Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 21st, 2014
Horror doesn’t necessarily need to be about the supernatural or have an axe-wielding maniac to be terrifying. Jump scares and gore effects are also some nice devices directors rely on to scare their audiences. But for me, what really gets beneath my skin is the possibility of what I see projected up on the screen can become a reality in my day to day life. The Sacrament attempts to show how quickly faith and love can quickly be turned and used as a weapon that can lead to the demise of the fragile and the faithful.
Eden Parrish stands in as the substitute to commune that many remember as Jonestown in 1978. This may not be a direct remake of the events that took place in Guyana, but it’s impossible to ignore the many similarities. Just as there was a documentary crew that investigated Jonestown, a documentary crew comes to Eden Parish, only the crew is hoping to find Caroline (Amy Seimetz), the sister to photographer Patrick (Kentucker Audley). When Patrick arrives with the Vice magazine team led by Sam (AJ Bowen) and cameraman Jake (Joe Swanberg), the commune turns out to be nothing like they expected.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 20th, 2014
Under the revamped Hammer production company, The Quiet Ones is the new release from the legendary UK company that was known throughout the 50-70’s for its Gothic horror. In this new resurgence of Hammer, no longer do we have Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee to look forward to gracing the screen, but what we do seem to be getting is a respect for what horror can be. Horror seems to have bottomed out as of late. Where horror seems to be delving into cheaper budgets and going the direction of found footage, which isn’t so much a bad thing, but as we all know the market is just saturated with this style of filmmaking. We can blame The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity films for the glut of copycats trying to cash in, but thankfully there are still filmmakers who have the ability to bring something new to the table. And that is just what The Quiet Ones does.
When we meet Professor Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris), he is lecturing a class at the University of Oxford about the supernatural. His theory that he presents to the class is that the notion of ghosts is mistaken for something that exists in our own subconscious. It’s this belief that Coupland has that prompts him to conduct an experiment where he plans to document that supernatural activity is nothing more than something that can be created with our minds and explained away by science. It’s Brian (Sam Claflin) who is hired on to document the experiment and is unfortunately dragged into something that is far worse than he could have imagined.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 19th, 2014
It’s kind of astounding that it took this long for somebody to revisit Rosemary’s Baby. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not suggesting Roman Polanski’s indelible 1968 adaptation of Ira Levin’s 1967 novel was crying out for a remake. It’s just that at this point you’d be hard pressed to find any horror classic — or any horror film, period — that hasn’t been re-done. (Stay strong, Exorcist!) And you probably wouldn’t expect said horror classic to be re-imagined as a bloody network TV miniseries.
I say "bloody" because NBC's two-part/four-hour modernization of Rosemary's Baby is actually more graphic than Polanski's theatrical chiller. (Then again, I still can't believe the network gets away with showing half the inspired, disturbingly brilliant stuff they do on Hannibal, so maybe this shouldn't come as a big surprise.) Unfortunately, this stylish new version lacks subtlety and — more importantly — a fundamental understanding of what makes the story scary in the first place.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 14th, 2014
The television landscape has been flooded with shows about the supernatural. Vampires have been particularly hot topics in recent years, but werewolves are starting to get their own sub-genre going. MTV's Teen Wolf manages to pull the theme off quite well. It's no surprise that pretty much every network out there wants to throw their own hats into the supernatural ring. It's getting quite crowded, but the popularity appears to have no end. Of course, with such a crowded field you have to find a way to stand out from the rest. That's what I was hoping to find when I started to dig into the Blu-ray release of Bitten. Unfortunately, the results aren't as impressive as I had hoped.
Bitten tells the story of Elena, played by Smallville's standout actress Laura Vandervoort. Elena is a werewolf who has left her pack behind to try to live a normal life in Toronto. She gets a job as a photojournalist and even manages to find time for a more artistic approach to her photography. She has just moved in with boyfriend Philip (Greene) who is unaware of her supernatural alter-ego. Just as she's trying to build that relationship, she gets a call from her pack alpha Jeremy, played by Greg Bryk. That call is going to throw a bit of a monkey wrench into that normal life she was hoping for.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on August 14th, 2014
At this point in his alternately mocked and celebrated career, Nicolas Cage starring in a movie called Rage seems redundant. (Especially since “Rage” would be a much more eloquent title for this classic YouTube video.) Yet here he is starring in what looks like a Taken ripoff…until you realize he already starred in a Taken ripoff two years earlier. To its credit, Rage does appear to want to say some interesting things about the way secrets refuse to stay buried and the perils of resorting to violence. Unfortunately, the film often takes the most misguided and clichéd avenues to get there.
Cage stars as Paul Maguire, a criminal-turned-successful businessman with a pretty younger wife named Vanessa (Rachel Nichols) and a daughter named Caitlin (Aubrey Peeples) who is about to turn 16. While Paul and Vanessa are out to dinner one night, they get unsettling news: a group of masked men broke into the couple’s house and assaulted Caitlin and her two friends (Max Fowler and Jack Falahee). The bruised boys inform Paul that Caitlin has been abducted.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2014
Experimental film can mean lots of different things. Usually it means chaos and disorientation as we are plunged into worlds we have never seen before, but experimental can merely mean doing something that has never really been done before. In this case, it is taking a simple idea and seeing if you can make it work. Can you make something interesting that seems too simple and too basic? Anything can work if you apply discipline and intelligence to a project. In this particular case, that is what happened. A simple premise has been executed brilliantly due to a number of factors. The first factor would be the actor Thomas Hardy.
Tom Hardy is Locke in the hyperbole of old movies but also because Tom Hardy is the single driving force of the movie Locke. It also helps that Tom Hardy is destined for superstardom. It hasn't happened yet, but those in the know, know it will. People don't know Hardy from The Dark Knight Rises, and I say don't know because you only saw his face briefly, and his voice was a maddening concoction. Hardy was Bane in that movie, and his face was covered by a mechanical breathing device which obscured an effete, elitist and taunting voice. His incredible power as an actor is demonstrated time and time and time again when he steals scene after scene in Inception, This Means War, Lawless, Warrior and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Upcoming roles for Hardy are as Elton John in Rocketman, Mad Max in Mad Max: Fury Road and the lead role in Kathryn Bigelow's True American. He has the burning intensity of a British Brando and the quiet sensitivity and range to do just about anything including bulking up with muscles if necessary. I'm sure he could un-bulk or get fat if needed as well. He's done it before. Tom Hardy's performance in Locke is a tour-de-force.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 11th, 2014
"Hi, little guys."
There was a time, decades ago when Walt Disney Studios was doing quality documentaries on a pretty regular schedule. Many of them appeared on the television show The Wonderful World Of Disney, and more than a few were released as feature films. And while that tradition has continued somewhat, it's been a while since I was truly impressed by a Disney documentary. That all changes with the release of Bears.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on August 7th, 2014
In the wake of the success of Game of Thrones, many companies are trying to ride on that bandwagon and produce films that will hopefully capture the same audience. Unfortunately, it would seem so few come close to capturing the magic that the HBO series brings to the small screen. To be upfront, I haven’t seen the first Ironclad film, though upon looking it up on IMDB I see that it boasts a solid cast. (And after watching a trailer for the film, it is something I’d like to check out.) Fortunately in the case of Ironclad: Battle For Blood, it is a sequel that stands alone from its predecessor.
Set along the border of Scotland in 1221 — though the real filming was said to be done in Serbia — the film has a strong and promising start as we see Guy (Tom Austen) engaged in a battle to the death while onlookers cheer and make bets. Unfortunately, the story is more about Hubert (Tom Rhys Harries) and the choices he has to make while his father’s kingdom is being sacked by Celtic raiders that are seeking vengeance.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 28th, 2014
Robin Williams is one of those actors that I just wonder what happened to them. Through the 80’s and 90’s Williams was simply box office gold with his comedic timing and great impressions, but I’ve always been more drawn to the more serious roles Williams delivered. Awakenings, The Fisher King, Dead Poets Society, One Hour Photo, these are just a few of his roles that have stuck with me over the years that made it easy to look past his cinematic missteps.
When a movie like The Angriest Man in Brooklyn comes along, as a longtime fan I can’t help but get a little excited and hope for that spark Williams once brought to each of his characters. Factor in you have writer/ director Phil Alden Robinson who wrote and also directed Field of Dreams, it would seem this film should have “instant success” written all over it.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on July 23rd, 2014
The fact that we haven’t gotten a movie about Cesar Chavez until now is both surprising and not all that shocking. It’s surprising because the Mexican American labor leader was arguably as big of a civil rights icon to Latino workers as Martin Luther King, Jr. was to the country’s black community in the 1960s. On the other hand, the extended wait for a Chavez movie isn’t all that shocking when you consider his efforts took place in the largely un-cinematic realm of grape boycotts. The bland, well-meaning Cesar Chavez makes the case for his impactful deeds, even if it doesn’t totally present him as a vibrant, complex man worthy of the biopic treatment.
The film opens with Chavez (Michael Pena) explaining his life story to an unseen interviewer; so he’s really addressing us in the audience. He talks about being born in Yuma, Ariz., and his family losing its farm during the Great Depression. They subsequently migrated to California, where Cesar began working the fields at age 11. (Farmworkers had been excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, which had been enacted in 1936.) This sort of “tell-don’t-show” sequence is not what you’d typically want to see out of a movie. But here it’s a brisk way of running through the early part of Chavez’s life and sharpening the film’s focus.
