Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 18th, 2016
“In our experience, almost everything ends in death.”
Given its morbid-sounding title, I suppose you can also say that in the case of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, things *start* in death as well. The inevitability of death — a notion that is simultaneously profound and crushingly simple — is one of several big picture ideas explored by the small potatoes title characters. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, now making its Blu-ray debut, is equal parts brilliant and befuddling. But as thought-provoking and exhilarating (and funny!) as the exchanges are, I'm not entirely sure this material was meant to be presented as a movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 13th, 2016
In 2012 Sinister had its release and horror fans seemed to be divided on the film. For me, I dug the mythology of Bughuul, an evil spirit who appears in 8mm family films that seem to always end in some new gruesome way. He’s a character the horror genre needs, as I see him as a silent hybrid of Jigsaw (from the Saw franchise) and Freddy Krueger (from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise), where he’s a killer who gives us unique kills in some unsettling locations. Now with the release of Sinister 2, do the filmmakers step up their game and deliver us more from the possible new icon of horror? Sort of; just not how I would have expected it.
Following the events of the 2012 film, we find Deputy So & So (James Ransone) is no longer a deputy, but a private investigator who is obsessed with his pursuit of Bughuul and is doing his best to stop him before anymore families are killed. So & So has managed to figure out the pattern that Bughuul uses and figures if he can destroy the next location before a family moves in, he may be able to save a family in the process. Unfortunately, the home he plans on burning to the ground, a location that was previously the site of a horrific murder, is already inhabited.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 10th, 2016
Popular opinion and so-called critical opinion often seem to careen off cliffs like lemmings in increasingly unpredictable ways guided by whims and subtle shifts in the proverbial winds. I find myself shocked by things praised and things condemned. Sometimes I feel like a little boy who sees a naked emperor while everyone else is shrieking how much they love the new elegant ensemble. In this case, I'm seeing a lovely presentation while there are many who are whining. Part of the problem is that Season 2 of True Detective is considerably distinct from Season 1. The nature of the series is that each season is a complete reboot with a new cast and location. American Horror Story also changes locations and characters but tends to recycle actors. True Detective made a determined attempt to change everything. The one thing it retained is the brooding, noir roots.
Vince Vaughn was fantastic, and that's not something I've said in a long time. He was a trim and towering figure (also something that couldn't be said for a long time). Vaughn's complex, sharp, troubled, and intimidating Frank Semyon was the edgy focus of the series. He was not the detective. There were not two this time, but three.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 9th, 2016
"I'm under some medication for a medical condition so I may not be seeing this correctly. But I'm pretty sure I might be seeing some of your students possibly eating Mr. Peterson. Again it could be the medication."
Cooties starts out with the grossest sequence in the entire film. You might not want to start this film if you're eating, particularly if you're eating chicken nuggets. Ben Franklin once warned us that there were two things one should never see made: laws and sausages. He might just as well have been talking chicken nuggets. The opening sequence delivers the nuggets-making process from the clucking chicken through processing right to the plate of a young third-grade girl at Fort Chicken Elementary School. Unfortunately, these nuggets have their own secret recipe, and it's not 11 herbs and spices. But it will make for an interesting day at Fort Chicken Elementary.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 8th, 2016
"The techniques change, the victims change but it's still a question, "How do these things happen? How are they institutionalized?"
“I was just following orders.” It was the plea heard by too many of the Nazi war criminals during their trials following World War II. It wasn't enough to spare them the consequences of their actions, of course. Six million people were exterminated, experimented on, or tortured. The excuse just didn't hold water. But was it at all valid? Could an otherwise "good" person be turned into something evil just because someone in authority told them to do it? Just how far would an average human being go toward hurting another person whom they have no provocation to hurt just because they are told to do so? These are the questions that Professor Stanley Milgram set out to answer in his controversial study in the 1960's. The debate in the world of psychology and sociology continues to this day. Every psychology class likely includes footage from the study. The methodology and results are required study in most sociology classes. This is the subject of the Magnolia Blu-ray release Experimenter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 7th, 2016
"A good family business is not the same as a good family."
You can say that again. The television landscape is changing, at least on cable. Ray Donovan is the latest in the string of new shows that are attracting talent once thought out of reach for television. A show starring Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight: this Showtime series looked to be something very special... and it has gotten better... perhaps a lot better.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 7th, 2016
“Ballet is the ultimate optical illusion. We make effort appear effortless.”
If ballet dancers make the seemingly impossible look graceful and elegant, then Flesh and Bone similarly soars when it doesn’t try quite so hard to conjure drama. The best version of this provocative Starz miniseries explores the psychological toll that ambition, competition, and the (impossible?) quest for creative perfection can take. Unfortunately, the series also introduces way too many subplots and distractions during its 8-episode run.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 6th, 2016
Between 2002 and 2008 Jason Statham made a name for himself playing Frank Miller in three Transporter films. Miller was a former special ops expert who became a high-end black market transportation expert. He used his skills to transport anyone or anything from point A to point B for a hefty fee. He had a few rules that governed his business: the deal never changes once it's made, no names, and he doesn't want to know what he is transporting. The business made for some nice action films that gave Statham a chance to show off that particular skill set. The films brought in a modest box office, averaging around $35 million each. It was barely enough to keep three films going in the franchise. It all ended in 2008, and Statham moved on to bigger and sometimes better things. That should have been the end of the story. It isn't.
Editor-turned-director Camille Delamarre decided to take a run at a reboot, of sorts. Game of Thrones actor Ed Skrein takes over the Frank Miller role, and the film picks up the character already established. It's a grey area on what to call Transporter: Refueled. It's not entirely a reboot. The character is established, as are the rules and general formula. But it is a rather new take on the material. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of heart in this attempt, and the wheels might have gone completely flat on this franchise.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 4th, 2016
If you were a child in the 1960's or 1970's, you were around at the golden age of the Christmas television special. We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and there were a ton of holiday charms that came and went each year. But there were a handful that became classics and found their way to the airwaves every year in December. Of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas became one of these, and it is indeed among the best. It was not the only special to become beloved by generations of viewers. Now Dreamworks has brought together seven of the most memorable of these classics. This was a wonderful trip down memory lane for me, as it will be for millions of children of all ages who looked forward to these event broadcasts each and every year. Now you can watch them whenever you want. And they might not be just for Christmas anymore.
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 4th, 2016
At this point, the most shocking M. Night Shyamalan-related twist would be for the director to make a movie that people actually enjoyed. (The “M.” stands for “maligned,” right?) Hopes weren't exactly high when it was announced Shyamalan — who was once fated to become either “the next Hitchcock” or “the next Spielberg” — would be dabbling in the fading found footage genre. So imagine my surprise to find that The Visit — a broad, nutty mix of comedy and horror — is the director's loosest, most playful effort since Signs. It's also his first (subjectively) non-terrible flick in about a decade.
We meet a harried single Mom (Kathryn Hahn) as she prepares to send her two children on a week-long trip to meet her estranged parents. Becca (Olivia DeJonge) is a 15-year-old aspiring filmmaker who decides to document the experience of meeting her grandparents on camera; she also wants to find out the reason Mom had a falling out with them. Tyler (Ex Oxenbould) is a 13-year-old freestyle-rapping, germophobic goofball who enjoys undercutting his older sister's self-seriousness. The pair take a train to the rural Pennsylvania town where their mother grew up and are met at the station by Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), who take the kids back to their dilapidated farmhouse.
