Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 2nd, 2015
“Anybody can jump a motorcycle. The trouble begins when you try to land it.”
There's a segment in I Am Evel Knievel that features some of Knievel's contemporaries — along with a few of the younger extreme sports athletes he inspired — breaking down just how difficult it is to jump a motorcycle across vast distances. (Especially when you're using relatively primitive equipment the way Knievel was.) Long story short, the crucial components are guts and a mental makeup that doesn't allow you to overthink or dwell on the insanity of what you're about to do. This entertaining documentary succeeds in illustrating how Knievel had both of those qualities in spades.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 29th, 2015
It honestly took me a while to get over the opening shot of The Forger. The shot itself is rather unremarkable: it's a simple close-up of star John Travolta sitting in a small room by himself and staring straight ahead. But between his ridiculously obvious wig and the waxy texture of his face — the actor now looks like he's wearing a Michael Myers-style “John Travolta” mask — I knew it was going to be pretty difficult to take him seriously, no matter who or what was playing. It's a shame because there's actually a pretty decent family drama to be found within The Forger.
Turns out Travolta is playing Ray Cutter, a Boston-based, world-class art forger who has 10 months remaining on a five-year prison sentence. With the light at the end of the tunnel in sight, Ray suddenly decides 10 months is too long to wait, so he makes a deal with local crime boss Keegan (Anson Mount) to pay off a judge and get out of prison early. In exchange, Keegan forces Ray to forge Claude Monet's “Woman with a Parasol”, steal the real thing from a local museum, and replace it with the forgery. So why would Ray indebt himself to a volatile mobster instead of merely serving out the rest of his sentence?
Posted in: The Reel World by J C on June 27th, 2015
“Are you a believer in order?”
The natural order of things during the summer movie season is to be pummeled by one would-be blockbuster after another, each aiming to be louder and more extravagant than the last. So debuting A Little Chaos — a 2014 British period drama about a seemingly esoteric chapter of French faux-history — amidst all this noise is a curious decision. While the film certainly nails the “extravagant” part and largely adheres to costume drama conventions, there's just enough here to make it a thoroughly pleasing alternative to the typical multiplex fare.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 25th, 2015
“Jihadists are people too!” That’s probably the big, blinking takeaway from Timbuktu, director Abderrahmane Sissako’s Oscar-nominated drama about the occupation of the titular city by extreme Islamists. But it’s also the most reductive possible interpretation of a film that doesn’t shy away from portraying some of the beauty in thoroughly ugly circumstances. More importantly, Timbuktu tells a volatile story with tremendous grace.
“Here, in Timbuktu, he who dedicates himself to religion uses his head and not his weapons.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 22nd, 2015
What do Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, The Monkees, and Nat King Cole have in common? (Besides, of course, their undisputed status as musical icons and the adoration of millions of fans.) Well at various points in their illustrious careers, they were each backed by The Wrecking Crew, a tight-knit group of session musicians responsible for cranking out some of the most familiar hits of all time. This documentary is a lively love letter to that incredibly charismatic and cohesive group, whose contributions remained largely anonymous for decades.
Early on in The Wrecking Crew, we are presented with some snippets from the group's work as if we were scanning stations on car radio; it doubles as a tour through the history of pop music in the 20th century. The film is directed by Denny Tedesco and we quickly learn his very personal motivation for making this movie. His father, Tommy Tedesco, was a master session guitarist whose work can be heard on everything from Sinatra's “Strangers in the Night” to the Bonanza and Batman themes. But the general public's lack of awareness regarding Tedesco's contributions was magnified after his 1997 death. (The film points at a few televised obituaries, which misspelled his last name or called him “Tony Tedesco.”)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 19th, 2015
“We’re not in the middle of the third act. We just got to the end of the first.”
Aaron Sorkin almost definitely knew The Newsroom had been simultaneously renewed for a third season and canceled when he wrote those words, which come at the end of the season 3 premiere. It’s a winking and bittersweet bit of writing for a show that seemingly infuriated as many more people than it delighted over the course of 25 episodes. (Which apparently amounts to a single season of Pretty Little Liars.) So how else would you expect The Newsroom to go out than with moments of singular brilliance mixed in with a few controversial bangs?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 17th, 2015
I’m hard pressed to think of a movie star who is better at playing rich a-holes than Michael Douglas. He’s played a Murderous Rich A-Hole, a Rich A-Hole Who Gets Put In His Place, and a Self-Destructive Rich A-Hole, to name just a few. And that’s not even counting his Oscar-winning turn as Gordon “Greed is Good” Gekko, the Definitive Rich A-Hole. It’s tempting to tidily sum up Beyond the Reach as “Gekko’s Got a Gun.” Unfortunately, what starts out as a picturesque two-hander becomes more preposterous as it goes along before completely flying off the rails in the final act.
The larger-than-life corporate shark Douglas plays this time around is named John Madec. He hires a young, talented, brokenhearted guide named Ben (Jeremy Irvine) for a hunting expedition in the Mojave Desert. Director Jean-Baptiste Leonetti and screenwriter Stephen Susco let us know Madec is a jackass before we even lay eyes on him; as Ben walks into the local sheriff’s office to meet Madec, we see his monstrous Mercedes truck taking up three parking spaces outside.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on June 15th, 2015
“People you knew — people you forgot you knew — all ready to spend your money. And we got to be careful. We got to be smart.”
We look at professional athletes who've hit the genetic jackpot and make unseemly amounts of money, and we assume that they'll be financially set for the rest of their lives. Survivor's Remorse, a Starz sitcom that follows a young basketball star who's just signed his first big-money deal, gives us a frequently funny, consistently crass glimpse into why that isn't necessarily the case.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on June 12th, 2015
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I sat down to watch The Swirl. I didn’t need urban dictionary or the comically on-the-nose tagline on the DVD cover to tell me the film would be exploring the world of interracial dating, with a strong emphasis on the relationships between African Americans and Caucasians. But I assumed I’d be watching some no-budget melodrama that would (at best) be good for some unintentional laughs. Instead, The Swirl set out to be funny on purpose.
Turns out The Swirl is a “documentary” that curiously blends man-on-the-street interviews, movie clips, polling data, and wisecracks from a handful of comedians. It’s a lot to pack into the movie’s slim 45-minute running time, which is why there’s a fairly extensive amount of bonus material included on this DVD. (In fact, some of the absolute funniest riffs from comics like Rodney Perry and Reggie Jackson are relegated to the special features because there’s no time for them in the feature presentation.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 11th, 2015
“That’s your job as The DUFF…Designated Ugly Fat Friend.”
Let’s just get this out of the way right at the top. The idea that Mae Whitman — or any other actress cast as the lead in a mainstream Hollywood movie — is “Ugly” and “Fat” is absurd. (Not to mention entirely subjective.) So it’s tempting to dismiss The DUFF as the latest bit of evidence that there’s no truth in advertising. But then you’d be missing out on a charming teen comedy that grabs the snarky underdog baton previously held by the likes of Mean Girls and Easy A.
