Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 15th, 2010
This film chronicles the career of Maurice “The Rocket” Richard, an NHL player for the Montreal Canadians, from his childhood days in a Junior hockey league, to the season in 1955 where his suspension from playing for the remainder of that season led to violent riots in Montreal. This film is more than just an examination of Richard as a French-Canadian citizen and legendary hockey player (many still argue as the greatest ever to play) but also a look at his impact as an icon and living legend to the people of Quebec.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 30th, 2010
This is the story of two young twins who are living completely different lives, one in a boarding school who is caught up in a child smuggling ring and the other is living with his struggling artist father, but are able to share their physical pain and emotions as if telepathically. Thomas, who is with his father, knows of Tom, the boarding school “orphan,” but everyone believes Tom is just his imaginary friend. Through a chance encounter the two are reunited and both must find a way to escape the smugglers who wish to take them sell them outside of England.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 24th, 2010
Nestled nicely between the appearance of two blockbuster, live-action films, Iron Man was been made into another half-hour animated show. In the past we have seen the origin and tales of the Stan Lee created Tony Stark and his amazing technology be altered in a 90s cartoon show, the Jon Favreau film(s), and a recent animated film, but the developers of these latest “adventures” take the furthest and riskiest leap from the original source material by making Stark a teenager, along with most all of his friends, and some enemies as best friends Rhodey, Pepper and arch enemy the Mandarin (!!!) are converted to high school chums.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 23rd, 2010
Many of the original talents behind the popular Mel Brooks' spoof Spaceballs have not returned for this sort-of sequel, but its spirit of relentless parody and often corny schtick lives on. While it may not hold a candle to the original source material, this animated series has a few shining moments that will hopefully keep the diehard fans from being too offended.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on January 1st, 2010
The title, “Somebody`s Gonna Miss Us” is cute but also rings true. This is not a Documentary that details why this band rocked the entire music world, because they did not. This film shows how a Pop Punk outfit from Pennsyvania arrived at the right time with a lot of energy, the willingness to tour endlessly and made some tunes that people genuinely loved.The film bounces back and forth between the boys in the band giving their history in their own words, as well as chunk by chunk (several days at a time) coverage of their final tour. Having this story told entirely by the band is refreshing as it makes for better fanfare. This CD/DVD combo is indeed entirely for the fans, the ones who will “miss them” as it were.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 23rd, 2009
“Inspired by a true story,” two youth hockey teams on either side of the Canada/US border find friendship and bond through their mutual love of the game while tensions rise between those that support and those that protest the Iraq invasion and assorted post 9-11 security fears.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on December 20th, 2009
Two couples looking to cut loose at a biker rally blindly say “yes” to every proposal a pair of untrustworthy and visibly dangerous strangers make until they find themselves in a psychotic game where the women are abducted and their husbands must become killers in order to save them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 23rd, 2009
This is the story of an unfortunate underachiever who is left with his niece after his even less fortunate sister abandons them. Unhappy with social services and the places they are forced to live, they take what little money they have to fund an aimless trip across the country until arriving at the home of his abusive father.
This film relies on the performances since the story is so utterly bleak at times that all the audience has to cling to sometimes is the recognition of the stars within it. Filling up the smaller roles are the likes of Woody Harrelson, playing the goofy friend, Dennis Hopper, who is devouring the scenery as the aforementioned abusive father, and Charlize Theron, who is greatly missed during most of the film for she delivers probably the most solid and engrossing performance as the troubled mother. Theron controls the first fifteen minutes then becomes nothing more than a reference for the better part of the proceeding film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 17th, 2009
This is the comedic tale of a grocery store's young assistant manager (Seann William Scott) who believes he is the prime candidate to take over the soon-to-be built addition to the chain. This leads him to buying a house before the job is secured and lo and behold a hotshot Canadian (John C. Reilly) shows up in town from their sister company and begins campaigning for the job himself.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 14th, 2009
Seriously, how many times will I watch this movie? It's not quite The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but darn it, it's sure on it's way to being just that.So, a group of young people are traveling to (do you care?) and run into trouble, which forces them to a spooky location that is filled with equally spooky things like old buildings, farm equipment that can double as a weapon, a large collection of knives (even though the killers only ever seem to use one), and a child's music box that is creating a plinky soundtrack for the youngster's demise as a masked killer, who is masked for the sake of being masked, minces them up.
