Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on April 7th, 2015
When it comes to screenwriters in the industry, William Goldman is virtually the king of the written word. From writing such hits as Marathon Man and All The President’s Men to The Princess Bride, Goldman will always be a legend in Hollywood even if it has been a while since his last successful original work. Wild Card is a remake of the Burt Reynolds version of Heat back in 1986. It’s been a few decades since watching the film, so instead of trying to remember anything from it how about I just stick to this stylized version?
Nick Wild (Jason Statham) is a guy who doesn’t mind helping you out so long as you pay him for his time. He’s somewhere between a bodyguard and your best friend depending on what the situation calls for. When we first meet him, we see him taking a beating from a schlub that is looking to impress a woman; we know Nick is taking the fall, and when he takes the punches it’s hard to not think that Nick takes a sick bit of pleasure from these hits, but what it comes down to is getting paid.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 4th, 2015
"It's a comedy...hopefully."
It's been six years since Hugh Grant teamed up with director Marc Lawrence. It's their fourth collaboration. It doesn't appear that Lawrence is willing to direct a film that doesn't feature Hugh Grant, because he hasn't. Let's just say the fourth time wasn't the charm. In fact, it wasn't even all that charming. And the problem is that Grant and Lawrence have attempted to build careers out of making Grant charming. By now they're just trying too hard, and the result is a poor showing that was in desperate need of a Rewrite.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 3rd, 2015
They started as a local band in Philadelphia. By 1972 they had released their first album on the national stage called Whole Oates. The duo has been together for over 40 years and have remained playing through most of that time. Even with stops for solo projects, Daryl Hall and John Oates have remained a team throughout those years. It's rather rare for a rock team to remain together and friends for so long. Their endurance has paid off in so many ways, but 2014 would be a year they would see a lot of that hard work and partnership be recognized as they became the first Philly band inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. They are also the best selling duo in recording history. Sounds like the books can be closed on Hall & Oates, right? Wrong. It's also true that in all of their world tours the group never played Ireland. That mistake was corrected when Hall & Oates appeared at the historic and intimate Olympia Theatre in Dublin on July 15, 2014. High-definition cameras were on hand to record the event. And now Eagle Rock Entertainment is releasing the historic event on Blu-ray. It's Hall & Oates Live In Dublin.
While the core duo for whom the act is named has remained intact all of those years, many musicians have come and gone. Fortunately, for this release the band featured here is one of the best the duo has ever assembled. This is absolutely one of the tightest groups of performers I've seen or heard in quite a while. The longest-standing member of the band is sax player Charlie DeChant. He's been with the guys since the fun started in the 1970's. His riffs provide much of that Philly sound that makes the Hall & Oates experience one of the more unique ones around. There's a fusion of rock, funk, and old time rhythm & blues to the sound, and it's distinctive. Count Charlie has one of the huge contributors to that element. The band here also features three members of the 1970's Average White Band. We're talking about Eliot Lewis on keyboards, Brian Dunne on drums, and bass player Kyle Jones. Both bands had a very similar vibe, and the combination is one of those natural things that just work out perfectly. Throw into the mix guitarist Shane Theriot and percussionist Porter Carroll, and you have a recipe for good music.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on April 2nd, 2015
“For the first time in four years, I can say what I really think.”
It may have taken four years for fictional U.S. Vice President Selina Meyer to make her boldest political move yet, but Veep was finally able to achieve all-around greatness in just three. I know there are fans of HBO's caustic comedy series who would argue the show was already great, and I agree there have absolutely been many flashes of foul-mouthed brilliance throughout its run. But it wasn't until Veep had Selina Meyer try to outgrow the show's title in season 3 that the series itself ascended to another level.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 31st, 2015
Most movies are just not very good. Lots of money goes into turning out boring, repetitive garbage. You watch it and then dispose of it and make room for the next thing. There are some who do more, but the more you do, the greater the risk. Most filmmakers are not given the freedom to take really big risks, but someone who has been given the opportunity to take the big risk is Christopher Nolan. Interstellar is $165,000,000 gamble shooting for the moon. Actually Nolan is shooting for something way past the moon. He wants to take us to another galaxy. There is so much speculative science in this film that it is mind-boggling. The cutting edge of real science is, frankly, getting crazier and crazier. The average person really has no idea how crazy, but Interstellar is going to try to show us just how crazy. The true nature of some of the elements of the theory of relativity and other related theories is that they defy all logic.
One of the most important things in Interstellar is its attempts to deal with some of the properties of time. The laws of physics tell us time acts differently in different situations. In this movie time rules everything in people's lives, but the main character is given the power to do something with time that most of us don't even imagine. It's important to know some of these situations are described in actual scientific theory. In fact, real science is getting closer and closer to God all the time. Most people who don't believe in God don't expect science to contradict that way of thinking. Interstellar doesn't talk about God, but it comes close to doing something similar. It is science's contention to state statistically there are millions of planets with intelligent life out there. Some of those intelligence forces will seem like God to us. This is simple science, but people have such a wide range of beliefs that no one will ever agree on what is the truth. The reason we don't agree is because mankind is just not smart enough to have real answers.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on March 30th, 2015
“There's money flying all over Silicon Valley, but none of it ever seems to hit us.”
There's a lot to like about HBO's Silicon Valley, which debuted last year with a confident, clever freshman season that took merciless aim the tech capital of the U.S. My favorite thing about the show — besides hyper-specific jokes aimed at geeky targets like the many endings of “Mass Effect 3” — is that it portrays (and makes fun of) each aspect of the cutthroat tech industry, from the self-important, aggressively eccentric billionaires to the scrappy, proverbial guys in a garage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 26th, 2015
I’m not really a big Beatles fan. That will shock, anger, and dismay many of you. Sure, I’ve got a couple of favorites, but nothing I feel the need to hear over and over again. Now, with that said, I am a fan of Paul McCartney. Of all the Beatles he has evolved the most. He has gone from a kid who was nothing really special, just in the right place at the right time, to a very accomplished musician. Few musicians today can match his performance skills on almost any instrument. While a lot of celebrities talk about compassionate subjects, I get the impression McCartney is more sincere than most. Perhaps it’s this sincerity that makes him such a good songwriter.
Paul McCartney is a great example of what Darwin meant by survival of the fittest. No one in the music business has learned to adapt and thrive like Paul McCartney. The term timeless has been applied so often to so many performers that it might have lost any meaning. Still, if anyone deserves that description, it is Paul McCartney. With The Beatles he helped define the 60’s and reinvent Rock and Roll. In the 1970’s and 80’s he continued the hits with Paul McCartney and Wings. When Wings finally disappeared into the midnight sky, McCartney was still at it as a solo artist. Certainly, McCartney albums are fewer and far longer between. Still, each new release is an exercise in quality. Even when I don’t care for a particular McCartney song, it’s easy to hear the work that went into each note.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on March 23rd, 2015
The Norwegian oil boom of the early 1980s isn’t the most obvious setting for a thriller, but director Erik Skjoldbjærg manages to squeeze plenty of intrigue out of what seems like a pretty dry subject. Of course, Pioneer could never be described as “dry” in the literal sense since the film follows a group of commercial divers in Norway as they try to establish the country’s first petroleum pipeline 500 meters underwater.
Petter (Aksel Hennie) is a brash professional diver obsessed with reaching the bottom of the Norwegian Sea. Norway has partnered with American company Deep Sea Diving to lay the country’s first oil pipeline. (Avatar’s Stephen Lang plays an American supervisor.) Petter and his more family-oriented brother Knut (Andre Eriksen) are part of the group of divers, which also includes a jealous American rival (Wes Bentley). The movie opens with a hallucinatory training exercise that sets the film’s hazy tone.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on March 20th, 2015
From the moment Son of a Gun opens up taking you behind bars as JR (Brenton Thwaites) is being processed into an Australian prison, it is the start of a journey that throws everything at its audience till the final credits roll. I have a hard time figuring out just how to classify Son of a Gun; it is everything from being a film about self-discovery, a guys-behind-bars film, to being a heist film and so much more. The title refers to JR as he goes about serving his time behind bars and captures the attention of an infamous thief Brendan (Ewan McGregor). Brendan takes in the young man and protects him from would-be attackers, but of course the protection comes at a price. JR makes up for it by helping spring Brendan from prison in a clever prison break that somewhat reminded me of the prison escape in Superman 2 (you know, when Lex Luthor is rescued via helicopter), same thing only slicker.
It’s when Brendan makes his escape that we see the bond continue to develop with JR, and he teaches him the ropes of being a good thief as well as teaching him a few life lessons along the way. It’s a formula we’ve seen before, but it is a formula that works, and in this film writer/director Julius Avery knows how to deliver the action beats stringing the viewer along for this intriguing yet recycled plot. By the time we get to the gold heist I was sucked in, because the performances are just that good, that they manage to make this rehash seem fresh and even exciting at points.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 19th, 2015
Anyone who has ever played an instrument or sung understands the therapeutic powers of music. In England they have been using that idea to help physically disadvantaged children with music at the Nordoff-RobbinsMusicCenter in London's KentishTown. The institute was founded by American composer Paul Nordoff and British teacher Clive Robbins. They have thousands of success stories. We're talking children who had closed themselves off from the world around them, many who had stopped speaking or communicating at all. The children come from all over the world. In the late 1980's the Center was looking at the need to expand their facilities. To build a state-of-the-art facility would take a lot of money, so they naturally turned to the professional musical artists whom they had honored yearly with their own Silver Clef Award. We're talking the likes of Elton John, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd and Paul McCartney, heavy hitters, to be sure. Every one of them who were available immediately agreed to put on a super-concert to raise money for the new facility. The event was so successful that a second beneficiary was added because of the funds the show made available. The BritSchool Of Performing Arts was the added charity. It all came together for 11 hours on June 30th 1990 at a place called Knebworth.
The concert was billed as The Best All British Rock Show Ever Staged, and it very well might have been. The crowd was a living sea of rock 'n' roll fans. But it wasn't really strictly a British affair. The crowd can be seen waving flags from many nations, the United States and Canada quite prominent. It was obvious that fans came from around the globe to see the historic gathering. It doesn't look like they were disappointed in the least.
