since The Conjuring was released back in 2013, I can’t help but love what James Wan brought to the film; it’s that perfect film to put on during a stormy night. Whether you are a believer in the paranormal or not, the life story of Ed and Lorraine Warren is interesting I’d imagine for skeptics, and for us believers, well, their day-to-day life seems downright terrifying. Hearing how The Conjuring was going to be James Wan’s last horror film (after all he went on to do Furious 7) this seemed criminal to me, because he seemed like the one working director who had seemed to master the craft of creating a horror film. Now Wan has come back to tell the next terrifying tale from the Warren’s case files with The Conjuring 2, and in the process has I believe has left his mark on the horror genre with perhaps the best haunted house film to date.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 9th, 2016
For the horror fans out there, I’m sure you’ve noticed that there have been a lot of horror anthologies being pumped out. It’s a concept that I can appreciate, but even as a fan, enough is enough already. It’s great to see talented people coming together to film a handful of short films, all with a collective theme, and seeing how the filmmakers use the platform to tell the story. For me the VHS series is my favorite of the bunch; not every story will be everyone’s cup of tea, but there are at least one or two stories per DVD that people can enjoy. When it comes to Monsterland, I feel this is a film that somewhat cheats the rules of a true anthology, because it’s really just a collection of short films made independently of one another that seem to have been purchased for this one release.
