Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 5th, 2012
When half your film takes place in one tight location, you are really taking a gamble with your audience. Chances are you’ll either have a suspense-filled set piece, or you’ll lose your audience as they stare at their watches waiting for the credits to roll. To the director’s credit, with 96 Minutes, she was able to pull off an immersive tension-building ride through the inner city that kept me wondering how it would all come to an end.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on June 5th, 2012
Hannibal Buress brings his unique voice to this hour-long special and delivers. I have to be honest, I had never heard of this guy when I got the DVD to review, and now I find myself hoping to catch a live performance if he ever brings his tour down south. Once a writer for SNL and doing some work with 30 Rock, this young up-and-comer is sure to make a name for himself and hopefully become a name regarded with the best of the comedy elite.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 29th, 2012
This movie has everything working for it with the exception of one thing, and that is the execution in which the story is told. The film has a decent cast, a good story, for the most part it looks good on the screen, but what hurts this film was the decision to tell the story in flashback. How can you have a great payoff at the end if in the very beginning we know how the movie is going to end? Why the filmmakers stuck with this edit is a mystery to me, and it’s a shame, because they have all the right pieces to make it work, but instead they shoot themselves in the foot.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 25th, 2012
There is something about the disaster film that I can’t resist, and that something is seeing things get destroyed. I think we all have this in us, where the little Hulk inside us all just wants to smash or see things get smashed. Thankfully we live in an age where CGI and other special effects can allow us to see all kinds of havoc unleashed from the safety of our living room. With Metal Tornado in my hands to review I knew what to expect, so I turned off my brain and let the mayhem ensue.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 23rd, 2012
This fly on the wall experience follows Ray Romano and his friend and opening act Tom Caltabiano as they engage on an 8-day 7-city stand-up tour while driving from Miami to Atlanta. This candid experience is filmed not with a giant production crew but with one intern Roger Lay Jr. who is just as much a character in this documentary that follows the highs and lows of touring. What could easily have been a forgettable snooze-fest instead turns out to be an eye-opening glimpse into the life of TV star Ray Romano that has more than its fair share of laughs and enjoyable moments of awkwardness.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 17th, 2012
What will a parent do to save the life of their dying son? This is the question that Scott Kane (Drew Fuller) is confronted with in the low-budget action film The Kane Files. In a desperate race against time, Kane needs to get together the money to pay for his son’s heart transplant, and along the way there are plenty of bullets and plot twists to keep the viewer entertained, but the film lacks any real substance to warrant ever mentioning again. Though not the most unique plot device for a film, the idea of parents doing whatever it takes to save their children is rich with potential that it frustrates me is never touched upon.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 14th, 2012
It’s never a good sign when you look up a title of a DVD in your hands and IMDB has no trace of it. With a little more searching and I found the film but under the title My Dog’s Christmas Miracle, which is only a title that serves the purpose at trying to make a cash grab at suckers with a soft spot for holiday films and talking mutts. This is one of those films that is somewhat of a rarity, it goes in the so-bad-it’s-good pile.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 3rd, 2012
Ever since Ralphie May first appeared on Last Comic Standing, it seems his career has exploded and he has become one of the most recognizable comedians of the past decade. He’s just released his fourth Comedy Central DVD and has done numerous appearances on television talk shows. The guy simply is a rock star in the comedy world and shows no signs of slowing down as he is doing a US tour throughout the rest of the year. He’s always come off as a likeable guy,
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on May 1st, 2012
Three sisters have to come together after the death of their father, and in the process discover they have a half-sister they never knew about, and if they can manage to live together for six months they will receive 4.3 million dollars. This is the simple setup for this train wreck of a film that claims to be powerful and inspirational but instead comes off as shallow and just painful to watch. Perhaps I’m not the target audience for this, but really I don’t see how there is anyone out there that could endure the 90-minute running time and have anything good to say about this.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 27th, 2012
Can someone please explain to me what happened to Val Kilmer? I can remember the days when he was an A-list celebrity and in some of the highest grossing films of the 90s. He was the Iceman in Top Gun, Doc Holiday in Tombstone, and he even put on the cape and cowl for Batman Forever. My point is that at one time the name Val Kilmer actually meant something to a film, but any more it seems he has disappeared into obscurity, and that bothers me.
