Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on March 12th, 2015
When you think about the biblical stories that have made it onto the big (or small) screen, they tend to focus on names like Jesus, Moses and Noah. (And Moses again, just for good measure.) To be honest, I didn't even realize how few Bible adaptations focus on women until I popped in The Red Tent, a Lifetime miniseries based on Anita Diamant's best-selling novel of the same name. While The Red Tent certainly shouldn't be taken as gospel, it deserves credit for exploring biblical events from a different perspective.
“For thousands of years, I've been lost to the world. My name means nothing to you.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on March 9th, 2015
Even though one of the main characters in The Red Road is a police officer, the show's six-episode first season plays less like your typical cop drama and more like an extended profile of two strained communities. There's the fictional town of Walpole, N.J. and the Lenape tribe that lives in the neighboring Ramapo Mountains. While the show certainly touches on the tension between the two communities, too much time here is devoted to multi-generational family drama that we've seen before. In other words, the show too often neglects the things that make it unique.
“Bad things happen in those mountains.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on March 5th, 2015
“There’s no place on Earth with more magic and superstition mixed into its daily life than the Scottish Highlands.”
To build its slate of original programming, Starz has largely decided to look to the past. In recent years, the premium cable network has produced shows like Da Vinci’s Demons, The White Queen, and Black Sails, each of them (loosely) historical dramas with varying amounts of nudity sprinkled in. But it took a trip to the Scottish Highlands — and to the 18th century — for the channel to find its biggest hit to date.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on March 3rd, 2015
“The cop here thinks he's The Bodyguard.”
At first glance, Beyond the Lights could easily be dismissed as an updated, less starry version of the Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston romantic blockbuster. Both feature a glamorous pop star falling in love with her strait-laced protector. But while The Bodyguard became a bona fide pop culture phenomenon, Beyond the Lights had a much less dazzling run in theaters, grossing just over $14 million. It’s a shame because the flawed newer film has some interesting ideas about celebrity, artistic integrity, and…black women’s hair.
Posted in: The Reel World by J C on February 27th, 2015
“That’s what you get when you hire a con man.”
As much fun as it is to watch clever, cagey characters try to outsmart one another on screen, the real appeal of movies about con artists is watching filmmakers try to pull the wool over the audience’s eye. It’s an especially tricky proposition when you consider that — thanks to the Internet — moviegoers might be more sophisticated than ever in terms of knowing how movies are supposed to work. (Or at least *thinking* they know how movies are supposed to work.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 19th, 2015
“All men must die.”
The official tagline for Season 4 of HBO’s Game of Thrones also doubles as a helpful reminder of author George R.R. Martin’s no-character-is-safe philosophy. But even plastering that quote all over posters, promos, and the cover of this exemplary-in-every-way Blu-ray set isn’t likely to prepare you for the most devastating and thrilling season of a show that specializes in “devastating and thrilling.”
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 16th, 2015
“Why are you so hateful, Olive?”
Olive Kitteridge — Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel —has been adapted into a four-hour HBO miniseries. It's probably the best possible outcome for Strout's story, which deals with the legacy of depression, along with several other box office-unfriendly themes that would almost certainly prevent any proper Kitteridge adaptation from sniffing a multiplex. The miniseries is well-made, and the acting is top-notch. The problem for me was that, even with that four-hour running time, we don't get a ton of insight into why the title character is so hateful.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on February 12th, 2015
As far as I’m concerned, a filmmaker has to work pretty hard to screw up a poker game. (And for the record, I feel the same way about cinematic sniper fights and train heists.) It’s an inherently high-stakes situation that is both familiar and unpredictable, and in the hands of the right director a poker game can be either thrilling or funny. At various points, Poker Night manages to be both. But even though I certainly wouldn’t say writer/director Greg Francis screwed up this stylish horror-crime thriller, the movie is flush with flashbacks and subplots that distract from the really good stuff.
“Here's a problem with wisdom: you only get it after you need it.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on February 11th, 2015
“I see the crime a bit differently.”
American television hasn't quite cornered the worldwide market on unconventional, endearingly quirky investigators. MHz Networks has just released a hearty helping of German cop drama in the form of Marie's Mind for Murder. Despite the violent crimes being investigated, the show would've fit snugly alongside lighthearted whodunnits like USA Network's Monk or Psych. You get to sample plenty of Murder with this DVD set, considering there are 10 episodes that each clock in at a shade under 90 minutes.
Posted in: The Reel World by J C on February 6th, 2015
“To live is to consume.”
Sometimes it feels like we've already consumed every conceivable type of Hollywood blockbuster. Besides movies adapted from comic books or, um, older movies, we've gotten mega-budget films based on board games and theme park rides. And that's why I was so excited and intrigued by Jupiter Ascending, especially when The Wachowskis' nutso space opera was slated to hit theaters during what seemed like a particularly sequel-heavy Summer of 2014. The movie, in theory, represented a wholly original vision. Instead, the messy, unnecessarily dense Jupiter Ascending is Star Wars. It's also The Matrix, The Princess Diaries, Flash Gordon and even a little Soylent Green.
