Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 8th, 2014
The werewolf continues to be the one monster that just can’t seem to get the film that it deserves. There has been The Howling and of course An American Werewolf in London, but in the past decade has there been a better werewolf film than Dog Soldiers? It’s a monster than promises so much violence and can incite so much fear, but instead we are given terrible zombie and vampire films. With one look at the cover I knew what I was getting into with Werewolf Rising, a low-budget attempt at the monster genre. Though it may not boast a large budget, I can’t help but appreciate this micro-budget attempt that avoids falling back on CGI effects.
Emma (Melissa Carnell) returns to the hometown she grew up in to recover from being an alcoholic. We don’t get much in the way of how her disease affected her work or social life before making her big move; all we do know is that the alcohol affected her dreams. These dreams have her being pursued through the woods by some crazed madman who seems to want to kill her.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 5th, 2014
In 1996 it was a brave new world for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Tarantino was still riding the wave of Pulp Fiction’s fame, while Rodriguez was going strong with his follow up to El Mariachi, Desperado (which went on to be a bigger hit). The two had crossed paths at various film festivals, and through the course of their meetings they discussed various projects they could possibly do together. The project that brought these two together would be horror/ crime genre mixer, From Dusk Till Dawn. It was a movie that would not only go on to be a cult hit but also be the film that launched George Clooney into movie stardom (because really, who remembers The Peacemaker?)
Almost twenty years later Rodriguez has established himself as a cinematic rebel who works outside of the Hollywood system. One would think that it would be career suicide, but instead he’s become one of the most prolific filmmakers with a catalog of films to his credit that are uniquely his and untouched by studio heads. Now Rodriguez has a new ambitious project to tackle: his own television network, the El Ray Network, which specializes in old grindhouse films and a new slate of genre-themed programming. The first of its original programming is a television reboot of the 1996 film, From Dusk Till Dawn.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on October 3rd, 2014
In 1987 Fatal Attraction was released, and now decades later it is the go-to movie when discussing classic scorned women in cinematic history. Now a new film is about to take the mantel for the greatest scorned female character, Amy Dunne in Gone Girl. Based off the widely successful novel by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl is perhaps the most haunting film about marriage to ever hit the screen. Director David Fincher is no stranger to directing strong, self-sufficient women on the big screen; look at Panic Room and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -- but Gone Girl is the closest he’s come to filming his masterpiece.
It’s on the day of his fifth wedding anniversary that we meet Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), and it’s on this day he discovers that his wife, Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) has gone missing. What’s interesting about this film is that the opening moments aren’t necessarily the beginning of the story; the film takes a very non-linear approach to telling the story, and we see the events unfold through the eyes of both Nick and Amy. You know how they say “there are always two sides to every story, and the truth is somewhere in the middle”? Gone Girl takes that precise approach, and what we get is something unique and terrifying.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 1st, 2014
It’s that time of year again, where spooky decorations are set up and pumpkins are carved. Most importantly, though, is that October is the month where horror fans can celebrate their favorite month of the year with as many blood-soaked horror titles as they can handle. Unfortunately, though, it seems companies enjoy taking advantage of this time of year and will attach the Halloween name to just about anything in hopes of getting people to buy their product. I mention this because though the title may be Grave Halloween, it has absolutely nothing to do with the holiday but everything to do with the Suicide Forest in Japan. The Suicide Forest is an actual location in Japan where hundreds of people go to year after year to take their lives. It’s gone on for years and has been a hot spot for paranormal researchers to investigate and to try to uncover what brings so many people to this location to die. It’s a location that screams to be the focal point of horror and fantasy, and it seems SYFY channel is the first on American soil to take on this mysterious location.
Maiko (Kaitlyn Leeb) is a woman who is haunted by the memory of her birth mother. These are not fond memories but instead nightmares that revolve around her mother’s death. Though she was only four when she was adopted, Maiko has a need to discover the truth about her mother’s death and to release her soul that is possibly trapped within the Suicide Forest. A team of student filmmakers are working on a documentary about the Suicide Forest and Amber (Cassi Thomson), the producer of the project, plans to make Maiko the focus of her film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 30th, 2014
It’s been quite some time since The Chappelle Show went off the air, and it would appear Comedy Central has finally found its replacement. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the show is on the same par, but what Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele bring to the small screen is something that has piqued my interest and shows some potential. Both Key and Peele got their big break from working on the sketch comedy show MADtv, and it would seem they are taking their talents and what they learned to bring us something that is a little familiar but still fresh and keeps its audience laughing.
The biracial pair takes chances with their show which is a hybrid of live bits in front of an audience and filmed sketches. Whether they are poking fun at Django Unchained, racial stereotypes or Latino gangsters, Key and Peele manage to keep it entertaining.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 24th, 2014
On first glance, the idea for a comedy about two best friends who are failing security system installers isn’t exactly the film I’d find myself excited to watch. It was a title I went into with no expectations, and by the time it was over I found myself realizing I had had myself a good time with this title. Armed Response is what happens when a clever and unique script comes along with the right cast to fill in the parts. This isn’t a film trying to become a classic in the heist genre, but instead it just wants to be an entertaining viewing experience, and it excels at doing just that.
Kevin (Ethan Embry) and Bruce (Michael Gladis) are longtime best friends who have gotten together to start up an independently-run security system installation business. These are the kind of friends we’ve seen before, the unambitious man-children who struggle with their careers day after day. At first glance the obvious comparison would be to Dante and Randel in Clerks, only Kevin and Bruce come off a little more depressing. These are not characters who have any big goals planned other than to play video games and get into bar brawls with their rivals, members of the IDT security force. It’s their lack of drive that makes it difficult to want to like these characters.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 24th, 2014
The horror western is the genre mash-up that just hasn’t seemed to translate to the big screen. Jonah Hex was a big-budget attempt that simply fell flat. There was the little indie-film gem The Burrowers (2008) that managed to be a fun little film but just never grabbed the audience on a larger scale. But it seems the public is still craving television and film filled with zombies, and since we’ve seen just about every other iteration of the zombie genre, it was inevitable we would see them taking on the Wild West. Revelation Trail doesn’t just dip its toe into zombie western horror; it dives right into this massacre of the undead.
After a small town is overrun by zombies, a preacher (Daniel Van Thomas) and a marshall (Daniel Britt) set off on a journey of survival and in the process kill as many zombies as they can along the way. Really, there isn’t all too much more to this plot, since the film attempts to be more of a character study, with these conflicting characters trying to survive in this unforgiving landscape. Of course the preacher continues to see the humanity in these undead individuals, and the marshall sees them as simply the damned who need to be destroyed. It’s a jumping-off point that should fill this film with plentiful moments of moral dilemmas between the two individuals, but the film seems to be afraid to get beneath the surface of these characters.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 23rd, 2014
"You should never stop thinking about a life you’ve taken. That’s the price you pay for taking it."
In 2010 David Michod directed his first full-length feature Animal Kingdom. It was a critical success, and he went on to pick up a Best Director award with the Australian Directors’ Guild. Now Michod has completed his sophomore effort, The Rover, which does explore some familiar ground with criminal families, but the film takes a more introspective approach to life and what matters most in the world when you believe you have nothing left to lose.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 18th, 2014
In case you’ve been hiding beneath a rock the past few years, The Big Bang Theory isn’t just a hit TV show, but instead it’s a show that has ingrained itself into pop culture. You can go out to most major retailers and find shirts with “Bazinga”, and I’m willing to bet at least one of your Facebook friends has posted a GIF on their feed about the show. It’s a show I told myself I wouldn’t get caught up in because I was so sure it was nothing more than a fad. It took being sick with the flu a couple years back and a determined friend lending me the first four seasons of the show for me to sit back and give it a chance. Before I was finished with the first season I found myself embracing the show and just feeling like a dunce for waiting so long. After all it’s a show about movie and comic book geeks, aka “my people”. In other words, for those who have missed out on this show, believe the hype; it really is that good.
It’s been seven seasons since we first met roommates Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and\ Sheldon (Jim Parsons) along with their beautiful neighbor across the hall, Penny (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). Over the years we’ve watched these characters evolve and take leaps in their relationships and other avenues in their lives. Sure, we’ve all been on board for the rollercoaster relationship between Leonard and Penny, but for fans the most shocking was when Sheldon (who just may be one of the funniest quirky characters written in years) finds himself in a relationship with Amy (Mayim Bialik).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 17th, 2014
“It’s not the end of the world.”
I still remember the night I walked out of the screening of the Roland Emmerich version of Godzilla. I can’t remember a time I had ever been so angry at a film. It was a film that was an insult to the monster that I had held in such high regard right alongside King Kong. Sure, I had seen the trailers, but when I saw that first reveal of their “Godzilla” I cringed. I hated it. Had the film been called anything else, perhaps my loathing towards it would have been different, but it was a film that was foolish enough to hold the name of Godzilla. Now it’s been over 15 years and Hollywood is taking another stab at presenting us with an Americanized version of Godzilla. And this time they nailed it.
