Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 25th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
“Now don’t get me wrong, you’ll see very many impressive things on this tour. But there are no aliens to be found in Area 51.”
The general lies. There are aliens, and when they get loose the reporters are there to catch everything on camera. Good aliens, bad aliens, guns and journalists – all you need for a rockin’ alien movie.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 22nd, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
“General, he was stronger than the others. That’s why he lasted so long. I don’t know why General, but he seems to be getting stronger all the time.”
The next time you want to scare yourself on Halloween without guaranteed nightmares, watch The Incredible Melting Man. It’s melty, scary and you get to watch his whole body decompose into slimy glisten.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 20th, 2011
Comedians like to use bad words. Late night talk show hosts don’t. They are not supposed to because the people who pay them get very mad at them if they do. Craig Ferguson is a late night talk show host. The person who pays him is David Letterman, who is paid by CBS. So when Craig says a bad word on CBS they put a flag over his mouth and a recording of ooh-la-la to cover up the offending vocabulary.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 18th, 2011
The film isn’t billed as Kevin Smith’s Red State. It’s just Red State, but Kevin Smith is an independent counterculture auteur diva so to speak. It’s pretty widely thought that Kevin Smith has a cool and honest and don’t-give-a-crap attitude. Kevin Smith is a brand, but he knows he’s not a mainstream big blockbuster brand. He is indie.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 15th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
South of Heaven carried far too much violence and gore for me to look past. Maybe enjoy isn’t the best word, but I had a hard time stomaching and therefore appreciating the film fully because of its nature. If you’re not a fan of such horror movies, even with beautiful design, cinematography and acting elements, don’t watch this.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 13th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
In a world where people still got land-line phone calls in restaurants and $1 cocktails were considered expensive, Boris Karloff is detective James Lee Wong. Better known as Mr. Wong, the Chinese sleuth is based on author Charles Wiley’s mystery series character. In Doomed to Die, Wong works the case of a shipping magnate’s mysterious death.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 13th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
Terrorist. Revolutionary. Activist. Each word is charged with emotional and political meaning. Advocate. Leader. Liberator. How could they all refer to the same person? This documentary tells the story of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an international movement dedicated to oppose and expose profit-driven practices that destroy the environment. By the turn of the 21st century, the FBI said it considered the ELF the major domestic terror in the United States.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 9th, 2011
In Treatment is one of HBO’s least flashy and lowest profile series. That doesn’t prevent it from being amazing in many ways. Large parts of America are not used to a show that is essentially two people sitting in a room talking. Those kinds of people are considered to have short attention spans. HBO’s The Sopranos served up the idea of regular therapy sessions, but those shows were enlivened by brutal behavior and gruesome killings. That is no knock on The Sopranos, because it was a great and intellectually complex show. In Treatment is a special case that deserves to be nurtured because it is not flashy or easy. It is uncompromising in its way, and that is a good thing.
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Posted in MGM, No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on October 7th, 2011
Written by John Delia
It’s a 1946 black and white movie, but the entertainment value still holds true. The classic film Tomorrow Is Forever, a love story on many levels, survives the test of time with performances by some of the top film stars ever. If you enjoy films made by the hands of filmmakers for the love of an audience’s embrace, then try Tomorrow Is Forever, now on DVD.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 6th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
“I wanted you to be able to be anything you wanted to be. That would make me feel worthy.”
A Better Life mesmerizes. Father and son share one life while their separate desires for something different drive them apart. Carlos Galindo (Demián Bichir) loses his job, and his son Luis (José Julián) seems to be losing his way. While Carlos does everything he can to maintain, Luis does all he can to avoid any connection with the life his father is struggling to keep.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 6th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
When I’m rich and famous, maybe someone will produce a good-looking movie about me and call it a documentary. Legendary, that’s what they’ll call me. Then I’ll be sure to secure a mythical place up there with all those other things we call legendary: dragons, Santa, the Abominable Snowman … and Jerry Weintraub.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on October 4th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
Best part about this movie is the military family subplot. Two families dealing with death, loss and deployment come together on Christmas through a fairy godmother-like character’s designs. Since US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past decade, movies discussing struggles military families face have increased but are still few and far between. Call Me Mrs. Miracle offers a touching glimpse into one of the hardest moments for families to be separated from their loved ones—the holidays.
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Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on September 28th, 2011
I guess you might be tempted to call it I Spy redux. Robert Culp teams up with his I Spy partner Bill Cosby for this 1972 feature film that really looks more like a television film. It was written by future director Walter Hill, but don’t expect this to be anything like Aliens or even the 48 Hours movies. The script suffers from a lack of imagination, and it’s no wonder that it’s Hill’s first script.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on September 22nd, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
Judd Nelson and cupcakes. Cue Whitney, Didn’t we almost have it all? If you must, at least don’t watch this one an empty stomach. The movie’s about a small town’s star cupcake baker Mary Maroni (Lea Thompson) who ends up becoming Mayor on a fluke. And besides Judd (yes we’re on a first-name basis) as Thompson’s moustachio’d, harmonica-playing husband, frankly, the endless beauty shots of rainbow-colored cupcakes stole the show.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on September 22nd, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
“Maybe that day when I ran out of the hotel, maybe I never stopped running really. Maybe I’m running away from the hurt.”
– Firefighter Tim Brown
When I got this batch of DVDs, I moved Rebirth to the back of the stack. I like documentaries, but I wanted to feel something—a connection—to rally emotion, or savor a narrative.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
Fans of Airwolf will recognize the DVD as a version of the movie that launched 1980s TV series of the same name. For those who aren’t familiar with the show, director Don Bellisario also created Magnum, P.I., JAG, Quantum Leap and more recently NCIS.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
Dear Lemon Lima is the story of a girl who loves a boy and realizes what a jerk he is. But there’s more, and if the story doesn’t keep you, the characters will.
The projected teen fan base might immediately recognize a couple of the supporting actors from recent ABC Family series. Actor Vanessa Marano played artist sister Bay Kennish in Switched at Birth, while stereotypically popular blonde Meaghan Jette Martin starred in the 10 Things I Hate About You series, and the movie Mean Girls 2. However, Lemon Lima (pronounced LIME-uh) is the first feature film for most its young cast.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2011
Written by John Delia
If you are a Keanu Reeves fan, then you won’t want to miss Henry’s Crime, now out on DVD. The movie, released in 2010, has a thin storyline, but the good acting overshadows this downside. His support cast includes nice performances by Vera Farmiga and James Caan, so the film can’t be all that bad. The film is directed by Malcolm Venville.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2011
Written by John Delia
This television movie fits into the hackneyed cinema mold of predictable storyline ordinary camerawork, low-budget talent and the absence of any realistic special effects. If you can’t find anything else to rent, however, then it will do in a pinch. Geared for the terror crowd, the insipid acting, unimpressive script and implausible actions are all downsides for this film genre.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2011
Before I review the DVD copy of The Last Godfather, I should mention that the previews that preceded it had me scratching my head. They played Bad Santa and Scary Movie, and I’m going, “What the heck?” Then they played Everything Must Go and I say, “Oh, Okay.” It was just disconcerting to see films from such divergent time periods slapped together like that.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on September 20th, 2011
Disco Worms
Disco Worms is animated film featuring Jane Lynch of Glee. When I first saw the title of this film, I was rather skeptical about another animated movie singing old hits all over again. I was surprised to see that it was actually very well done. The animation is fairly enjoyable. I especially liked the brilliantly-designed body language of the worms whose tail-gestures make up for the lack of arms.
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Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2011
At the turn of the millennium a decade ago, lists were pretty popular. It didn’t matter if you were into the world of sports or movies, everybody was looking for the all-time best of everything. The American Film Institute got into the trend by releasing top-100 lists. Heroes, villains and memorable quotes all got the treatment. We all argued about the “classics” we felt were unfairly slighted and the “idiotic” choices that did make the lists. If only the lists were so much larger.
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Posted in No Huddle by Gino Sassani on September 8th, 2011
Timing is everything, and it is no coincidence that this nearly forgotten film version of Captain America is just now seeing the light of day on DVD, even if only as a manufactured on demand release. It would be so very easy to compare this film with the big-budget affair that was released this past summer. Easy, but certainly unfair. The 1990 production looks very much like a made-for-television film, but it wasn’t at all. It did sit on the shelf for over two years before it was finally released to a limited American audience.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on August 10th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
Lifetime movies are like rollercoasters for weak-stomached scare addicts. You know what you’re in for, but you do it anyway. Not every time, but admit it: you’ll put your butt in the seat if your friends are already strapped in. Halfway through you wanna throw yourself from the moving car, but you’re going too frickin’ fast and they beg you to stay, so you do.
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Posted in No Huddle by Archive Authors on August 10th, 2011
By Natasha Samreny
The first time I watched Amanda Knox, the film caught competition with impromptu roofers who decided to finish their job directly above my screening room as soon as the movie started. But I have to say Knox won.
Sure, it’s Lifetime, and I have the extra X chromosome recommended to appreciate one of their films. But Hayden Panettiere’s physical interpretation of the internal struggles that American Amanda Knox must have fought while under trial for murder in Italy, is striking
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