Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on November 3rd, 2017
Soul on a String is the latest from director Yang Zhang, a very methodical filmmaker from Beijing, China. Now, I say methodical for two reasons: he’s been making films since the late 90’s and has only released a total of nine, and the ones I have seen are very slow-paced, but absolutely deliberate when paying attention to narrative, editing, and cinematography. To be fair, I have only seen two of his films. My first exposure to his work was in graduate school, as one of my colleagues who came from China invited me to watch Zhang’s 2005 film, Sunflower. Where I had some solace in recognizing the lead actress, Joan Chen (from Twin Peaks, of course), I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed the intense and complex emotions that the narrative drew out of me. Now, a few years later, Zhang managed to captivate me once again, only this time through his appreciation for cinema as an art, as well as his respect for the grand locations he captures with his camera.
The narrative follows Tabei, a man brought back from the dead to fulfill an important spiritual mission: return a sacred jewel from whence it came. Having been resurrected and encouraged to turn his life around by a monastery of monks, he agrees to begin this journey. However, no adventure is without its pitfalls. Two sons of a man Tabei killed long ago are of age to seek revenge for their father, so they begin pursuing Tabei, challenging him at every chance they get. Also, a group of bandits have heard of this sacred jewel being discovered in the area, and they begin to pursue Tabei for its value. Along the way, Tabei also picks up a lover, who in turn shows empathy for a mysterious child, creating an almost instinctual sense of protection that compels Tabei to complete his mission.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on November 2nd, 2017
“Here’s how it is: the Earth got used up, so we moved out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with the new technologies…some not so much. The Central Planets, thems formed the Alliance…waged war to bring everyone under their rule. A few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself.”
Sound familiar? A crew of scrappy underdogs skirting the edge of the galaxy to avoid an oppressive interplanetary alliance. Exactly 40 years ago, Star Wars used that formula to capture moviegoers’ imaginations, and it is currently being replicated by the uber-popular Guardians of the Galaxy series. But in between those two behemoths there was a little show called Firefly.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 27th, 2017
Ever since Birdman was released, it seems many filmmakers have been attempting to pull off the continuous take and outdo all the others. It was impressive when we all saw it the first time, but since then everything just seems like a bad knockoff. The newest film to follow this trend is Bushwick. While the camera work in the film does allow for an immersive experience, honestly it felt like I was in a first-person shooter video game, which was cool, but it seemed like the camera work was a distraction from the story. This is a frustrating film. On the technical side there is a lot to appreciate, but the moment you start looking at the story, the film seems to simply fall apart.
The film opens up with Lucy (Brittany Snow) coming home from college to visit her family. What she comes home to is a city at war. Immediately my question is this: in a time of people being so connected through their cell phones and various social media outlets, how is it Lucy seems to be unaware of what is going on? We’re supposed to believe this battle just broke out, but so many of the people battling on the streets seem to be all too organized for this to have just occurred. Why are the streets not packed with cars full of people trying to leave the city? For a while all we see are people shooting at anyone and everyone as Lucy does her best to avoid gunfire and try to reach her grandmother’s house.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 25th, 2017
"All of human history has led to this moment. The irony is we created you. And nature has been punishing us ever since. This is our last stand. And if we lose... it will be a Planet of Apes."
I was always a fan of the original Planet Of The Apes series of films. While they often flirted with a camp style, I was impressed with John Chambers' makeup effects and the performances of Roddy McDowall as both Cornelius and Caesar. Then came the television show, and I was just as enchanted, and that was helped along by McDowall's appearance as a third ape, Galen. The show didn't last a season, and before long the Apes franchise was left in some kind of limbo. Then along came Tim Burton, and I was excited to see what he could do with the material. Could this be the beginning of a new series of films? No, it was horrible, and the franchise suffered another lingering death. I had now given up hope that the Apes would ever return. Then came Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, and I was suddenly enchanted once again. Little did I know that combined with Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and now War For The Planet Of The Apes, science fiction's greatest trilogy would emerge. Where will they go from here?
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 25th, 2017
"Green Acres is the place to be..."
It was 1965, and CBS was enjoying the fruits of the era's fascination with rural sit-coms. Paul Henning was on a roll as a series creator. It started with The Beverly Hillbillies in 1962, where we were all invited to sit a spell with the Clampetts, a rural family who discovered oil on their property and ended up finding out that California was the place they oughta be, more specifically Beverly Hills, complete with "cement ponds" and movie stars. The show was such a success that Henning spun it off into Petticoat Junction a year later. The show covered the happenings at the Shady Rest Hotel which happened to be located at a water stop on the C. & F.W. Railroad in the hick town of Hooterville. Again Henning hit comedy gold. Two years later, Hooterville would be the location for Green Acres, a kind of reverse Beverly Hillbillies. This time a couple from a penthouse apartment in New York City would come to Hooterville and replay the fish-out-of-water routine just as The Beverly Hillbillies had done three years earlier. Green Acres would last until 1971, when all three shows would become victims of the CBS Rural Purge. Under pressure from sponsors who were afraid of losing their urbanite customers, all of these shows were axed. One news reporter at the time reported that "CBS cancelled everything with a tree, including Lassie."
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 24th, 2017
For a gritty historical epic to get the green light these days, it has to have some sort of easy-to-understand hook. (“Hey, it's sexy King Arthur!”) And it seems like enough people complained about the prevalence of PG-13 action movies that it led to the current boom of R-rated sensations — like Deadpool and the John Wick flicks — that gleefully go to extremes. There is absolutely nothing gleeful about Pilgrimage, and the movie doesn't seem all that interested in hooking the masses (significant portions of the film are in French, Irish, and Latin). In other words, the most striking and impressive thing about Pilgrimage is also what can make it feel like somewhat of a slog: this movie is dead serious.
Pilgrimage opens with a brief, violent prologue in Cappadocia, 55 A.D., where an unnamed man is brutally stoned to death. It's a startling, disorienting cold open...and not just because I have no idea where Cappadocia is without the help of Dr. Google. The movie doesn't bother to explain either, but we eventually learn how this opening sequence crucially ties into the main story, which takes place in 1209 A.D. in Ireland. The nation has been torn apart by centuries of tribal warfare and currently faces the growing influence of Norman invaders.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 23rd, 2017
Director James Whale and horror icon Boris Karloff teamed up for one of the most memorable horror films ever made when they filmed Universal's atmospheric classic Frankenstein in 1931. Just four years later they reunited for one of Hollywood's best sequels in Bride Of Frankenstein. Lost in these legendary tag-team efforts, and nestled nicely between the two films, one finds 1932's The Old Dark House. That film launched a horror sub-genre that continues to this very day: the Haunted House movie. The film also stared future Titanic survivor Gloria Stuart. It was one of the first films the actress ever made when her career started that very same year. In a rather nice coincidence the film also stars the man who married the Bride Of Frankenstein Elsa Lanchester, Charles Laughton in his American film debut. It's an historic film, to be sure. But it's also a bit of a forgotten gem. Due to rights issues, the film disappeared in the 1960's when William Castle delivered his remake. It was absent from the Universal packages sold to independent stations for their weekend "creature features" in the 60's and 70's and was all but lost for a few years. Now Cohen Entertainment delivers the film on Blu-ray, and just in time for Halloween and our 31 Nights Of Terror. Will the coincidences ever cease?
It's a torrential rain with landslides making roads impossible to navigate. Those are the circumstances that find three travelers at the doorstep of an isolated house to seek shelter from the storm. The travelers are Penderel (Douglas) and his married couple friends Phillip (Massey) and Margaret Waverton (Stuart). Things take an immediate ominous turn when the door is opened slightly to the deformed face of the house's butler Morgan (Karloff). They are welcomed inside where they meet the masters of the house the bickering Femm siblings Horace (Thesiger) and Rebecca (Moore). They are reluctantly allowed to stay, but "no beds!" Soon they are joined by another pair of travelers. Enter Sir William Porterhouse (Laughton) and his young, attractive companion Gladys, played by Lillian Bond.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on October 23rd, 2017
“Welcome! Everything is fine.”
One of my favorite bits from the dearly departed Inside the Actors Studio involved host James Lipton administering a questionnaire that concluded with "If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?" It's a momentous question that often drew a humorous response. The Good Place opens with its main character waking up in the afterlife and being greeted with bright green lettering that says "Welcome! Everything is fine." It's a reassuring sentiment to be sure, but let's be clear: there is nothing just "fine" about The Good Place. This sharp, hilarious, and goodhearted fantasy/comedy is spectacular!
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on October 19th, 2017
When it comes to hearing the name Loch Ness, just about everyone will think about the giant lake where “Nessie” the mythical monster inhabits. Whether you are a believer or not thousands converge to the Scottish Highlands location in hopes to be one of the lucky ones to catch a peak of the elusive beast. But the Loch Ness I am talking about is a beast of a whole other ilk. Thought the TV series does take place in a small tourist town that thrives on the legend that haunts the cold water, the series instead is about a serial killer that has been unleashed upon the town and given its residents something more to fear other than a giant monster that roams the lake.
A group of friends decide that they want to play a hoax by creating a fake plesiosaur carcass and placing it along the lake shore. While using fake innards that salvaged from the local slaughter house it is later discovered a human heart managed to somehow get mixed up in the remains. With a human heart found and no body, this of course sends an uneasy shock-wave through the town. Detective Annie Redford (Laura Fraser) is tasked with leading her first murder investigation in a town that rarely has experienced its share of violence and it doesn’t take long before a body is found (not one that belongs to the missing heart) and it is understood that they have a serial killer on their hands. Investigator Lauren Quigley (Siobhan Finneran) is called in to take lead of the investigation where she also brings criminal psychologist Blake Albrighton (Don Gilet) to assist.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on October 19th, 2017
The subgenre of horror film that entails a group of friends, coworkers, or even strangers, being trapped in an area that they must escape from might be a tired cliché, but it is a tremendous guilty pleasure of mine. Especially the films where the characters willingly or forcefully band together to discover why they have been placed there in the first place, or how they can use their combined strengths to find the exit. Whether their strengths or their histories are coincidental (as is the case with Cube, 1997) or if they are gathered for a very specific mission of revenge (9 Dead, 2010), these films play with narrative connections in such a way that is irresistible to me.
In 2004, James Wan arguably reinvented this subgenre to his torture porn feature Saw. Not only are people trapped in an area together, they are taunted with the reason “why” and tasked with grueling challenges that, more often than not, end in some form of bodily mutilation. With Saw’s seven sequels and upcoming reboot, the subgenre I have enjoyed so much has plateaued, largely failing to reinvent itself since Wan’s intervention in the early 2000’s. Escape Room does not reinvent the franchise, but it does offer a new the possibility for reinvention through narrative: the victims actually want to be there.
