Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 16th, 2013
“You want to end this once and for all? Now’s your f---ing chance.”
And with those words, spoken during the closing minutes of the fifth and final season premiere of Damages, Patty Hewes sets the stage for her ultimate showdown with protégé/frenemy/surrogate daughter Ellen Parsons. (As you can see, Patty also takes advantage of the fact that the show — which began its life on FX — migrated to DirecTV for its final two seasons, allowing her to drop that F-bomb.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 15th, 2013
“You give me a uniform, you give me a number on my back — and I’ll give you the guts.”
More than any sport, baseball is all about numbers. Unfortunately, some of those numbers — like 73 (home runs in a single season) and 500 (career homers) — mean a little less in light of the steroid era. Others, like 56 (Joe DiMaggio’s legendary hitting streak), seem destined to live on forever. The most significant number on that shortlist might be 42, worn by Jackie Robinson when he broke major league baseball’s color line on April 15, 1947. 42 — the film, not the number — is significant for a somewhat surprising reason. The movie succeeds as rousing, crowd-pleasing entertainment by functioning less as a straight-up biopic and more as the story of how Robinson became, arguably, the country’s first African-American crossover star.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 15th, 2013
Cruel blood sport or culturally-significant art form? That’s been the centuries-long debate surrounding the practice of bullfighting. Personally, almost everything I know about bullfighting comes from Ernest Hemingway stories and Looney Tunes. So Blood and Sand — a grand, cynical bullfighting drama/Technicolor spectacle from 1941 making its Blu-ray debut — was an eye-opening experience in more ways than one.
Blood and Sand is the story of Juan Gallardo (Tyrone Power), who we first meet as a bullfighting-obsessed child (played by Rex Downing) in Seville. Juan’s father was a legend in the sport — and the kid will eagerly break a bottle over the head of any pompous critic (like the one played by Laird Cregar) who disagrees — and the brash boy is obsessed with following in his footsteps. (He routinely sneaks onto a ranch at night to work on his skills.) Eventually, he runs away from home with a group of friends and travels to Madrid in the hope of becoming Spain’s greatest bullfighter.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 10th, 2013
Oregon may have been the 33rd state to join our union — and Portland may be its most populous city — but Portlandia is a (dog-dressing, raw milk-drinking, Seattle-hating) state of mind. And after three seasons of lovingly mocking upper middle class indulgence along with the denizens of the Pacific Northwest, Portlandia — created by stars Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein and director Jonathan Krisel — feels more like a fully-realized destination than ever.
Armisen and Brownstein still star in almost every sketch, and the versatile duo has created a solid stable of recurring oddballs to anchor the show. The Portlandia “Winter Special” — which aired a few weeks before the season 3 premiere on IFC — features some of their most popular creations: feminist bookstore owners Toni and Candace try to get Candace’s son to accept (another) vagina pillow, while a Peter and Nance sketch finds ineffectual Peter deciding to cut pasta from his diet to hilariously disastrous results.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 8th, 2013
“The 1860s was a decade in which one of the most terrible civil wars in history was to begin and end. But far from the bloody fields of Gettysburg and Shiloh, changes — which were to alter forever the face of the American West — had already begun.”
And that pioneering spirit continued to capture the American public’s imagination 100 years later. The Western was the big boy on the block during the 1950s and ‘60s on both television — peaking in 1959, which saw 26 such shows air in prime time — and in the movies. How the West Was Won — starring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Gregory Peck, among others — is one of the more enduring titles from that era.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 3rd, 2013
“Only a few people in the world have the ability to remember everything. I'm one of them. If I miss something the first time, it's okay; I can go back and look again. My life…is unforgettable.”
You’ve got to admire the courage of the person who decided to call this show Unforgettable. He or she had to know they’d be leaving themselves open to easy pot-shots from viewers and snarky critics like me if the drama series failed to make a lasting impression. And, for a while, it looked like this Unforgettable: The First Season DVD set might wind up being Unforgettable: The Only Season. After sitting through the first season of CBS’s umpteenth procedural drama, I can see why the network initially canceled the show. But I can also see why they decided to bring it back.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 1st, 2013
The medical community seems to be split on whether or not dissociative identity disorder — previously known as multiple personality disorder — actually exists. Well, I’m here to offer a definitive answer because I’ve just seen the dreaded disease in action after watching 6 Souls. The film can’t decide whether it wants to be trashy, watchable horror movie that regularly tries to jump-scare you out of your seat or a somewhat serious meditation on the science vs. faith debate.
Dr. Cara Jessup (Julianne Moore) would strongly disagree with my diagnosis. When we meet the widowed psychiatrist early on in 6 Souls, she’s expressing her belief that multiple personality disorder is a fad perpetuated by the media and pop culture. Cara’s father (Jeffrey DeMunn) is also a psychiatrist, and he’s playfully determined to prove his daughter wrong. He asks her to examine a seemingly timid young man named David (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who becomes the much more aggressive Adam after a well-placed phone call. Even though Adam/David is very convincing, Cara wants to debunk the idea that he suffers from multiple personality disorder. As she investigates Adam/David’s background, she finds a common link between his personalities and realizes there might be more to come. (The movie isn’t called 2 Souls, after all.)
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on June 27th, 2013
We’re almost 150 years removed from the death of Abraham Lincoln, yet interest in the first major assassination in American history appears to be at an all-time high. Daniel Day Lewis just won a well-deserved Oscar for his astounding portrayal of our 16th president, and this month has already seen the home video release of the fascinating Killing Lincoln. Pictures From the Fringe enters the fray with the paradoxically-titled Saving Lincoln, a unique, well-meaning presentation of his presidency and a sketchy portrait of the not-so-well-known relationship between Lincoln and personal bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon.
Lamon, who Lincoln eventually appointed U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia, was notably absent during the evening of the president’s assassination. (Lincoln had sent Lamon to Richmond as an ambassador promoting Reconstruction.) The film depicts Lamon (Lea Coco) and Lincoln’s (Tom Amandes) first meeting in Illinois — aspiring attorney Lamon looked up to Lincoln — as well as the moment when Lamon names himself the president's bodyguard after the Baltimore Plot to assassinate Lincoln in 1861 is uncovered. The film proceeds to hit the major signposts in the president’s political/persona life, including the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation. We also watch Lincoln deal with the death of son Willie (Elijah Nelson) from typhoid fever and the carriage accident that injured First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln (Penelope Ann Miller.)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 20th, 2013
Any discussion of the greatest living rock stars has to have Paul McCartney at or near the top of the list. Obviously, “greatest” is a totally subjective descriptor, but even if you’re more of a Stones person you can’t argue with McCartney’s staggering success. He has sold more records than anyone else, wrote the most covered song of all time (“Yesterday”) and owns a handful of other Guinness World Records. The recipe for his singular greatness is a mixture of artistic brilliance, versatility and longevity. It’s what has allowed him to remain relevant more than 40 years after the dissolution of the best-selling band of all time. And a key part of that staying power was Wings.
The first Wings album, “Wild Life”, was released in 1971, just one year after the formal break-up of The Beatles. Wings released nine albums in the 1970s — seven studio albums, the “Wings Greatest” compilation, and the live “Wings Over America” album — scoring five straight chart-toppers in the United States. The band was arguably at the peak of its powers in 1976 and featured its most celebrated lineup — Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney (keyboards), Denny Laine (guitar), Jimmy McCulloch (guitar) and Joe English (drums) — when it set off on a massive world tour that covered ten countries and brought music to more than two million people. That tour turned into the 1976 “Wings Over America” triple album and was also captured cinematically with 1980’s Rockshow. I know patience is a virtue, but 33 years still seems like an overly long time to wait for such an excellent concert to get a proper home video release.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on June 18th, 2013
The pint-size heroes of The Dragon Pearl battle greedy thieves and come face to face with a centuries-old dragon, but their biggest challenge may be overcoming a pair of skeptical/clueless parents. It’s a familiar plot device in kid-centric adventures, yet it’s one I’m becoming more sensitive to as I get older. For example, I was absolutely sure at an early age that the bumbling Wet Bandits were the bad guys in Home Alone; however, as I’ve grown older and not-necessarily wiser, I realize the real villains are the nincompoops who left little Kevin McCallister behind in the first place. To be fair, the parents in this film are being asked to swallow a much more fantastical story.
The Dragon Pearl opens with a prologue about an ancient Chinese emperor who enlisted a celestial dragon’s power to help him fend off warring tribes. The source of the dragon’s power is the titular pearl, which is said to be lost in the heat of the battle. In the present day, we're introduced to sullen Australian teen Josh (Louis Corbett) and outgoing Chinese teen Ling (Li Lin Jin). Josh and Ling are meeting up with their respective parents, Dr. Chris Chase (Sam Neill) and Dr. Li (Wang Ji), on what Josh assumes will be a boring archeological dig in China. (He should've known better: having Sam Neill at an archeological dig is a recipe for excitement.)
