Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on February 5th, 2014
When I first looked over the DVD art for Finding Faith the first thing that had me scratching my head was, how does someone do a family-friendly film about kidnapping and sex trafficking? This is supposed to be inspired by true events and is a film dealing with individuals and their faith in God during their time in need. The cherry which actually convinced me to give this film a chance is that it stars Erik Estrada (Mr. Poncherello himself from the TV series CHiPs). As a childhood fan of Estrada, this film was pretty much impossible to resist.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 29th, 2014
Creator David Simon (The Wire and Generation Kill) has never been a show runner concerned about cliffhangers or plot twists; instead he thrusts his viewers into the day-to-day life of the everyday Joe and shows that real life generates more conflict than most fiction can ever deliver. Ever since I first watched The Wire I’ve considered myself a fan of Simon’s work, and I feel it could be argued that what Simon did with The Wire is a large factor in why we have the quality of television that we do today
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 24th, 2014
In 1999 I remember standing in line at the Tampa Theatre waiting to see The Blair Witch Project; the line wrapped around the corner. All of us were anxious to see this film that was cloaked in so much mystery with an internet marketing campaign that manipulated so many to believe that the film we were all about to watch was in fact all true and was all found footage being released onto the big screen. The Blair Witch Project wasn’t just a success, it was a smash hit, and it changed the way we view cinema, where we all saw that all you needed was a camcorder and a clever hook, and any regular Joe could create a hit film.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 16th, 2014
I’m just going to start off by saying, growing up I was never a fan of the Power Rangers. It’s odd considering I love live action robots and I was a fan of TOHO films, but the TV series was never something that could hold my interest, though I did always crush on the Pink Ranger (Amy Jo Johnson). Since the series appeared in 1993 it has spawned many spinoffs in the process, which brings me to the new release of Power Rangers Mega Force: The Mysterious Robo Knight.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 14th, 2014
Let’s face it, there are a lot of disaster films out there, and not very many of them are good. This is one of those Hollywood ideas I can’t quite understand why they continue to go to this well, because for those most part for it to be any good you need to throw a lot of money into the film and nearly 9 times out of 10 what results is a laughable mess. The 90’s were full of disaster films, whether they were natural disasters or disasters caused by aliens of another world
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on January 8th, 2014
With the holidays behind us and a new year already in full swing, most of us are recovering from all the holiday spirit and quality family time that this time of year seems to demand of all of us. At some point I’m sure most families have suffered through heated exchanges and emotional turmoil that only our kin can pry out of us. August: Osage County is about that family turmoil, and skeletons in the closet but ramped up to the point where some viewers may need some counselling of their own by the time the credits roll.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 7th, 2014
In case you’ve managed to miss the tabloids lately, it would seem that Phil Robertson, the founder of Duck Commander, has found himself in some hot water over some comments he made in GQ magazine. These comments managed to get him suspended from the show, but not long after, he was brought back. I’m not here to point fingers or even add fuel to the fire. Instead I simply want to say these kinds of scandals are inevitable when a hit series is involved; this especially becomes the case when the show is reality-based. The result that usually follows is the fans end up with the short end of the stick.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 6th, 2014
I’m curious if there will ever come a time that people will simply give up making WW2 films. After all these years you would have figured that every possible story about this time period would have managed to find its way up onto the silver screen. I have nothing against these war pictures, but the bar has been set so high by films like Tora Tora Tora, Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day, and many others, that if someone were to tackle the genre, that filmmaker would have to step up their game to be noticed amongst these titans of cinema.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 2nd, 2014
The first film I saw of Anthony DiBlasi was the adaption of the Clive Barker short story, Dread. It was a small film that hasn’t seemed to have found its audience, but I enjoyed it and thought that DiBlasi showed some promising signs of becoming a name in horror to look out for. In his new release Cassadaga he continues to show his signs of promise, though I feel he’s still got a way to go before he releases the film that is truly going to wow us and have him become a major player in horror cinema.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on December 22nd, 2013
Unless it’s the Zucker brothers or Mel Brooks, I wouldn’t ever consider myself a fan of parodies. But every once in a while, one will come along that can squeeze a few chuckles out of me. The found footage and reality genre has saturated the market, and it was only a matter of time before a filmmaker decided to lampoon the genre. Ghost Team One takes on the genre, and instead of taking the easy route and simply spoofing what’s already been done, the film makers actually made the effort to mold a decent story and film it in the style the Paranormal Activity films have made popular, only Ghost Team One does so with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.
