Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 26th, 2011
Renée Zellweger is Jane, a former country singer who has lost the will to live since an accident left her in a wheelchair. Forest Whitaker is Joey, who can talk to angels and ghosts since he witnessed the death by fire of his family. These two wounded souls bond and bicker, and when Joey finds a letter from Jane’s son, whom she gave up for adoption years ago, he decides that she must see him. Fortunately, there’s a talk being given in New Orleans by a man who is apparently an expert on communication with angels, so that gives Joey a reason-slash-pretext to drag Jane on a cross-country trip she wouldn’t agree to otherwise.
And so off we go, on yet another road trip discovery of America, this time filtered through the eyes of French writer/director Olivier Dahan (La Vie en Rose). As expected, it’s all very picaresque, with plenty of strange and quirky encounters along the way – Elias Koteas working the sleaze as the man who sells our protagonists an exploding car (and who is emotionally crippled, by his own admission – Symbolism!), Nick Nolte hamming it up as a musical hermit who trots out the old Robert-Johnson-sold-his-soul-for-music chestnut one more time, and so on. Zelwegger’s performance is serious of purpose, but she is done no favours by the voice-over she is saddled with, which babbles poetically on about this and that and is just as pretentious and annoying as Terrence Malick’s excesses in this department. Whitaker, meanwhile, takes his patented sensitive-with-tics shtick to some pretty zany heights. Despite some striking visuals (and sometimes because of the same), this is a pretty silly effort that occasionally rises to entertaining levels of camp, but more often just sets the eyes rolling.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 24th, 2011
Hard-rock guru of the seven seas (as long as you count the porta-johns) here with another musical review courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment. This one is entitled: Bad Co.: Live at Wembley. The concert played on April of 2010 to a packed house. As the booklet inside the package indicates, “...for a band to achieve this level of brilliance is extremely rare, to capture it on film, nearly impossible.” Well that is exactly what they did and it is my pleasure to bring that review home to you.
Bad Company (or Bad Co. to their fans) was actually a supergroup that formed in 1973. The original line-up consisted of Free former members: singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke. It also included former Matt the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs and King Crimson bassist, Boz Burrell. Their first album sharing the same name as the band would go on to sell 5 million copies in the US alone and have three hot singles.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 23rd, 2011
I have never been a huge fan of Tyler Perry's creations. Particularly, House of Payne is something I really don't care for. Mostly this is due to the fact that the original story that made the household dynamic of mixed family members what it is throughout the series came from a story about a woman who was a crack addict and arsoned her own house. After seeing this story, and the completely insensitive way it handled drug addiction struck me as so foul that I have yet to find forgiveness. So here I stand, weighing my possible bias' versus my standard issue journalistic neutrality as a reviewer, and hoping my opinion remains respectable.
This bundle of 24 episodes continues the series' usual path of melding corny humour with major issues such as theft, drugs, racial topics and so forth. As much as it tries to be poignant, the setup and execution of each story is too unnatural to be ever be taken seriously. As well, there are just far too many negative black stereotypes being used for my own comfort level. I'm not asking it to be like the Boondocks and try to explode stereotypes while displaying them, but there certainly could be a lot more efforts made to not fall into such ugly situations or characters (none of which I shall honour by repeating here...if you are a masochist, investigate the show yourself).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 6th, 2011
A pair of serial “gawkers” are getting into awkward spots in their marriages until their wives offer them a 6-day “Hall Pass” that grants them freedom to act as single men for that time. As each couple go their separate ways, each do battle with the temptation to act on their freedom, versus learn some sort of lesson about the virtues of domestic monogamy.
Each scene has the actors standing in such a staged manner that nothing feels natural about this film. Not that the token R-rated language and lowbrow gags didn't already give that effect, but there is something to be said about actors being able to deliver their lines without cheating their bodies towards the audience, as if this were a theatre production. If only this were some magical new form of performing where a camera is able to show the audience angles of a performer we cannot see from stage, without the actor having to move at all! My goodness, what a marvel that would be! Alas, the Farrely bros have forgotten what century we live in and let each scene look the first off-book day for amateurs in an Intro to Comedy Acting course.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 5th, 2011
Dear John centers around a soldier, John Tyree (Channing Tatum) who falls in love with a college student, Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) while he is back home on leave. This film is adapted from the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name and directed by the melodramatic romance aficionado Lasse Hallstrom. If you are looking for a romance tale that offers very little surprises, look no further.
Hallstrom and Sparks seems to be a match made in heaven. For the better part of a decade, Hallstrom has entirely dedicated himself to romantic films: Chocolat, The Shipping News and Casanova. These films do not really demonstrate a form of versatility. Usually, I am fascinated with directors or writers that stay in their proverbial lane. They are not interested in writing or directing anything other than the genre that has garnered them any form of success. Sparks churns out the same romance novels because there is an appetite for them. Hallstrom provides the same service with romance films. Therefore, from a studio’s perspective, why wouldn’t you want to make film with these two?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 3rd, 2011
Capadocia: Un Lugar Sin Perdon is an HBO Latin America Original that showcases both the political and social angles of an experimental penitentiary in Mexico City. The penitentiary exploits the inmates as a form of cheap labor for the government. A riot begins that uncovers the violent truths behind the experimental prison and viewers are thrust into the lives of these female inmates. This series depicts the complexities of prison life as well as the political posturing that takes place. There is plenty of emotion in this series and it is executed at a very high
level.
The performances in this series are brilliant. Much like the HBO original series Oz, there is a proliferation of important characters. With a series such as this, each character needs to be both written and performed exceptionally well. Oz achieved transcendence as a series because it had its share of memorable characters. This series uses a similar template by engaging its audience with a range of interesting personalities. For example, Lorena Guerra (Ana De La Reguera) is a common housewife that commits a crime of passion when she walks in on her husband with her best friend. Once she enters the prison, her performance becomes exceptional as she reacts to the brutality of the violence. A character comparison to Oz would be Tobias Beecher. Guerra and Beecher both are introduced as wide eyed optimists and the system chews them into tougher individuals.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 1st, 2011
And now we enter the final year of The Medium. The final season has several bright spots. On Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, Paulie Walnuts, Tony Sirico, plays a mob guy ghost that keeps haunting Allison. It's a rather nice episode, and Sirico gets to provide some wonderful moments that remind us of his days with The Sopranos. Scanlon gets to be a ghost, for a short time. Allison has a vision of the future. John Glover even gets to play a devilish character that reminds us of his short-lived days on Brimstone. The final episode is a fitting send-off for the series.
Medium was based on a real person with alleged psychic powers who apparently has helped out various law enforcement agencies in some actual cases. If you’ve seen the series, you might find that hard to believe, and the episodes are obviously fictional adventures and not based on the real Allison Dubois’s experiences. At first glance it might be easy to lump Medium in with Ghost Whisperer or The Dead Zone. Actually, there are almost no similarities to any of those shows. Allison does not gain any understanding through touching, and while she does see ghosts at times, that aspect of the show has been made to play in only a small percentage of the episodes. Allison accesses her powers through dreams. These nightmares are usually vague and often provide additional clues with each recurring dream. The formula for the show is that she must interpret these images and signs in time to do whatever it is she needs to do. Now that her secret is out, she’s not able to continue her work at the DA’s office. Joe’s career is also in jeopardy, so the show is going through some changes here. The strike likely did some damage, so we may never know exactly what was in store.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2011
"Angry souls will do just about anything to escape their tortured purgatories. That's why they say no rest for the wicked."
And there's no rest for Bloody Mary. That's a good thing for us. We get treated to a rather sweet little bloody film from the folks at Lionsgate called Blood Night. It's a better film than you might think on first look. It never betrays its independent spirit, but that doesn't mean it has to sacrifice a good look and entertaining romp. The acting is all above average for a budget bloodbath. It's a little Lizzy Borden mixed with some familiar elements from other recent horror films to create a bit of horror comfort food. It might not be good for you, and it certainly isn't going to claim any position as a classic. But it goes down nice and easy and leaves you feeling a little satisfied when it's all over.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 22nd, 2011
One of the most commonly asked what if questions, is the question about superpowers. If you were a superhero, what would be your superpower? My initial reaction is X-Ray vision because I am after all a dirty old man. After some thoughtful moments, I do however come up with the ability to instantly adapt. There are many moments where I might feel out of place or unable to help. But with that power, I could change that. Or maybe I will just wear a green amulet and fight bad guys like Callan in the film: Cross.
The movie opens to the pages of a comic book flipping. Wait, is this a Marvel Comics presentation? Okay, not exactly. They mention that amulets are some of the most powerful source of power in the universe. The strongest amulet, that would be the Cross of the Isles. It is green, it glows a lot. Hey, was that Machete (Danny Trejo)? Doesn’t matter, he isn’t in the rest of the movie. We also learn about the Staff of Sekhmet which has the potential to kill the whole word.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on June 20th, 2011
Brendan Fraser plays Mo, a man who has the special power of a “silver tongue” which means he has the ability to bring characters and elements from books into the real world by reading their stories out loud. There is a serious catch to this power. Someone from the real world must go into the book in exchange. Mo discovered this by accidentally reading his wife into a story called Inkheart while pulling three of its characters out. Nine years after this event, and with his daughter and a couple of heroic literary characters at his side, he finally tracks down a copy of the rare book to try and bring her back.
The mashing of literary references does not get its legs until the monstrous climax of the film. Until then, the adventure seems a bit light and lacking in the essential energy to gain our full interest. There are also issues with establishing the mood of the film. The disappearance of Mo's wife seems tragic at times, as indeed the loss of a loved one should be, but at other s\times it simply seems like a reference in their fantastic quest amongst outrageous characters of fiction. No character seems to get enough times to dwell on the uncanny, such as an author meeting one of his characters face to face, or the heartbreaking, such as the aforementioned disappearance.
![Bad Company: Live at Wembley [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/bad-company-live-at-wembley-blu-r-large.jpg)
