Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 31st, 2012
“Loyalty is what you can hold in your hand.”
I know it doesn’t completely fill the bill as a pirate film, but ever since I saw The Goonies up on the big screen I became obsessed with all things pirate related. Even one of the first books I read as a child was the Robert Louis Stevenson classic Treasure Island. The bad part with being an 80’s kid was growing up in an era where pirate films simply were hard to come by, and when they did they weren’t very good; I’m looking at you Cutthroat Island.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on July 27th, 2012
With August just around the corner and the summer movie season coming to a close, this is usually the time when studios dump off the rest of their bigger-budget films before they head into the fall and begin prepping for the award season. Occasionally we’ve been given a few gems, but for the most part there is nothing really to get too excited over. It’s also not to favorable when a movie attempts to be released the week following an enormous blockbuster like Dark Knight Rises, but it seems The Watch has stepped up to see what monetary crumbs it can muster up from the moviegoers this weekend.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 23rd, 2012
There is a thin line between paying homage and ripping off another film. In the case of The Girl From The Naked Eye you may as well call it outright theft. If you’ve ever seen Sin City and you’re a fan, be ready to have your eyes roll and at times be offended at how blatantly these film makers rip off Frank Miller’s masterpiece The Hard Goodbye. Sure, there is nothing wrong with a little inspiration from a piece of work, but come on, you’re going to tell me it took three writers to get together and rip off Miller and come up with this?
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 16th, 2012
Just to forewarn you this is not a review for the mini-series that aired on the History channel with Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton. Instead this is for the bad knockoff that seems to have been released just in time to catch any spillover interest from the Costner version. So how does this version of the battle between the two feuding families hold up? Well, not so good, and I’m being generous in saying that.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 10th, 2012
A serial killer is on the loose in New York dispatching up-and-coming hip hop artists. Is it a feud between rappers, a crazed fan, or is it all part of a conspiracy connecting all the homicides involving rappers reaching back to the days of Tupac and the Notorious BIG? Chances are if you’re anything like me you couldn’t care less. I take rappers about as seriously as Carrot Top, and I’m willing to wager it’s Carrot that has more talent. But people still enjoy the music, and as long as the fans are happy that’s all that matters.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 6th, 2012
It’s a little hard for me to realize it really has been 20 years since Stone Temple Pilots emerged out of the grunge scene with their album Core. I remember hanging out at my friends house playing Sega Genesis while listening to this tape (yes, cassette tape) over and over with some Pearl Jam and Nirvana thrown in as well. For me these guys are like moments of time from my past that I’ll always look fondly upon. Whether it was my first mosh pit or first house party, this was the music that surrounded me.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 6th, 2012
We’ve all heard the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover”; well ,in this case it should be extended to not judging it by its title either. I read the title for Some Guy Who Kills People and thought it was a clever ominous title, but the movie that followed didn’t live up to the title but instead pulled a bit hard at the heartstrings. I came into this one expecting horror and instead got pleasantly surprised by this sweet horror (very loosely fits in this case) comedy about a relationship between a father and daughter.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on July 6th, 2012
When I first saw the trailer for Savages I was more than a little unimpressed; in fact I was beginning to accept that there were no more great films to come from one of the directors I believe was in the top five working directors of the 80s and the 90s. Over the past decade he’s managed to churn out some decent films, but nothing that can measure up to Platoon, JFK, The Doors, Natural Born Killers or Nixon. With Alexander he took a big gamble and it was a commercial bomb, and since then it seems he’s been playing it safe.
Posted in: The Reel World by Brent Lorentson on June 29th, 2012
What if your favorite childhood toy were to not only come to life but also be your best friend for life? This is the scenario writer/director Seth Macfarlane (creator of Family Guy and American Dad) set out to explore in his first live action venture behind the lens in this summer’s comedy Ted. With the freedom of an R rating I was curious to see what Macfarlane would bring us and what I came away with was something of a surprise.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 25th, 2012
It’s been six years since the end of the Civil War, and zombies have managed to overrun the landscape. Had this been the actual turn of events, I believe more kids would surely enjoy digging into their history books, but as we all know this is not the case. But this is the “what-if” scenario that writer/director John Geddes portrays for us in his new Canadian horror film Exit Humanity.
