Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 31st, 2019
"So dark. You sure you're not from the DC universe?”
What if you took out the darkness and made the film a little more family-friendly? Could that work? My initial reaction was that it was a mistake to try. But this film actually has some charm going for it, and I was a bit surprised at how seamless it was. This is essentially Deadpool 2 with the hard-core stuff removed. Gone are the sword fights that used to start the film. And Fred Savage is the key to making the entire idea work.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 31st, 2019
The fabled story of the Nutcracker has many experiences, from plays, to musicals, to theater, and to operas; it has entertained us all for a century. What if these stories are real, and these Christmas toys really do have a world of their own? That would be a tale we all would love to hear. Enter Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. After the death of their mother, Clara (Mackenzie Foy), Fritz (Tom Sweet), Louise (Ellie Bamber), and their father, Mr. Stahbaum (Matthew Macfadyen), must endure the Christmas holidays without her. Struggling to move on with the events of the season, Mr. Stahbaum pushes them all to attend the annual event at Drosselmeyer’s house.
Drosselmeyer (Morgan Freeman) is a wealthy inventor of toys and many useful things. He loves all children and teaches them how to use their potential in whatever they are inspired to be.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 30th, 2019
“Extremely rich, very married, eminently corruptible, and a willing infidel.”
That description is used to describe the unwitting marks targeted by the titular con men in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. But except for the “very married” part, it’s also a pretty accurate depiction of the Scoundrels themselves, played here by Steve Martin and Michael Caine in a pair of very different but equally winning performances. The movie was released a little more than 30 years ago — Christmastime 1988 — which makes this a fine time to revisit the breezy, sleazy con men comedy thanks to this Collector’s Edition from Shout Select.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on January 24th, 2019
“You ready to stir some s--- up?”
In The Hate U Give, the fatal shooting of a young, unarmed black man by a police officer serves as the catalyst for a story about racial identity, police brutality, and much more. The film features some undeniably powerful performances and moments that, quite frankly, spoke to me on a personal level. The problem is that as the story’s level of outrage rises, the movie itself becomes more outrageous and harder to take seriously.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 23rd, 2019
"That's one small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind."
July 20th, 1969. If you were alive and even somewhat old enough to be aware of your surroundings, you likely still remember that date. There are many such dates in history; unfortunately so many of them revolve around tragic events like 9-ll or the attack on Pearl Harbor. But on that night I was eight years old, and I know exactly where I was. I was watching Walter Cronkite on television as he brought us the first landing on the surface of the moon. Today that's a bittersweet memory. For an 8-year-old boy it was a promise that has remained unfulfilled. If you had told that 8-year-old who just saw humans walking on the moon that 50 years later we would have gone no further, he would have been dumbfounded. If you told him that not only would we go no further but that we would stop going to the moon in just a few short years, he would have been devastated. I can only imagine what that first man on the moon thought about it all so many years later. The truth is that Neil Armstrong never traded on his celebrity. He kept mostly to himself for the rest of his life, and perhaps the only tragedy larger than our abandonment of the pursuit he risked his life for is that we know so little about the man whose name lives with the likes of Columbus. He's almost a forgotten hero. That's why First Man is such an important film that almost lives up to that legacy.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 23rd, 2019
In the 1970's Pat Morita was pretty much a staple of the American television landscape. It's fair to say he often got work in a less politically correct era as a token Asian on situation comedies. He landed iconic recurring roles as Arnold, who owned the burger hangout in Happy Days, and Ah Chew, the target of Redd Foxx's bigoted antics on Sanford And Son. His is a long career in the annals of 70's television. While he did appear in a few feature films, none of these appearances had the lasting fame or adoration that he experienced as Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid franchise. The role would define him for the remainder of his days. When Karate Kid appeared in 1984, it delivered a modest return at the box office but found some enduring returns in the young home video market. It was enough to score a sequel in 1986 that would become the best moneymaker of the franchise's original collection of four films. It pulled in enough scratch to warrant a third film, and that's pretty much where it all went downhill faster than a speeding bullet which might have mercifully ended the movies on a high note.
Mill Creek released the first two films on Blu-ray some time ago, and it was pretty much expected that they would complete the set with the release of The Karate Kid Part III & The Next Karate Kid. Of course, they haven't been given any kind of re-master or additional features. Both films reside on a single disc and got the attention to detail they both deserved...not much. So this is a cheap opportunity to have the collection for the purposes of a complete collection. And so a modest price gives you bragging rights. Perhaps the disc should come with one of those amusement park staples, a tee shirt that brags: "I survived The Karate Kid Part III and The Next Karate Kid".
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Brent Lorentson on January 21st, 2019
Any time you make a low-budget film that for a majority of the film takes place in a single location, it can be a bit of a risk. Factor in shooting a film on a small budget, small cast, then you have to hope that the idea can hook an audience, and it’s a script that will keep an audience hooked for the duration of the film. The problem After Darkness has from the get-go is it doesn’t have the budget to match its ambition, nor does it have the script to help the actors carry the burden of this film. Even with Kyra Sedgwick and Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things), this film was a struggle to get through. For those brave souls who want to know more, it’s time to hunker down, ‘cause this one was a doozy.
Here’s the deal. The sun is about to black out, which of course would mean a catastrophic event not just for a few people, but enough to effect a good portion of the galaxy. Whether the blackout is for a few hours or for eternity is not known for sure, but basically the world is on high alert and is in full doomsday prep mode. This brings us to the Beaty family, who seem to have a plan for survival. Raymond (Tim Daly) is the patriarch of the family who seems to be politically connected and has worked out a deal where he and his family will seek shelter in a cave system that has been set up by the government to ensure humanity’s survival. All Raymond and his family have to do is wait things out a bit till they can be picked up and taken to safety.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Jeremy Butler on January 19th, 2019
Ever have trouble finding two matching socks when trying to get ready in the morning? Ever had to go to school or work with mismatched socks? It is an uncanny phenomenon; all over the world people are losing socks, for them never to return. Well, according to this animated film, we now know who is the cause for the predicament. Apparently living among the human race are little creatures that feed off our socks for sustenance, but they adhere to a strict motto of never eating the full set. OK, obviously that is ridiculous, but it made for an intriguing story for The OddSockEaters, an animated movie based off a popular foreign book series. Looks like another great movie to get the Nalyce stamp of approval on.
The story follows a SockEater named Hugo who finds himself on his own for the first time in his life after his grandfather fades away (which is the kid-friendly way the movie addresses death). Before he goes, Hugo’s grandfather tells him of another family member that will look after him, his uncle, the BigBoss. Following a fallout with his father regarding their code of only taking what was necessary to survive, the BigBoss struck out on his own and has established himself as the leader of a group of SockEaters that pull heists on department stores all over the city. This crew isn’t interested in cash or jewelry, which they see as junk, but socks.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 17th, 2019
"Our Milky Way Galaxy is just one among billions of galaxies in the universe. In every way an ordinary galaxy. It's 100,000 light years across. There are hundreds of billions of stars here. Lost inside this huge swarm is one average-sized star. As stars go, it's quite unremarkable. Nevertheless, it's the most special place in all the cosmos. Orbiting this star is the only place we know in all the universe to harbor life."
Of course, that place is Earth, and while we can't say for certain, it is truly unlikely to be the only place in this vast universe or even this galaxy to contain life. We might one day have to rethink exactly what that term means one day. But for now, Earth is the only place we know that supports life.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 17th, 2019
"I always knew he'd come back. In this town, Michael Myers is a myth. He's the Boogeyman. A ghost story to scare kids. But this Boogeyman is real. An evil like his never stops; it just grows older. Darker. More determined. Forty years ago, he came to my home to kill. He killed my friends, and now he's back to finish what he started, with me. The one person who's ready to stop him."
I was 17 years old when John Carpenter released The Shape, aka Michael Myers, on the world in 1978. It was a milestone film. Of course we didn't know we were watching something that would become so culturally huge. We were the target audience. Teens who were looking for some extra thrill in our films. These so-called slasher films became great escapes of fantasy to bring a date along. For a late-teen, there's no better way to spend an evening with a date than a film that might have her jump right into your lap. Great times. But the reason Halloween stands out from the crowded genre is because John Carpenter knew something about anticipation. He knew how to build towards a scare. And he understood how to use music, shadow, and pacing to truly immerse his audience into a film. I didn't watch Halloween in 1978. I experienced Halloween in 1978.
