Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 1st, 2012
We all have That Friend. We've known him/her most of our lives, and he/she was a perpetual screw-up even when we were kids. We hoped they'd grow out of it as adults, but they always seem to rope us into their drama or cockamamie schemes. Yet we can't completely cut them off because, even if it's sometimes hard to remember why you're still friends, it's hard to get rid of anything that's been a part of our lives for so long. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I regret to inform you that you probably are That Friend.
In Heaven Strewn, Mickey (Wyatt Denny) is That Friend, a small-time counterfeiter looking to recover his losses from a botched transaction. Jasper (Rob Tepper) is the more responsible buddy who gets drawn into accompanying Mickey on his ill-advised quest. Mickey has one too many DUI's and needs Jasper to drive him to the spot where the cash will be buried. To convince Jasper to come, Mickey lies and says they're going meteorite hunting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 31st, 2012
"More than two out of three U.S. adults are overweight or obese. During the past 30 years, adult obesity rates have doubled."
After watching this documentary — developed with the Institute of Medicine, in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the National Institutes of Health, and in partnership with Kaiser Permanente and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation — I feel like I should be typing this review while walking on a treadmill instead of planted on my couch like a lazy lump.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 25th, 2012
I knew this movie was in big trouble as soon as it decided to kill off its most charismatic character/actor in the first 10 minutes. Don't worry, MMA fans: the poor soul who prematurely bites the dust is not played by UFC legend Randy Couture, who headlines this straight-to-DVD airplane "thriller" that makes you appreciate all the skill and care devoted to making even enjoyably junky action flicks like Passenger 57.
When a terrorist group known as The Tribe hijacks a luxury jumbo jet belonging to wealthy industrialist Bruce Lieb (Craig Fairbrass), they weren't counting on having Paul Ross (Couture) as a passenger. Ross is a government agent who has been doggedly pursuing the terrorist group. The Tribe demands a suspiciously specific payment of $2.73 billion or they will start executing hostages. Among the hostages is Ross's estranged ex-fiancee (Tiffany Dupont), because beefy action heroes have the worst luck when it comes to having cherished loved ones in peril.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 21st, 2012
"An Asian man wearing a German uniform was discovered by the U.S. military at Normandy on D-Day. Upon questioning, he was identified as a Korean."
My Way cannily opens with this bit of real-life information. As the movie reaches its heartbreaking conclusion, we know only one of a pair of lifelong rivals-turned-friends — one Korean, one Japanese — will make it to the end.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 18th, 2012
"I will be 100 percent committed to this half the time."
This offbeat, knowingly unromantic declaration between long-time friends Jason and Julie kicks the plot of Friends with Kids into motion. The platonic pair decide to have a child together after watching the soul-sucking effect parenthood has had on their married friends. The plan is for Jason and Julie to share parental responsibilities right down the middle while living separate romantic lives. Don't worry. I was thinking the exact same thing as you and all the other characters in the movie when they hear about this harebrained scheme: "Good luck with that!"
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 17th, 2012
All funny ideas are not created equal. A concept that may have audiences laughing their heads off for a few minutes could wind up being absolutely torturous when stretched to feature film length. Few people know this better than Will Ferrell, one of the most popular and successful Saturday Night Live alumni of all time. He's cracked people up on the small-screen and in multiple comedic blockbusters. Ferrell's latest, Casa de mi Padre, seems like a classic example of an idea that would be extremely funny as a skit or a fake trailer, but becomes annoying over a prolonged period of time. The actor is surely savvy enough to realize this, and I kinda love that he decided to do it anyway.
Casa de mi Padre — directed by Matt Piedmont and written by Andrew Steele, a pair of Ferrell's SNL cohorts — is told in the overly dramatic style of Mexican soap operas (or "telenovelas") and westerns of the 1970s (with their choppy editing). It has more in common with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino films than with Ferrell's own previous work...unless I missed any slo-mo bloodbaths in Elf. Did I mention the part where it's almost entirely in Spanish? The poker-faced movie plays it so straight with its inspiration that it's not entirely accurate to call it a spoof; it's more of an homage.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 15th, 2012
In ranking the popularity of sports in America, there's football and then there's everything else. The hierarchy for sports movies, however, is a little more competitive. I've got boxing edging out baseball for the top spot due to two Best Picture wins (Rocky, Million Dollar Baby) that should've been three (Raging Bull), and the fact that even a recent movie like The Fighter can bank almost $100 million at the domestic box office while snagging a couple of Oscars despite boxing's profile currently being in the toilet in this country. Boxing and baseball are probably followed by football, hockey and basketball, in some order. You'll have to go further down the list to find soccer, sailing and long-distance running, the three sports covered in this DVD triple feature.
The Miracle Match, known as The Game of Their Lives when it was released in 2005, tells the story of the 1950 U.S. national soccer squad that defeated a heavily-favored team from England — the country that invented the sport — during the World Cup in Brazil. Since soccer wasn't exactly a top priority at the time, the American team was put together 10 days before the World Cup and was comprised of recreational players. The film mostly focuses on a group from The Hill — an Italian immigrant community in St. Louis — led by goalie Frank Borghi (Gerard Butler).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 11th, 2012
Right before this movie hit theaters, I made a snarky joke about how I was already mentally preparing myself for American Funeral in about 20 years. (I imagined the gang reluctantly reuniting following the death of a 50-year-old Steve Stifler in a tragic, orgy-related accident involving high school girls...except it turns out Stifler faked his death to get the crew back together and shenanigans ensue.) It was an easy joke to make because I felt American Reunion came with a detectable whiff of desperation. Cast members who were missing from 2003's American Wedding were suddenly available now that they weren't quite as busy as they were nine years ago. Instead, I'm happy to say that the fourth film in the franchise — I'm willfully ignoring the straight-to-DVD American Pie Presents... titles — is mostly a love letter to fans and a pretty decent raunchy comedy on its own merits.
The film even acknowledges the odd timing for this particular reunion. I'm not even sure 13-year high school reunions are a real thing (it's not exactly a nice, round number), but that's what brings the American Pie gang back to East Great Falls, Michigan. We spend the first portion of the movie catching up with the characters' lives in their early 30's. Jim and Michelle (Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan) are still married, but in the kind of sexual rut that all married couples with children seem to suffer in movies and on TV. The amusing opening scene reminds us that there is no end to Jim's humiliation and the rest of the film confirms that Jason Biggs' penis is still a reliable source of comedy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 9th, 2012
When Duran Duran's new concert film arrived at UpcomingDiscs headquarters, the staff was practically fighting over the Blu-ray. ("You take it!" "No, YOU take it!") Needless to say, no one was tripping over themselves to spend a significant amount of time with a band once dubbed "the prettiest boys in rock." When I expressed admiration for a few of their songs, I became this site's Duran Duran Fan (By Default). After watching this lively 2011 performance, I feel pretty good about removing the "By Default" portion of my title and simply calling myself a fan of the band.
Filmed in Manchester's MEN Arena in December 2011, A Diamond in the Mind capped a roller coaster year for the band. (More on that in the Special Features section.) Duran Duran was formed in Birmingham, England in 1978 and quickly achieved superstardom in the early 1980s. Though there have been several different groupings throughout the years, the "classic" Duran Duran lineup — singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, guitarist Andy Taylor, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Taylor (believe it or not all the Taylors are unrelated) — reunited in the early 2000s. That same lineup (except for Andy Taylor, who left in 2006 and was replaced by Dom Brown) is featured in A Diamond in the Mind.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on July 7th, 2012
Any movie that features one man flying through the air before slicing another guy's face clean off within the first three minutes and concludes with a swordsman using his female companion as a bow to launch himself in the air like a human arrow so he can rip straight through a bad guy's body pretty much defies criticism. (And I didn't even mention the part where the bad guy comes back a few minutes later, despite the fact that he'd also been decapitated.) Believe me when I say I haven't even scratched the surface of the insanity that is Butterfly Swords.
I mean, this 1993 movie can't even decide if it wants to be called Butterfly and Sword (the title that appears during the opening credits and on the film's IMDb page) or Butterfly Swords (which is what's plastered on the latest DVD release, out July 10), not to mention the fact that the confusing description on the back of the new DVD case gives away the entire movie!
