Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 8th, 2020
I always get a little worried when I’m handed a low-budget western. Despite it being one of my favorite genres, I’m just quickly turned off by a film when it visually doesn’t look authentic. I like my westerns dirty and rugged, so when I see characters in costumes that look too clean as though they were just pulled from the rack, it’s a giant pet peeve. What had me intrigued with the film was the involvement of Joe R. Lansdale, who happens to be one of my favorite writers, and he somewhat specializes in the “weird” western genre. Bubba Ho-Tep or The Hap and Leonard series are what most would be familiar with from Lansdale. He may not have the name strength that Stephen King carries, but I’ve come to expect a good time from Lansdale. Granted The Pale Door only has Joe R. Lansdale attached as a producer, though his son was involved at some point with the writing of the script, so is that enough to make this film worth a watch, or is it a disappointment?
Right from the start I just want to say this film gets off to a bad start. I know it’s setting up the relationship between the brothers in the film, but the first 15 or so minutes of this film should have been left on the cutting room floor. In my opinion the film could start right up when the Dalton Gang is robbing the train and the film would have been stronger for it. As for the train robbing sequence, I’m glad the filmmakers openly admit they are “ripping off” the train sequence from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. If you are going to rip off a sequence, it’s better when you steal from the best. If you haven’t seen the film, you at least should watch it for the train sequence alone…but keep watching because it’s simply a beautifully shot and well crafted western. Sure, the film is shot on a budget, but I appreciate the effort put into this sequence, and in the commentary the filmmakers reveal this wasn’t even what had been intended in the script, and for what they manage to get with the final product, well, good for them.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2020
"You had me worried at first. A new Starman? That'd be big trouble. A real game changer. Imagine my relief. No Starman. Just a silly little Stargirl."
The original Starman was created by Gardner Fox and Jack Burnley back in 1941. Since that time there have been quite a few DC characters that have taken on the mantle of Starman. When DC executive and veteran comics writer/creator was asked to do a series on one of Starman's sidekicks, Pat Dugan and his eventual comic Stars And S.T.R.I.P.E., he was given a directive that he could not use the iconic S.T.R.I.P.E. armor, and that just would have made the series so much weaker. Instead he counter-pitched an idea from the same era of the comics. He pitched the idea of a new Stargirl who would be somewhat based and named after his daughter Courtney, who was tragically killed in a plane crash when she was just 18 years old. He wanted to do something to represent the spirit of his daughter, and the pitch also allowed for the Pat Dugan character to appear without the famous armor. The idea was accepted, and the latest member of the DC television Arrowverse was born. Enter Courtney Whitmore, played by Brec Bassinger in Stargirl. Warner Brothers delivers that first season in a new Blu-ray release of Stargirl: The Complete First Season.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 1st, 2020
Hollywood is no stranger to films about citizens being falsely accused in a foreign land for crimes they didn’t commit or having the charges overly exaggerated. Midnight Express is perhaps the best of the bunch, and in the 90’s there was Brokedown Palace and Return to Paradise. I’m somewhat of a fan of these films, but the problem is that they become a bit formulaic, and really, they are already an offshoot of the “wrongly convicted” prison dramas, so it’s no surprise that we really haven’t seen a film like Most Wanted in a while despite it being based on a true story. Thankfully Most Wanted brings a new take to the table as it shows us how far some dirty cops are willing to go in an attempt to get a high-profile bust.
Most Wanted is about Daniel Leger (Antoine Oliver Pilon), a young, struggling heroin addict who is getting by in his day-to-day life by getting high and pulling small crimes to support his habit. I’m not the type to sympathize with an addict, but if Leger has any redeeming qualities, it’s that he doesn’t seem to want to harm anyone and he’s just looking for someone to accept him for who he is. He finds this acceptance in Glen Picker (Jim Gaffigan), a small-time drug dealer who employs Leger to help out on his “fishing boat”. The relationship between Leger and Picker at first seems like it could be a good thing; that is until we discover Picker has motives of his own for taking Leger under his wing. This eventually leads to Picker introducing Leger to a potential big client to help in negotiating a drug deal in Thailand. Just how does this young Canadian guy have massive connections in a foreign land? Well, that’s where a simple misunderstanding steamrolls into something Leger has to figure out under the threat of being killed. What’s worse is that Picker has manipulated Leger to do this deal with undercover cops just so he can go about running his business and his life as he pleases.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2020
"I was skeptical when you pitched the idea of putting the legends on television, but they've helped pacify the masses. Well? Should we get started then? We don't want to keep our worshippers waiting."
Unlike the rest of the Arrowverse, D.C.'s Legends Of Tomorrow did not have their season interrupted by the massive crossover. Because it was a mid-season series, this season of Legends Of Tomorrow actually starts with the final hour of the huge crossover. That means you get thrown immediately into the deep water, and there's no time to learn how to swim now. So if you aren't up on the show or the whole Arrowverse thing, you have some serious catching up to do. You need to get caught up on Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and the newcomer Batwoman, and then four previous years of The Legends Of Tomorrow. I can help you with that. Just bang it here to get a look at our previous reviews: Legends Reviews. Once you're caught up, let's head straight into that crossover finale, shall we?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on September 24th, 2020
Ever since The Walking Dead first aired. it seems the zombie genre was not only revived but milked for all it was worth, and still studios continued to bleed the genre dry to the point even most diehard horror fans are sick of the sub-genre. I’m a sucker for zombie films, and even I have tired of them, but I’ll always hold out hope for some writer or filmmaker to come along and inject some creativity into the genre. It’s possible; I mean, look how long the vampire stories have been around, or even ghost stories, and yet there still are new takes on the subject matter that get us excited about them again. That’s where Blood Quantum gave me some hope. Zombies on a Native American reservation. I was hopeful for some indigenous lore being injected into this, giving us a fresh perspective…but alas, we get a watered-down, unoriginal, snooze-fest with a little bit of gore to keep viewers somewhat interested.
The film starts off promising enough as we see an old man gutting his freshly caught fish, and then suddenly they all seem to come back to life and flop around him. We are then introduced to the main characters that reside on the Red Crow reservation; there is the Sheriff Traylor (Michael Greeneyes), his son Joseph (Forrest Goodluck) and his ex-wife Joss (Elle-Maija Tailfeathers). To basically inject a little bit of drama, there is also Joseph’s troublemaking best friend Lysol (Kiowa Gordon) and Josephs pregnant girlfriend Charlie (Olivia Scriven). Honestly, without these two characters there wouldn’t be much in the way of character drama, but to be honest, even adding them to the dynamic, this still is a far cry from being a compelling story. The first third of the film honestly works well as a self-contained story as we see the start of the zombie outbreak. It’s on a small and believable scale as we see dogs and eventually humans coming back from the dead, and the chaos of not knowing what is happening on the reservation is compelling enough, especially when we see certain people get bitten. Then the film throws a curve ball and sends us six months later into the outbreak, and those who were bitten and should be goners are somehow still amongst the living. It’s found out that for some reason that the indigenous people are immune to the bites, and this is where the film becomes really problematic for me.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 10th, 2020
"How do you guys change so fast?"
Welcome to what has become known as The Arrowverse. It's the common name used to describe the DC Universe as it is presented and maintained on television, primarily those shows featured on the CW. It's named after the first of those shows to hit the air: Arrow. That world has been steadily expanding to the point where it began to include each of the shows as they arrived on the network. On The Flash that expansion went on to include older television shows that featured DC characters, in that case the 1990's series The Flash. Now that universe is growing to include the films both past and present and was reaching a point where it might all collapse under its own weight. It might have just been too much to handle as the comic-friendly concept of a multi-verse is used to explain these various incarnations of characters and events. It could get confusing, and that's exactly what started to happen in the DC comics in the 1980's.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 26th, 2020
"Events have been set into motion that you couldn't possibly understand."
If you're thinking of joining The Flash for the first time in season six, that's not going to work out so well for you. Hopefully you're a speed watcher, because you have five seasons to catch up on before you start in on this release. In fact, it's not just The Flash you might want to check out. The Arrowverse DC shows will become more interconnected in this season than they ever have before. It's all leading to the end of Arrow, the beginning of Batwoman, and a five-part crossover that will blow your mind. This is without question the best show in the Arrowverse television family and has been since the day it aired. You're going to love what this series has cooking, but you need to start with getting yourself caught up in order to fully appreciate what is in store for you here. In addition to Arrow, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman, you can find out what we've had to say about The Flash. Check out our reviews of the previous five years here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 21st, 2020
"Trust me. This isn't the story I expected to be telling. But you know as well as I that stories, like the people who tell them, aren't always what they seem to be. I suppose I should start here, in Gotham. Three years ago when Batman mysteriously disappeared, it divided the city. Some hoped he'd be back; others figured he was dead. I thought he abandoned Gotham for the same reason he abandoned my family. Because he didn't care."
The Arrowverse is losing its founding member. The shortened 8th season of Arrow was its last. It was certainly time. The series was starting to literally fold back on itself, and it was time to move on. But that doesn't mean the universe it created is getting smaller. It's expanding. Batwoman joined the universe, and the huge crossover this season and Superman & Lois is about to join next season. There are no empty spaces around this table, at least not for long. Enter Kate Kane, played by Ruby Rose. It's a character almost as old as the Batman himself. Kate Kane's Batwoman entered the franchise in the mid 1940's and was then a love interest for Batman. It's kind of ironic that her original appearance was intended to quell the concern that Batman and Robin were giving the appearance of being gay, and her character was intended to drive home the point that Batman wasn't gay. Now in the 21st century the concerns have shifted from the worry that a character will be thought to be gay to pressure to have gay characters and heroes in the shows. So the character that was created to deflect the idea of a gay hero becomes the first television hero who is openly gay. This certainly isn't your grandfather's Gotham City.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 21st, 2020
t’s a bold move when a film wants to compare itself to an 80’s classic like The Goonies. If anything, it more closely resembles the 2007 film Disturbia, and that film borrowed heavily from Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Had this film stuck closer to the Hitchcock formula, I feel The Wretched could have easily been a stronger film, but the biggest problem the film has is that it tried to be too clever for its own good, and as a result it comes off a bit sloppy and contrived. That doesn’t mean that this is a bad film; in fact it’s a fun late-night romp, but what’s frustrating is seeing how it could have been so much more. While I know there was some buzz for this film earlier in the year, I’m kind of wondering if this buzz was generated by those who had actually seen the film or those who had only seen trailers? The film opens up with a young girl arriving at a house to babysit. It doesn’t take long for her to see that something is wrong at the home, and of course something is definitely going on in the basement. This is our first introduction to the skin-walking, body-modifying witch. These sequences are standard in horror films nowadays and typically set up the film, but in this case it was a waste and ruins the potential mystery of the story that follows. Does it matter that the opening took place 35 years ago? There isn’t even a callback to this incident later in the film, but instead so much is given away. Perhaps this sequence was added due to pressure from the studio or investors, but it was a big mistake.
When the film’s actual story picks up, we meet Ben (John-Paul Howard) who is following the familiar story trope of having to spend the summer with his dad, Liam (Jamison Jones) after getting into trouble back home and is sporting a cast on his arm. Liam isn’t going to let his son relax in the small seaside town; instead he’s putting him to work at the marina. While the actions by Ben’s divorced parents seem to imply he’s this bad, rebellious teen, really Ben just seems like a typical lonely kid who’s dealing with his family’s separation. The marina works as a place to introduce characters, but really it’s all a distraction from what’s happening at the neighbors’ house. Sure, I understand wanting to give your story depth, but the family drama and Bens run-ins with the local spoiled kids just feels like unnecessary fluff that is a tension killer. It’s like horror lesson 101: isolate your protagonist and keep the horror nearby where his life can constantly be in peril; don’t let him be able to just leave whenever. It’s why the character in Rear Window had a cast on his leg; it’s why in Disturbia he had the ankle monitor. Sure, the marina offers Ben the chance to meet his love interest, Mallory (Piper Curda), but obviously there are other ways this could have been done.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 12th, 2020
I remember when The Golden Compass came to theaters. I know I saw it because I was a projectionist and had to screen the print, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember anything about the film. Perhaps that’s why that when I first heard about HBO doing a TV series adaption of the beloved book series His Dark Materials that I wasn’t all that thrilled. I’d never read the young adult series, and considering the amount of awful YA film and TV adaptations that have bombarded us for nearly two decades, it too played a role in squashing any excitement I may have had in different circumstances. To be fair, when presented the offer to review the series, the odds were stacked against it, though I do attempt to always give a show or film an unbiased chance when I sit down with it. I feel it’s important I say all this because I want to express just how blindsided I was by this show and its story. Although its target audience with its books may be young adult, by the time the credits of the last episode rolled for its first season I found myself not just engaged with the story, but I had quickly grown attached to these characters and their story in a way I haven’t experienced since perhaps the first season of Stranger Things.
The first episode is a bit of a whirlwind as we are thrown into this world and we meet Lyra (Dafne Keen), a rebellious young girl who was left at Jordan College in Oxford as a baby. In this world everyone has what is called a daemon; it’s an animal/companion that is linked to the individual from birth to death that can take on a variety of forms and will constantly change up to the point the person reaches puberty, and then the daemon will settle on its final form. Lyra’s daemon is Pan (voiced by Kit Conner), who for the most part switches between a white ferret and a fox. These two are inseparable; the daemon basically represents a person’s soul, but in physical form, and as he show progresses we see this can be a complicated and perilous union. Tom Hooper (famously or perhaps infamously connected to the recent adaptation of Cats) helms the first episode and does a decent enough job of creating a world that feels similar to our own but with a flair of Harry Potter. There’s even a dining hall sequence that feels largely inspired from the films.
